Nathan Bransford - The Forums

When I have just cancelled a dentist appointment or pissed off the publisher or found a leak in the bathroom ceiling, I like to curl up with EF Benson's Mapp and Lucia novels. Edwardian camp, very gentle and affectionate, set in an idealised Rye on the Sussex coast.

That is funny! Like being stuck in an elevator with JM Coetzee in a misanthropic mood.

What about some futuristic conversation? Vitruvian travel in the year 2030. Greta: The queue for the body scanner is to your left, iif they call us. I always think of those blue x-ray images as resembling Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man , that figure spreadeagled out on some kind of cosmic wheel, ...

Eight authors at the table! Some posters here are very brave. I read Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall over Christmas and I'd love to have her around for supper. I'd serve venison and hope she isn't vegetarian. I'd love to hear more about her life in Botswana and Saudi Arabia. Over a berried pavlova I'd ask...

Using brand names is quite acceptable in most novels, but the connotations need to be studied carefully because a character wearing Armani, sporting a Rolex, running in Nikes and driving a Ferrari sounds like an ad exec in parody of his profession. The stereotyping can be offputting -- images of tha...