Booker Prize Shortlist 2020

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 06 November 2020 > What's On

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”

Little Women: Big Film

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 05 February 2020 > What's On

Greta Gerwig’s new adaptation of the classic coming-of-age story Little Women retells the story of the novel in parallel with the life of its author, Louisa May Alcott. Alcott wrote the novel in 1868. She had been writing stories commercially for several years when a publisher asked her to write a novel for girls. Alcott … Continue reading “Little Women: Big Film”

Little Women

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 31 January 2020 >

Greta Gerwig’s latest movie based on Louisa May Alcott’s novel will take you into a female world in which conventions are defied, questioned and challenged by four sisters. Indeed, these four women on the brink of emancipation shatter the traditional image of upper-middle class young ladies whose role (and even duty) was to get married … Continue reading “Little Women”

Two Queens

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 27 February 2019 > Ready to Use

This article explores the fates of two queens who reigned in neighbouring kingdoms in the 16th century. Both linked and opposed, they had to rule in a man’s world, in a conflict-ridden society, where religious and political unrest were rife and conspiracy and treason were the norm. Through the new biopic, Mary Queen of Scots, … Continue reading “Two Queens”

Queens on Screen

Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 21 February 2019 > What's On

Films about Stuart queens are like buses — there are none for ages, then two together, just in time for the Oscars. Mary Queen of Scots and her descendant Queen Anne are both gracing our screens in radically different biopics, both diverging from history as it has traditionally been portrayed. The Favourite portrays the reign … Continue reading “Queens on Screen”

One-Man Show

Posted by Speakeasy News > Tuesday 18 December 2018 > What's On

Grayson Perry is one of the best-known contemporary artists in the U.K, a documentary filmmaker and often a walking work of art. His exhibition “Vanity, Identity, Sexuality” at the Monnaie de Paris gives an overview of his art, which questions British society and politics, and male identity. As well as his original speciality,  ceramics, it … Continue reading “One-Man Show”

Shock: an Election that Went as Predicted

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 07 November 2018 > In the News

Political pundits were very guarded in their predictions for the U.S. midterm elections after the surprise victory of Donald Trump in 2016. Pundits and polling organisations also got their predictions wrong in the Brexit referendum and last U.K. election. So it was almost a surprise that the midterm results were pretty much as expected. The … Continue reading “Shock: an Election that Went as Predicted”