MLF Chapter & Verse
The Manchester Literature Festival Blog
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Young Digital Reporter Review: Eimear McBride
November 1, 2016
“Write about the truth of what it is like to be human”: Our Young Digital Reporter Laura Cooper reports on our recent in-conversation event with Eimear McBride. Eimar McBride is a novelist whose reviews are dogged by comparisons to James Joyce. Hardly a bad comparison for a writer early in their career, but it does limit […]
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Review: Eimear McBride
October 31, 2016
‘I like to be praised incessantly’: Our blogger Tara Sherman is delighted by the ‘insightful, funny and assured’ Eimear McBride at this year’s Festival. Be humane as a reader. That was a tip from Eimear McBride, author of A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing and The Lesser Bohemians, two equally brilliant novels that are built […]
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Review: Anne Enright
October 26, 2016
“You don’t really know why you’re going to write something the way you do until afterwards.”: Our blogger Phil Olsen headed to Hallé St Peter’s to hear Anne Enright reading and discussing her latest novel The Green Road, at this year’s Festival. Standing under the arches and the half-dome of Hallé St Peters, Centre for New […]
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Review: Lionel Shriver
October 21, 2016
Our blogger Eli Regan reports from Central Library, where Lionel Shriver, author of a dozen previous books including We Need to Talk About Kevin, discussed new novel The Mandibles with Sarfraz Manzoor. What happens when society and Western privilege collapse? Should we be sad at a future prospect of a mainly Spanish-speaking American president? Will art in […]
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Review: Jonathan Safran Foer
October 21, 2016
‘I have two identities, one as a writer who makes mistakes and one as an editor who goes in afterwards to tidy up and hunt out the typos.’: Our blogger Phil Olsen was illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer who read from his new novel Here I Am, and discussed his writing and life with Jeanette Winterson. Pausing […]
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Review: Gillian Slovo
October 21, 2016
Festival blogger Kate Woodward headed to International Anthony Burgess Foundation to learn about the author of 13 acclaimed books including the Orange-shortlisted Ice Road, Gillian Slovo, and her latest novel, Ten Days. I’m a wimp when it comes to grim news and prefer real events to be sanitised through the medium of fiction. I would never […]
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Review: Rose Tremain
October 17, 2016
Our blogger Sarah Jasmon reports from Central Library, where the bestselling author of 14 novels and beloved storyteller Rose Tremain was in conversation with writer and critic Alex Clark. “The difference between Rose Tremain and everyone else is that she sees a picture in a museum and builds a whole novel from it. We just […]
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Review: Margaret Atwood
October 17, 2016
“Revisiting the play as a modern novel was one of those things that sounded like a good idea at first, before you found out it was going to be harder than you thought.” Our blogger Emily Morris was delighted by Margaret Atwood’s novel, personality and rap. Margaret Atwood is many things: amazing author, brilliant poet and a total […]
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Young Digital Reporter Review: Gillian Slovo
October 17, 2016
‘No matter what you said yesterday, tomorrow will be different’: MLF’s Young Digital Reporter Mary Lou Fletcher reports on our recent in-conversation event with Gillian Slovo and Rachel Cooke. Rachel Cooke’s conversation with Gillian Slovo, which discussed her latest book, Ten Days, was much like the author’s work: witty and thought-provoking with a dash of humour. […]
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Review: Susan Barker
October 14, 2016
Festival blogger Melissa Brakel headed to International Anthony Burgess Foundation to learn how novelist Susan Barker researched and wrote her award-winning historical novel The Incarnations. Day 2 of the Manchester Literature Festival and we find ourselves tucked away off Oxford Road on the edge of Chorlton Mill, in the Engine House of the Anthony Burgess Foundation. […]