Back in January I received this in an email:
If your group would be interested in reading the book, I would be delighted to offer an online Author Q&A session for the group if they wish. It would be fun to enjoy a drink, discuss the novel’s themes, characters, and ask any questions they may have. All in all, I want it to be a bit of fun, to help bring people together during lockdown, and to help spread the word about my novel! Debuting in 2020 was – as you can imagine – a bit of a nightmare, as it’s so difficult to connect with readers. I’m hoping the book club can help with that.
Who could decline such an offer? Not us! and so we chose to read Cows Can’t Jump and 10 of us met on Zoom with Philip Bowne (the author) and did exactly what he proposed above.
As a group we approached the meeting in our usual open, chatty way. We didn’t meet beforehand to plan or structure our meeting but each of us had questions ready. That approach worked well and made for a relaxed, fun, evening.
Phil gave us a brief overview of his writing background and explained that this book started life as a short story written as part of his English Literature and Creative Writing course at Cheltenham Uni. The book was written in 2016/17, edited in 2018 and published in 2020.
That was followed by a barrage of questions – well done Phil for keeping up with us.
Why do you write in 1st Person? I find it easiest to write in 1st person, I like to be in the scene and have fun.
How do you get into the psyche of another character? I wish I could tell you! One thing I do is write a conversation with all the characters in the room and they discuss a problem.
How much of the story is autobiographical? No, it is 95% invention! Some scenes were based on ideas I really wanted to get into the story (such as Cristoph and the cows) and others were more difficult to imagine but necessary (such as the horse shooting). Phil did let us into the secret that one scene is about something he actually did himself, when he was at school (just the once). I am not going to go public on what that was!
Did you get caught up in writing the story? Or was it in fits and starts? I was driven and enthusiastic. I was writing every day and the first draft was completed in 9 months. I asked my uni. lecturers for input, then reworked the text. It was during editing that I won the Spotlight First Novel prize.
How does it feel to get feedback from your peers? Authors generally give feedback in a nice way, so it was always good to seek feedback.
What is your work with The Wombles? I write content for The Wombles. The content is digital right now (we are bringing them into the modern world) with TV and books in development. Many of us are of an age that we remember the originals, and Phil’s connection with The Wombles left some of us quite starstruck! And The Wombles Facebook page gained 10 new followers!
What qualities must an author have? Well, I am a good listener/eavesdropper and it is also important to have empathy.
How do you capture ideas? I jot them down. I have had many jobs that are customer facing and I listen to people all day. I see some of those people in this book.
Would people recognise themselves in the book? I don’t think so but Sam, is Sam, I met him at Cheltenham Racecourse and he was the sweetest man I had ever met.
Is Louis real? I based him on a character in a book I studied for A-Level (Long Day’s Journey into Night).
Surrounding the more direct questions put to Phil, we all shared our thoughts and feelings about the story.
Here’s a summary of some of the conversation points and what we as a group concluded:
The ending of the book – we were pleased with this, it mirrored real life and what happens in real life relationships.
Themes – Phil explained his thoughts around some of the many themes that run through the book:
- Gravedigging (we found that quite unique) – Phil wanted Billy’s journey to go from death to life (Eva is derived from the Hebrew meaning of ‘life’) and back again.
- Diana’s story is about having faith and belief and that what we believe isn’t always true!
- Cows can’t jump – an urban myth but the story (and the title) came from a Daily Mail story https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209638/Scientists-baffled-suicidal-cows-throw-cliff-Switzerland.html - the book was originally called ‘Chasing Eva’ but Cows Can’t Jump got a better reaction.
- The journey through Europe – I love travelling and I did my research! This included a swim in the lake in the town of Bled in Slovenia which is now firmly on the ‘to do list’.
The characters – we all thought that Eva was terrible person and would not like to meet her; Billy was pathetic for much of the book but then surprised us. The thinking behind Diana and Christoph was beautiful, and we enjoyed meeting them both. Sam was wonderful and overall, we felt the relationships between the characters were really well defined.
There were, we thought, some parts of the story that reminded us of other books we have read (and enjoyed) such as: The Hundred-Year-Old Man who Jumped Out of a Window and Alec Wood vs. the Universe.
As a group we enjoyed this book and having the opportunity to get the behind the scenes took our appreciation of what goes in to writing a novel to another level. The story covers a lot of topics and has a good pace. The episodic style keeps the readers’ attention – things happen, problems arise and are either fixed or the story moves on. We could imagine it as a film or cartoon or even a graphic novel.
So, would we recommend this book? A big ‘Yes’ from everyone. For other Book Groups, we recommend you get in touch with Phil and invite him along. Here’s his website: https://philipbowne.com
The ladies of Ashendon Book Group would like to thank Philip Bowne for taking the time to join our meeting, for being so gracious and open in his answers to his questions and for joining in with our discussion.
The next day I got this: “I just wanted to say thank you again to you all for taking the time to read my book and for allowing me to join in on the meeting. I had a lot of fun meeting you all last night - it makes the whole writing process feel worthwhile!” Phil Bowne.
I believe we can make him our first honorary member!
