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Despite the scrutiny of generations of biographers and scholars, the Great Bard’s life is still a dense thicket of myths and traditions.
Even Bill Bryson - travel writer, polymath and a master of research - found the world’s most famous writer a rather slippery character: in his new biography Shakespeare: The World as a Stage he declares him at once “the best known and least known of figures”. Continue reading »
I was pretty surprised to run into Dragon’s Den winner (and forthcoming Collins author) Levi Roots at an event with Dragon Peter Jones - and even more surprised to find them deep in conversation with legendary four-minute-miler Sir Roger Bannister. Things have clearly moved quickly for the musician, entrepreneur and now celebrity chef since the dragons bought into his Reggae Reggae Sauce…
While Roger disappeared (at speed) I dragged Levi into the Green Room for a chat about his million selling sauce, his new book and the forthcoming Reggae Reggae Car - click the button to listen in. Rastafari Bless!
Daniel’s debut novel, Broken, chronicles the havoc wrought on one British housing estate by a single uncontrollable family. Narrated by eleven year old Skunk Cunningham - trapped deep inside a coma - Daniel’s tragic comedy follows one community’s reaction to the neighbours from hell…
But how exactly can you pull off a novel that dares to cross the humour of Shameless with the emotion of To Kill a Mockingbird? Daniel’s been posting regularly on Fifth Estate in the run up to Broken’s release this month - last week I dragged him into the Filing Cupboard for a rather cramped discussion about the book, and about his own decade-long path to publication…
Rudolph Delson’s debut novel, Maynard and Jennica, has provoked strong reactions since it was released late last year - just check out the fimo if you need any convincing.
Packed with a cast of eccentric characters, not to mention the peculiar voices of more than thirty different narrators, Maynard and Jennica is a very modern New York love story. Rudy’s been a regular contributor to Fifth Estate: when he passed through London last week I dragged him into the filing cupboard for a conversation, and for what must be one of our most unusual readings…
I’m a big fan of J.G. Ballard’s atmospheric and unsettling novels. His first book The Drowned World, describes a London transformed into tropical swampland - in later works like Crash and Kingdom Come, the transformation is more subtle, featuring quiet British surburbs that seethe with hidden violence.
It’s always tempting to pin a writer’s themes on their own personal histories - but critics have long assumed that Ballard’s curious themes would have found their beginning in his childhood in occupied Shanghai, and subsequent internment in the Lunghua Concentration Camp.
Our Fifth Estate filing cupboard may not hold quite the same influence as a seat on Judy’s sofa, but when Patrick was up from Cornwall last week we could hardly miss the opportunity for a chat.
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Patrick’s thirteen novels have long enjoyed critical acclaim, and since Notes from an Exhibition was featured on Channel 4’s TV book club this tale of the life and death of a prodigiously talented artist has become a regular sight on the nation’s tubes, trains and buses.
Publishing Director Paul Baggaley talked to Patrick about the book, discussing some of its strongest themes: family, art, depression and the vivid Cornish setting. Patrick also reads two extracts from Notes, including a fictional encounter with the famous Cornish sculptor Barbara Hepworth.
Take fifteen minutes with Patrick and Paul - and find out what the fuss is all about…
Since we first blogged about Ishmael Beah some twelve months ago, A Long Way Gone - his shocking memoir of his years as a child soldier - has stunned readers far outside his native Sierra Leone.
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Over the last year Ishmael’s story has taken him around Europe and around the world. Last week we were lucky enough to host him in London - Editor and Publicity Manager Robin Harvie invited him into the filing cupboard for a short reading, and asked him about his remarkable experiences.
London’s enormous Natural History Museum is one of the city’s most famous attractions - and one of it’s most impressive sights. Yet more than half of its mammoth floor space remains permanently closed to the public. So what really goes on behind the bones, birds and beetles?
On Monday I posted the first part of an interview with Marianne Faithful - here, for your listening pleasure, is the second and final installment.
Not many rock stars have passed through the Filing Cupboard’s small and grubby doors (well, none in fact): so I could only jump at the chance to post up this two-part interview with the legendary Marianne Faithful.
Frank McCourt, the Pulitzer prize winning author of Angela’s Ashes, ‘Tis and Teacher Man
came in to see the Press Books team this week - and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pose some questions of my own in the Filing Cupboard.
Great news this week for psychologist and depression-expert Dorothy Rowe, who’s been included in a list of the world’s top 100 living geniuses.
Anton appeared at the festival to discuss Empire’s Children, a book and documentary series that follows six prominent Brits searching for their family roots across the Commonwealth.
Tonight I caught up with Sanjeev Bhaskar in the Writers Room at Cheltenham.
It’s not all auditoriums and signing queues: on Wednesday night we hit the cider with Cheltenham’s performance poets, bringing live literature to local club Slak. We couldn’t work all the time…
When they first met, Welsh Poet Laureate Gwyneth Lewis and psychologist Dorothy Rowe realised they had more than a publisher in common. In their recent books, Sunbathing in the Rain and Beyond Fear, respectively, they both interpret depression. Continue reading »
A fantastic resource for anyone (like me) who missed Guardian Hay Festival this year….
Here’s a selection of their biggest events captured on audio. All you need is your own deckchair and iPod.
Continue reading »
A while back, renowned author and psychologist Dorothy Rowe came in to see us. It is the 20th anniversary of her landmark book, Beyond Fear.
The book, first published in 1987, has changed the lives of thousands of people. In the most recent edition, Dorothy Rowe examines the changes in the psychiatric system since 1987 in the context of showing how most of our suffering comes from our greatest fear, that of being annihilated as a person, when we shall disappear like a puff of smoke in the wind, never to have existed. Continue reading »
Isn’t life more interesting when you can talk about it? Every six months publishing imprints create a catalogue of titles about to be published, aimed at the book trade.
But this season, at 4th Estate, HarperPress and Perennial imprints, we thought we’d go straight to the source, and ask editors to give to readers a sneak preview of just some favourite titles they are currently working on for this coming Autumn. Continue reading »
Radio Diaries is committed to helps people produce their own oral histories. They work with people to document their own lives for public radio: teenagers, seniors, prison inmates and others whose voices are rarely heard. We help people share their stories—and their lives—in their own words, creating documentaries that are powerful, surprising, intimate and timeless. Continue reading »
Here’s part 2 of John Lynch from the filing cupboard: a mesmerising reading from his book, Torn Water.
Incidentally, sorry for the delay in getting this out. (Now we know what happens when the chief editor of fifthestate gets sick for 2 weeks…!)
Writer and actor John Lynch came in to see our paperbacks editor, Essie, a few days ago, so I asked if he wouldn’t mind nipping into the filing cupboard and having a bit of an impromptu chat with the fifthestate team.
Continue reading »
We’re publishing my lifetime’s collection of love poems soon (February 07). A book of poetry might well be a more original and romantic gift than a red rose for the 14th…
…though not always, as you’ll hear if you listen to my poem ‘A Blade of Grass’ on this podcast.
Anyway, I was in the office at PressBooks, and before I knew it, I’d been bundled into the filing cupboard. Here’s the result. Download it on to your MP3 player and take a walk on a crisp autumnal day to listen…or perhaps email the podcast to a lover for his/her journey to work.
The Filing Cupboard presents: Brian Patten reads from his Collected Love Poems (6.2MB)
This week – fifthestate’s first – has been a delightfully busy one. It’s also been fairly hectic for anyone working on The Taste of Britain, a newly published compendium of regional produce from the British Isles, and my personal tip off for a great Christmas present if you’re already a bit stuck. Continue reading »
Many thanks to everyone who listened to my first chapter this week. We’ll keep it up here in the months running up to publication.
Last week I came in to visit everyone who is going to be working on my book at Press Books. You can listen to an interview with me here, and also hear how to get sent one of ten free advance reading copies of Crow Stone. Continue reading »
Last month the fiction people at HarperPress imprint acquired my debut thriller title, which will be titled ‘Crow Stone’. It is set in Bath, and follows Kit as she attempts to shore up the ancient stone quarries under the city - uncovering buried sinister secrets in the process.
The book is currently in manuscript form, and will hit the shelves in hardback in Spring 2007. In the meantime, we recorded me reading the first chapter for you to sample…
Listen to Crow Stone: The Filing Cupboard presents the first chapter of Crow Stone, read by the author Jenni Mills [MP3, 8.13MB]
Tristram Stuart, author of The Bloodless Revolution, gave a speech to the Nehru Centre on 13th September. He discusses radical vegetarians and discovery of India, in a talk that both challenges ideas of the history of cultural exchange between India and the West, and also touches on the rationale behind abstinence from meat.
Listen to Tristram Stuart: The Filing Cupboard presents Tristram Stuart [MP3, 6.5MB].
