C A R Hills reads in Tavira 17th September
CAR Hills has a love/hate relationship with Portugal and the Algarve in particular. We are very pleased that he is willing to read from some of his early essays and recent work on September 17th at Lura dos Livros in Tavira. Charles has been a writer all of his colourful life. He wrote a series of essays called the “Clapham Omnibus” and “The Prisoner” for Prospect magazine. In these essays, he reflects on his wanderings around London and some of his experiences of prison. They can be found online in Prospect magazine. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
He has also written for the Australian literary magazine Quadrant http://www.quadrant.org.au and was newsletter Editor of English Pen http://www.englishpen.org/. He is an international writer and has written for magazines and newspapers.
He comes from an Anglo Portuguese background. He speaks both languages fluently as well as Italian and German. He has written about his grand tours of Europe and also written the dark novel “The Olinda Angel” which is somewhat autobiographical. He is a very entertaining writer and will be reading from his work called “The Track”, from his essays and “The Olinda Angel”. “The Track” was written in the 1990s. It is set in south east London in the future and combines an homage to Muriel Spark with themes of social change, Christianity and sado/masochism.
A flavour of his writing can be found on his Blog
http://carhillscharleshillsauthor.blogspot.pt/
An extract from
My fourth and last Grand Tour by CAR Hills
Tomorrow I begin the journey to my home in Portugal after the fourth and last of my European grand tours. Despite the rich, varied and beautiful experiences of the last three months, I am filled with sadness. I very much wish to leave the small Italian town where I am. Yet I do not really want to return to the place in Portugal. I know that difficult times await me there.
Yet, just now, as I was writing this piece in the noonday sunshine on a park bench outside the library, in which I had previously been whiling away the time looking at a book called Empire Tales, the two female librarians came out and stopped to talk to me. We had such a pleasant chat, and now they have ridden off on their bicycles. That is what I love about the Italians, the way they combine sympathy and a ready approach with the essential human hardness. That is why it is in this one country that I could live, and where my own essential solitude could be mitigated once my travelling years are done.
And now I must go home. I will drop my bags in the dark house. There will be silence there. I will want to sleep after my long journey. But in the Algarve too I will find pleasant friends and a shining sea. So do not repine for a moment. Your heart is full of love. Your house may be dark. But how bright is the shore on which I travel now.
You can enjoy more of CAR Hills at Lura dos Livros – English/Portuguese bookshop in Tavira
Monday 7:30pm, September 17th 2012
Wine and nibbles will be available
As places are limited booking is advisable.
Contact Sue Hall sue@suehall.net
Telephone 281 326 097
Sounds like a fine night and I’d love to be there. Alas, yet again, I can’t.
Pity you will not be there! There will be other writers nights and I will post them here!!
Perhaps you might read one night???
Now that’s a scarey thought, Sue, but thank you for thinking of me.