roadTRIP

First cloud :D

masive attack

Everything But the Girl, musical duo

Cooldown

royal society literature

Writing Guideposts

Background, context, and highlights from the transcript: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/07/16/sylvia-plath-ted-hughes-bbc-interview-1961/

Rare 1961 BBC interview with Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes

Dressed in black and based in the US, Neil Gaiman has, in the past decade, become an author hero among readers of all ages, including the 1.8 million who follow him on Twitter. In prize-winning, best-selling novels including Coraline, Neverwhere, American Gods and The Graveyard Book, he combines the everyday and the other-worldly, drawing on sources from English folklore, science fiction, fantasy, horror and fairytales to rock music and the Midrash. An element of enchantment runs through all his work. To mark the publication of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, an unsettling and very personal fable about memory, magic and survival, he is making one public appearance in London. Interviewed by the Guardian's literary editor, Claire Armitstead, he reflects on the boundaries between children's and adult literature; the appeal of working in multiple forms - such as comics, picture books and screenplays; the writers - from Kipling to Edgar Allan Poe - who have most influenced him; and the lure of darkness.

The Guardian  is media partner for this event.

Neil Gaiman in conversation with Claire Armitstead: June 2013

THE COSMO DAVENPORT-HINES MEMORIAL MEETING

Writing a memoir is something most people leave until they are old and grey, with a life's work behind them; but Tracey Thorn and Damian Barr are just 50 and 36 respectively. Tracey Thorn's beautifully written, faintly wistful Bedsit Disco Queen, published in February, traces her development from shy, self-conscious teenager to internationally acclaimed pop-singer - one half of Everything But The Girl - and offers fascinating insights into the highs and lows of stardom. Damian Barr, prize-winning columnist, writer, playwright and presenter, is the founder of the Shoreditch House Literary Salon, and Maggie & Me, published this month, is his heartbreaking, heartwarming account of what it was like to grow up gay and in deep poverty in Thatcher's Britain.

In a conversation chaired by Susannah Clapp, theatre critic of the Observer, and interspersed with readings from their memoirs, they reflect on what moved them to look back on their lives so soon, explore the relationship between memory and imagination, and exchange views on the Iron Lady and her legacy.

Damian Barr and Tracey Thorn on midlife memoir

Join in: www.facebook.com/theclassicmixcdseries

About the CD:
This CD's quality is 100% undisputed. It's memories to my early 20's is unrivalled. Moulding the laid back sounds I started listening to by mixing laid back house, downtempo, hip hop, soul and plain and simple incredible music into one cd. For me, it really is a seminal mix and one which holds endless memories of lazy weekends of Sunderland. Enjoy and share x

015 - Back To Mine - Everything But The Girl (2001)

Jackson Landers, a hunter, author, adventurer, and founder of the invasivore movement, on shooting pythons, cooking geese and what it means to be a locavore hunter.

Jackson Landers: The Locavore Hunter

Novelist and short story writer Margaret Drabble discusses the ethics of portraiture, the public versus the private image, the defining of character in paint and prose, and the many faces of Doris Lessing.

This event was part of 'Portraits of Writers', a series of talks in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, to coincide with the exhibition 'On Paper: Portraits of Writers'.

Portraits Of Writers Royal Society Of Literature - Margret Drabble on Doris Lessing

THE HAWTHORNDEN LECTURE

In 1948, the novelist and poet Jack Kerouac coined the name 'Beat Generation' for an underground, anti-conformist youth movement in New York. In the decade that followed, works such as Kerouac's On the Road, Allen Ginsberg's Howl and William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch (the last two sparkling obscenity trials that ultimately revolutionised American publishing) formed a distinct 'Beat' literature. Iain Sinclair has been described by the Daily Telegraph as 'one of our most dazzling stylists', and American Smoke, published this month, completes the trilogy he began with Hackney: That Rose-Red Empire and continued with Ghost Milk. In a talk introduced by novelist and screenwriter Deborah Moggach, he conducts a memory interrogation, touching on the past meetings, lost archives, chance discoveries, volcano obsessions and fated decisions of the Beats.

We are grateful to the Hawthornden Charitable Trust for sponsoring this event.

Ian Sinclair on the Beats

THE TAGORE MEMORIAL MEETING

'Pakistan produces people of extraordinary bravery,' Nadeem Aslam has written, 'but no nation should ever require its citizens to be that brave.' His sentiment is shared by Kamila Shamsie, and the work of both novelists has focused on the human cost of conflict in their homeland. Nadeem Aslam was born in Pakistan, and experienced the devastation of General Zia's martial rule before his family fled to Huddersfield when he was 14. He has traced the plight of his compatriots from small-town Pakistan in 'Season of the Rainbirds' (1994), to the north of England in Maps for 'Lost Lovers' (2005), and back again in 'The Blind Man's Garden', published earlier this year. Kamila Shamsie grew up in Karachi, and many of her novels - 'In the City by the Sea', 'Salt and Saffron', 'Kartography' and 'Broken Verses' - have centred on struggles in her hometown. In a conversation chaired by essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra, Aslam and Shamsie discuss writing fiction, set in Pakistan and beyond, during the 'war on terror' years.

We are grateful to the Robert Gavron Charitable Trust for sponsoring this event.

The Pakistani novel today

Listen to the fourth of four exclusive pre-publication clips from Tracey Thorn's autobiography, read by Tracey herself - out on audio on 16th January. Available on pre-order now from Audible.co.uk

Tracey Thorn was seventeen when she formed The Marine Girls, then for eighteen years, between 1982 and 2000, was one half of the group Everything But the Girl. This is her autobiography, starting from post-punk teen-band rivalry in suburban Hertfordshire and reaching international chart-topping success via a shared bedsit in Hull. Covering three decades of touring and making music, and collaborations with Paul Weller, Massive Attack and dance legend Todd Terry, this is the funny, perceptive and candid true story of how Tracey Thorn grew up and tried to be a pop star.

Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn

‘I am drawn to people who seem to have been born defeated,’ Penelope Fitzgerald once wrote. She considered herself one of these, and despite great early promise lived much of her life in drudgery and near destitution. Then, in her late 50s, she began to write. Over the next two decades, she not only published three biographies, but nine brief and brilliant novels, four of which were shortlisted for the Booker, Offshore winning it. At 80, Fitzgerald found fame both sides of the Atlantic. Chaired by Hermione Lee, whose widely acclaimed biography of Fitzgerald was published last autumn, and who will speak about her life, three writers celebrate one of the great writers of the 20th Century, and one of the most fascinating. Biographer and critic Susannah Clapp, who regularly edited Fitzgerald’s work at the LRB, considers her biography of the poet Charlotte Mew. Penelope Lively, who was a friend, talks about The Gate of Angels. Alan Hollinghurst looks at Offshore, a novel based on Fitzgerald’s experiences of living on a leaky houseboat on the Thames.

We are grateful to the Royal Literary Fund
for sponsoring this event.

On Penelope Fitzgerald

One hundred years after the outbreak of the Great War, Peter Parker introduces four writers, and the pieces of First World War literature that mean most to them. Poet and fiction writer Tobias Hill looks at Alain-Fournier’s Le Grand Meaulnes. The Irish poet Michael Longley, whose father was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry during the First World War, reads from the poetry of Robert Graves, Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon and Edward Thomas, as well as his own war-inspired work. Timberlake Wertenbaker, whose most recent play, Our Ajax, looks at the trauma of modern warfare, explains how she was
marked by Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy. And Louisa Young, author of the bestselling First World War novel My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You, considers The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West.

Voices of the Great War

Hannah Tinti is a writer, editor, and teacher.  Her short story collection, Animal Crackers, has sold in sixteen countries and was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway award. Her best-selling novel, The Good Thief, is a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, recipient of the American Library Association’s Alex Award, winner of the The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and winner of the Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Voices Award. She is now finishing a new novel.

Hannah has worked at bookstores, magazines, publishing houses, and literary agencies. In 2002 she co-founded the award-winning magazine One Story and for the past 12 years has been its Editor in Chief. In 2009 she received the PEN/Nora Magid award for excellence in editing and in 2014 One Story won the AWP Prize for Best Small Press. In 2011, she joined the Public Radio program, Selected Shorts, as their Literary Commentator, interviewing authors and actors about the importance of literature and reading.

More at www.hannahtinti.com

More on First Draft on Aspen Public Radio: aspenpublicradio.org/programs/first-draft


First Cuts from First Draft - Hannah Tinti

Background and context: http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/10/mary-oliver-on-punctuation/

Recorded by the Lannan Foundation, 2001

TRANSCRIPT

Seven White Butterflies: Mary Oliver on punctuation

Interview by Luisa Cotardo conducted in 1995. Transcript and background: http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/11/jeff-buckley-interview/

Recording courtesy of Luisa Cotardo (http://luisacotardo.tumblr.com) for Brain Pickings (http://www.brainpickings.org)

TRANSCRIPT / CONTEXT

Jeff Buckley on music and life

Think I'm going for a walk now.. I feel a little unsteady. I don't want nobody to follow me, 'Cept maybe you...

Ani DiFranco - Untouchable Face

From Tracey Thorn's 'Extended Plays 2010-2011', available digitally from Merge Records.

Extended Plays 2010-2011

Night Time (The xx Cover)

Tracey Thorn "Night Time (The xx Cover)"

Background: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/08/07/the-histories-of-the-universe-patti-smith/

Patti Smith "The Histories of the Universe" (1975)

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE DOWNLOAD:
http://phutureprimitive.bandcamp.com/track/massive-attack-teardrop-phutureprimitive-remix

Massive Attack - Teardrop (Phutureprimitive Remix)

'In the Cold, Cold Night' is the first track to be released from Tracey's upcoming album of modern and retro Christmas classics, 'Tinsel and Lights' (album out Oct 29/30).

Written by Jack White and originally performed by The White Stripes, it forms part of a unique transatlantic 'double A-side' digital single. While Strange Feeling release 'In the Cold, Cold Night' in the UK, Tracey's American label Merge Records will release the album's title track 'Tinsel and Lights' on the same day.

Seek out both!



Tracey Thorn / 'In the Cold, Cold Night'

Massive Attack - Live With Me

Daddy G - BBC 6 Music Session

arranged and mixed by Robert Del Naja and Euan Dickinson
songs: Terry Callier
music: Neil Davidge and Robert Del Naja
original recordings, Bristol 2005

Terry Callier - The Windmill Hill Sessions

'Snow. Everywhere I go.' 

Tracey Thorn - voice. Ben Watt - piano. Ewan Pearson - tundra drone. Written by Randy Newman. Taken from Tracey Thorn's album 'Tinsel and Lights'. Out now.

Buy album

Tracey Thorn / 'Snow'

4hero - Morning Child - Daddy G (Massive Attack) - Edit

Excerpt from Orwell's fantastic 1946 essay outlining his 11 "golden" rules of tea perfection: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/05/14/george-orwell-a-nice-cup-of-tea/

TRANSCRIPT / DETAILS

George Orwell on how to make the perfect cup of tea

Jazz muy Tarde - Ou yea (unreleased 2010)

Founded in 1820, the RSL acts as a voice for the value of literature, honouring and supporting emerging and established writers whilst creating a bridge between authors and audiences of all backgrounds and experiences to engage as many people as possible with the wealth of literature in the UK.

Damian Barr and Tracey Thorn on midlife memoir

Royal Society Literature