Deborah Moggach fever!

Builth Wells Reading Group with Deborah Moggach April 2015

Yes, that's right we had a talk from THE Deborah Moggach, and what a fascinating talk it was too.  I'm not going to try and write up everything we talked about verbatim - as we know my note taking isn't that good - but also I couldn't capture just how wonderful the evening was.  So instead I'll give you a flavour of the things discussed and send you on your merry way to read some of Deborah's novels! 

We started off by talking about Tulip Fever - seventeenth-century Amsterdam is a city in the grip of tulip mania, basking in the wealth it has generated. Sophia’s husband Cornelis, an ageing merchant, is among those grown rich from this exotic new flower. To celebrate, he commissions a talented young artist to paint him with his young bride. But as the portrait grows, so does the passion between Sophia and the painter; and as ambitions, desires and dreams breed an intricate deception, their reckless gamble propels their lives towards a thrilling and tragic conclusion.  [From Deborah Moggach website]

Deborah went on to describe how the book came about and her real passion to tell the story.  It has also been made into a film which is due for release later this year so watch this space...meanwhile read the book :)

We were then treated to a bit of back story around Deborah's newest book 'Something to hide' which is due July this year, how the idea for the book came from different sources pieced together over several years to create a story which crosses continents. 

We also had a lengthy q & a session where we picked her brain clean about information about the characters in the books, how different the 'The best exotic marigold hotel' film is to the book and the differences between the book world and the film/tv world.  So many questions that I didn't manage to capture them all but you can take my word for it that it was a fascinating talk and I'll never look at Barry Norman the same way again.

If you want to know more check out Deborah website or even better check out one of her books (oh yes the puns are back) from the library.