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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Four amazing audiobooks to listen to this April

Investigate the history of American cuisine, indulge in neighborhood drama, and find reconciliation between enemies in our April audiobook picks. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-04-15 21:02:05 UTC ]
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Four amazing audiobooks to listen to this April

Investigate the history of American cuisine, indulge in neighborhood drama, and find reconciliation between enemies in our April audiobook picks. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

Four amazing audiobooks to listen to this April

Investigate the history of American cuisine, indulge in neighborhood drama, and find reconciliation between enemies in our April audiobook picks. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

12 of the Best Books of Literary Criticism Everyone Should Read

Literary criticism (or even ‘literary theory’) goes back as far as ancient Greece, and Aristotle’s Poetics. But the rise of English Literature as a university subject, at the beginning of the twentieth century, led to literary criticism focusing on English literature – everything from... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2020-04-15 14:00:07 UTC ]
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20 of the Best Free Kindle Books You Can Read in Isolation

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[ Book Riot | 2020-04-15 10:35:32 UTC ]
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[ Book Riot | 2020-04-14 10:34:55 UTC ]
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Dr. Seuss meet Dr. Dre: Online reading gets a new rhythm

Over the cool beats of a rapper's rhythm, Wes Tank is inspiring his YouTube followers with a new twist on children's book classics. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-04-09 17:56:13 UTC ]
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Dr. Seuss meet Dr. Dre: Online reading gets a new rhythm

Over the cool beats of a rapper's rhythm, Wes Tank is inspiring his YouTube followers with a new twist on children's book classics. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

Dr. Seuss meet Dr. Dre: Online reading gets a new rhythm

Over the cool beats of a rapper's rhythm, Wes Tank is inspiring his YouTube followers with a new twist on children's book classics. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

6 of the Cutest and Newest Romance Manga You Can Read This Year

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[ Book Riot | 2020-04-08 10:35:35 UTC ]
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Dean Atta: 'Reading as widely as possible will help make you a better writer'

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Need a new quarantine read? Don Winslow drops 'Broken,' stories for our fractured times

The bestselling crime novelist plans a virtual book tour for his new title, "Broken," as the coronavirus keeps him home in Southern California. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

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BookCon Launches Virtual 'Read-a-Thon'

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Tony Robinson reads Goblin Market for isolation project PoetryGeneration

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-05 19:23:26 UTC ]
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‘The Roxy Letters’ is just the kind of comic novel we need right now

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-02 12:08:57 UTC ]
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GLIBA Director Larry Law's Letter on His Experience Surviving the Coronavirus

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-04-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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