Adventures With Words

Each weekend we round up some of the best articles or features that you may have missed during the week. Sit down with a coffee (other beverages are available) and enjoy.

The Makers and Stars of The Wire are Interrogated - (Maxim)

Maxim question the makers and stars of the show about its enduring appeal.

Wired’s first ever issue and 12,000 word history - (Wired)

Wired magazine have reproduced their first ever issue from 1993 on the iPad, along with a 12,000 oral history of the magazine itself.

Edmund de Waal on Inspiration for Writing and Art - (The Browser)

The author of The Hare with Amber Eyes, who is also a ceramic artist, talks about the books that have influenced his career.

The Meme Generation - (Weekly Standard)

Inside the third biennial ROFL conference.

Each weekend we round up some of the best articles or features that you may have missed during the week. Sit down with a coffee (other beverages are available) and enjoy.

Jonathan Franzen: the path to Freedom - (The Guardian)

Before the huge success of The Corrections, the novelist was broke, depressed and stuck in an unhappy marriage. In a lecture on autobiography and fiction, he explains how he overcame a sense of shame, guilt and disloyalty.

What Do Spoilers Spoil? - (The New York Times)

Stanley Fish on exactly what do spoiler spoil?

The Pleasures of Being Read To - (The New Yorker)

John Colapinto on the history of the audiobook and why being read to is so special.

On Censorship - (The New Yorker)

Salman Rushdie on censorship and why no writers wants to face it.

Did we miss anything? Send us your reading recommendations in the comments below or via Twitter and Facebook.

Robert Chilver - @robchilver

“We are living, in this country, through a golden age of fiction.”

John Sutherland, the Lord Northcliffe Emeritus Professor of Modern English Literature at UCL

Last night, the eight titles selected for Fiction Uncovered 2012 promotion were announced, representing the best of British fiction.

The eight titles are

• Two Cows and a Vanful of Smoke by Peter Benson, Alma Books
• The Light of Amsterdam by David Park, Bloomsbury
• This is Life by Dan Rhodes, Canongate
• Hit and Runby Doug Johnstone, Faber and Faber
• My Former Heart by Cressida Connolly, Fourth Estate
• When Nights Were Cold by Susanna Jones, Mantle
• Lucky Bunny by Jill Dawson, Sceptre
• Crushed Mexican Spiders by Tibor Fischer, Unbound

Read More

A number of authors have become as much renowned for the bloodiness of their stories as for the twists in their plots. But just what attracts us to these grisly novels and why do people choose to read violent crime?

Violent crime and horror books have a lot in common. Both can be challenging reads, testing the reader’s boundaries as much as their stomach. In addition, crime novels are also heavily focused on plot: who did it and why? Often with violent crime, we are asking how they did it and with how much blood… Unlike horror films, books are in one sense distancing us from gruesome events, as you are reading words and not seeing the images, but in another sense they become that bit more personal as you are complicit in creating the horrific experience. It is the thrill of being shocked that attracts many readers to the genre and it is one that is rooted in our own society.

Read More

Here at Adventures With Words Towers, we know that sometimes, while it’s great reading a brand new book from a first-time author, the old ones can be the best. It’s worth taking some time to rediscover a few modern classics once in a while. Luckily, it turns out Hodder agree; they’re promoting some of their established authors - the backlist - to remind us about some of the good stuff already out there. Here are some suggestions to get you started…

Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold
In 1923, the magician Charles Carter found himself implicated in the mysterious death of US President Harding. Glen David Gold takes the bare bones of a biography of a famous 1920s illusionist and escapologist, and fleshes it out into a marvellous and magical life story, as well as a tightly plotted thriller. The way in which Gold ramps up the tension has been compared to Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White. He brings to life the sparkle and temptation of the Jazz Age, as well as the public’s desperate need for escapism in a time of economic turmoil.

Read More

“You can’t really say she sounds like anyone you’ve ever heard before but somehow you feel like you’ve known these songs all your life.”  This neat soundbite perfectly sums up singer-songwriter Hannah Scott.  I first met Hannah at university, where I was lucky enough to get a preview of some of her early work.

Hannah has been writing music, and lyrics, since her early teens but it was a year spent in Tuscany that inspired her to start performing more seriously. She has self-released an album and two EPs, packed with lyrically intelligent songs and her highly distinctive voice. Last year, Hannah reached the final of MOJO Magazine’s New Voice competition, where panellist and legendary BBC 6 DJ Tom Robinson described her performance as “clear, assured, melodic, memorable”.  She gigs extensively in London and East Anglia, including shows alongside Ed Sheeran and supports with folk favourites Cara Dillon and Seth Lakeman.

Hannah took a break from putting the finishing touches to her new EP, Still Static, to answer some questions about what it’s like to write songs…

Read More