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 ]
Helen Fielding's new novel is to be titled Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, publisher... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Jonathan Cape has acquired a new Bridget Jones novel by Helen Fielding. The novel, for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Publication Date: Wed, 28/09/2011 - 14:09 Ali Smith, Jeanette Winterson and film director John Waters have all been longlisted for the Green Carnation Prize, now in its second year. The prize, open to all LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) writers celebrates the best of modern gay... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Wed, 31/08/2011 - 14:45 The Edinburgh International Book Festival, Scottish indie Cargo and US publisher McSweeney's are to team up on a four-volume collection of stories from authors including Roddy Doyle and Ali Smith. Fifty authors are to take part... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 25/08/2011 - 14:38 The "literary nightclub" BookSlam is to venture into publishing, releasing an anthology of new material inspired by music from the likes of Irvine Welsh, William Boyd and Simon Armitage. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 27/07/2011 - 07:20 The Society of Authors' petition against the cuts to BBC Radio 4's short story programming has now amassed over 5,000 signatures. SoA general secretary Nicola Solomon and assistant general secretary Jo McCrum will present... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Wed, 30/03/2011 - 09:15 Three authors from the UK have made it onto the list of finalists for the Man Booker International Prize 2011. James Kelman, Philip Pullman and John le Carré have joined the list of 13 for the biennial £60,000 award, which... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 30/03/2011 - 07:43 Vintage Classics has unveiled its Orange Inheritance Collection, with works by Virginia Woolf, Richard Yates and Honore de Balzac among the titles selected by Orange Prize winners to pass on to the next generation. As... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this