Marlon James won the Booker for A Brief History of Seven Killings, his bestselling novel about the attempted assassination of Bob Marley. Who knows what the judges will make of this gleeful and wholehearted leap into genre fiction: Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a vivid, bloody fantasy epic, playing out over more than 600 pages, complete with the sort of maps Tolkien would be proud of.
Continue reading “Review: Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James”What happens to a novel’s characters when their author abandons them? I spoke to British playwright Laura Wade about bringing “The Watsons,” an unfinished novel by Jane Austen, to the stage, in a piece for the New York Times. Continue reading “Jane Austen’s unfinished novel comes to the stage”
Brangelina, Kimye, Hiddleswift… you could be forgiven for thinking the celebrity portmanteau name was an invention of the 21st Century. But today’s creative couples surely have nothing on the delightful ‘PaJaMa’: an amalgam of Paul Cadmas, Jared French and Margaret French, to reflect the interdependence of their relationship and artistic practice. From 1937 on, they lived as a polyamorous trio for 20 years. Continue reading “The art of the ménage à trois”
When you think of LSD, a very specific aesthetic probably leaps to mind: the psychedelic pink-and-orange swirls of the 60s; naked people with flowers in their hair; the shimmer of a sitar. After its psychedelic properties were accidentally discovered in the lab by Albert Hofmann in 1943, the drug was banned in the UK in 1966. LSD is still most strongly associated with hippies who embraced its mind-expanding properties. Continue reading “How LSD influenced Western culture”
In 2016, the arts producer Amber Massie-Blomfield began “plotting an adventure”: a freewheeling trip around Britain’s “most remarkable” theatres. Each would need to have an unusual story, or a distinctive setting. Continue reading “Review: Twenty Theatres to See Before You Die, Amber Massie-Blomfield”
The Female Persuasion begins with an event that might have gone unremarked on a few years ago, but in 2018, seems almost absurdly topical: a young student, Greer, is groped at a party. Several girls come forward with similar allegations, but the offender gets off with an apology. Greer is appalled; an activist spark is ignited. Continue reading “Meg Wolitzer’s #metoo novel sets the stage for a generational clash of feminism styles”
“I beheld the miserable monster whom I had created…” Goldfish Bowl, the new play by Caleb Femi – former young people’s laureate for London – opens with this quote from Frankenstein – the moment the monster comes to life. Continue reading “Poet Caleb Femi was shot and almost killed as a teenager. His play reveals how reading Frankenstein gave him new life”
“I genuinely don’t really remember writing the book.”
It’s a bold admission for an author to make when discussing their forthcoming novel. Especially if you’re a bestseller like Sarah Perry, whose debut, After Me Comes the Flood, was critically acclaimed, and whose follow-up, The Essex Serpent, was a big fat hit. Continue reading “Sarah Perry on sexism in publishing, why we don’t need ‘strong female characters’, and inventing her own gothic monster”
I spoke to Cillian Murphy, Max Porter, and Enda Walsh for the New York Times; full piece here.
I reviewed W. Sydney Robinson’s biography of Ronald Harwood for the TLS – take a look here.