Michael Mail
Saturday day off but to the library for the reading group session in the adult. 13 came and met Michael Mail who I had met at a police meeting. He speaks really well and he explained how he came to writing late when he won an Edinburgh short-story competition. He is a Scottish Jew living in North London and is now a full-time writer. "Exposure" is about a Jewish girl who comes down from Leeds to the East End to study photography. One of the group felt that the book was more like non-fiction whereas others loved it and found they wanted to know the ending. Michael pointed out that tragedy was hinted at from the beginning. Suzy gets to know a Jewish community in the East End and the novel plays on the use of a camera as a shield to intrude into people's lives. The lecturer Terry and the other students are well-drawn as are the Jewish characters. There is also an interplay between the nominal faith of Suzy's separated parents and Suzy's rediscovery of her faith thr...