Britain’s most prestigious literary prize this year was awarded on 19 November to one of four debut novels in the shortlist: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, a story of family love and addiction in recession-hit 1980s Glasgow. The story is set in the era of Thatcherism and deindustrialisation. For working-class families, times were hard. When … Continue reading “The 2020 Booker Prize Goes to First-time Scottish Author”
Like all museums in England, Tate Britain is closed to the public for lockdown. But it’s still celebrating art, and the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, in a stunning artwork displayed on the OUTSIDE of the building. This year’s Winter Commission for the London museum is by Chila Kumari Burman. The 63-year-old artist’s works draws … Continue reading “Celebrating Diwali with a Light Installation at Tate Britain”
The UK’s most prestigious literary prize, the Booker, will be awarded on 19 November. This year’s shortlist of six books, including four debut novels, is very diverse, featuring authors from the U.S., Zimbabwe and Ethiopia as well as a single representative from the U.K. Four of the picks centre around parent-child relationships. Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie … Continue reading “Booker Prize Shortlist 2020”
The UK’s 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction has been awarded to a novel that imagines the life and death of Shakespeare’s son Hamnet and rounds out the character of his wife Anne Hathaway: Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet. O’Farrell had been fascinated by young Hamnet since her school English teacher mentioned his name when she was … Continue reading “Shakespeare’s Son and Anne Hathaway”
Despite the coronavirus, the Musée Jacquemart-André has a great retrospective of the work of JMW Turner (1775-1851), with the “Turner, peintures et aquarelles de la Tate” exhibition. Running to January 11, 2021. The Musée Jacquemart-André is paying tribute to one of the best-known English artists and the greatest representative of the golden age of English … Continue reading “Private Turner: Watercolours and Paintings”
The Fondation Louis Vuitton reopened its doors to the public on September 23 with a special show featuring the work of American photographer Cindy Sherman. Sherman’s thematic self-portraits are a reflection on the portrayal of women in modern society. This is the first solo show dedicated to the artist since her 2006 exhibition at the … Continue reading “Cindy Sherman Self-Portraits: Hiding in Plain Sight”
In the Netflix adaptation of the Young Adult mystery-adventure by Nancy Springer, Millie Bobby Brown is playing Enola Holmes, the sister of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes! Over 130 years after the world’s most famous detective made his 1887 debut in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, comes a new mystery-adventure about another … Continue reading “Enola Holmes: Not Elementary My Dear Sherlock!”
A couple of years ago, Sheffield-based Forced Entertainment brought the complete works of Shakespeare to the Festival d’automne in Paris: all 36 plays, each summarised by a single actor, using household objects. This autumn, the videos of the performances will be available in turn online. You can find the full schedule on Forced Entertainment’s site. … Continue reading “Table-top Shakespeare Free Streaming”
The autumn is approaching, and with it two traditional cinematic highlights: the Deauville American and Dinard British film festivals. Like everything else, they will be a little less traditional this year but not necessarily in a bad way. (Deauville will include films from the cancelled Cannes and Annecy festivals, even if it features fewer Hollywood … Continue reading “Film Festival Time”
Watch this short document about the film Respect.
