Category Archives: Culture

Michael Palin Donates Archive of His Literary Career to the British Library

Posted on by

Michael Palin and Rachel Foss at the British Library – photo by Tony Antoniou 

The British Library is delighted to announce the acquisition of the archive of writer, actor, comedian and television presenter Michael Palin.

The archive, which has been generously donated to the British Library by Palin, covers his literary and creative life during the years 1965-1987. It includes over 50 ‘Python Notebooks’ containing drafts, working material and personal reflections relating to Palin’s Monty Python writing. It also includes his personal diaries kept during this period, and project files comprising material relating to his film, television and literary work, including correspondence, drafts and annotated scripts relating to subsequent Python projects.

Rachel Foss, Head of Contemporary Archives and Manuscripts at the British Library, said of the donation:

“We are thrilled that Michael Palin has chosen to donate this fascinating and wide-ranging collection to join the British Library’s holdings of contemporary archives. Michael’s contribution to comedy, film and television over the past 50 years has been enormous, in particular through Monty Python which has had an unparalleled influence on British comedy and internationally. We’re looking forward to making it available for researchers, students and everyone with an interest in post war popular culture. It’s particularly exciting to think that the comedy talent of tomorrow may find inspiration from this collection.”

Michael Palin said of donating his archive:

“My work has been inspired by, and created in, this country, so I’m very pleased that my archive has been accepted by the British Library, and that they will make it publicly available, so that future generations will know not to make the same mistakes again.”

The collection will be available to view in the British Library Reading Rooms from spring 2018. For more information on how to become a Reader, please visit the British Library website.

You can see Michael Palin in conversation with Joan Bakewell at the British Library on Wednesday 6 September 2017, discussing his wide-ranging career. To buy tickets, please visit our What’s On pages.

 

 

5 Reasons You Should Avoid Celebrity

Posted on by

Do you dream of becoming rich and famous? You might want to stop at “rich” and leave fame alone. Being a sought-after celeb might look glamorous and exciting — who doesn’t want to be adored by millions? — but the truth is that fame can be a lonely, confusing, and even frightening condition.

Paparazzi

reasons to avoid celebrity

Image via Flickr by Gribiche

How would your day have been different today if a team of photographers had been waiting outside your house when you woke up this morning, hoping to grab an unflattering or compromising photo of you? They’re ready to swarm you if you try to go for a walk, or run to the store for milk, or if you’re just tired of being cooped up inside. Want to go out for a few cocktails? They’re standing ready to capture and publish anything you do, so be careful. And this isn’t just happening occasionally; this is your new daily reality now and it never ends.

Rumor Mills

Now imagine that your old flame, or your new beau, calls and asks you out to lunch. Those photographers are waiting to sell photos of your lunch date to a tabloid. If you become famous, everything you do (and a lot of things you don’t do) will be written about, discussed, repeated, analyzed, and picked to death by the press and your fans. Are you ready to have your dirty laundry aired in public every day? That’s the celebrity’s reality.

A Target for Hackers

Do you worry about identity theft and cyber crime? If you become famous, your data becomes a highly lucrative target for hackers. While these criminals might want your bank account numbers, they are even more interested in your private messages, intimate photos, and other personal business. Your most private moments become valuable when you are famous, and they are always under siege.

Superfan… or Stalker?

Many celebrities have had scary run-ins with fans, and a few have even been murdered. Miley Cyrus’s stalker tried to enter her house with scissors and told police that he was married to the singer. A woman claiming to be God once showed up at Justin Timberlake’s house, claiming they were destined to rule together. Madonna’s superfan stalker jumped a fence at her home and said he was going to either marry her or slit her throat. He went to jail and later to a mental hospital, but Madonna had to fear for her life again when he escaped the hospital and was missing for a while.

Trust No One

Would you like to be surrounded by friends who might just be using you to get close to fame and fortune? So-called friends of famous people often sell stories to gossip magazines or lead scandals to the press. Celebs often don’t know who to trust and have a lot of trouble maintaining friendships and relationships.

Public life seems glittery and alluring, but the truth is fame has a dark side, too. Isolation, mistrust, fear, and complete lack of privacy are a high price to pay for celebrity status.

 

 

At Long Last Love By Milly Adams Review

Posted on by

 

 

Milly Adams has quite a few books under her belt now and they just keep getting better. She mixes a great talent for fiction writing with a historians gift of facts, weaving the talent and the knowledge together to make the most enjoyable, and readable, war fiction out there. I almost read At Long Last Love in one day. And I would have if my toddler had not been hanging off me. This riveting book is a real page turner, with enough drama and twists to keep you guessing. All books play like a movie in your head, but this one should be made into a real-life one. It has it all: war, spying, the claustrophobia of small village life, family drama, the lot. I loved this book and the characters in it. Grab it before you go off on holiday. It is perfect summer reading.

‘Would anyone ever think of her with real love?’

It’s July 1942, and twenty-three year old nightclub singer Kate Watson has made a home for herself in bombed-blitzed London. A motley crew of friends has replaced the family she’s not spoken to in years. That is until the evening Kate’s sister Sarah walks back into her life.

Sarah has a favour to ask: she needs Kate to return home to Dorset for one month to look after her daughter, Lizzie. Reluctantly Kate agrees, even though it means facing the troubled past she hoped she’d escaped.

Kate is confronted once again by the prejudice and scrutiny of the townsfolk, including the new village vicar. As the war continues, Kate must fight her own battles and find not only the courage to forge a future but perhaps, at long last, love.

A compelling new Second World War novel. Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Ellie Dean.

At Long Last Love is available here.

This Modern Love by Will Darbyshire Book Review

Posted on by

This Modern Love by Will Darbyshire Book Review

There are a few things which are unique about This Modern Love. Firstly, it was crowdsourced. Secondly, the idea: people sharing their personal stories of love and loss. It is full of letters, stories and photographs all put together by YouTuber Will Darbyshire. The submissions are deeply personal. They are sometimes beautiful and other times heartbreaking. A glimpse into other people’s love lives that we would never usually get to see. A unique book that is definitely worth a read.

 

This Modern Love is a unique crowdsourced book of letters, stories, and photographs about the state of modern romance by YouTuber Will Darbyshire. 

‘Question 1. What would you say to your ex, without judgement?’

Seeking closure after a tough break-up, Will Darbyshire was driven to strike up an intimate conversation with his online audience. Posting a series of questions via his YouTube, Twitter and Instagram channels, Will asked his followers to share their innermost thoughts about their relationship experiences, in the form of hand-written letters, poems, photographs, and emails.

After 6 months and over 15,000 heartfelt submissions later, from over 100 countries, This Modern Love collects these letters together to form a compendium of 21st century love, structured into the beginning, middle and end of a relationship.

Tender, funny and cathartic, This Modern Love is a compelling portrait of individual desires, resentments and fears that reminds us that, whether we’re in or out of love, we’re not alone.

 

This Modern Love is available here.

 

Review: Sweet Bird of Youth, Chichester Festival Theatre

Posted on by

Sweet Bird of Youth

Chichester Festival Theatre

Until 24 June

Box Office: 01243 781312 www.cft.org.uk

Photo credit: Johan Persson

With the run-up to General Election a veritable carnival of hypocrisy, self-interest, arrogance and rampaging egos, the day after the event itself wasn’t the ideal time to digest more of the same. Alas, in Tennessee Williams’s 1959 play there is little relief from such monstrous conduct.

Fearing derision and rejection after the premiere of her latest film, aging Hollywood movie star Alexandra Del Largo (Marcia Gay Harden) has bolted and is holed up in a hotel in St Cloud on the Gulf Coast of Mexico with Chance Wayne (Brian J. Smith), a gigolo and wannabe actor who skipped the town a few years previously. While the actress hides behind an alias and dulls her demons with alcohol, narcotics and sex, Chance is determined to be reunited with Heavenly, his teenage sweetheart. Unaware that before leaving St Cloud he infected his girl with a STD that necessitated a hysterectomy, he has no idea that Heavenly’s father and brother are resolute: should Chance ever show his face in the neighbourhood again he will pay for his crime.

The first act, almost entirely a two-hander set in a hotel bedroom, offers superb performances from Harden and Smith. Convincing and compelling, on the Festival Theatre’s thrust stage, however, some of the intensity and intimacy is lost.

Elsewhere the performances are strong, especially Richard Cordery as Boss Finley, a bully with double standards and an unshakable belief in the American Dream. Victoria Berwick as Heavenly Finley is also excellent. Vulnerable, compliant but filled with a rage, when she sobs silent, despairing tears, her grief and anger is sorely palpable.

Easy on the eye, Anthony Ward’s set is stunning; clever, evocative and stylish, it is also beautifully complemented by Mark Henderson’s lighting.

The ruthless marching of time is one of the play’s key themes. In Jonathan Kent’s undeniably ‘classy bird’ there remains a niggling sense that the pace needs to be stepped up.

The Business of Books: A Taste for Romance | Jane Cable visits a Choc Lit roadshow

Posted on by

Jane Cable visits a Choc Lit roadshow

As regular readers of this column will know, I’ve been keeping my eye on Choc Lit for a while. As a writer of romance, you simply can’t ignore them; they’re up there, they’re out there – and they have a definite brand.

It’s this clear branding which draws me to them as a publisher. They have prettily and cleverly set out their stall as purveyors of delicious (in their words) women’s fiction from historical romance through to contemporary romantic thrillers. The books they publish are accessible and good quality; their readers know exactly what they are going to get.

When I saw that one of Choc Lit’s roadshows was coming to Southampton I knew I had to sign up. I was fascinated to see how they balanced an event aimed at readers and writers – not always the easiest of tasks. And the promise of chocolate was pretty enticing too.

Initially I hadn’t intended to pitch to one of their editors but when the email came through confirming my place I wondered if I should. Careful of their brand, Choc Lit have very precise submission criteria and I wasn’t sure I had a manuscript which would meet them. Or to be honest, one of them in particular: the requirement (for all but their Choc Lit Lite imprint) to show the hero’s point of view.

The book I am just starting could certainly be written that way, but Choc Lit only want completed – and professionally assessed – manuscripts. This is a really sensible move as it must make their slush pile less, well, slushy as a certain level of quality is assured. But reading their requirements again it became clear that self-published novels are acceptable and one of mine, The Faerie Tree, fits the bill.

The basic premise of The Faerie Tree is that when a couple meet again twenty years after their brief affair they discover that their memories of it are completely different, and this meant that the best way to tell the story was to alternate the hero’s and heroine’s points of view. It is the right length and certainly has romance at its heart, so I decided to give it a go.

If nothing else, it could be a foot in the door. Choc Lit are looking for authors with whom they can build a long term relationship, and as a writer, that’s what I am looking for too. I would love to be able to work with an editor to plan books ahead, knowing that they had a home when the writing was done. I would love a publisher where I could build my author brand alongside their own.

After listening to the Choc Lit authors’ stories (one of them, Laura E James, will feature in Business of Books later this summer) I was even more excited about setting out my stall to editor Lusana Taylor. In the main she was interested in my social media profile and how I marketed myself as a writer. I wanted to know about the importance of the hero’s point of view and what they looked for in an author. When we finally got around to talking about The Faerie Tree, she delighted me by asking to see the full manuscript.

Except it isn’t Lusana who will be assessing it. Choc Lit have a unique and rather wonderful way of choosing manuscripts for publication – their Tasting Panel of real readers. How refreshing is that? Once Choc Lit consider an author has potential it is up to this panel to decide whether the actual book is good enough. It seems a fairer process and a recipe for commercial success. I’m just hoping that The Faerie Tree delivers on flavour.

The final Choc Lit roadshow of the summer is at Stockton on Tees on 17th June. Find more details here: http://www.choc-lit.com/choc-lit-on-tour/

 

 

National Poetry Day and the BBC commission 12 new poems celebrating local words

Posted on by

nationalpoetrydayNational Poetry Day and the BBC are joining forces this year to discover and celebrate the nation’s great local words in 12 specially commissioned poems – one for each of the 12 BBC regions in England.

 

From today and taking their cue from National Poetry Day’s 2017 theme – Freedom – BBC Local Radio across England will be calling on listeners to ‘Free the word’: nominating a truly distinctive local word that deserves to be better known nationally.  These 12 words, once chosen, will each be offered to a local poet as the creative spark for a new poem, to be broadcast on the BBC on National Poetry Day, 28th September.

 

Across BBC Local Radio, on social media, and in interviews and discussions, people are invited to recommend a word that is used by local people but not yet known by the nation at large.

 

The words suggested will be considered for inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary. The search embraces dialect, slang and idiom – any word that makes visitors do a double-take and ask what is meant. The ideal word will be striking and give a flavour of the place and local identity. It can be ancient or newly imported, just as long as it is regularly used by people locally and deserves wider circulation.

These suggestions will help an expert team of lexicographers from the Oxford English Dictionary build a fresh picture of regional English as it is spoken now. Each region will then be celebrated in its own poem, inspired by the chosen word, to be broadcast on National Poetry Day.

 

BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio Cymru (the Welsh-language station) are also taking part and will be calling for their own local words to provide the inspiration for a poem for National Poetry Day.

 

Susannah Herbert, Executive Director, National Poetry Day, said:

 

“National Poetry Day is truly national when it’s truly local. The distinctive words and figures of speech used in different regions have inspired poets for centuries, from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Daljit Nagra and Liz Berry – and a poem is still a great way to get a favourite expression before a wide audience. These new poems will draw on words handed down by grandparents and picked up in street markets: we’re hungry to hear how the nation speaks when it’s at home.”

 

Michael Proffitt, Chief Editor, Oxford English Dictionary, said:

 

“The Oxford English Dictionary is delighted to participate in National Poetry Day. This year’s focus on regional words and phrases makes it a particularly good match, as a celebration of linguistic creativity and diversity across the country.

 

The OED already records many thousands of words associated with particular regions. But language changes as society changes, and the OED is constantly updating its record of English. A national event about regional language is a great way for the OED to learn more about the distinctive, evocative, and poetic words and phrases that people use now, some of which have yet to appear in the dictionary.”

 

Last year on National Poetry Day the 40 stations of BBC Local Radio marked National Poetry Day by each broadcasting a poem about a local landmark commissioned from 40 #BBClocalpoets in an unprecedented lyrical mapping of the English landscape.

 

National Poetry Day (28 September 2017) is a mass celebration of poetry that annually engages people across the country with reading, writing, performing and listening to poetry. It enjoys very high participation rates, especially online and in schools and libraries: supporters include the Football Association, the Royal Mail, the BBC, and HRH the Prince of Wales. It is co-ordinated by Forward Arts Foundation, which brings together leading poetry, literacy and literary organisations around a common purpose: promoting the enjoyment, discovery and sharing of poetry.

 

For further information, visit http://nationalpoetryday.co.uk

To nominate a local word on social media use #FreetheWord

 

 

Business of Books: Behind the Best-seller Jane Cable Meets Rosanna Ley

Posted on by
the-business-of-books-interviewswithjanecableThis week I am especially delighted to welcome one of my favourite writers, best-selling author Rosanna Ley.
BUSINESS OF BOOKS- Behind the Best-seller rosanna ley

1)      How much of your working life does the business of books take up?

Pretty much all of it! I work full time from home: writing, researching, editing, writing publicity material and taking part in events and occasionally doing a manuscript appraisal for an author (I used to do more of these but now although I’d love to, I simply don’t have the time). I also run an annual week’s writing retreat in Andalucia in July for around 12 writers at finca el cerrillo which I adore. It’s a haven of tranquillity and it’s so good to work with other writers. I used to do a lot more tutoring of creative writing and also working with community groups on therapeutic writing but I have had to let this go. Very reluctantly. But writing and editing a book a year (of around 130,000 words) is very time-consuming!

2)      What’s your business model to earn a living from writing?

I’m not sure that I have a business model at all. I’m fortunate in that I do earn a living from writing. It’s hard in these days of low advances and competitive deals from independent publishers, not to mention the number of authors who self-publish who have to work so hard to earn from their books. I would certainly consider running creative writing courses as a good way to supplement income, and there are appraisal agencies who take on experienced readers to give constructive feedback on writing for authors who go down this route. Apart from that, my model would be to keep writing, keep publicising and hope that your work is eventually recognised. Just keep getting it out there…

3)      What do you write and what do you consider to be your major successes?

I write novels often described as ‘commercial women’s fiction’ which are contemporary but also contain elements of the historical. They offer a bit of mystery and some romance and are set in stunning locations such as Sicily and Sardinia (as well as my home turf of West Dorset and also Cornwall). I have also set novels in Cuba, Burma, Morocco and Barcelona. Yes, I like to travel… My books are often called ‘holiday reads’ because of the locations I choose, but I like to think they offer a bit more than that…  I like to include some (hopefully) thought-provoking subject matter and I like to explore human relationships and the ‘tangled webs we weave’. My biggest paperback success has been ‘Bay of Secrets’ which takes on some rather dark and hopefully intriguing subjects centring around the Spanish Civil War when a woman from Dorset in 2012 goes looking for her birth mother. My biggest e-book success was ‘The Villa’ which is about three generations of women and their journeys – one to find her lost love, one to discover the secrets of the past and one to find her own sense of self!

4)      Tell me about your latest project.

The project I am currently working on is entitled ‘Her Mother’s Secret’ and is set in Belle-Ile, a small island off southern Brittany, France. It centres around Colette, who left the island when she was eighteen and who returns when her mother Thea is ill in order to care for her and help run Thea’s flower shop. I have finished the first draft and am doing some editorial work on that now. We are also looking at cover ideas. I am also doing some publicity work for ‘Little Theatre by the Sea’ which is out in hardback with Quercus already and will come out in paperback on June 1st. This book is about restoration and change. Faye travels to Sardinia to take on the project of re-designing the little theatre and finds much more than she ever bargained for…

Rosanna Ley is the best-selling author of The Villa, Bay of Secrets and Little Theatre by the Sea. Her books are published by Quercus.