Vanessa Springora’s memoir, Consent, became an instant, international literary sensation when it was published in France in January 2020. Her beautifully written, intimate and powerful description of her relationship in the mid-1980s with the French author Gabriel Matzneff, when she was fourteen and he fifty, is a beautifully written universal #MeToo story of power, manipulation, trauma, resilience and healing. 

Translator, Natasha Lehrer, and Georgia de Chamberet, discuss libertarian attitudes and French culture; the trouble with Feminism in France; literary name-and-shame public revelations leading to the downfall of powerful sexual abusers; and more.

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by BookBlast® | Duration 30:52

© the artists care of bookblast ltd

In conversation with Natasha Lehrer, translator of Consent by Vanessa Springora

Consent

Interview with Natasha Lehrer, translator of Consent by Vanessa Springora

AFRICULTURES.COM – "Those who discovered Jamika performing Live with Zenzile, who she hooked up with at the end of the 1990s, will not be disappointed. Jamika, who is sometimes referred to in the press as a female Tricky or the Grace Jones of the underground, expends great energy in the delivery of her subtle lyrics."

JAMIKA AJALON meets ZENZILE on albums: MODUS VIVENDI (Discograph 2005)| 5+1 JAMIKA MEETS CELLO (Discograph 2004)| TOTEM (Discograph 2002)| SOUND PATROL (Crash Disques 2001)| 5+1 ZENZILE MEETS JAMIKA (Crash Disques 2000)| Compilations — SAMPLING DNA features on APHRODISIAC, vol 3 (Infracom 2001) | LONGRAIN MUSIC 2 (Instinctive Travel 2004)

Her track best loved by fans, SMELL THE ROSES, features on ANOTHER FRENCH REVOLUTION? (The Letter F 2004).

totem

Totem

Jamika meets Zenzile

Faïza Guène writes about normal people living in urban tower block estates surrounding cities like Paris, Lyon, and Marseille. Her first novel, Kiffe kiffe demain, published in England under the title Just Like Tomorrow, sold over 400,000 copies when it came out and has been translated into 26 different languages. She was just nineteen. 

Tune in to hear her lively conversation with translator of sixteen years, Sarah Ardizzone, and host Georgia de Chamberet, about inner city school life, the impact of Black Lives Matter, the 2024 Olympic Games, translating argot and Arabic-influenced backslang, and all about her latest novel out in English, Men Don’t Cry (Cassava Republic), in which quirky family antics and familial pettiness make for much hilarity: everyone can relate to it. 

Produced by Simon James | 49:54

men don't cry

Found in Translation | Faïza Guène (author) Sarah Ardizzone (translator) discuss Men Don’t Cry

An autobiographical first novel, The Last One tells the story of Fatima and her family. The confusing polarities between different worlds and cultures that are portrayed sparked an intense Media debate in France. Although based on true events and experiences, Fatima Daas changed certain aspects in order to be free to write what she wanted, and convey her feelings about specific experiences. 

Tune in to hear a lively conversation with Fatima Daas and podcast host Georgia de Chamberet, about literary inspiration, handling her surprise overnight success, and the pressures directed at women from religion and from society, and more besides The Last One is published in English by HopeRoad Publishing. The interview is in both French and English.

Produced by BookBlast  | 26:25 | French & English (simultaneous)

bookblast podcast 

the last one

Found in Translation | Fatima Daas discusses literary sensation, The Last One (French & English)

Prize-winning essayist, novelist, poet and academic, Abdourahman Waberi in conversation with Georgia de Chamberet about the events and cultures that have inspired him. Born in 1965 in Djibouti, he left his homeland for France in 1985 where he studied English at the University of Caen. He did a degree in English at the University of Dijon where he wrote a thesis on the work of the Somali novelist, Nuruddin Farah. In 2008 he moved to America. Since 2012 he is professor of Francophone literature at George Washington University. 
Following on from the release of his first book – a short story collection called Le Pays Sans Ombre, Land Without Shadows – he has had 6 novels, 3 short story anthologies, 3 volumes of poetry and 2 essay collections published, and a great many articles. The recipient of numerous awards, he was recently named one of the “50 Writers of the Future” by LIRE magazine.
Abdourahman Waberi discusses his childhood in a deprived neighbourhood of Djibouti, a pocket-sized but strategically important African nation near the Suez Canal. He remembers the pains of growing up with polio, how he kept strong in the face of merciless bullying at school, and his love of storytelling. He talks about life in France and North America, how writers Annie Ernaux and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o inspire him, and more. So tune in!

Produced by BookBlast [35 minutes]

Why Do You Dance When You Walk?

bookblast conversations abdourahman waberi

Abdourahman Waberi in conversation with Georgia de Chamberet

Celebrated author and distinguished traveller, Lesley Blanch, MBE (1904-2007), talks to Teresa Cherfas about her love of Russia and of the mysterious family friend whom she referred to as The Traveller (discovered after her death to be theatre director and impresario, Theodore Komisarjevsky).

Although to some it may seem that Blanch excelled in magnifying her own peculiarities to become larger than life, even mythic, she was always true to herself. Her private life was so inaccessible as to be virtually unimaginable. Blanch gave this interview the day after coming out of hospital. She died four months later.

February 2007

Visit her website at www.lesleyblanch.com twitter @lesleyblanch

Journey into the Mind's Eye

Lesley Blanch's Russia

Lesley Blanch, Twenty Minutes, BBC Radio 3

Georgia de Chamberet at BookBlast® is delighted to interview Sian Williams, the visionary founder of the Children’s Bookshow. Discover how this much loved and hugely popular national tour of writers and illustrators of children’s literature first began and who will be on tour this autumn.
Michael Rosen: “The Children’s Bookshow takes children’s authors to meet tens of thousands of children, introducing children to how and why writers write, illustrators illustrate. They give children insights into how they too can transform thoughts and feelings into words and pictures. This is not simply a matter of it being enjoyable, it’s a necessary part of what we understand by the word ‘education’.” 
Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | A BookBlast® Production | 13:18 | ep 47

bookblast podcast 2024 series

Childrens Bookshow

Sian Williams in conversation with Georgia de Chamberet

Pour célébrer la parution du livre 'Une femme, deux hommes Lesley Blanch, Théodore Kommissarzhevsky et Romain Gary' à la Maison de Balzac, Paris, le Mercredi 5 Juin 2024, Simon Bentolila de Lire Magazine a discuté avec Georgia de Chamberet, de la vie et des amours de Lesley Blanch (1904-2007). Femme libre et autonome, artiste complète et grande voyageuse, elle n’en était pas moins totalement dévouée aux deux hommes de sa vie, le dramaturge Théodore Kommissarzhevsky et l’écrivain Romain Gary, dont elle fut le première épouse.

"Il faudrait toujours chercher la femme exceptionnelle qui se cache derrière l'oeuvre d'un grand homme," Journal de Dimanche

A BookBlast® Production | 32:24

Creative Conversations

Georgia de Chamberet en conversation avec Simon Bentolila, Lire Magazine (in French)

On the Wilder Shores of Love: A Bohemian Life, Lesley Blanch, published by Virago, Little Brown UK 

Most famous for the group portrait, The Wilder Shores of Love, Lesley Blanch was a scholarly romantic and a bold writer with a lifelong passion for Russia, the Balkans and the Middle East. This book collects together the story of her marriage with Romain Gary, previously published only in French; her journalism on the artistic melting pot that was London between the wars; and a selection of her most evocative travel pieces, to create the story of a fascinating, bohemian – and, at times outrageous - life that spanned the twentieth century.

Visit her website at www.lesleyblanch.com twitter @lesleyblanch

on the wilder shores of love

On The Wilder Shores of Love

Lesley Blanch & her memoirs, Today, BBC Radio 4

The BookBlast® Translation Book Club meets in person on the second Monday of each month at Hatchards, Piccadilly, to discuss works of fiction in translation published in the last ten years. Host, Georgia de Chamberet,  and Hatchards’ booksellers, choose well-written, engaging storytelling to inspire reading for pleasure as well as illuminating cultures from around the world.
Hear our special guest at the October Translation Book Club, Antonia Lloyd-Jones, co-editor and translator of Warsaw Tales (OUP 2024). She is best-known for translating Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk. Hear highlights of Antonia's presentation and illuminating comments from book club members.
Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | A BookBlast® Production| 00:35:23

BookBlast Hatchards Translation Book Club 

Warsaw Tales, BookBlast® Translation Book Club

Warsaw Tales, BookBlast® Translation Book Club, Hatchards Piccadilly

Robert Elms talks to Georgia de Chamberet about The BookBlast® 10x10 Tour in association with Waterstones.  
A carnival of authors, poets, translators and #indiepubs visit 9 major cities across England, 11 September-15 November, inspiring readers to immerse themselves in authentic and offbeat writing which adds value to the cultural landscape.
Interview date: 01 September 2018

BookBlast Waterstones Tour

BookBlast on BBC Radio London

Robert Elms BBC London Radio interview BookBlast® 10x10 Tour

A BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event from Waterstones Nottingham, England (27.09.2018)

Feat. Georgia de Chamberet, replacement chair for Susan Curtis, founder-director of Istros Books, in conversation with David Norris who was until recently Head of Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at the University of Nottingham where he taught Serbian and Croatian studies for almost 40 years. His book, 'Haunted Serbia: Representations of History and War in the Literary Imagination,' analyzes Serbian prose from the 1980s dedicated to the Second World War, particularly the use of ghosts and other uncanny motifs to represent times of instability and transition.
WITH translator, Christina Pribićević-Zorić, who worked for 20 years as a broadcaster at the English Language Service, Radio Belgrade, the BBC in London, and for The Hague at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia. She has translated over 35 translated works of fiction and non-fiction from Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian and French into English.

Discussion context: Yugoslavia was invaded and dismembered in 1941. Germany annexed northern Slovenia and occupied Serbia, and greatly influenced the fascist puppet state of Croatia ruled by the Ustashe. Mussolini's Italy gained the remainder of Slovenia, Kosovo, and sections of the coastal Dalmatia region and Montenegro. Hungary occupied Vojvodina in northern Serbia. 
The Holocaust in South-East Europe involved not only the genocide of Jews, but also that of Serbs, gypsies and anti-Fascist Croatians. 

Topics: What is instrinsically "Balkan"? What are perceptions of the Balkans? How does the image emerge from the region's literature? Can one answer the existence of evil? The difference between history (statistics) and literature: the detail fiction gives us makes it more alive. Trauma and war are beyond understanding. Ghosts in literature (memories). Is there hope? 

Titles discussed: DOPPELGANGER by Daša Drndić & THE HOUSE OF REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING by Filip David – www.istrosbooks.com 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe.

BookBlast 10x10 Tour

Istros Books BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event

A BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event from Waterstones Norwich, Castle Street (11.10.2018)

Sam Jordison, co-director of Galley Beggar Press (Modernist Contemporary) in Norwich, is also an author, teacher and journalist. Galley Beggar's early success with experimental debut novel 'A Girl is A Half-Formed Thing' by Eimear McBride was a game-changer.
WITH
Alex Pheby a.k.a. the new Beckett, who teaches at the University of Greenwich. Alex’s second novel, 'Playthings,' was shortlisted for the 2016 Wellcome Book Prize. His latest book, 'Lucia', is about James Joyce’s schizophrenic daughter who was Beckett’s lover.
AND
Paul Stanbridge whose novel, 'Forbidden Line,' was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the first novel category in the inaugural Republic of Consciousness Prize, 2017.
AND
Paul Ewen, a New Zealand writer whose first novel, 'Francis Plug: How To Be A Public Author,' won a Society of Authors McKitterick Prize. 'Francis Plug: Writer In Residence' was published in October 2018. 

Topics: What is Modernism?; Can you be a modernist writer after post-modernism?; How to make a whole out of disunity; Small presses finding other incomes for their authors; 3 brief readings; 'Lucia' (James Joyce's daughter) is a portrait in silhouette; Academic ageism; The effect of the internet on writing and publishing.  

Titles discussed: 'Lucia', 'Forbidden Line' and 'Francis Plug: Writer In Residence' – www.galleybeggar.co.uk

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe.

Galley Beggar Press BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event

A BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event from Waterstones Manchester (08.11.2018)

Feat. Michael Schmidt, publisher, Carcanet (poetry) chair. Carcanet was conceived at Pin Farm, South Hinksey, Oxford, in 1969 by Peter Jones, Gareth Reeves and Michael Schmidt. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
WITH
Poet, Jenny Lewis, who teaches poetry at Oxford University. 
AND
London-born poet, Jane Draycott, who lives in Oxfordshire and is a tutor on postgraduate writing programmes at Oxford University and the University of Lancaster. 

Topics: The launch of Carcanet's new classics series; revisioning the classics through women's eyes; Jenny Lewis describes the oldest written story (in Sumerian cuneiform) loosely based on the historical King Gilgamesh who ruled Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) in 2700 BC; how the epic of Gilgamesh was changed as society and culture became more patriarchal, for example godesses who had huge power were demoted or turned into gods; momentum is a key component of the epic narrative; Henrik Ibsen's version; public readings of the infamous sex scene over 6 days and 7 nights; Jane Draycott describes 'Pearl', one of the poems in the unique manuscript which includes 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'; a meditative, perfected piece with one single narrator; the figure of the lost infant girl, the lost pearl; it is a  powerful exploration of the psychology of grief and bereavement. Readings with audience participation.  

Title focus: 'Gilgamesh' and 'Pearl' – www.carcanet.co.uk

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe.

Carcanet Press BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event

A BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event from Westbank, under the Westway, London W10 (15.11.2018)

Feat. Kit Caless, publisher, Influx Press (chair), an independent publisher founded in 2012 based in London. Influx is committed to publishing innovative and challenging fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction from across the UK and beyond. www.influxpress.com

WITH
Elizabeth Briggs from Saqi Books which publishes quality general interest and academic books on North Africa and the Middle East. www.saqibooks.com

AND
Susan Curtis from Istros Books which publishes translated literature from the Balkans and South-East Europe. www.istrosbooks.com 

Topics: How #indiepubs who are regularly winning prizes play such an important role in the cultural ecosystem; translation, rigid mindsets and choosing to publish books written without market trends in mind; the importance of buying books directly from publishers' websites; how best to access buyers at the major bookselling chains deciding on what and how much to purchase; discounts; the lack of book publicity in the 'traditional' press which is ironic given the growing demand for world literature and eclectic, non-generic writing.
 
The audience of publishing consultants, book distributors, bloggers, indie film makers, readers and writers questioned the way Amazon goes after publisher profit margins with crippling consequences for indies, and emphasized the importance of book blogs.  

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe.

Influx Press, Saqi Books, Istros Books: It's a Wrap! BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event

To celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Pig 2019, Paper Republic has launched its 2018 roundup of the most recent publications of English translations from Chinese. Its co-founder, Nicky Harman, is a leading light of the translation community and promoter of Chinese literature and culture. She was interviewed for The BookBlast® Diary in 2016 and Xu Xiaobin's Crystal Wedding reviewed. 

Our conversation about writing from a non-English speaking world that is 4,834 miles away from the UK takes in the dark side of socialism and government censorship, what strengths are drawn by Chinese writers from the richness of their cultural background and national identity, issues faced by translators, Chinese women writers, sex and violence in contemporary Chinese literature, the unique aspects of contemporary Chinese literature, the growing popularity of science fiction and martial arts fiction in the West, and much more. 

For more info, check out our 'Spotlight' feature 'Playing Chinese Whispers with Nicky Harman' at www.bookblast.com/blog 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | A BookBlast® Production 
rec, 14.02.2019 | 56.30 minutes

talking chinese

Chinese Whispers

The BookBlast® Podcast (LIVE) | Playing Chinese Whispers with Nicky Harman

Exclusive interview with Maggie Gee, author of fifteen books, thirteen of which are novels, including her latest, Blood, which is published by Fentum Press. 

Maggie Gee talks about being born to working-class parents and climbing into an uneasy place between classes; winning a major open scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford where she did an MA in English literature and an MLitt on Surrealism in England; breaking into the publishing game; being selected as of the original Granta 20 Best of Young British Novelists in 1983; why there is still such reticence on the part of the dominant ‘white’ literary establishment to address, through literature, the tensions of race and class in contemporary British society; co-founding the “Empathy and Writing” cross-disciplinary research group at Bath Spa University; and much more besides.  

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | A BookBlast® Production

bookblast podcast 2019

bookblast podcast

The BookBlast® Podcast | LIVE interview: Maggie Gee, author

Last week, thousands of protesters paralysed parts of central London, blockading four landmarks in the capital in an attempt to force the government to take action on the escalating climate crisis.
Dom Goetz gave a succinct fifteen minute roundup of what faces us all if emergency action is not taken NOW. Inertia and denial will lead to irreversible climate breakdown and mass extinction. 

Recorded LIVE by BookBlast® on Waterloo Bridge, 20.4.2019

Extinction Rebellion Waterloo Bridge

The BookBlast® Podcast LIVE | Dom Goetz, Extinction Rebellion, Waterloo Bridge

The result of seven years of writing and research, King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV by Philip Mansel (Allen Lane, 11 July) is a riveting read and set to become the definitive historical biography of Europe's longest-reigning monarch.

How is it that great leaders can delude themselves that they are working for the greater good, but engage in behavior that is morally wrong? This conundrum lies at the heart of this biography.

The early life of Louis XIV, the Fronde tax rebellion, fleeing Paris. Crowned king at 22. War and pushing the French frontier north and east. Globalism, colonial expansion and mercantilism. 

Cruel persecution of the Hugenots after 1678. Rivalries between European countries. The complex, tense relationship of France and England, close family links Stuarts and Bourbons, on a war footing after 1688. 
 
The development and expansion  of Versailles from being a hunting lodge to a palace still used today by French presidents to impress foreign visitors like Vladimir Putin. Attracting 7-8 million visitors a year it is the second most visited place in the world after the Forbidden City.

Louis XIV and culture: André Charles Boulle, Molière, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Lully, Le Brun, Rigaud, Bossuet, Le Vau, Charles Claude Perrault, Le Nôtre. 

Stupendous parties even by today's standards. Bling on another level. Power dressing, pomp and pageantry, beginnings of the fashion and luxury trade.

Louis XIV and his women: the queen and his mistresses; Madame de Montespan and Madame de Maintenon. The Affair of the Poisons involving love potions, sorcerers, astrologers, plots and intrigue. A day in the Life of Louis XIV . . . 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | A BookBlast® Production

In conversation with Philip Mansel, author | The Life of Louis XIV

Keith Anderson, known as Bob Andy, talks about his life and times in a rare and exclusive interview 

Best known in the UK for the track recorded with Marcia Griffiths "Young, Gifted and Black" (1970), he is widely regarded as "one of reggae's most influential songwriters," Wikipedia.

The conversation takes in his childhood in Kingston, Maxfield Park children's home, Kingston Parish Church choir and Tyrone Evans. The Paragons. Studio One. His first solo hit record (1967) "I've Got to Go Back Home" was followed by "Desperate Lover", "Feeling Soul", "Unchained", and "Too Experienced".

Composing songs for other reggae artists, including "I Don't Want to See You Cry" for Ken Boothe, and "Feel Like Jumping", "Truly", and "Melody Life" for Marcia Griffiths. He is best known for "Young, Gifted and Black" recorded with Marcia Griffiths in the early 1970s.

Trojan. Working as a producer in London and recording with Mad Professor. Moving to Miami.

Several of his hits in the late 1960s, and his 1992 hit, "Fire Burning", are regarded as reggae standards and have been covered several times by other artists.

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | A BookBlast® Production | 00:57:42 minutes

bookblast podcast 2020

reggae legend bob andy talks LIVE

In conversation with reggae legend Keith Anderson a.k.a. Bob Andy

Narisa Chakrabongse, the founder and CEO of River Books, is the editor of the Oxford River Books English-Thai Dictionary. Chakrabongse Villas, the family home, is a small boutique hotel in Bangkok. 

I caught up with her some months ago when she was in town, to talk about her unusual Thai-Russian-British background, being a foreigner living in a strange land and, of course, River Books – www.riverbooksbk.com 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | A BookBlast® Production

In Conversation with Narisa Chakrabongse, CEO, River Books

Michèle Roberts is the author of twelve highly-acclaimed novels, including The Looking Glass and Daughters of the House which won the W.H. Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She has also published poetry and short stories, and is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of PEN and of The Society of Authors. 

This interview was recorded by telephone on the eve of the Covid 19 lockdown. 

Topics: Born a twin. Growing up in Edgware outside London; summer holidays in Etretat, Normandy; Roman Catholic schooling and rebellion; becoming a writer and being published by The Womens Press and Virago culture and creative freedom in the 1970s and 1980s; feminism then and now; the influence of biculturalism; the shock of rejection, learning and rebuilding from it. 

Title focus: Negative Capability: A Diary of Surviving, published 28 May 2020 – www.sandstonepress.com

Recorded by telephone on the eve of the Covid 19 Lockdown  

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such, Biscuittown Productions

In Conversation with Michèle Roberts, Franco-British novelist

J.S. Margot’s  memoir, Mazel Tov,  is “the story of an extraordinary friendship – in fact several extraordinary friendships that marked the twenties of the author J.S.Margot. At first sight it is the story of a young Flemish woman at university in Antwerp who teaches the four children of an Orthodox Jewish family to earn a bit of extra money. It is also the story of her first great love for an Iranian political refugee. In both cases she is exposed to a culture and religion that is not her own. She also begins to realise that she is on the receiving end of a certain amount of paranoia and suspicion from both her employers and her boyfriend.” — Henrietta Foster, The BookBlast Diary 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such | 	43:06

bridging the divide

Interview J S Margot, author

Bridging the Divide #1 | Interview : J.S. Margot, author

Publishing classics requires a special acuity. What makes a classic?
Pushkin Press focuses on modern classics, mostly translated works. How did you discover your most successful no-longer-forgotten comeback author, Stefan Zweig? 
What type of person do you think makes a very good translator?
Hear Adam Freudenheim, publisher & MD of Pushkin Press, answer these questions and give unexpected insights as he talks about his love of literature and publishing translations. 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such | 32:53

Bridging the Divide #2 | Interview : Adam Freudenheim, Pushkin Press

The Swiss writer and photographer, Nicolas Bouvier, (1929-98) was a traveller in the real sense of the word, navigating different worlds and writing about now forgotten communities. He gives us alternative perspectives on places like the Balkans, Iran, Azerbaijan, Japan, China, Korea and the highlands of Scotland. 

The Way of the World, The Scorpion Fish and So It Goes have become cult reads. Hear his translator Robyn Marsack and publisher Rose from Eland Books discuss why Nicolas Bouvier such a special writer,  what his writings reveal about the man and his journeys undertaken in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, what is good travel writing, and what makes it last?    

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such

bookblast podcast, bridging the divide

nicolas bouvier and his world

Bridging the Divide #3 | Interview: Rose (Eland), Robyn Marsack (translator)

"Anna Kim’s The Great Homecoming, published by Granta Books is a sweeping tale of friendship and betrayal that explores the devastating impact of the Korean War, Russian and American politicking and the Cold War on individuals, families and cities in Korea and Japan during the 1950s and ’60s. It may be a historical novel, but it puts people – a people; an entire nation – at its heart. This slick and accomplished translation by Jamie Lee Searle is sure to widen Kim’s fanbase and acclaim, and rightly so." Rachel Goldblatt, The BookBlast Diary 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such | 37:49

Bridging the Divide #4

Bridging the Divide #4 | Interview: Anne Meadows (Granta) Jamie Lee Searle (translator)

James Womack is an Affiliated Lecturer in the Spanish and Portuguese Section at Cambridge University’s Fitzwilliam College. He reveals how he landed in Spain and translating Manuel Vilas’s latest collection of poetry and short fiction, Heaven, published this year by Carcanet Press. The author of fourteen collections of poetry, seven books of essays, and seven novels, Vilas’s novel Ordesa was a bestseller in Spain; is forthcoming in English with Canongate in November 2020.   

“Vilas is exceptionally skilled at capturing the misery and ecstasy that can coincide and enmesh in a single moment . . . Emotional depth and layers of meaning shine through Womack’s rhythmic translation and his use of extraordinary vocabulary . . . As in all great poetry, ordinary and unsuspecting moments are suddenly infused by a subliminal energy that transforms a mundane thought or event into a profound and valid realisation” . . . From the review by Rachel Goldblatt for The BookBlast Diary 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such | 34:22

Heaven

Bridging the Divide #5 | Interview : James Womack, translator

The world of publishing has changed a great deal since you first founded Carcanet in 1969 with Peter Jones, Gareth Reeves, working from a farmhouse kitchen table. What is the magic ingredient meaning you have been able to adapt and evolve?

Publishing poetry is a tricky business. Your list comprises collections by established English language poets, new editions of work by deceased writers, and newcomers on the scene. Tell us about five of your lead titles in translation, and what makes each one so special.
Since making a living from writing – let alone poetry – is hard these days, do many of your poets run creative writing courses? Can you recommend a couple to our listeners?  

Hear Michael Schmidt, publisher & co-founder of Carcanet Press, answer these questions and give unexpected insights as he talks about his love of literature and publishing poetry in translation.

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such | 35:07

Poetry in Translation, Carcanet Press

Bridging the Divide #6 | Interview : Michael Schmidt, Carcanet Press

"Tazmamart was an underground military prison in southeast Morocco where those considered enemies of the king were detained from 1972 to 1991. It was built after two failed coup d’états against Hassan II of Morocco. Many of those detained in July 1971 were unwitting participants in the alleged coup . . ." Lucy Popescu, The BookBlast Diary 
How easy is to forgive a regime and one’s former torturers? 
What were Aziz’s primary motives behind writing this book – to lay ghosts to rest? To effect change? The world he depicts is barely imaginable for those of us living in a democracy.
Tune in to hear how Aziz Binebine survived 18 years in a #Moroccan desert Hell.
Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such | 27:46

tazmamart by aziz binebine

Bridging the Divide #7 | Lucy Popescu (Journalist) Lulu Norman (translator) on Aziz Binebine

Christopher MacLehose brought WG Sebald, José Saramago, Haruki Murakami, Claudio Magris, Javier Marías, Jin Yong and many others to English-language readers. He is credited as having launched the bestselling genre of crime fiction in translation now known as “Nordic Noir”. 

In 1984 you published Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Høeg, followed by Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander’s series in the 1990s a.k.a. “the father of Nordic noir”, Jo Nesbo in the 2000s, and Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Why do Scandinavians write such great crime fiction?   

As a consistently passionate advocate of fine literature in translation throughout your career, what in your view makes a good translation, and what makes it last?

Tune in to find out more . . . 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such | 57:04

read the world with maclehose press

Bridging the Divide #9 Guest interview | Christopher MacLehose, founder of  MacLehose Press

In THE WHITE DRESS, Nathalie Léger tells the story of Pippa Bacca, a thirty-three-year-old Italian feminist performance artist who decided to hitchhike from Milan to Jerusalem wearing a white wedding dress to symbolise “marriage between different peoples and nations.” 

Through her intense examination of Bacca’s final work and of the often polarised public reaction to the role of women in art, Léger also compellingly addresses her own conflicted relationship with her elderly mother. 

Does Bacca’s work actually need to be translated in a narrative form. Like any visual artist, it’s there in the performative act. Which makes one ask is all communication translation or indeed translatable?

In your view, what makes a good translator and how can translation change perceptions of our world? 

Discover the answers to these questions and more, as Lucy Popescu interviews award-winning translator Natasha Lehrer who has translated two of Léger’s books. 

Presented by Lucy Popescu | Produced by Rupert Such | 30:23

Bridging the Divide #13 | Lucy Popescu & Natasha Lehrer discuss Nathalie Leger’s The White Dress

"In The Fig Tree, deftly translated by Olivia Hellewell, Goran Vojnović portrays three generations of a family whose lives are marked by the disintegration of Yugoslavia and its brutal aftermath. It is a remarkable portrait of a country’s fragmentation and a family’s fracture." Lucy Popescu, The BookBlast Diary 

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such | 54:19

the fig tree

Bridging the Divide #14 | Lucy Popescu interviews Goran Vojnović, Olivia Hellewell

As a reminder of what entertaining, inoffensive satire constitutes, pick up a copy of Bestseller by Georgian trailblazer, Beka Adamashvili, deftly translated by Tamar Japaridze, published by Dedalus Books.
A blogger, screenwriter and creative director at an advertising company, Adamashvili’s mischievous sense of humor and deep knowledge of world literature, combined with marketing nous, sharpen his pen. Multiple allusions from literary classics are woven into his postmodern narrative as he sends up digimodernism and the shallowness of the desire for fame. Dante, Conan Doyle, Samuel Beckett, George Orwell and other literary heavyweights rebel against the author. Bestseller pokes fun at literary pretentiousness, humbug and bookish aspirations with wit and verve.
Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Rupert Such | 39.30

on satire

Bridging the Divide #15 | Georgian author Beka Adamashvili & Tamar Japaridze on literary satire

The BookBlast® Podcast is for writers, translators and curious readers who want a behind-the-scenes snapshot of the world of literature and translation. And it’s free! 
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