In this morning’s update from the on-line Bookseller, one of the headings that attracted me to read on was this: Real authors ‘dispirited’ by celeb-lit, says Mail –

Below the heading is a summary of the Mail article
‘ “Author anger as stars stampede to write a novel just like Jordan,” is a headline in today’s Daily Mail. “The trend [for celebrity written fiction books] has caused outrage among more traditional authors, who accuse publishers of accepting poor-quality manuscripts because they have a famous name attached,” reports the celeb-heavy newspaper.’

When I clicked the link to the article, and read a short extract from the novel to be published next month, I could see why people who enjoy well-written books (and those who write them) might feel outraged at the trend. The Mail’s extract from this novel by a TV actress, included such gems as: ‘Her lower lip was fuller than the top and when she smiled she lit up the room.’

Reading all this, I was in total agreement with the sentiments of authors, Deborah Moggach and PD James quoted in the Bookseller, and >“publisher Nick Perren (who) said he feared the rise of the celebrity novel could even put people off reading.”strong>

But then I found myself remembering so many of the brave men and women (young and older) who I’ve met during my years as an Adult Literacy tutor, and I experienced the familiar mind switch that happens from time to time as I catch myself flipping from one set of criteria (correct use of apostrophes, subject/verb agreement, etc) to one where my judgement about the piece of misspelt writing (handed to me in trepidation), overlooks the errors, and focuses first of all on the ideas or the story that has been so painstakingly, letter by letter, word by difficult word put down on paper.

So many of the women in particular come with a burning desire to read. Not any old thing – not magazines, or bills, or letters from the Council, though these, too, feature on their wish-lists, (in fact these are what they usually tell me at first) but then hesitantly one after another will confess to me in a half whisper, their impossible dream – to learn to read a whole BOOK.

And what has this to do with a TV celeb and her cliché ridden novel? ‘If you went for it, truly went for it, you could get the life you wanted here, and that was Mandy’s aim- to have it all. And why not? She’d read a greeting on a card once in Paperchase on the King’s Road that had truly stuck with her: ”Reach for the moon, and even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”’

I can think of women from my classes who would also be struck by those words of wisdom. Who am I to say they are shallow and meaningless?

That novel might be written in a style that some of ‘my’ students would find accessible , but at 400 pages, it would be far too long for those at the start of their journey towards their goal of reading a whole book. It would be the length, and not the impoverished nature of the writing style that might put people off reading altogether.

Confident readers, and particularly those who have developed a more discriminating taste, would avoid such a book. However, it might help to bridge the gap between the excellent Quick Reads books (more about these later) and the sorts of novels that you and I, dear reader, are nourished by.