Who's the hairiest of them all? Author David Lodge must never have been told as a young boy not to be making what used to be called "personal remarks" about people. In his new non-fiction book, The Year of Henry James, in which he relates what it felt like, after researching and writing a biographical novel about Henry James, to discover that at least four other writers had been working on something similar (including Colm Tóibín with The Master), Lodge gets stuck into the latter's vanishing hairline.
When he first met the Irish writer in Galicia in 1992, Tóibín had "a head of dark curly hair". When he met him 10 years later in Toronto, "the passage of time since then had left its mark more deeply on him than on me" - Tóibín was bald, so much so that Lodge didn't recognise him. It's true that Tóibín has lost his hair as the years have gone on - just as many of us lose bits and pieces, from teeth to energy levels. Lodge himself acknowledges that he has recently become quite deaf and has to wear a hearing aid in both ears. But what is remarkable is Lodge's fascination with the physical differences between himself and the author of The Master.
"I am famous among my acquaintance for not changing much in appearance, and looking younger than my years," he says, adding that it is just the luck of the genetic draw.
The other startling revelation is that Lodge, even after writing a book that dwells on what was obviously his annus horribilis, still hasn't read The Master but has only "assimilated some information about it indirectly, and have had the facts checked by others".
Feeling worried in the run-up to publication that other writers' work would take the bloom off the originality of his 2004 Henry James novel, Author, Author, particularly as he confesses to being habitually secretive about his work-in-progress, he looks back on it now as an unlucky novel. He never enjoyed writing a book more, and publishing one less, and writes wistfully about the seemingly trouble-free and favourable reception afforded Tóibín's novel.
To give Lodge his due, however, he does apologise for being so personal and confesses one thing: that he'd gladly trade his hair for Tóibín's ears. How the latter would feel about such a swap, we don't know.
The Year of Henry James: The Story of a Novel, or Timing is All, with Other Essays on the Genesis, Composition and Reception of Literary Fiction, is published this month by Harvill Secker (£18.99). Colm Tóibín's The Master is shortlisted for the International Impac Dublin Literary Award (winner to be announced June 13).
Time in bed recollected
One of Proust's most endearing characteristics was that he wrote in bed.
If in Paris, it's possible to see the bed, which is among a collection of furniture and objects that survived from the three places he lived in the city after his parents died: 102 Boulevard Haussmann, 8 bis, Rue Laurent Pichat, and 44 Rue Hamelin. The memorabilia make up a recreated room in the Musée Carnavalet, a museum devoted to the history of Paris, in the Marais area of the city.
Recreated are the famous walls lined with cork to ensure silence. Proustian possessions include a chaise longue, a bureau, a portrait of his father, a hand mirror, brushes, a cane, an inkwell and a watch. But prepare for disappointment on one front: his otter-skin coat is displayed only occasionally because of its fragility. It wasn't there last week.
Pride of place, though, goes to the bed in which he wrote most of À la recherche du temps perdu; a modest enough bed considering the masterpiece created in it, but well worth a stopover to have a look.
- Musée Carnavalet, 23 Rue de Sévigné, Paris, is free and is open from 10am to 6pm every day except Mon and public holidays. www.paris.fr/musees/musee_carnavalet/
Tell it to the judges
Poets Ciaran Carson, Cathal Ó Searcaigh and Celia de Fréine, novelists Colm Tóibín, Glenn Patterson and David Kiely, biographers Peter Conradi and Lavinia Greacen, and children's author and historian Conor Kostick were among the judges announced this week for the various categories in the Glen Dimplex New Writers Awards.
Closing date for entries is June 8th and winners will be announced on November 2nd.
Belmullet to feel the Force
The guest of honour at next month's Force 12 literary festival in Co Mayo is poet Thomas Kinsella, who as well as reading from his work, will be presented with the Ted McNulty Prize by Poetry Ireland's Joe Woods.
The Belmullet festival kicks off on June 9th with readings by Claire Kilroy, Padraig J Daly, Eva Bourke, Hugo Hamilton and John Breen. Other writers taking part over the weekend include American poet and novelist George Evans, Chris Agee, Jack Harte, Gerard Smyth and Nicaraguan poet Daisy Zamorra.