Simone Richardson lives in Cairns with her husband, Andrew, three sons and two dogs. She works as a music teacher and in her spare time learns the viola and immerses herself in whichever writing project is her current obsession. In recent years she has penned the lyrics of congregational songs like Never Alone and Grace Awaiting Me. She is currently working on a set of short stories and a collection of prayers.
TGCA: What books are currently on your bedside table?
Tom Wright – John for Everyone
L M Montgomery – The Blue Castle
The Methodist Hymn Book
John Goldangay – 1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone
Dorothy Gillman – The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax
TGCA: What was the last book you left unfinished?
Shades of Vampire (volume 2 – Shades of… [something else] … I don’t remember!)
This series kept popping up in my Facebook feed. The best thing since Twilight apparently. And only 99c on Kindle! I bought two of them for myself as a mother’s day indulgence. Gave up half way through the second. It was fairy floss. Fun for a bit, but after a while you can feel the cavities forming in your soul.
TGCA: What’s a book you feel guilty for not reading?
I try not to feel guilty for not reading particular books. There’s no law saying we must read certain things. I find that I don’t really enjoy biographies, war poetry or novels that are heavy on plot. Oh well.
TGCA: Fiction or Non-fiction?
Yes.
TGCA: Physical, Ebook, Audio, Graphic Novels?
Paper, Kindle and Audio. I really like audio – so much so that if I could, I’d have everything read to me by ‘Alex’ – my Macbook voice-man.
TGCA: What’s a book that someone needs to write?
No Need To Panic! How to live unafraid in a changing world
TGCA: What’s your favourite time and place to read?
Fridays. In a cafe.
TGCA: What was the last book you gave as a present?
The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama. This is an excellent book.
TGCA: What book made a big impact on you during adolescence?
John Chapman – A Fresh Start
TGCA: Who is your favourite fiction author and why?
Not my absolute favourites, but at the moment I’m enjoying Dorothy Gillman and Farahad Zama. Both of these authors create lovely characters and have a gentle, easy-going prose style – similar in feel to Alexander McCall Smith. There is a kindness in the way that these authors tell their stories and I really appreciate it.
I also love YA stuff with vampires or dysfunctional future worlds.
TGCA: Do you re-read books?
Yes. Absolutely. Many, many, many times.
TGCA: What 10 books would you take to a desert island?
The Bible
Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre
George Elliott – Middlemarch
CS Lewis – Complete Letters
CS Lewis – Essays
Bach’s Cello Suite transcribed for Viola
The Internet, Printed and bound edition, and
Three thick A4 exercise books for writing stuff
TGCA: What was the last book that made you angry?
Getting Things Done. This book has been making me cross for a long time. If it was renamed Getting Non-Creative, Boring Things Done, and came packaged with a warning that it is unsuitable for mothers, then I’d be less annoyed.
TGCA: Is there a song lyric that you wish you’d written?
Yes. Many. At the moment I’m singing a beautiful, wistful little piece with the year 2 and 4 kids I teach. ‘Song For The Mira’ by Allister MacGillivray so captures that nostalgic longing for something gone that I feel like it is mine – though I don’t know the places it talks about at all! The Chorus says:
Can you imagine a piece of the universe
More fit for princes and kings?
I’ll trade you ten of your cities
For Marion Bridge and the pleasure it brings
TGCA: What is your favourite poem?
Sophie Hannah – ‘Leaving and Leaving You’. It begins…
When I leave your postcode and your commuting station,
When I leave undone the things that we planned to do,
You may feel you have been left by association,
But there is leaving and there is leaving you.
TGCA: What’s some advice you’d give to congregational songwriters?
A neat chord progression isn’t enough. You’ve got to have something to say and a fresh and compelling way of saying it. For a song to be really good, the lyric needs to sing in its own right without the tune.
TGCA: Name a couple of books, apart from the Bible, you’d encourage every Christian to read.
The Plausibility Problem: The Church and Same Sex Marriage. I wrote a review of it last year – it is fantastic. I’d also recommend C.S.Lewis’ Essays – such a great model of how to reflect Christianly, intelligently and kindly on life in our world.
