Literary events

Booker longlist

Here are the 13 longlisted books for this year’s Man Booker Prize: Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape – Random House) Sebastian Barry On Canaan’s Side (Faber) Carol Birch Jamrach’s Menagerie (Canongate Books) Patrick deWitt The Sisters…
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And the winner is…

I had an interesting experience tonight at the launch of Alex Wheatle’s new book Brenton Brown at Brixton Library. There was a speech by the author, a Q&A, then an excellent reading by the actress Adjoa Andoh, and then a…
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In conversation with Preeta Samarasan

I spoke recently with Malaysian writer Preeta Samarasan, and am posting the conversation up here for you to listen to. In part 1, we chatted about her novel Evening is the Whole Day. Preeta gave some fascinating insights into the…
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Questions for Preeta Samarasan?

I am interviewing Preeta Samarasan this week, author of Evening is the Whole Day. If there are any questions you’d like me to ask her, please post them here as a comment, or you can email me if you prefer.…
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Luke Bitmead’s birthday

I had a message today from the mother of Luke Bitmead, the Legend Press novelist who died tragically young. 13th May is his birthday, and she would like to encourage people to visit his site in the days leading up…
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Congratulations Sophie Duffy!

It was wonderful the other night to see the Luke Bitmead Bursary awarded for a third year, this time to Sophie Duffy for The Generation Game. The prize is £2,500 and a publishing contract with Legend Press. I didn’t get…
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Learning from the French

Moving from journalism into fiction writing, it sometimes feels as if I have gone from one dying industry straight to another. All I read about my profession is doom and gloom, and I sometimes wonder whether I’ve chosen a career…
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