A Q&A with Silvan-based author Eliza Henry-Jones for Book Week

Silvan-based author Eliza Henry Jones with a book she recently read by Sophie Cunningham. PICTURE: STEWART CHAMBERS 293971_04

1. What are you currently reading?

This Devastating Fever by Sophie Cunningham – it’s brilliant.

2. What book had the biggest impact on your life and why?

I feel like my entire life has been swayed by books! Most recently, reading

The Outrun by Amy Liptrot sent me to Orkney, which then shaped the last four

years of my life as I worked on a PhD and novel inspired by the islands.

3.Which book have you read the most number of times and why?

If only they could talk by James Herriot – it’s my favourite comfort read and

never fails to make me laugh.

4. What is one book that everyone should read and why?

I can’t choose and you can’t make me! At the moment I’m particularly

obsessed by and madly recommending A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní

Ghríofa, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, Ghost Wall by Sarah

Moss and Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

5. What book or series do you hope will be turned into a movie or tv show

one day? I’m hanging out for local author Kylie Orr’s Someone Else’s Child to

be made into a series!

6. Who’s your all-time favourite book character?

Oh gosh – this is tough! Right now, I adore Henry Montague from The

Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, which is a rollicking adventure set in

the 18 th century. He’s ridiculously flawed, but somehow still utterly lovable.

7. Where do you like to read the most? (i.e. on the couch, in bed, in the

sunshine, on your commute?)

Reading in front of the fire and listening to rain on the corrugated iron roof is always very lovely. I also like to read on our

verandah when the weather’s nice.