The Booker-winning novelist is relaunching a series of neglected novels by black British writers. She explains why they deserve a new readership In today’s culture, it’s as though black British literary history began relatively recently, and new books are published without reference to or knowledge of what has gone before. This is not the case with white writers. Publishers, critics and readers will often understand where books sit within their literary contexts and cultural ecosystem. We can trace the literary lineage of Douglas Stuart’s Booker-winning Shuggie Bain back to the works of James Kelman and Irvine Welsh. Ghosts by Dolly Alderton is in conversation with Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones series and all the novels that were published in its wake, just as Ali Smith’s postmodern novels are descendants of Virginia Woolf’s modernist oeuvre. And we know that today’s historical novels have antecedents in their earlier counterparts.Our appreciation of literature is deepened when we understand the foundations from which each new generation creates literature anew, but because so much of the body of black British literature hasn’t been taught in schools or universities, or immortalised on television and film, or even been widely or seriously reviewed in the media and academia, it’s as if each new book is published out of a void. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-01-30 11:00:07 UTC ]
Towering figure in British publishing, who worked with authors from Harold Wilson to Vladimir Nabokov, remained engaged with the business until very recently“I try not to think that I might not be here when some of my projects come to fruition”: a 2009 interview with Lord WeidenfeldLord George... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Books is to reissue H G Wells’ The Rights of Man, with a new introduction by Ali Smith. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House is printing 40,000 paperbacks of Ali Smith’s How to be Both (Hamish Hamilton) following its triumph at the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Smith was named the 20th winner of the prize last night at a ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ali Smith has won the 2015 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction with How to be Both (Hamish Hamilton). Smith was announced as the 20th winner of the £30,000 prize this evening (3rd June) at a ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall, London, hosted by broadcaster, author and DJ Lauren Laverne. Shami... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Alexander McCall Smith has won this year’s Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party, published by Birlinn imprint Polygon. This is the first time McCall Smith, the author of No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series published by Little, Brown, has appeared on the comic... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Five writers on the six-strong shortlist for this year’s Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction – Rachel Cusk, Kamila Shamsie, Ali Smith, Anne Tyler and Sarah Waters – have all been shortlisted for the award before. The sixth novelist, Laline Paull, is shortlisted for her debut The Bees (Fourth... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Three debut novelists are in the running for the 2015 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic novels. Writer Caitlin Moran, actress Helen Lederer and Nina Stibbe have all made the shortlist for the prize, alongside Alexander McCall Smith, Irvine Welsh and Joseph O'Neill. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Anne Tyler, Sarah Waters, Ali Smith, and five debut novelists including Emma Healey and Sara Taylor are on the longlist for this year's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Meanwhile chair of judges Shami Chakrabarti has told The Bookseller: "Until you can honestly see that women are getting the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer Ali Smith has said the decrease in contact with the arts in state schools, revealed in the Warwick Commission's report yesterday (18th February), is "deeply distressing" and the sign of an education system "going backwards". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ali Smith and Helen Macdonald are among the winners of this year’s Costa Book Awards, adding to the existing trophy haul for their books. The awards, announced this evening (5th January) on BBC Radio 4’s “Front Row”, also saw wins for Kate Saunders, Jonathan Edwards, and Emma Healey. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ali Smith will be the Guest Director for the Brighton Festival 2015. The annual multi-arts festival, which celebrates music, theatre, dance, circus, art, film and literature, will take place from 2nd to 24th May 2015. Smith is the seventh guest director, taking on the mantle from the 2014 guest... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In addition to the American contenders Karen Joy Fowler for 'We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves' and Joshua Ferris of 'To Rise Again at a Decent Hour,' other nominees include Richard Flanagan for 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' and Ali Smith for 'How to Be Both.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin imprint Hamish Hamilton is publishing Ali Smith's Man Booker longlisted How To Be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A ballet based on the life and works of Virginia Woolf will premiere next year, forming a central... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-03-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher of Financial Times operating profits grow to £55m in 2013 as owner Pearson announces overall slump of 21%Pearson has reported a 21% slump in its overall operating profit for 2013, as its core US education business continues to be hit by the "worst trading conditions" seen in decades.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Irvine Welsh's debut novel Trainspotting is named as Scotland's favourite book of the past 50 years. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2013-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Helen Fielding's new Bridget Jones novel, Mad About the Boy (Jonathan Cape), has become one... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Copies of Helen Fielding's new Bridget Jones novel, Mad About the Boy (Jonathan Cape), have... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has revealed the cover for Helen Fielding's forthcoming Bridget Jones novel,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vice Magazine's newest fashion spread depicted models dressed like Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, and others in the act of committing suicide. The photos were taken down after a public outcry. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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