Tag Archives: Michel Faber

The Apple – Crimson Petal Stories by Michel Faber

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The Apple cover

Michel Faber explains in the Foreword of The Apple – Crimson Petal Stories that he received many letters from readers who had been disappointed by the ending that he had written for his book The Crimson Petal and the White. He included excerpts from some of the letters and they wanted him to write a sequel, something that he didn’t intend to do.

A lady from New York wrote: How dare you, sir! What an ending!

And a man in The Netherlands wrote: It is very clear why the story ends where it ends. You have made your point …. Still, I would like to request a sequel, for the following reasons:
I have grown attached to Sugar, your and my heroine. In my own real life there have been a number of sudden and irrevocable goodbyes, which have left lasting feelings of pain and guilt. Why do you make me suffer more?

But it was a man in Lancashire who really captured the feeling of ‘family’ that so many readers seem to have experienced. He wrote: A few days before Christmas I was half awake the first thought that came to me was what I could obtain as Christmas presents for Miss Sophie, Sugar and Mrs Fox. Then suddenly I realised who they really were.

Eventually Michel Faber wrote this book of seven short stories some of which are about characters from The Crimson Petal and the White. I didn’t read that book but I did watch and enjoy the TV series. This book was published in 2006 and I’m sure that it goes some way to satisfying some of his fans as we do indeed discover a bit more about Sugar’s life.

If you want a more detailed review of this book have a look at Jack’s thoughts on it here.

The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps by Michel Faber

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The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps cover

I know I’ve seen Michel Faber’s books on somebody’s sidebar so when I saw this book at my local library recently I thought I’d give him a go. This is a novella with just 120 pages and I read it all in one sitting. Mind you I nearly gave up on it completely before I got to the bottom of the first page. I’ve been reading a lot of comfort books over the past few months and I’ve sort of got used to nothing really nasty happening in books. The beginning of this one seemed to me to be positively brutal. Anyway, I gritted my teeth and carried on, and I’m glad that I did.

The story is set in Whitby, which is a place that I really like, so that was a plus. Life has given Sian a good few kicks in the teeth in the past but now she is part of a team conducting an archaeological dig at Whitby Abbey. On her way to work she spies a good looking man jogging with a gorgeous dog by his side. The dog is vanilla and caramel coloured and Sian wants it. In fact she’s not sure which she’s attracted to most, dog or man. The dog turns out to be a Finnish Lapphund called Hadrian. They look like a cross between a husky and a wolf.

The story is a good mixture of thriller, romance and historical sleuthing and for me there were a few real surprises along the way. It definitely couldn’t be called predictable. I’ll read more by Michel Faber.

Mind you, I’m sure my eyes rolled when I realised that there was an archaeological dig involved because I had a horrible feeling that that had been added to the story purely because archaeology is so popular in Britain. I thought to myself – this is going to be the book equivalent to that Rosemary and Thyme thing on TV which was obviously thought up because mystery/crime and gardening are perrenial favourites amongst Brits. But have no fear, it’s far more than that!