Confessions Of A Book Traveller with Joanne Harris

 

We’ve been asking our bookish friends near and far for their reflection on years of literature based travel. Here’s Joanne Harris’:

 

1. Which book character would you most like to live with? 

Jeeves. Not only would he make my tea just as I like it, but we would have excellent conversation, and I would never have to worry about an importunate aunt or a pestilential nephew ever again.

2. Which book setting would you most like to travel to (real or fictional)? 

Beyond the Wall in Neil Gaiman’s Stardust.

3. Which book ending do you wish you could change and how? 

I’d like to reach into Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and redeem Javert.

4. What’s your favourite book by a non-western author? 

Elif Shafak’s The Bastard of Istanbul.

5. Where is your reading spot?  

My hammock in the greenhouse.

6. What is your all-time favourite book?  

I don’t have an all-time favourite, but I often return to Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast books – they’re so rich, strange and immersive.

My new book, Orfeia, is a reworking of the Orpheus myth from the perspective of an older woman, dealing with the loss of her child. It’s an exploration of grief, memory, motherhood, loss and sacrifice, seen through the lens of a fairytale.