Webchat: Paul Hendrickson
The author of Hemingway's Boat, will be online Friday 18 May from 1pm. Post now for a chance to grill him on this month's Reading Group idea of Ernest Hemingway as a 'macho' writerOn Friday 18 May at 1pm BST we will be joined by Paul Hendrickson, the a...
Ernest Hemingway and the highs and lows of Paris
A Moveable Feast and In Our Time reveal that for the young Hemingway, Paris in the 1920s was filled with both happiness and sufferingWoody Allen's Midnight In Paris is, in most regards, a slight film. It's fun, but it's sentimental, schlocky and as sub...
Why Norwich should wear its Unesco literary badge with pride
My home town has just joined the ranks of Edinburgh, Iowa City, Reykjavik, Dublin and Melbourne as a Unesco city of literature. So why Norwich?Thursday's announcement that Norwich has been named a Unesco city of literature provoked jubilation around th...
Rediscovering Elizabeth Taylor – the brilliant novelist
Few have heard of the National Velvet star's namesake, but she was one of the best English novelists of the 20th century"No one bought her books, and only the middle aged or elderly had ever read them: she did not know she was now a legend of which the...
Reading group: In Our Time and A Moveable Feast
Ernest Hemingway's words are loaded with meaning, but he leaves their interpretation to us. So what did you find beneath the surface of these two works?It's hard to talk about Ernest Hemingway without talking about machismo. Many people see him as a ki...
Decision time
This month we tackle two works which bookend Hemingway's career, charting a literary journey from youthful brilliance to mature malaiseThe hat has spoken. This month, we're going to be looking at two books: In Our Time and A Moveable Feast. I can't tak...
Christopher Priest rumpus ensured a vintage year for Arthur C Clarke award
Jane Rogers' breakthrough win – and the brouhaha surrounding Priest's attack on the authors and judges – made for a classicI've been going to the Arthur C Clarke awards ceremony at the Apollo cinema in London for four years now, and have always reg...
May’s Reading Group: Ernest Hemingway
Still widely read, still loved and still, just as vehemently, hated – which of Papa's books shall we take on in this month's group?This year marks the 60th since the publication of The Old Man and the Sea – which is as good an excuse as any to devo...
Twilight v Dracula: vampires – readers’ responses
If vampires once represented a fear of sexuality, what do they mean to our more liberated era? It's got something to do with designer clothes, apparentlySince Reading group contributor Michelle1978 chose this month's theme, I'm going to hand the start ...
Vampires: more to read and watch
Reading Group contributors swoop in to help with further vampiric recommendations, from Carmilla to Carpe JugulumThe idea of writing a "further reading" post about vampires – when there is so very much to read out there – is quite daunting. Fortuna...
Back to the Hugos: Dreamsnake by Vonda N McIntyre
Rather than relying on the science fiction staples of fighting and force, this determinedly feminine approach uses healing, respect and skill to make a powerful mark"For the six or seven major male science fiction writers who emerged during the 1970s, ...
Vampires we have known
From Count Dracula to Edward Cullen, the depiction of the vampire has assumed many different incarnations over the centuriesThe first mention of Bram Stoker's Dracula in The Guardian came in its Books Of The Week round-up on 15 June 1897. It's wor...
