Holiday reading

So. Three months later than planned*, I’m posting some of the writings that padded out the quieter moments of my family jaunt to visit friends in Spain. In (cringe) October. Immediate I am most definitely not. And I wonder why I just can’t take to Twitter… Of late, Alan Bennett has come to enjoy an [...]

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The 24-Hour Book

Putting paid to notions that it takes years to write a book (damn! There goes my excuse) is the 24 Hour Book Project, a groundbreaking new initiative that’s challenging a bunch of writers, editors and publishers to take a book from pie-in-the-sky concept to published material in JUST ONE DAY. The brainchild of the folks [...]

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The Bind befriends Amelia’s Magazine

As if Amelia’s Magazine wasn’t damn fine enough already, what with its cultural insights, fashion fixes and ecological know-how, it’s just had a make-over – and its first contribution from The Bind!  Check out The Bind’s bit on Margaret Atwood’s new novel, The Year of the Flood, and its accompanying tour, and watch out for [...]

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Short bread: The Sunday Times’ big bucks award

On the day Dan Brown’s new novel dominates the books blogs – and the financial concerns of booksellers the world over – you wouldn’t blame the humble short story writer for having spent the past 10 hours with their head hung over a frequently refilled brandy glass, bemoaning their supposed drawing of the literary short [...]

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Caution: More unfortunate events

It’s a chilling warning: “As if the recession weren’t bad enough, now British readers have the threat of a new series from Mr Snicket hanging over them,” Cally Poplak, director of publisher Egmont, tells The Guardian this week. ”As a responsible publisher, of course we shall put all our efforts into ensuring no child is exposed to [...]

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Discovery of the Week: V&A Pattern book series

Retro pattern fiends and curtain makers rejoice! Those lovely people at the Victoria & Albert Museum have thrown open their archives of prints, wallpapers and textiles and laid the dusted-down innards bare in the V&A Pattern book series. The first four installments are published this month.   These four titles cover (pictured above, L-R) the mind-boggling [...]

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Stephen Fry reveals his Wilde side

Britain’s best-loved bookish eccentric, techy Twitterer and fantasy uncle (imagine the Christmas party games!) Stephen Fry has long worn his Oscar Wilde-loving heart on his sleeve. Brian Gilbert’s 1997 film Wilde saw Fry cast as the exuberant author, and recently he noted the formative influence of Wilde’s work in his navigating that pot-hole riddled road between [...]

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Keeping it in the Family

Props to anyone who can keep tabs on Devendra Banhart, never mind secure the wayward folkster in their viewfinder for long enough to snatch anything more discernible than a blurred wash of sequins, face paint and hair. But that’s exactly what photographer Lauren Dukoff has done repeatedly over years of hanging out with Banhart, and the [...]

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Discovery of the Week: Here Gallery and Bookshop

It’s the cherry on top of one of Bristol’s most spirited spots – where jolly, jeering street drinkers rock beneath crumbling walls sporting Banksy originals; afternoon gig-goers spill out onto pavements from cafes-cum-gig venues to puff on their rollies; the spitting hiss of vats and vats of boiling oil sizzles from rows of red-topped takeaways [...]

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In the Loops

Right now, the news of the birth of the literary love child of Faber & Faber and Domino Records has made me happier than if that stalk were to drop a swimming pool onto the toasting tarmac outside my flat. Yes, two of the UK’s most exciting independent creative names have got it together, and [...]

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