I’ve been a Fellow of the RSL for nearly two years, but so far there hasn’t been one meeting or event anywhere near my home in Maine.  I’m much too impressed with being a Fellow and need to tone down my sense of self-importance – this, to be able to fit in better.  I know that revealed self-importance is considered bad taste in Britain, though in the US it’s not.

I published a suite of four novellas in autumn 2014, with Bloomsbury.  Let Me Be Frank With You, it’s called. The stories are narrated by a character whom I’ve again breathed artificial life into – Frank Bascombe.  They treat – both comically and not – the consequences of Hurricane Sandy on the lives of its survivors in New Jersey.  It’s better than I’m making it sound.

Reading’s been very good summer – fall 2014.  Martin Amis’s new novel Zone of Interest is spectacular.  Re-read also The Enigma of Arrival, by Naipaul – a book I admire immensely.  Read a wonderful Australian novelist, whom I’ve discovered, Carrie Tiffany – titled Mateship With Birds.  I’m just about to read Ian McEwans’ new novel The Children Act.  I’m excited for that.

Photo of Richard Ford picking blackberries by Kristina Ford.