A.L Kennedy

For the past couple of weeks i have been reading with great interest and enthusiasm, the blog entries on and of the Scottish writer A.L Kennedy on the Guardian website.

For some reason I can't explain, I find that her prose writing style and just her writing in general, tends to appeal to me a great deal. May be its the gloom that just wraps around you when you read about her suffering from back pains, a secluded life and her unabashed admission of having sex once every five years. I must confess that I am not the avid reader I should be since I have very lofty ambitions of becoming a writer ( which she advices against, naturally. No writer would wish for anyone other than themselves to go through the pain writing involves; fiction writing at least) since reading and writing, for me at least go hand in hand. According to her, taking the bold and foolish decision to become a full time writer ,ie earning a living through words should only come as a last resort of sorts. It is too much of a sacrifice learning the craft and after years of trial and error, solitude and mental torture finally be confident enough to type your first sentence.

Anyway,I am yet to read any of her short stories or novels for that matter but I have a feeling that I will greatly enjoy my reading when I finally do. She isnt main stream like John Grisham and Danielle Steele so it's hard getting her books locally.

But in the mean time you can watch her talk about her latest book, ' DAY', in the video below.