Tuesday, 7.30pm, logging on to twitter. I’m leaving work, passing elegant Georgian houses-turned-offices, cutting through leafy squares full of exhausted suits, smiling when I run into someone with a friendly dog that doesn’t care that it’s London and talking to strangers just isn’t the done thing. There’s something about that time of the day: the shackles … Continue reading No Taboo, No Problem: Writing about Controversial Topics
The list of banned books is a pretty impressive though not particularly exclusive club. And the number one reason for most being on there is not obscenity or insensitivity: it is fear. Fear, which makes us self-censor our words and stop before we write. Fear, which can make us better writers and readers... but only if we let it.
With the 2015 Man Booker Dozen announced, the book world awaits the next literary rumpus. Call me cynical, but from where I’m sitting, there are more than a few top contenders for this year’s Man Booker media storm. Up first: The Americans have arrived. It’s the second year of the new rules allowing all writers … Continue reading Man Booker 2015: Let the Literary Rumpus Begin
