Saturday’s Structo launch was a great night out, even if I did feel nervous. The Society Club – a café/bookshop/gallery in Soho is a very stylish venue, an intimate space full of books you just want to pick up and buy.
I got there early but declined an absinthe cocktail for fear of premature intoxication, having already had a swift glass of prosecco in a bar further down the street with my daughter and her partner. Instead I talked to Euan, Structo’s charming and laid back editor, and admired the magazine, as stylish as the event itself and full of good stuff as I discovered on reading the next morning.
To read my story Tokyo Dreaming I stood by a glass fronted cabinet full of what appeared to be first editions; certainly valuable books and with great covers: Daphne Du Maurier, John Braine, George Orwell, Doris Lessing… I was, I thought, in the best of company.
And so it was – everyone, and it was very full, was attentive and sympathetic and more than generous with their applause. Of course once the reading was over I recovered my breath and reached for that cocktail. I could relax then and listen to Bette Adriaanse reading an extract from her wry and gently humorous novel, written in a truly unique voice. Then Will Burns (also part of the magazine team) sang and played beautifully and made us laugh.
You had the feeling, the warm feeling (and it wasn’t just the absinthe – honest!) that you were with people who loved books and literature, who valued and celebrated creativity without being at all elitist, and in the capital city too!
So I could not have asked for more, could I? I was really delighted to be there and delighted to be published in Issue 8 of Structo.
Good luck to the team when they take the magazine to New York and if you’d like to buy a copy you can purchase it HERE.
To writers: I can highly recommend submitting your stories or poems to Structo for their consideration.
Sounds like a great place with good people. That generosity of spirit fosters creativity. There’s not much of it around in publishing these says Sounds like just your kind of gig. I will certainly subscribe to Structo Wxxx