Review of literary lunch with Minette in Melbourne, Australia - March 2006

By: Fiona Drury

It was a full house at the ANZ pavilion for the ‘Lunch with Minette’ event. Presented by Minette’s Australian publisher, Allen & Unwin, the atmosphere was relaxed and enjoyable.

Herald Sun Publicist, Joanne Day (I think!) opened the event with a short announcement to say Minette would be speaking in about 25 minutes and that the talk would take the form of an interview rather than questions from the floor. It was a good move. The result was an entertaining, guided interview with Minette, who was able to discuss her work in an open and conversational atmosphere.

Minette talked at length about her latest novel, Chickenfeed and the reason behind it – World Book Day and 12 million adults in Britain who have difficulty reading. She told us how twelve best selling authors were enlisted to each write a novel of 20,000 using only one- or two-syllable words. She also gave us a brief overview of the story and how it was based on a true crime in the 60s.

The discussion led to Roy Meadows, the UK pediatrician who came up with the Munchausen’s by Proxy Syndrome, and how his word has been sacrosanct for decades in the UK. His expert evidence help convict scores of mothers who had been completely innocent of any wrongdoing. This led to a discussion about pedophilia and how there is a dangerous confusion of definition and in public perceptions, which has resulted in many innocent men being imprisoned.

Although Minette talked briefly about The Devil’s Feather and its underlying theme of crime hidden, she didn’t enthuse about this novel as she did about Chickenfeed. It made no difference to the audience though. They didn’t really need any encouragement to queue up and buy whatever books were on offer. Unfortunately one of these wasn’t Chickenfeed, which is not yet available in Australia.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable event and Minette appeared remarkably relaxed for someone in the middle of a punishing travel schedule and a promotional tour.