MLF Chapter & Verse
The Manchester Literature Festival Blog
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Review: Rebecca Solnit
November 10, 2017
Young Digital Reporter Jess Molyneux enjoys an evening with Rebecca Solnit and Jeanette Winterson What better note to start on, to combat any jitters we might have had on a wintry Halloween evening, than that Manchester had very recently been pronounced a UNESCO City of Literature. Glowing with pride in that home town of ours […]
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Review: Simon Schama
November 10, 2017
Young Digital Reporter Matthew Singleton reports on our event with Simon Schama It was a packed and perhaps surprisingly loud auditorium prior to the talk, considering the focus of the on-stage conversation would be on an 800 page, 5-decade-spanning tome. But that is the appeal of Simon Schama, a man known for his engaging histories […]
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Review: John Banville and Mike McCormack
November 10, 2017
Young Digital Reporter Alex Swinton reviews John Banville and Mike McCormack in conversation with Ian McGuire On Tuesday the 11th of October, I had the pleasure of attending a discussion between John Banville and Mike McCormack, ran by the Manchester Literature Festival. John Banville (pictured) has written 16 novels over the course of around 45 […]
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Review: George Monbiot
November 10, 2017
Young Digital Reporter Joe Fenn reports on our sell-out event with author and journalist George Monbiot As the audience slowly seeps into Manchester’s grand Dancehouse Theatre, eventually to fill practically all of the more than four hundred seats, faintly in the background float the quiet, Dylan-esque twangs of an indiscernible singer-songwriter. When the audience has […]
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Review: Lyndall Gordon
November 10, 2017
MLF young digital reporter Jess Molyneux reviews our event with Outsiders author Lyndall Gordon Assembled under the Portico Library’s famous blue domed ceiling, it really did feel that we were seated at the heart of a Manchester which has been a thriving centre of culture and intellect for centuries. At once quaint and magnificent, this […]
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Review: Roddy Doyle
November 10, 2017
Young Digital Reporter Elizabeth Gibson reviews our event with Irish novelist Roddy Doyle As I prepare to see Roddy Doyle at Manchester Literature Festival, I muse on the last time I encountered him: a couple of years ago, in an event based around his gentle, humorous Barrytown series. I am aware that tonight will probably […]
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Review: Joanna Moorhead on Leonora Carrington
November 3, 2017
Young Digital Reporter Maygen Senior reviews our event with author Joanna Moorhead On Tuesday night, I entered the hidden treasure of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester. The room was full of people chatting to friends, an electric buzz of conversation, and the bare walls of brick and red seats evoked an atmosphere of […]
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Review: Dorthe Nors
November 3, 2017
Our reviewer Phil Olsen enjoys a captivating talk about writing, translation and stories that ‘take place in a breath’ with Danish author Dorthe Nors. The opening Saturday of this year’s festival was a good day for fans of short stories. It was also a good day for fans of holing up in the International Anthony […]
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Review: Will Self
October 13, 2017
Our reviewer Henry Cockburn is vastly entertained by an evening with Will Self Self lumbers onto the stage dressed in a quasi-uniform of Napoleonic blue and high-throated red, mutters to himself through a jawful of gum, then plays peek-a-boo with the armchair. The effect is of a large off-duty circus monkey. The audience leans in, […]
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Review: Malika Booker
October 13, 2017
Roma Havers reports from our event with poet Malika Booker at the International Anthony Burgess Centre Despite the slightly delayed start due to unpredictable UK train services, there was an energy of excitement and good faith as the audience turned to see Malika Booker arrive. After a brief introduction from the Royal Literary Fund, who […]