The American Library in Paris is continuing to run “evening with an author” events despite the curfew. And the advantage is you can tune in for free from anywhere, and there’s no limit on numbers. On 16 February, it will feature an interview with Pulitzer-prizewinning historian Fredrik Logevall on his biography of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. … Continue reading “Online Talk About President Kennedy”
The judges of this year’s Costa Book Awards in the UK chose two writers from the Caribbean island nation Trinidad and Tobago as winners in the best novel, best first novel and book of the year categories. Monique Roffey won both the novel and the overall book of the year category for The Mermaid of … Continue reading “Tale of the Sea from Trinidad”
The line-up for the Biden-Harris Presidential Inauguration includes an extraordinary young poet. Andrea Gorman was named the country’s inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017, at just 18. The Inauguration swearing-in ceremony traditionally includes a religious invocation and blessing, given by Father Leo J. O’Donovan and Reverend Dr. Silvester Beaman, a recitation of the Pledge … Continue reading “Presidential Poet”
Hanif Kureishi is a subversive writer in search of identity beyond the borders of race, gender and class. Vanessa Guignery draws a portrait of the author of The Buddha of Suburbia, My Beautiful Launderette and My Son the Fanatic. In 1993, three years after the publication of his debut novel The Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif … Continue reading “Hanif Kureishi: The Buddha of Suburbia”
John le Carré, master spy novelist, died on 12 December at the age of 89. Like James Bond creator Ian Fleming, le Carré himself worked in intelligence, but his novels were the polar opposite of Bond, portraying espionage as bleak, often tedious, and above all morally ambiguous. Le Carré was a pen name, since he … Continue reading “The Spy Who Turned Novelist”
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”
