Books features
What I'm Reading: Musician Martha WainwrightFriday, 10 September 2010
Next to tell us about her recent reading habits is singer and songwriter Martha Wainwright, who since the arrival of son Arcangelo last November has been juggling music with motherhood. Born in Montreal in 1976, Wainwright is part of one of North... Read more... |
Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian FreudFriday, 10 September 2010
Visit the room in the Louvre where the Mona Lisa hangs, and all you will be able to see is a glass-covered rectangle and hundreds of camera phones held high. Certainly you will be unable to examine the woman in the picture, or contemplate the work... Read more... |
What I'm Reading: Conductor Peter PhillipsWednesday, 08 September 2010
Next to choose some favourite books is conductor Peter Phillips, whose touring lifestyle can make "summer reading" something of a year-round phenomenon. When Phillips founded the vocal ensemble the Tallis Scholars in 1973 it was a hobby among... Read more... |
The Man Booker Prize 2010 shortlist announcedTuesday, 07 September 2010
Could Peter Carey possibly become the first author to win the Booker three times? Oscar and Lucinda (1988) and True History of the Kelly Gang (2001) both previously won him the most prestigious and hotly contended literary gong this side of the... Read more... |
My Summer Reading: Author Tibor FischerMonday, 06 September 2010
Born in Stockport in 1959, Tibor Fischer is the son of two Hungarian basketball players who fled their homeland during the 1956 revolution; his 1992 Booker-nominated debut novel, Under the Frog, revisited this subject in wonderfully fleshy, blackly... Read more... |
My Summer Reading: Dancer Carlos AcostaFriday, 03 September 2010
Carlos Acosta is not just a superstar dancer with the Royal Ballet and around the world, he is an avid reader - and indeed writer. After writing his autobiography No Way Home, he has also scripted dance shows and is now writing a novel.... Read more... |
My Summer Reading: Writer Patrick MarberTuesday, 31 August 2010
Next up in our summer reading series is dramatist Patrick Marber whose shrewd, sometimes excoriating, but always riveting observations of the human condition in plays such as Closer always manage to pull off that rare trick of appealing to critics... Read more... |
In Their Own Words: British Novelists, BBC FourMonday, 30 August 2010
“The empire writes back” was Salman Rushdie’s pithy summation of the process that changed British literature during the late Seventies and early Eighties, a shift epitomised by his novel Midnight’s Children winning the 1981 Booker prize. It wasn’t... Read more... |
My Summer Reading: Musician Mike ScottMonday, 30 August 2010
Born in Edinburgh in 1958, musician, singer and songwriter Mike Scott has been the leader of the rock band The Waterboys for almost three decades. Perhaps best known for the sky-scraping hit single “The Whole of the Moon”, on albums such as... Read more... |
My Summer Reading: Sculptor Cornelia ParkerFriday, 27 August 2010
Sculptor and installation artist Cornelia Parker is our fourth guest to choose some favourite books for holiday reading. Born in 1956, she is known in part for her suspended sculptures that appear to capture the moment of explosion, as well as for... Read more... |
My Summer Reading: Theatre Designer Tobias HoheiselWednesday, 25 August 2010
Third in our summer book extracts series is the theatre designer Tobias Hoheisel, whose designs for Glyndebourne Opera's Janáček productions remain iconic, and more recently designed English National Opera's Boris Godunov.Born in Frankfurt, Hoheisel... Read more... |
My Summer Reading: Songwriter Tom RussellMonday, 23 August 2010
Second up in theartsdesk's short series of recommended reads is Tom Russell, the Texan musician who has a reputation as the last great American songwriter. His 25 albums stray from cowboy music to "folk opera" - which makes his reading selections... Read more... |
