The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives – Lola Shoneyin

Bolanle is Baba Segi’s fourth wife. Young, pretty and educated, she is not welcomed into the household by wives 1, 2 and 3, who perceive her as a threat. Correctly as it transpires, for, despite radical character differences, they all share a secret that is about to be uncovered when Bolanle fails to conceive. Baba [...]

Read Full Post »

Hector and The Secrets of Love – Francois Lelord

Translated by Lorenza Garcia When Hector embarked on his search for happiness last year, I found myself somewhat irritated by the simplistic writing style.  When I was given the opportunity to ask the author just one question, I chose to ask him about it.  It came to me more than I chose it. I think different [...]

Read Full Post »

TSS: Tis the season for longlist reading

The week of April 11 promises to be an interesting one – it is the week of shortlist announcements. April 11 International Foreign Fiction Prize shortlist announcement April 12 Orange prize and the IMPAC Dublin shortlist announcements Inbetween literary festivals and overtime (imposed by another altogether more prosaic deadline), I have been reading from the associated longlists.  My last [...]

Read Full Post »

Aye Write 2011: Anthea Bell on Stefan Zweig !!!!!!!

Excited?  Moi?  Only hyperventilatingly so!  Well, it’s not every day you get to meet the person with more words in my library than anyone else (I have about 30 Anthea Bell translations)  talking about the author with more volumes in my library than any other (about 20).  What a way to end a festival! Now [...]

Read Full Post »

World Book Night Giveaway – The Winner is …..

Entry Number 4 Timestamp: 2011-03-15 19:24:12 UTC That’s you, Yvann of Reading, Fuelled by Tea (what a great blog name). Congratulations! Please email your details to lizzysiddal at yahoo dot com and I’ll pop your existential detective in the post. Looking forward to hearing how you get along.

Read Full Post »

World Book Night at Aye Write 2011

As the criminal proceedings of the afternoon extended into the evening, it was time to travel to Scandinavia, to catch up with Jo Nesbo. I was hoping for two things: 1) that he would appear (after a cancellation in Edinburgh 2 years ago) and 2) he would not be the hooligan in a hoodie (as per [...]

Read Full Post »

Aye Write 2011: Comic men and women on the dark side

Forget snowdrops and the like.  I know spring is on its way when it’s time to go to the Mitchell Library in Glasgow for the AyeWrite! literary festival and I’ve got to say, am more excited than I have ever been at this year’s programme.    Friday 4.3.2011 – Comic Men Remember last year’s case of  the maverick camera?  [...]

Read Full Post »

TSS: A personal selection for world book night (Giveaway)

I’m spending the weekend and some of next week dashing back and forth from the Mitchell Library in Glasgow.  It’s Ayewrite! time again and this year the programme is really exciting.  In fact, I am actually hyperventilating about one particular event to come.  Stories to follow in due course. Of course, the dates clash with World Book Night.   I am [...]

Read Full Post »

The Liberation of Celia Kahn – J David Simons

We’re in a time when governments once more are turning their military forces onto their own people (Libya). Did you know that the British Government did the same thing in Glasgow in 1919 in the Battle of George Square?   Glasgow it turns out was the hotbed of British socialism with workers, in a time of high unemployment, campaigning [...]

Read Full Post »