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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Sphere nets Epstein-inspired thriller from Marwood

Award-winning author Alex Marwood has written a Jeffrey Epstein-inspired psychological thriller for Sphere, The Island of Lost Girls, exploring the “obscene levels of wealth and the sex trafficking of vulnerable teenage girls”.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-07 23:48:26 UTC ]
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Howard named Children’s Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland

Award-winning author and illustrator Paul Howard, whose recent work includes Joe Wicks' debut picture book The Burpee Bears (HarperCollins Children's Books), has been appointed the new Children’s Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-31 03:43:57 UTC ]
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Debut novel by ‘Russian Proust’ to be published in English for the first time

The translation of Deceit by ‘groundbreaking’ author Yuri Felsen, who died in Auschwitz in 1943, is set to come out next MayThe debut novel by Yuri Felsen, an author once regarded as the “Russian Proust” whose work has been forgotten since he died in Auschwitz in 1943, is set to be published in... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-12-01 14:12:48 UTC ]
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Alex Hyde | 'If I was ever going to write something, I was going to start with this story'

Academic Alex Hyde‘s first novel is a lyrical tale about two women named Violet during the Second World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-26 18:23:13 UTC ]
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10 of the Best Robert Graves Poems Everyone Should Read

Robert Graves (1895-1985) is now probably best-remembered for two prose works: his 1929 memoir Goodbye to All That, about his experience fighting in the First World War, and his 1934 novel I, Claudius, set in ancient Rome. But Graves was also a highly influential poet – and theorist of poetry […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2021-11-24 15:00:55 UTC ]
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Legend Press lands Snyder's 'powerful' First World War story

Legend Press has landed The Tin Nose Shop, an “incredibly powerful” First World War novel by Don J Snyder. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-11 06:14:29 UTC ]
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Richard Hammer, Who Illuminated the My Lai Massacre, Dies at 93

His books on that Vietnam episode drew acclaim, and he was an Edgar Award-winning author of nonfiction books about crime in its many manifestations. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-10-29 14:54:52 UTC ]
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The last time America broke apart: How author Kevin Boyle retold the 1960s

The award-winning author of 'Arc of Justice' talks about his new book, 'The Shattering,' and how he came to write history for people like his father. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-10-25 13:00:08 UTC ]
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Cynthia Leitich Smith to Headline 2021 Neustadt Lit Fest

News and Events World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, will host the 2021 Neustadt Lit Festival on Zoom from Oct. 25–27. The festival features numerous panels exploring the... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-10-11 18:55:28 UTC ]
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Nicaragua has ordered the arrest of award-winning author Sergio Ramírez.

State prosecutors in Nicaragua have ordered the arrest of one of the country’s most prominent writers, Sergio Ramírez, accusing the 78-year-old novelist of inspiring hatred and conspiring to destabilize Nicaragua. With only two months to go until the presidential elections in November, dozens of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-09-10 15:58:45 UTC ]
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10 of the Best Novels and Short Stories about the First World War

The story of the First World War has been told in fiction, film, and television many times since the Great War began in 1914. Previously, we gathered together some of the best poems about the First World War, but what about the novels and short stories that have been written? […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2021-09-02 14:00:03 UTC ]
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Werner Herzog to tell story of Japanese soldier who refused to surrender

The German film director has announced two new books: a memoir and The Twilight World, about a remarkable second world war officerWerner Herzog is writing a book about Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who took three decades to surrender after the end of the second world war.The esteemed German... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-08-18 12:56:08 UTC ]
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21 Books for the 21st Century: The Results of Our Readers’ Poll, by The Editors of WLT

Lit Lists Earlier this spring, the editors of WLT invited twenty-one writers to nominate a single book, published since the year 2000, that has had a major influence on their own work, along with a brief statement explaining their choice. We published... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-06-28 13:32:05 UTC ]
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Penguin Michael Joseph pre-empts Lim's 'poetic' memoir of family secrets

Teresa Lim’s multi-generational memoir about a long-buried family tragedy set against the Second World War in Singapore has gone to Penguin Michael Joseph.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-19 12:40:25 UTC ]
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ACE announces details of £42m fund to boost libraries and creative projects

Arts Council England has announced the details of a £42m fund to boost local libraries, creative projects and museums across the country. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-24 06:43:36 UTC ]
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How Charles Yu fights anti-Asian hate and Hollywood stereotypes in his award-winning novel

Charles Yu, the National Book Award-winning author of 'Interior Chinatown,' joins the L.A. Times Book Club in a chat with film critic Justin Chang. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-05-19 14:00:51 UTC ]
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Flipped Eye launches new non-fiction imprint

Flipped eye is launching a new flagship non-fiction imprint, phipl, with a collection of essays by International Dublin Literary Award-winning author José Eduardo Agualusa. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-15 01:14:43 UTC ]
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William Collins pre-empts Finkelstein's family memoir of war-time persecution

Williams Collins has pre-empted a memoir by political columnist and commentator Daniel Finkelstein uncovering his family’s devastating experiences of persecution during the Second World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-05 16:01:10 UTC ]
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Lyn Macdonald, acclaimed chronicler of World War I, dies at 91

A former radio producer, she interviewed thousands of veterans for books that made her known as “the recording angel of the common soldier.” Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-04-22 15:07:00 UTC ]
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