The last few days have been busy ones for Running with Pirates, if, that is, one can speak of a book being 'busy'. Perhaps it's more accurate to say that I've been doing a lot.
On Tuesday, I flew to Sydney to be on ABC Conversations, and followed that interview with a wonderful evening event at Roaring Stories Bookshop in partnership with Red Mill Distillery, Rozelle, a stunning venue for a book talk.
Over the following days, I visited quite a number of bookshops in Sydney, to talk to booksellers and sign copies of the book. The photos below were taken at Dymock's city store in George Street.
When I got back to Brisbane, I gave a talk to a very engaged audience at Wynnum Library, who had lots of questions about writing memoir, comments about retaining one's sense of adventure, and thoughts about travel and parenting more generally.
Today and yesterday, two short travel pieces that I've written that are connected to the story have been published in the weekend papers, one in the Weekend Australian Magazine, the other in the Escape lift-out of the News Corp Sunday papers.
Along the way, two new reviews of the book have also appeared. Writing for ABC News's 'The Best New Books Released in August', Nicola Heath comments,
While Corfu provides a picturesque setting — with its rustic villages, olive groves and "bays that cupped water clearer than the sky" — this is a memoir about fathers and sons. As a father, Gíslason is thoughtful and attentive — if a little over-protective, he admits — and explores this territory with curiosity, sincerity and sensitivity.
Meanwhile, in Australian Book Review, Shannon Burns has offered a somewhat less favourable response that questions whether enough happens in the book, but which also notes that it 'evokes a strong sense of place and is wonderfully attuned to the sensitivities of early adulthood.'
 |
| Source: ABC News |
