Seconds Out
Ladies and gentlemen! In the blue corner we have the All-England green wellies and Aga Queen, Ms Joanna Trollope. In the red corner, Global Publishing Phenomenon with 10 million Twitter Followers, Ms J K Rowling. We want a nice clean fight. Seconds out!
It was Joanna who started it, remarking that JK seems to have an uncontrollable egotistical urge to Tweet. As far as I know JK Rowling hasn’t responded. She is perhaps too busy composing another political broadside. Or counting her money. Where am I in all this? I’m in Joanna Trollope’s corner with a sponge and a Styptic pencil. I think she’s picked an unwinnable fight.
Though I myself do have a small presence on social media platforms I’m there reluctantly. Perhaps it’s a generation thing.
An avid reader all my life, I never knew what Enid Blyton looked like or wondered about the political leanings of Dorothy Sayers. Writers used to be invisible miracle-workers. They transported me to other worlds and I could not have asked more of them. As a matter of fact as a child, had I been told that Lewis Carroll was a stammering churchman and Rosemary Sutcliffe was an invalid spinster about the same age as my Mum, I think it would have taken the shine off their wonderful books.
Will the current trend ever reverse? Will there come a time when authors follow the example of J D Salinger, go back inside their writing sheds and stop being celebrities? I fear it’s about as likely as Kim Kardashian putting her bottom away.
I agree. JK has become an obnoxious political commentator via Twitter. Had I known back then maybe I wouldn’t have splashed out on the full box set.