He saw the world’s cruel absurdities through a comic lens, writes Boyd, who recalls his very first meeting with Amis – and explains why his unmistakable voice will never be forgotten• John Self on Amis: ‘He stamped his style over a generation’• Geoff Dyer on Amis: ‘Mick Jagger in literary form’The awful news of Martin Amis’s death prompts a rush of memories. I first met him in 1969, in Paris, when we both found ourselves staying in the same apartment on the Île Saint-Louis for a few days. I was 17, Martin was 20. I only realised who this Martin guy was four years later when his first novel, The Rachel Papers, appeared. In a strange but real sense, he was the first writer I had ever met. And thus began an acquaintance as an avid reader and later as a friend.The remarkable thing about that first novel was the utter confidence and distinctiveness of the narrative voice. Martin found his style at the very beginning of his career as a writer and it never changed. That voice he had defined and charged everything else he wrote – fiction, essays, journalism, memoirs. Very few writers can be instantly identified by a sentence or two of their prose – Laurence Sterne, Charles Dickens, James Joyce, DH Lawrence, Vladimir Nabokov – and Martin precociously joined that elite group and stayed there. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-22 07:00:49 UTC ]
Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado I've absolutely loved this collection of short stories, which floats between the weird and the queer, passing horror, black comedy and feminism along the way. Doubles and others are especially important: a wife enters her wife’s dream when they... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-04-11 08:49:28 UTC ]
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Republic of Consciousness prize honours Will Eaves and Alex Pheby, but says awards make us wrongly consider a sole winner ‘the best’A novel about James Joyce’s troubled daughter, Lucia, and a reimagining of the chemical castration of Alan Turing have been named the joint winners of the Republic... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Novels inspired by the lives of Alan Turing and James Joyce's daughter are among 13 works of fiction in the running for the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael G. R Tolkien, the eldest grandson of J. R. R. Tolkien, and Gerald Dickens, a great-grandson of Charles Dickens, have formed a "unique" collaboration to bring out an audiobook of the verse story WISH. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Folio: is pleased to unveil the 2018 Class of Folio: 100 Honorees. The annual list is comprised of the best and brightest minds in the magazine media industry today. From Corporate Catalysts to Industry Influencers and C-Level Visionaries, these honorees represent every sector: consumer, b2b,... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2018-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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From business "agility" to a memoirist's breakthrough–with Beckett and James Joyce in the mix, as well–these are books to consider and watch as we go deeper into the season. The post Rights Roundup: A Post-Frankfurt Look at a Range of Titles and Rights Sales appeared first on Publishing... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scholastic will publish a new version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol “retold” by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Tony Ross, who the publisher said is directly descended from one of Dickens’ illustrators. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hunter Greene is joining an elite group of athletes that includes LeBron James, Bryce Harper and Kevin Garnett. All were featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as high school athletes. The Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High School baseball player will be only the 13th high school athlete ever... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The man who ushered classics like Catch-22 into the world, Gottlieb has reason to brag. But in his new memoir Avid Reader he prefers to downplay the editor’s role Joseph Heller, the author of Catch-22, once gave an interview where he credited his editor with kicking his work into shape. After... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Robert Gottlieb in his Midtown Manhattan townhouse. He has mainly spent his career as an editor but has just published a memoir about his life in the world of books. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2016-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Towering figure in British publishing, who worked with authors from Harold Wilson to Vladimir Nabokov, remained engaged with the business until very recently“I try not to think that I might not be here when some of my projects come to fruition”: a 2009 interview with Lord WeidenfeldLord George... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There are few things more revealing than a fervent hobby. If you expose someone's passionate pastime, you somehow learn more about him than the activity alone should reveal. Think Vladimir Nabokov's butterflies, or George W. Bush's portraits. As for me, I've practiced only one activity with... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2015-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's hard to overstate just how much Playboy changed American culture. Not just sexual culture -- as even some of those too young to remember tend to know implicitly -- but media culture, journalistic culture, literary culture, pop culture. That's worth keeping in mind given that Playboy... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2015-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If Google's vice president is to be believed we are in danger of losing an entire generation of information to the digital realm. Look to the history book, and you do just that -- look in a real, physical book. Pictorial histories can be found in photo albums. The works of Oscar Wilde, Samuel... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2015-02-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Books for children and young adults are top of the league, bagging seven of this year’s top 10, but non-fiction has endured another annus horribilisSee the chart in fullAt long last, kids ruled in 2014. Books aimed at them have often figured in the top 10 of the all-year sales chart for printed... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week: the final recollections of Charles Dickens, an eye-opening portrait of the South, and a punk rock memoir. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Joan Rivers was not only a bestselling author, but also an avid reader of some pretty serious volumes. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-09-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This year marks a century since the publication of "Dubliners" by James Joyce, and a year since writer and editor Thomas Morris struck on an idea to riff on the literary classic. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 'David Copperfield,' Mr. Micawber Wilkins saved young Copperfield from no small amount of embarrassment using quick thinking, graciousness, and a grill. Food historian Paula Marcoux explains how you can do the same. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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