Literature Playlist

How do novelists and poets approach so contentious a subject? A panel consisting of writers who have published books about violent political events and their consequences - Adam Foulds, Chris Petit and Kamila Shamsie - considers the ethical and aesthetic challenges of creating art from such material.  Chaired by Pankaj Mishra.

Literature and Political Violence (Adam Foulds, Pankaj Mishra, Chris Petit, Kamila Shamsie)

Ferdinand Mount examines some stirring successes, tantalising near misses and abject failures in giving literary voice to politics.  Chaired by Justin Cartwright.

Writers in Search of Politics (Ferdinand Mount)

Born in Nottingham in 1957, Robert Harris grew up with a burning ambition to write, matched only by a deep fascination with politics. At 30, he became the political editor of The Observer. At 35, he published his first novel, Fatherland, which imagines a world in which the Nazis won the Second World War. It has sold over 3 million copies. Last autumn, he published Dictator, the final novel in his acclaimed trilogy about Cicero. In conversation with Peter Kemp, Chief Fiction Reviewer for The Sunday Times, he explores his belief that politics is “the essence of life” and how this belief has informed his fiction, and discusses which writers have influenced him and whether he was ever tempted to turn to Parliament rather than the pen.

The political novel

This lecture launches both our Literature Matters events and Marina Warner’s presidency of the RSL. Dame Marina looks at the interactions of stories and power in unsettled times, and asks whether ancient myths, retold in different media, can help build common ground. Marina Warner is a writer of fiction and cultural history. Her many publications include studies of the Virgin Mary and The Arabian Nights. She is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a contributing editor to The London Review of Books. She was appointed CBE in 2008 and DBE in 2015. The event is introduced by Kamila Shamsie.

Literature Matters: imagination in action

Set on ‘a Wednesday in mid-June’, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (like James Joyce’s Ulysses) takes place over the course of a single day. Virginia Woolf’s biographer Hermione Lee talks to novelist Alan Hollinghurst about Woolf’s legacy and influence, especially on his most recent novel, The Sparsholt Affair. During this celebration of one of the 20th Century’s most important novels, literary critic Elaine Showalter, author of the seminal A Literature of their Own, and Sarah Churchwell, Chair of Public Understanding in the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, discuss the significance of Mrs Dalloway and its ongoing influence on literary culture.

Dalloway Day 2018

Making art from real events is as old to writing as the pen – older. But what happens when the events you are writing about have taken place recently, or are happening as you type? What are the writer’s duties to fact? And how does a writer bring insights from current events to bear on the historical contexts of their work? 

Ali Smith has published three novels in a four-novel seasonal cycle, Autumn, Winter and Spring, exploring time, society and art in the context of Brexit Britain. Her books take the most of-the-moment political and social developments into the world of the novel. Jay Bernard’s collection, Surge, is a fearless exploration of the Black British archive, drawing its enquiry into the New Cross Fire in 1981 alongside the 2017 Grenfell disaster. James Graham’s play The Vote takes place in the last 90 minutes before polls close in the 2015 General Election, and was broadcast live on Channel 4 on election night. His 2019 drama for Channel 4, Brexit: The Uncivil War, explored the very recent history of the Brexit referendum.

Their conversation is chaired by writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet.

This event was broadcast by BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking programme and is available as an Arts & Ideas podcast.

Literature Matters: In The Moment

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.

Literature Matters: In The Moment

Royal Society Literature