Short List for the 2022 Booker Prize

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 21 September 2022 > What's On

The winner of the U.K.’s most prestigious literary prize, the Booker, will be announced on 15 October. The six authors on shortlist in the running for the prize are from the U.K., Ireland, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and the U.S.A. Their books are overwhelmingly inspired by real historical events, from a terrible lynching in America to … Continue reading “Short List for the 2022 Booker Prize”

Festival America is Back!

Posted by Speakeasy News > Tuesday 16 August 2022 > What's On

Festival America is usually a bi-annual celebration of the literature of the Americas in Vincennes (94). After two years of COVID cancellations, the festival is finally having its 10th edition celebrating 20 years from 22 to 25 September. The festival attracts large numbers of authors: 61 this year, mainly from the U.S. but also from … Continue reading “Festival America is Back!”

New Reading Guide: Brooklyn

Posted by Speakeasy News > Tuesday 09 August 2022 > Pedagogy Shine Bright Lycée

A new addition to the programme limitatif LLCER anglais Terminale is Brooklyn by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín (2009). It’s a very approachable novel covering themes of exile, homesickness, first love and personal choice. We’re preparing a Reading Guide for the novel, coming out just after the Toussaint holidays. Brooklyn is set in 1950s Ireland and … Continue reading “New Reading Guide: Brooklyn”

Paperback Festival in St Maur

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 22 June 2022 > What's On

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (94) is delighted to once again welcome dozens of authors from around the world to its festival St Maur en Poche from 24 to 26 June.  There will be lots of Anglophone authors present, including the inimitable Maggie O’Farrell, winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction for Hamnet, her imagining of the life … Continue reading “Paperback Festival in St Maur”

Women’s Prize for Fiction Winner 2022

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 17 June 2022 > What's On

Britain’s Women’s Prize for Fiction has been awarded to a book narrated by a book. American-Canadian author Ruth Ozeki’s fourth novel has the philosophical title The Book of Form and Emptiness, perhaps no surprise from an author who combines writing, teaching and being a Zen Buddhist priest. The teenage protagonist Benny finds the Book when … Continue reading “Women’s Prize for Fiction Winner 2022”

The Big Jubilee Read

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 13 April 2022 > Celebrate Shine Bright Lycée

Do some armchair travelling with the Big Jubilee Read: a list of 70 books, ten for each decade of Queen Elizabeth II’s record-breaking reign. As befits its head, the authors and settings range all over the Commonwealth: representing 31 countries on six continents. It includes eight Nobel Literature Laureates, and a lot of Booker Prize … Continue reading “The Big Jubilee Read”

New Reading Guide: The Buddha of Suburbia

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 04 February 2022 > Pedagogy Shine Bright Lycée

As promised, our latest Reading Guide for Terminale LLCER, The Buddha of Suburbia  by Hanif Kureishi Is at the printers and will be available at the beginning of March. Kureishi was already an established screenwriter and playwright when he published the novel in 1990.  In the films My Beautiful Laundrette and Sammy and Rosie Get … Continue reading “New Reading Guide: The Buddha of Suburbia”

A South African Author Wins the 2021 Booker Prize

Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 04 November 2021 > Shine Bright Lycée What's On

Damon Galgut had been shortlisted twice before but 2021 was third time lucky. His novel The Promise mixes the history of a family and his country over four decades. The titular promise shows up power, class and racial divisions in South Africa. Galgut, who was born in 1963, explicitly connects the novel to the political … Continue reading “A South African Author Wins the 2021 Booker Prize”

A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting

Posted by Speakeasy News > Monday 18 October 2021 > Ready to Use

This Netflix adaptation of a book for teenagers uses all the Halloween paraphernalia: pumpkins, witches and monsters, among which the vile Grand Guignol is planning to steal children’s nightmares to unleash them upon the world. But the members of the Order of Babysitters are determined to stop him. When young Jacob is kidnapped by the … Continue reading “A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting”