Triumph and Disaster

A tale of two reviews

The other day I came home to an amazing five star review of my second book: Gill Thompson is an incredible, incredible author who wrote with such power and passion. Wow! It was official then. I was an ‘incredible author’, I would sell millions of books, be photographed with Richard and Judy, be nominated for the Booker prize….my ambitions knew no bounds. That same day, I found another review, this time of my first book: This would have been more interesting if it had been written by someone else. The writing is just too amateurish. It was awarded a one star. Oh dear! I’m a dreadful writer. I really should do the book world a favour and never type another word. Perhaps I’ll take up knitting instead…

So which review is right? The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. People (generally) seem to like my books and they are selling well. But I still have things to learn and I welcome thoughtful, constructive reviews to help me improve.

I’ve never been in the changing rooms at Wimbledon (no surprises there) but I am told when you walk out of the players’ area onto centre court, you pass under an engraving of a line from Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’:

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat these two imposters just the same

The world’s best tennis players are reminded on a daily basis that success and failure are just ‘imposters’. Whilst these help to provide the highs and lows of life, it is the consistent effort and determination over time that really shapes our existence, and that’s where our focus should be.

So thanks to the first reviewer for making my day, and thanks to the second for keeping me humble. I’ll always aim high, and I’ll always strive for better and better writing, but an ability to remain unperturbed by ‘triumph’ or ‘disaster’ is the quality I aspire to most.