Bethan Roberts 新书受媒体好评

Former University of Chichester student Bethan Roberts is gaining national attention for her novel ‘The Pools’, which began life as an assignment for the University’s MA programme in Creative Writing.

Published last month by Serpent’s Tail, The Pools is a memorable thriller, set in a small Oxfordshire community rocked by a violent murder in the 1980s.

The book is to be launched at the University on Wednesday, 10 October as part of a series of high-profile book launches organised by the English Department. All staff, students and members of the public are welcome to attend. Entry is free.

The Pools has been selected as part of a New Talent promotion in September by the bookstore Borders. And Tesco will also be promoting the novel in their ‘Recommended Reading’ slot.

Meanwhile, Radio Five Live have chosen The Pools as their Book of the Month for September/October. Bethan will be appearing on Simon Mayo’s Book Panel show on the afternoon of 27 September.

Bethan, who now teaches as an associate lecturer in the English Department, will read from her novel in Room E124 at 6.30 p.m. on 10 October at the Bishop Otter campus in College Lane, Chichester.

The Pools was described by Ruth Atkins in The Bookseller as “a wonderfully self-assured debut... There is a forbidding feeling throughout the novel - an almost audible hum of misgiving coming off the pages. Superb.”

Other reviews have been equally enthusiastic:

“A tense thriller that reminded me of Julie Myerson’s Something Might Happen.” Viv Groskop, Eve

“Brilliantly illuminating... A beautifully understated debut.” Easy Living

“The kind of first novel that takes your breath away... a beautiful, unsettling book.” Sainsbury’s Magazine