Ebola has been a talking point in Italy as far back as April of this year, in particular for the various political parties that are campaigning for tougher immigration laws. “We shouldn’t give time to these idiots that think Ebola will arrive in Italy by small boats loaded with desperate immigrants looking to cross the […]
Iggy Pop’s John Peel Lecture, entitled ‘Free Music in a Capitalist Society’ grapples with notions of art, exploitation, file-sharing and – as has been widely publicised – U2’s free Apple-sponsored download. Using his lifetime’s experience in the music ‘industry’, Pop (a.k.a James Newell Osterberg, Jr.) talks about artistic ambitions, binary-code, and the relationship between money […]
From Toni Morrison through to Roddy Doyle, we’ve collected quotes from 50 top writers reflecting on James Joyce and his influence on literature.
John le Carre explains the relationship between mysticism and espionage literature, and why he dislikes James Bond.
While doing some research for an upcoming James Joyce article, I stumbled across this great piece by Geoffrey Eugenides (The Marriage Plot, Middlesex, and The Virgin Suicides). In interview, back in 2012, with the New York Times he responded to that classic question “You’re organizing a dinner party of writers and can invite three authors, […]
The city of Ascoli Piceno while easy to reach, is also far enough away from the main attractions of the Marche region to keep it off the general tourist track for many people, which is a shame because it’s a real jewel, with plenty to see and do, as TMO Travel found on a recent […]
Speaking about bridges, the Italian writer Erri De Luca, who was himself once a bricklayer said: “The Bridge is the only building work that is generous and social (cordiale). Instead of dividing [like walls], it wants to unite, to connect, to span over rivalry”. Italy with its passions for architecture, regional rivalry, and history has […]
Speaking on a post-election-special of the talk show Ballaró, Giulio Anselmi, the president of the ANSA press agency, was asked what had surprised him most about the European Elections campaign: “I was most struck by how they [the campaigners] didn’t talk at all about European issues, but then that’s a tradition in European elections in […]
Tahar Ben Jelloun, the prize winning Moroccan novelist and essayist, author of books including The Sand Child,The Sacred night, and This Blinding Absence of Light, has been talking, at the Turin book fair about his latest novel L’Ablation. The novel which is already a best-seller in France, and has just been published in Italy, tells […]
James Joyce‘s hugely influential short story collection Dubliners was published in 1914, and there are lots of publications / events and even apps to celebrate the centenary. One very exciting project is Dubliners 100. The new Irish literary publishers Tramp Press (founded by Sarah Davis-Goff* and Lisa Coen) invited a number of respected Irish writers […]
