BOOKPATHS

England

Writer and translator, Jesse Browner, explains why we "must read" A Month in the Country, by J. L. Carr.

Most importantly, Tom needs to be healed, as we all do to some extent, and he is — by the restorative powers of his slow, patient work, by his recognition of love, even unfulfilled love, as a regenerative force, by the erosion of his isolation in the warm waters of community. And as his month in the country comes to its gentle, quiet end, the reader, too, somehow feels healed, as if they had shared a common, ancient hurt.

London, England

Malcolm Burgess, publisher of the City-Lit series, chooses "10 of the best books set in London."

Kensington Gardens, London, England

Sarah Crown “strolls through Kensington Gardens and hears from William Boyd and other writers about the park’s enduring source of inspiration.”

Norwich, England

Rachel B. Doyle visits Norwich England, "a getaway for book lovers."

Norwich, a two-hour train ride northeast from London, has increasingly become a refuge for writers fleeing the hectic pace of the capital's publishing scene.  At first glance it appears to be just another charming medieval town, with a fantastically preserved castle and a 900-year-old cathedral.  But look a little deeper and you'll notice the wellspring of author readings and literary festivals, featuring recent talks by Booker Prize winners like John Banville and Penelope Lively.

Suffolk, England

Stuart Jeffries and film-maker Grant Gee retrace "a portion of the walk [W. G.] Sebald did over several days for what is arguably his greatest book, 1995's The Rings of Saturn."

The sea wind whips through my thermals and the driving rain mocks my decision to leave the waterproofs in the car.  Cliff-top paths, walkable last spring, have toppled into the sea.  The nearest pub is miles away.  Yet here we are, standing on the cliff at Covehithe in Suffolk, on the very spot where the great writer WG Sebald stood....

The Life and Times of Paddington Bear, Museum of Reading, Berkshire, England

The Life and Times of Paddington Bear is on exhibition at the Museum of Reading through July 4, 2010.

Celebrating the famous bear from 'Darkest Peru' and his creator, Michael Bond, who spent his childhood in Reading. This exhibition tells the story from the very first book 'A Bear Called Paddington', published in 1958, to the most recent title in the series 'Paddington: Here and Now', published in 2008 - exactly fifty years later. – Museum of Reading Website

Bloomsbury Archive, King’s College Cambridge, England

Alison Flood  reports on “a new archive of letters by the Bloomsbury group that is being opened to public viewing for the first time.”  The archive also includes “30 albums of photographs featuring key members of the group such as Forster and Strachey.”

The two collections belonged to the novelist Rosamond Lehmann and the diarist and writer Frances Partridge, once described by fellow group member Clive Bell as having 'the best legs in Bloomsbury'. Lehmann and Partridge became friends at Cambridge University, later getting to know the group of intellectuals that also included Woolf, EM Forster, Lytton Strachey and JM Keynes. – from “New Bloomsbury Archive Casts Revealing Light on Virginia Woolf’s Death,” by Alison Flood, The Guardian

Related Website

News and Events, University of Cambridge

London, England

Sebastian Faulks talks about his new book, A Week in December, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Sebastian Faulks' 'A Week in December' is a seven-day tour of modern London written in Dickensian style. Charles Dickens' rich cast of 19th century characters dealt with class conflict, wealth, poverty and true love. Faulks' modern-day characters deal with terrorism, greed, the Internet and — because some things never change — true love. – from “Seven Days in Seven Lives: A Week in December,” NPR Website

England

Richard Lea interviews Tim Pears.

Since leaving school to pursue writing at 16, Tim Pears has steered a quietly defiant course, standing up for provincial life in the face of metropolitan self-importance and refusing his readers easy consolations. – from “Tim Pear’s ‘small acts of resistance,’” by Richard Lea, The Guardian

The Rose Theatre, 21 New Globe Walk, London, England

Read about the continuing campaign to save The Rose Theatre, “London’s most historic theatre, the first Elizabethan Theatre on Bankside and home to many of Shakespeare’s and Marlowe’s first productions.”

(Photograph from The Guardian)