Monday 7th October 2013
Room is the Man Booker nominated seventh novel by Emma Donoghue. It tells the story of five year old Jack who lives in a single room with his Ma. Soon it becomes clear Jack has never left Room and that he and Ma are held captive by’Old Nick’. On her website Emma Donoghue describes the Room as being ‘inspired by… having kids; the locked room is a metaphor for the claustrophobic, tender bond of parenthood. I borrowed observations, jokes, kid grammar and whole dialogues from our son Finn, who was five while I was writing it. Room was also inspired by… ancient folk motifs of walled-up virgins who give birth (e.g. Rapunzel), often to heroes (e.g. Danaë and Perseus). Room was also inspired by… the Fritzl family’s escape from their dungeon in Austria – though I doubt I’ll ever use contemporary headlines as a launching point again, since I didn’t like being even occasionally accused of ‘exploitation’ or tagged ‘Fritzl writer’. But on the whole, publishing my seventh novel – and having the great good fortune to win new readers all over the world – has been a delight.’
At Lancaster a group of social work students and academics met (with the all important cake)
#lancastersocialwork #SWBK about to start, we are kicking off early with tea and cake #startasyoumeantogoon Follow http://t.co/WSfDYsS1UU
— Hannah Morgan (@HannahnagroM) October 7, 2013
to watch the discussion with guest academic Professor Nicky Stanley and then to hold our own discussion. Some of us had prepared with beautiful new stationary
Ready for @SWBookClub on Monday with lovely new notebook #stationarygeek. pic.twitter.com/8CnBwg1KnF
— Hannah Morgan (@HannahnagroM) October 3, 2013
@andrewmw83 was our student ‘tweep’ feeding the lancaster discussion into the twittersphere. @Nim_28, @DWswk and @Mathew1905 also contributed to the online discussion.
You can watch the edited highlights of the streamed discussion and