ADDING yet another name to their long list of guest speakers, the Greater Hamilton Library welcomed author, Jim McIntyre, last Friday to speak about his first book, ‘Nikolai the Perfect’.

Coinciding with the Hamilton Library Book Club’s last meeting of the year, Friday’s activities involved Mr McIntyre sitting in on the group’s regular meeting, followed by a presentation that revealed the inside story behind his novel.

Senior library services officer, Chris Jenkins, said the Greater Hamilton Library frequently welcomes guest speakers which enriches the visitor experience and facilitates networking.

“Jim is only one of the visiting authors we do have and most of the time we don’t chase them - they come to us, which is a great thing,” she said.

“Building an audience for an event like this you tend to get the same people, so they’re relatively small and intimate affairs.

“Things like writers’ groups become interested and then word of mouth gets out there and others come on board and get interested.

“There’s partnerships and stuff that are made through these things by connecting people.”

Ms Jenkins said author talks also provided a platform for local writers to learn more about the craft and gain an insight into how the book came to be.

“(Author talks are) a big part of library literacy as well as entertainment because writers obviously learn from it - so that’s where it comes in the literacy side.

“And then it’s the stories behind the books that are the interesting part, when you get to know an author and where the story came from and how it was created.”

Mr McIntyre said last Friday marked his second visit to Hamilton and after the success of the library talk, he looked forward to returning.

“The people were engaged and that’s always heartening,” he said.

“The book club session was also great … there was plenty of lively conversation.”

During his author talk, Mr McIntyre said his first published book, ‘Nikolai the Perfect’, tells a Russian Australian love story with a political backdrop, mostly set around the late 80s to mid-90s.

“The first half takes place in Moscow and the second half in Melbourne, and the plot thickens from there,” he said.

“There’s a personal tragedy that unfolds throughout the book and as a backdrop to that there are tragic political events that I witnessed.”

Living in Russia for some time, Mr McIntyre said the fictitious book included some of his own experiences, with the main character being the inversion of himself by depicting someone who can speak fluent Russian but is trying to become familiar with English.

“There’s a lot of autobiography in the book,” he said.

“The preoccupation in this book is trying to operate across cultures and languages. 

“I drew on my experiences being someone with a limited grasp of a very complicated language at a very unstable economic and political time and the whole process of negotiating a language and a culture.”

Attendees of the author talk were captivated by Mr McIntyre’s experiences in Russia, his career and writing process, with many sticking around to have a chat once the event ended.

After taking nearly 30 years to write his first book, Mr McIntyre said he was hoping to expand on his writing career and looked forward to creating more novels.

“At times writing doesn’t seem that important and I put it aside,” he said.

“I’m getting progressively more serious about it.

“I want to just get back to writing for the pleasure of it.”

‘Nikolai the Perfect’ has received a few accolades including taking out the title of equal runner up in the 2015 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript.