Ask the Author: Charlie English
Answered Questions (6)
Charlie English
Hi Richard, thanks for reading the book! Am glad you found it informative. On the maps front: I hoped we'd got the significant places down, but do let me know which ones you felt were missing. I guess we wanted to keep the maps in one place, rather than scattered throughout, but yes I'm afraid that means some flipping. Best wishes, Charlie E
Charlie English
Hi Kerry, thanks for asking, and for reading and rating Book Smugglers.
I am thinking about another book, yes, but it's not definite yet so I can't really give details. As you can imagine, there's a lot of research to be done before it becomes clear if a particular story can sustain a whole book–but in this case I'm optimistic! Essentially it's another international story about culture under threat, and what happened to the people who created it.
Best wishes,
Charlie
I am thinking about another book, yes, but it's not definite yet so I can't really give details. As you can imagine, there's a lot of research to be done before it becomes clear if a particular story can sustain a whole book–but in this case I'm optimistic! Essentially it's another international story about culture under threat, and what happened to the people who created it.
Best wishes,
Charlie
Charlie English
As a tutor once said to me, it's really just about doing it. Keep going, try to finish things, and then ask other people to read them. There's not much point in doing it, it seems to me, unless someone else, even a long time in the future, is going to read what you've put down.
Charlie English
Freedom. You can really go wherever you want. Though in some ways that's the hardest thing too, of course.
Charlie English
I've been writing stories since I was very young, and been a journalist since college, so writing or working with words feels pretty essential.
Charlie English
I was working as foreign editor at the Guardian when news of Timbuktu's smuggled manuscripts broke. I thought it was the best – and most positive – story I'd heard for years, and since I had a long-running interest in the Sahara and west African history, I decided to try to find out what had happened myself. The result was far more intriguing than I had suspected. The Storied City (called the Book Smugglers of Timbuktu outside the US) is the result.
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