This Writing Life

On 11th March, Hatchards hosted a live event bringing together four of the authors who contributed stories to These Our Monsters : Sarah, Moss, Fiona Mozley, Edward Carey and Graeme Mcrae Burnet. I chaired the event, and recorded it for posterity. ----more---- Posterity has arrived now. The event began with readings by each writer. Here, Sarah Moss reads from her story, 'Breakyneck'. Having chosen Berwick Castle as her English Heritage location, Sarah tells a ghost story that excavates the site's violent past - above all, the pitiless exploitation of Irish workers drafted to build the 19th century railway line. These Our Monsters is a collection of modern folktales to be published by English Heritage, and featuring work by Edward Carey, Graeme Mcrae Burnet, Fiona Mozley, Sarah Hall and many others - including an introduction written by me.  Sarah Moss's website is: https: sarahmoss.org For more information on These Our Monsters, visit the English Heritage website, where you can also buy a copy. The music on the podcast is Androids Always Escape by Chris Zabriskie. 

Last year I was asked to write an introduction for a collection of modern folktales to be published by English Heritage. ----more---- The result was These Our Monsters, featuring work by Edward Carey, Graeme Mcrae Burnet, Fiona Mozley, Sarah Hall and many others.  I talked to three of the authors for This Writing Life podcast. The third is Graeme Macrae Burnet, whose brilliant His Bloody Project was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.  Graeme's 'The Dark Thread' tackled the most infamous, and perhaps the trickiest story in the book - Bram Stoker's visit to Whitby in 1890, which is often thought to have been a turning point in the composition of Dracula.  Graeme reads an early passage in the story, which shuttles fluently between the atmospheric setting of Whitby Abbey and Stoker's inner turmoil - his exhaustion, strained marriage, and tortured relationship with the actor Henry Irving.  Our interview will follow, as will readings by and conversations with Graeme Macrae Burnet and Edward Carey.  Graeme's website is: graememacraeburnet.com For more information on These Our Monsters, visit the English Heritage website, where you can also buy a copy. The music on the podcast is Androids Always Escape by Chris Zabriskie. 

Last year I was asked to write an introduction for a collection of modern folktales to be published by English Heritage. ----more---- The result was These Our Monsters, featuring work by Edward Carey, Graeme Mcrae Burnet, Fiona Mozley, Sarah Hall and many others.  I talked to three of the authors for This Writing Life podcast. The second is Fiona Mozley, whose debut novel Elmet was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.  Fiona's story in 'The Loathly Lady' was inspired by the Arthurian legend of Dame Ragnelle, supposedly the most hideous woman in the world who makes a trial of Sir Gawain's chivalry. The plot is a quest to find a different sort of holy grail: the answer to the question, 'What do women want?' Fiona reads an early passage full of puns and plays on words that establish Arthur's legendary status. Our interview will follow, as will readings by and conversations with Graeme Macrae Burnet and Edward Carey.  For more information on These Our Monsters, visit the English Heritage website, where you can also buy a copy. The music on the podcast is Androids Always Escape by Chris Zabriskie. 

Last year I was asked to write an introduction for a collection of modern folktales, myths and legends to be published by English Heritage. ----more---- The result was These Our Monsters, featuring work by Edward Carey, Graeme Mcrae Burnet, Fiona Mozley, Sarah Hall and many others.  I talked to three of the authors for This Writing Life podcast. The first is Edward Carey, the novelist and illustrator whose works include the 'Iremonger Trilogy' and his fabulous novel about Madame Tussaud, Little. Edward's story 'These Our Monsters', which gives the book its title, is inspired by the legend of the Green Children of Woolpit, in Suffolk. Its extraordinary narrator is one of the villagers, whom I described (if memory serves) as two parts Gollum to one part Alf Garnet, as he attempts to make sense of this universe-altering visitation.  Edward's reading more than lives up to his prose. Our interview will follow, as will readings by and conversations with Graeme Macrae Burnet and Fiona Mozley.  Edward's website is: edwardcareyauthor.com For more information on These Our Monsters, visit the English Heritage website, where you can also buy a copy. The music on the podcast is Androids Always Escape by Chris Zabriskie. 

Reading from the blog on his own website, Simon Barnes describes the close attention required and inspired by bird-watching, and the almost poetic empathy that can result. ----more---- Part two of our interview with Simon will follow.  Read more about 2020’s Keats-Shelley Prizes here. For 2020’s Keats-Shelley Prize, click here. For information on 2020’s Young Romantics Prize click here. The music on the podcast is Androids Always Escape by Chris Zabriskie. 

Part two of our conversation with Simon Barnes, the award-winning sportswriter, revered birdlover and Chair of 2020's Keats-Shelley Prizes.  ----more---- Our annual theme is 'Songbirds', to mark the composition 200 years ago of PB Shelley’s To a Skylark and the publication in book form of John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale, which made Simon the perfect choice as Chair.  In which Simon discusses the repertory singers that are skylarks and nightingales, how and why they sing (and does this make them sexy), whether Keats' nightingale could sing and fly - and does that spoil the poem?  After this, we move onto the extinction threats looming over both birds - not to mention the planet as a whole - and whether poetry can help sharpen our awareness of humankind's mortality?  Simon Barnes is unique in the world of literature. How many revered sports writers are also revered nature writers too? Off the top of my head I can think of one: Simon Barnes himself.  For many years the chief sports of the Times, he covered seven Olympics, five World Cups, a Superbowl and the World Chess Championship. His profiles included everyone from David Beckham to Red Rum, his publications range from novels about Hong Kong to a biography about England off-spinner Phil Edmunds. What elevated Barnes above his peers was prose that could pithily encapsulate the drama simmering underneath the surface action: ‘With Sampras the beauty was subtle, the tactics and execution obvious. With Federer, it was exactly the other way around,’ as he wrote in his 2018 career-spanning retrospective, Epic. As this reading from his excellent The Meaning of Birds, Barnes has brought similarly acute sensitivity to his accounts of the natural work - and of birds and birdsong above all.  This is one reason I approached Simon (in my other work for the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association) to be the Chair of 2020's Keats-Shelley and Young Romantics Prizes - for poetry and essays. Our annual theme is 'Songbirds', to mark the composition 200 years ago of PB Shelley’s To a Skylark and the publication in book form of John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale. I recently met Simon in London to talk to him about his love of nature, poetry, sport and writing - not to mention how this feeds into Romanticism, Keats and Shelley. Part one of that conversation is posted on this very website.  Read more about 2020’s Keats-Shelley Prizes here. For 2020’s Keats-Shelley Prize, click here. For information on 2020’s Young Romantics Prize click here. The music on the podcast is Androids Always Escape by Chris Zabriskie. 

In this first of two episodes, I talk to Simon Barnes, the award-winning sportswriter, revered birdlover and Chair of 2020's Keats-Shelley Prizes.  Our annual theme is 'Songbirds', to mark the composition 200 years ago of PB Shelley’s To a Skylark and the publication in book form of John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale, which made Simon the perfect choice as Chair.  We talked, among other things, about his own changing relationship with nature, how he fell in love with birds and birding, what birding means in the 21st century and its relationship with writing in general, and Romantic poetry in particular. We even address the question of John Keats' wonky nightingale. ----more---- Simon Barnes is unique in the world of literature. How many revered sports writers are also revered nature writers too? Off the top of my head I can think of one: Simon Barnes himself.  For many years the chief sports of the Times, he covered seven Olympics, five World Cups, a Superbowl and the World Chess Championship. His profiles included everyone from David Beckham to Red Rum, his publications range from novels about Hong Kong to a biography about England off-spinner Phil Edmunds. What elevated Barnes above his peers was prose that could pithily encapsulate the drama simmering underneath the surface action: ‘With Sampras the beauty was subtle, the tactics and execution obvious. With Federer, it was exactly the other way around,’ as he wrote in his 2018 career-spanning retrospective, Epic. As this reading from his excellent The Meaning of Birds, Barnes has brought similarly acute sensitivity to his accounts of the natural work - and of birds and birdsong above all.  This is one reason I approached Simon (in my other work for the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association) to be the Chair of 2020's Keats-Shelley and Young Romantics Prizes - for poetry and essays. Our annual theme is 'Songbirds', to mark the composition 200 years ago of PB Shelley’s To a Skylark and the publication in book form of John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale. I recently met Simon in London to talk to him about his love of nature, poetry, sport and writing - not to mention how this feeds into Romanticism, Keats and Shelley. Part one of that conversation is posted on this very website.  Read more about 2020’s Keats-Shelley Prizes here. For 2020’s Keats-Shelley Prize, click here. For information on 2020’s Young Romantics Prize click here. The music on the podcast is Androids Always Escape by Chris Zabriskie. 

Simon Barnes is unique in the world of literature. How many revered sports writers are also revered nature writers too? Off the top of my head I can think of one: Simon Barnes himself. ----more---- For many years the chief sports of the Times, he covered seven Olympics, five World Cups, a Superbowl and the World Chess Championship. His profiles included everyone from David Beckham to Red Rum, his publications range from novels about Hong Kong to a biography about England off-spinner Phil Edmunds. What elevated Barnes above his peers was prose that could pithily encapsulate the drama simmering underneath the surface action: ‘With Sampras the beauty was subtle, the tactics and execution obvious. With Federer, it was exactly the other way around,’ as he wrote in his 2018 career-spanning retrospective, Epic. As this reading from his excellent The Meaning of Birds, Barnes has brought similarly acute sensitivity to his accounts of the natural work - and of birds and birdsong above all.  This is one reason I approached Simon (in my other work for the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association) to be the Chair of 2020's Keats-Shelley and Young Romantics Prizes - for poetry and essays. Our theme is 'Songbirds', to mark the composition 200 years ago of PB Shelley’s To a Skylark and the publication in book form of John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale. I recently met Simon in London to talk to him about his love of nature, poetry, sport and writing - not to mention how this feeds into Romanticism, Keats and Shelley. Part one of that conversation is posted on this very website.  Read more about 2020’s Keats-Shelley Prizes here. For 2020’s Keats-Shelley Prize, click here. For information on 2020’s Young Romantics Prize click here. The music on the podcast is Androids Always Escape by Chris Zabriskie. 

Amanda Coe is an English novelist and screenwriter, whose credits include the BAFTA-winning adaptation of John Braine's Room at the Top, and her highly-praised thrillers What They Do in the Dark and Getting Colder. This Writing Life met her at Waterstones Piccadilly to talk about everything from her excellent new novel Everything You Do is Wrong to her childhood in Canada and Doncaster, her student days at Oxford, her formative love of George Eliot and PG Wodehouse and the challenge of being busy. Part 2 to follow.

The final part of This Writing Life podcast's chat with Leila Slimani begins with a question about racisial abuse of Muslims in France. From here we discuss her relationship with Morrocco, with sexual politics in that country, between her fiction and her activism, and finally about the future: movie adaptations of her global smash-hit Lullaby and that next novel.