Through her novels, essay collections and poems, Barbara Kingsolver an ecologist and biologist by training, writer and political activist by inclination, combines grand and sometimes controversial themes with the gift of a true storyteller. Her best-known novels concern the endurance of people living in often inhospitable environments and the beauty to be found even in… Continue reading Barbara Kingsolver
James Baldwin was a black writer before the Civil Rights movement; a gay writer in homophobic mid-century America; a passionate maverick stylist who was swept into the destructive arena of politics. In fiction, he drew heavily on his own self and was prepared to explore difficult truths about his life. He understood guilt and rage… Continue reading James Baldwin
Our September Author of the Month, is Anne Tyler - the quiet American who has published 20 novels over the last 50 years, that subtly chronicle the ‘stuff of family life’ – love, disappointments, estranged children, loss. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Breathing Lessons (1988), a portrait of a marriage ageing and warping, while… Continue reading Author of the Month – Anne Tyler
Ian McEwan’s novels are as diverse as his upbringing. Born in Hampshire in 1948, his childhood was a transient one, spent moving between east Asia, Germany and north Africa, following his father’s military postings. His similarly wide-roaming career has positioned him as one of Britain’s foremost literary voices.
If you think you’re familiar with Joanne Harris, our author-of-the-month for July, you might want to think again.
Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. His fiction has earned him many honours around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize. His novels have been translated into over fifty languages and The Remains of the Day, Never Let… Continue reading Kazuo Ishiguro
Caryl Phillips, born in St Kitts and brought up in Leeds, has written for television, radio, theatre, and cinema and is the author of three works of non-fiction and eight novels, including Crossing the River which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1993.
The greatest distance travelled by Jan Morris, was not across the Earth’s surface but from being newspaper reporter James Morris to the female voyager and historian Jan Morris. The Guardian James’ Morris post-war career as a journalist, writing for The Times and the Manchester Guardian, was balanced with time spent researching and writing travel books,… Continue reading Jan Morris
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) remains one of the most innovative writers of the 20th century. Alongside her novels, Woolf was a prolific creator of essays, diaries, letters and biographies, capturing the changing world around her in her focus on the themes of transformation in gender roles, sexuality and class. Woolf was outspoken in her writing on… Continue reading Virginia Woolf
Join us on a voyage of discovery, reading a different author each month as we celebrate 12 great authors this year.
