Novelist Kate Atkinson: ‘I do feel a need to prove myself’

As her latest Jackson Brodie thriller comes out, the award-winning author discusses cosy crime, sniffy critics, and how she investigated her own family’s secretsKate Atkinson has an idea for a fun side-hustle: at some point in the future, when she’s done with the second world war, and with her jaded private eye, Jackson Brodie, she’ll bring to life the creative projects that have hitherto existed only as facets of her characters’ lives. She’ll take the fortune teller Madame Astarti from her third novel, Emotionally Weird, and put her at the centre of her own series of mysteries; she’ll conjure up a script for Green Acres, the rural soap opera that features in her two short-story collections, 2002’s Not the End of the World and last year’s Normal Rules Don’t Apply; she’ll craft episodes of the TV police procedural Collier, in which Brodie’s one-time girlfriend Julia played a pathologist. And finally, she’ll flesh out the breathtakingly hammy murder mystery that a cast of clapped-out actors perform at Burton Makepeace, the stately home that is the setting for her new Jackson Brodie novel, Death at the Sign of the Rook.Writing these scenes – teeming with aristocrats, actors, Russian countesses, clergymen and a “fastidious little Swiss detective” – were Atkinson’s treat, she tells me, as she constructed the novel during lockdown. “I would have done so much more of that,” she explains, as we sit sipping coffee in a studiedly antiquated hotel near her home in Edinburgh. “But I... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2024-08-10 08:00:37 UTC ]

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A.S. Byatt, Award-Winning Author of POSSESSION, Dies at 87

Academic and intellectual British novelist A.S. Byatt, author of POSSESSION, has died at 87 in her home due to unknown causes. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-11-17 16:23:21 UTC ]
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A Summary and Analysis of Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The Fly’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Fly’ is not one of the best-known short stories of the New Zealand-born writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), but it is significant for being one of her few stories which deals directly with the First World War. In the story, a man is reminded […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-08-21 14:00:52 UTC ]
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The Ugandan satirist who scared a dictator: Kakwenza Rukirabashaija on torture, exile and activism

The award-winning author was arrested and tortured for his work – and then tortured again for writing about his detention. Now he smuggles his latest banned book into Uganda to ensure it is readKakwenza Rukirabashaija tries to keep his scars covered around his children. Even in the height of... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-07-04 12:53:40 UTC ]
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Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times: Life Under Occupation in WWII

Before you say it, I know: there are so, so many books about the Second World War. And when I set out to write my most recent novel, The Paris Deception, the thought crossed my mind—do we really need another book about Paris during the war? But historical fiction is a rich field, and there […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-30 08:55:14 UTC ]
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Religion and Spirituality Books Preview: July 2023

Books to steer people through doubt and trauma, a light look at theological battles over beards, and a historical novel of friendship tested by jealousy and the strains of World War I are among titles releasing in July. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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‘It’s like all my dreams coming true’: inside the BBC’s electrifying new musical drama

From working with grime legends to tackling racism, author Candice Carty-Williams’s new show Champion is landmark TV. Its team talk Shola Ama, pengness – and the greatest group chat everIt’s just after noon in Birmingham and, in the hidden depths of a city centre nightclub, a singer is about to... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-06-23 12:00:37 UTC ]
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‘Damn, that fool can write’: how Martin Amis made everyone up their game

He exploded into the tweedy world of literature, a young, pouting and outrageously brash crusader for prose. Our writer remembers her encounters with the novelist, whose smarts and chutzpah confounded his peers‘You’ll be reading me every now and then at least until about 2080, weather... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-05-22 05:00:48 UTC ]
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Naomi Klein investigates ‘conspiracy theory culture’ that has shaken her life

Doppelganger, due out this autumn, examines ‘the wildness of right now’, including personal issues arising from being confused with Naomi Wolf Award-winning author and Guardian columnist Naomi Klein is to publish a book about conspiracy theories, which she has described as a departure and “more... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-05-17 13:00:30 UTC ]
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6 Great Y.A. Fantasy Books

Tracy Deonn, the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award-winning author of “Legendborn” and “Bloodmarked,” recommends a few of her favorite young adult fantasy titles. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-05-06 09:00:20 UTC ]
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6 Great Y.A. Fantasy Novels

Tracy Deonn, the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award-winning author of “Legendborn” and “Bloodmarked,” recommends a few of her favorite young adult fantasy titles. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-05-06 09:00:19 UTC ]
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“Maybe This Means Something.” Min Jin Lee on Vulnerability and Audacity, in Life and on the Page

Illustration by Krishna Bala Shenoi. Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso is a weekly series of intimate conversations with artists, authors, and politicians. It’s a podcast where people sound like people. New episodes air every Sunday, distributed by Pushkin Industries.  * Live from On Air Fest in... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-02 08:54:53 UTC ]
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Novelist Celeste Ng: ‘There was a period when I thought I’d never write again’

The award-winning author on how Trump, Covid and anti-Asian rhetoric inspired her latest novel, digging her way out of ‘post-book fatigue’, and learning to touch type using UlyssesCeleste Ng, 42, is the award-winning author of three novels, including Little Fires Everywhere, which was made into... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-22 17:00:15 UTC ]
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Obituary: Julie Anne Peters

Award-winning author Julie Anne Peters, best known for her groundbreaking YA novels featuring complex LGBTQ+ characters navigating relationships and exploring issues of identity, died on March 21 following a long illness; she was 71. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-03-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Eric Brown, science fiction author and Guardian critic, dies aged 62

Writers, publishers and agents pay tribute to a warm, generous figure, author of more than 50 books ranging from SFF to crime to children’s literatureEric Brown, a prolific, award-winning author who published more than 50 novels, children’s books and short story collections, and who was the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-03-23 13:58:10 UTC ]
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Exclusive: See the cover for Bryan Washington’s new novel, Family Meal.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Bryan Washington’s latest novel, Family Meal, coming this fall from Riverhead Books. Here’s a bit about the book from the publisher: From the bestselling, award-winning author of Memorial and Lot, an irresistible, intimate novel about two young... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-03-21 14:00:48 UTC ]
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A Debut Novel Creates a World From Pages Taken From the Past

When Alice Winn stumbled on the archives of her British boarding school’s newspaper, she discovered a world, only to see it “destroyed and dismantled” during World War I. She brought it back in her novel, “In Memoriam.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-03-05 14:54:05 UTC ]
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Victor Navasky, award-winning author and editor of the Nation, dies at 90

Liberal lion won National Book Award and edited leftwing Nation, with writers including Hitchens and Cockburn, from 1978 to 2005Victor Navasky, an award-winning author and journalist who presided over the liberal US weekly the Nation and wrote influential books on the anti-communist blacklist... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-01-25 15:01:09 UTC ]
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The $35,000 Aspen Words Literary Prize Names Its 2023 Longlist

The Aspen Words Literary Prize 2023 longlist includes seven fiction debuts and five short-story collections. The post The $35,000 Aspen Words Literary Prize Names Its 2023 Longlist appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-12-12 20:25:30 UTC ]
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Sandra Simonds on Piecing Together Poetic Puzzles

Sandra Simonds is the award-winning author of eight books of poetry: Triptychs (Wave Books, November 2022), Atopia (Wesleyan University Press, 2019), Orlando (Wave Books, 2018), Further Problems with Pleasure, winner of the 2015 Akron Poetry Prize from the University of Akron Press, Steal It... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-10 09:52:10 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘The Pachinko Parlor,” by Elisa Shua Dusapin

The National Book Award-winning author and translator of “Winter in Sokcho” return with another quietly powerful tale of dislocation. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-10-22 09:00:12 UTC ]
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