Q&A with Celia Rees

From my Q&A with Celia Rees, author of Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I find that a title is there, almost from the beginning, or it is not. If it’s not there, it can take a while to find. Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook began as The Cold War Cookbook. Short, simple words with an assonant ring to them and I liked the contrast. Cold War and Cookbook shouldn’t go together, and I thought that was intriguing. I never wanted the book to be called anything else. A good title should do what it says on the tin and I felt this one did just that. It’s set in the Cold War, a time synonymous with spying, and has recipes! Miss Graham was added much later. It puts the main character on the cover and into the reader’s consciousness right away. The title is unusual, a bit quirky and I...[read on]

Visit Celia Rees's website.

Q&A with Celia Rees.

--Marshal Zeringue