Happy birthday, Samuel

I missed his birthday on 7 September, but there’s a chance for more cake and 300 candles on 18 September (apparently after the change of calendar in 1752 he celebrated his birthday on 18 September).
There’s been so many wonderful Johnson features on radio and in the press, but I just wanted to comment on a [...]

Copyright debate on the day for the Google Settlement deadline

I know the Google Settlement is a hotly contentious issue which is vitally important to authors and probably of zero interest to most others.  But in fact it is going to introduce a whole new dimension for readers as well – especially those in the USA.
Today one of main UK radio news programme carried an [...]

European Union Prize for Literature makes its debut

The first tranche of prize-winning authors was announced yesterday for the new EU Prize for Literature.  This year’s awards have been presented to 12 authors from Austria, Croatia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden.
Another round will take place in 2010, with authors selected from Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Finland, [...]

Cover story in Solander

This piece appeared as the cover story for the latest issue of Solander.
More than a Matter of Words: Lucinda Byatt looks at four Italian historical novels in translation
I’ve included the full article on a separate page (click to read it here)
Just to whet your appetite, the novels I’ve chosen are The Leopard,  The Name of [...]

Gifted amateurs

I caught up the other day with an article that appeared in last Saturday’s Guardian.  (N.B.  It always takes me most of the week to work through the weekend papers, which is why I only buy papers on Saturdays – Guardian, Telegraph and FT – while I can afford it, because the price keeps rising [...]

Would Orwell have been a blogger?

Of course he would!  The appeal of an instant platform combined with 24-hour access to information and to his readers would have been as irresistible to him as it is to today’s bloggers.   Of course, staying on Jura might have been a problem with no broadband access.  However, the situation has improved since last [...]

Some inspiration from Horace

A couple of posts ago I mentioned the FT Weekend as being one of my favourite papers.   Among the many excellent columnists who write for it, Harry Eyres’ weekly back-page column rarely fails to come up with food for thought, something to ponder on for a day or two. Without wanting to make him sound [...]

A “flight” of darts – thanks to Julianne!

Thanks to Julianne Douglas at Writing the Renaissance, I’ve been included the latest “tagging meme” or chain recommendation game.  This is the “Premio Dardos”, which seems to have originated in the Spanish-language blogosphere nearly a year ago.  I rushed off to do some digging to find out more.
However, I’m really flattered to be tagged by [...]

18th-century Women Readers, the British Museum and Ramsay’s Circulating Library

I’ve been so buried by work that this blog has virtually sunk into oblivion… However, back to business with some thoughts on a great programme yesterday on BBC 4 yesterday evening: “How Reading made us Modern” (catch it quick while it’s still available – for 6 days or so).
In the space of 60 minutes, John [...]

A magical world of words

This is too good to miss – from the brilliant people at Fourth Estate.