Jamie Byng: ‘Listening to letters being read out is quite something’

The Canongate Books boss on the success of Letters Live, performances of notable correspondence by leading lights of stage and screenJamie Byng, 46, son of the 8th Earl of Strafford, grew up in Hampshire and studied at the University of Edinburgh. After graduating he joined Canongate Books as an intern and bought out the struggling Edinburgh publishing house two years later, aged just 25. His successes include the UK publication of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, which won the Man Booker prize in 2002 and sold more than 3m copies. In 2013 he set up Letters Live, “a celebration of the enduring power of literary correspondence” based in part on Shaun Usher’s Letters of Note books. Letters Live returns to London’s Freemasons’ Hall on Thursday 10 March.How did Letters Live come about?In 2013 we published two books about letters on the same day. One was Simon Garfield’s To the Letter, which is a history of letter-writing. The other, Letters of Note, grew out of Shaun Usher’s website, which compiles great correspondence throughout history. We decided to promote both books by getting people to read out letters in a live setting. Nick Cave had a letter in Shaun’s book and he’s a good friend, so it was very straightforward to call him up and say “How’s about it?” Gillian Anderson went totally nuts for a Katharine Hepburn letter to Spencer Tracy. Everyone I asked who was around – Benedict Cumberbatch, Matt Berry, Neil Gaiman, Bruce Robinson – said yes. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2016-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Digital Natives Prefer Reading in Print. Yes, You Read That Right.

Frank Schembari loves books — printed books. He loves how they smell. He loves scribbling in the margins, underlining interesting sentences, folding a page corner to mark his place.   Schembari is not a retiree who sips tea at Politics ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

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Reading Rainbow Host LeVar Burton Binge-Watched Game of Thrones Before He Read the Books

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Reading Agency survey finds 63% of men rarely read

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Taking the Reading Out of Readings

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Shocker: People who read ebooks read more

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Furore sparked by Jamie Oliver children’s book opens wider cultural appropriation debate

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Jamie Oliver Pulls Children’s Book Amid Criticism of Insensitivity

The celebrity chef’s second children’s book, “Billy and the Epic Escape,” faced accusations that it stereotyped First Nations people in Australia. Continue reading at The New York Times

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Jamie Oliver pulls children’s book from shelves after criticism for ‘stereotyping’ Indigenous Australians

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Find your next great read with a few simple—and delightfully weird—questions.

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Freedom to Read Advocates Notch a Legal Victory in Alaska

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Small, local book festivals are still thriving | Letters

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Naomi Cohn On the Sensory Experience of Reading with Her Hands

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Interview: Richard McGuire on His Graphic Novel “Here” and His Reading Life

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Glory Edim's 'Gather Me' traces the dramatic arc of her life as well as her discovery of Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and other Black writers. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

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