OK, it is a silly title. But it is there for a reason. Barring a miracle that means I can buy my way back into the US, I’m going to be living near Bath for a long time. Yes, the town has a silly name. It has that name because it is home to a famous public baths. They have been there for around 2,000 years — possibly a lot longer. The joke should be getting old by now. It certainly will do if I have to field bath jokes every time I write about the place. OK?

The point of this post, however, is to talk about the David Mitchell reading I attended. It had a beautiful venue: St. Swithin’s Church in Bath, the present incarnation of which was built during the Georgian period and shares the architectural beauty of that age. Checking the history of the place, I discovered that Jane Austen’s father, George, was the curate there, and William Wilberforce was married there.

This was perhaps appropriate, because the book that Mitchell is on tour promoting is set in the Georgian era. It is not, however, set in England. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet [buy isbn=”9780340921562″] takes place primarily in Japan, and the lead character, as you have probably noted, is a Dutchman. Mitchell noted that his Dutch translators believe that they have produced the most authoritative version of the book, because it has the characters speaking the language they are supposed to be using.

That should give you some idea of what Mitchell is like: self-effacing, jokey, and really very charming. He has the same natural ability with an audience that has made Neil Gaiman so popular with his readers. Of course if Neil had been in Bath there would have been a queue of 300 people for the event. Mitchell isn’t such a draw, but on the basis of yesterday (and the books of his I have read) he should be.

One of the things that can trip up an unwary author is the Q&A session. Galley Cat had a feature yesterday on painful audience questions. Mitchell had to deal with one fairly early on as his second question was all about cultural appropriation. He did very well. He opened by noting that the lady questioner probably gets irritated by male authors who write unconvincing women, and said he deals with that by asking his wife to check his female characters. OK so far? Good. Then he added that his wife is Japanese. Clever.

One thing that I didn’t expect in Bath was an audience full of science fiction fans. For all that Mitchell clearly knows his SF very well, he’s not known for his SF. That doesn’t stop him talking about it. One question was about his apparent interest in the transmigration of souls. He answered it by talking about Doctor Who (specifically “Tooth and Claw”, which he correctly noted was written by Russell Davies). Mitchell then went on to note that one character in The Thousand Autumns is on his 28th life, and will appear again in his next novel, which is set in the present day. (Mitchell has a habit of carrying characters through from one novel to another, even though the stories are not connected.)

Another question that Mitchell handled rather well was that old favorite: “Who are your favorite writers.” Many authors hate this one as they feel it puts them on the spot to choose amongst their contemporaries. A classic way of dealing with it is to pick people who are dead. Mitchell began to do that, starting with Anton Chekov. Then he turned the tables on the questioner, saying that he’d name three of his favorites if she would do the same. I was impressed that she was up to the challenge, and she had some good (mainstream) picks. Mitchell, however, went for some very interesting people.

His second pick caused my ears to prick up: it was Wellington writer, Elizabeth Knox, whose Dreamhunter [buy isbn=”9780374318536″] I reviewed for Emerald City. Mitchell wasn’t aware of that book, but had read Vintner’s Luck [buy isbn=”9780099273899″] and was very impressed with it. I was not surprised that I was the only person in the audience who had heard of Knox, and that’s why my copy of The Thousand Autumns is inscribed: “To Cheryl, fellow Knox-admirer.”

Mitchell’s third pick was Catherine O’Flynn, on the basis of her book, What Was Lost [buy isbn=”9780955647642″]. This one I had not heard of, but it the reviews suggest that it is part mystery, part ghost story. I’ll have to pick up a copy.

It did not escape my notice that two of Mitchell’s three recommendations were women.

I refrained from asking the question I wanted to ask during the main session. Goodness only knows what the rest of the audience would have made of it. But I was able to ask it when I got the book signed. When I reviewed Cloud Atlas [buy isbn=”9780375507250″] I noted a bunch of SF references in the book, including a classic piece of Heinlein. I got into a bit of trouble over that. It was pointed out to me that Mitchell doesn’t mention Heinlein anywhere in the book, and the idea of advertising on the Moon could have occurred independently. After all, a Booker-nominated novel giving a nod to Heinlein? Ridiculous, right? So I asked Mitchell, and he smiled broadly. “The Man Who Sold The Moon”, he responded [buy isbn=”9780671578633″]. Having done a bit of Googling today I discovered that Heinlein was not the first SF writer to come up with the idea of lunar advertising, but at least I can assure you all that David Mitchell really does know his SF very well.