Peter Carey

Last night we were fortunate enough to see Peter Carey read at Inprint, the Houston reading series (My sweet ever lovin' wife is on their Board of Directors). Prior to the reading, we were at a dinner with Mr. Carey - a small dinner with about 14 folks.

During dinner he joked and told stories, and was generally very amiable. I have read several of his books (The True History of the Kelly Gang, Oscar and Lucinda, Jack Maggs, Theft, My Life as a Fake, 30 Days in Syndey, and his latest Parrot and Olivier in America)so we had plenty to chat about. We bantered, which I always enjoy.

Some of y'all may know that my sweet even lovin' really likes to have autographed copies of books. (Note to potential inheritors - look in all our books for autographs. They will be worth some money!) We debated how many books we could fashionably bring to the dinner with us. I said two.

That topic came up during dinner, and Mr. Carey laughingly said that we shoul have brought them all! We enjoyed that.

After dinner, we handed over the two books (Jack Maggs and Parrot and Olivier in America) to him. He thought a minute and asked what he should write in them. I suggested "To my most charming dinner companions" in the first one:

From Peter Carey Books

Then as he was thinking about what to put in the second, I suggested he say "You should have brought more books":

From Peter Carey Books

He was equally charming at the reading.

Read his books, and catch a reading if you can.