A Bit of  a Boost and a Bit of a Boast



My new book, Dead Woman Walking, to be published on 8th August,  has had a couple of lovely advance reviews.
One (unsigned) appears in the Western Morning News today (30 July):

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Author-returns-crime-novel-debut-21st-thriller/story-19586385-detail/story.html


The other is from the on-line magazine Crime Time, and is by the expert on crime fiction, Barry Forshaw. Here it is:

Apart from a distinguished career as a crime writer and social historian, Jessica Mann has long been one of the most acute critics of the crime fiction genre. In this economical but authoritative novel, Mann (who has written 21 crime novels and four non-fiction titles) demonstrates that her skill in the field of malign human behaviour remains as ironclad as ever.

Gillian Butler left Edinburgh five decades ago – or at least that is what her friends have always believed. But when her lifeless body is discovered, it becomes imperative to remember who last saw her alive – and, accordingly, a vividly drawn dramatis personae is paraded before our eyes. The reader is invited to draw their own conclusions about how she died. As ever with this author, the intelligent (and complex) texture of the novel matches its sheer storytelling nous.

Dead Woman Walking by Jessica Mann is published by the Cornovia Press

Any Questions

It's such a long time since I was last on Radio 4's Any Questions programme that when I read an email inviting me to the programme at  St.Endellion Church in Cornwall on July 26, I thought I was being asked to be a member of the audience.  But no: this was an invitation  to join the panel: Lord (Roy) Hattersley, now aged 80, former senior Labour politician; Jacob Rees Mogg, a Conservative MP ,  Philip Collins, a Times columnist - and me!
The form hasn't changed. One is picked up by car and delivered by 6, in this case to a hotel near Port Isaac, to meet the chairman, Jonathon Dimbleby,  and  the team over dinner. Everybody is ultra-friendly and convivial though  (perhaps excepting Roy Hattersley) not quite concealing their stage fright. I realised later that the others - or at least the two politicians - had access to some kind of party briefing book, giving the proper responses to any potential question. I had had a long telephone conversation with the programme's producer, who had listed the 10 subjects most  likely to come up, suggesting that I prepared opinions on them. So I was all ready with wit and wisdom about such hot topics as  Britain's relationship with the EU, British interests in the Middle East, the UK's nuclear deterrent, discrimination against women in the BBC  and so on.
Not one of them came up.
The church was packed full, and presumably  the audience had handed in a pile of questions on all these and many other subjects,  but  to my dismay (and terror) I was quite unprepared for those chosen for the live programme.  The Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury and payday loans; the  internal politics of the Labour party and  unions; the alleged economic recovery. None of these were subjects on which  a non-economist, non-Anglican, non-socialist has much useful to contribute.  Mercifully we moved  on to the easier topics of royal-baby-mania and house prices in second-home-land, and those I could talk about. On the whole, I'd say it was fun, but not  my finest hour.
But  was it good publicity? Will anyone look for and buy my books as a result of hearing me on Any Questions?
And to that question I have no answer at all.