No results found

Waterperry web banner2 f2suhd
What's On, Culture, Literature

Page Turner

divider
Page Turner April Brain Book

Lots of things exciting things going on in the book world this month, so maybe this column should be called Book Ends rather than Page Turner this time.

On April 29, the shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 will be announced! The longlist, released earlier in March, is stellar. It features some titles that I have personally raved about here before (Anna Burns’ Milkman, Sally Rooney’s Normal People, The Pisces by Melissa Broder, Ordinary People by Diana Evans, and my absolute cherished and favourite, Sarah Moss’ Ghost Wall) and others that are quickly worming their way on to my To Be Read pile – Sophie van Llewyn’s Bottled Goods, a novella (yes) set in communist Romania with folk magic (yes yes), and Freshwater (Akwaeke Emezi), a bildungsroman following a young woman who comes to terms with being a spirit child, a combination of spirits and personalities in a single body. Emezi is also the first non-binary and trans plural person to be nominated for this award, and their inclusion is a good step forward (they were asked whether they were happy to be nominated for the Women’s Prize before the announcement and said yes.) I am notoriously bad at predicting shortlist – let alone winners – ahead of the fact, but on this longlistlist there’s not a single person I would not be delighted to see win.

I am reluctant in a way to publicise this, but I also want to recommend the Last Bookshop, located dangerously close to my workplace, on Walton Street. Split into two levels, one with remaindered books at the criminally good price of two for a fiver, and an extensive second-hand collection downstairs it has become The Place that I use when I want a little pick-me-up that won’t break the bank. My latest find was The Spies, a comic novella by Luis Fernando Verissimo, that manages to take literary plagiarism, grumpy academics and editors, and a rather mysterious brothel and turn it into a delightful romp of a book. It is a delight of a place, and I cannot recommend it too highly.

Virago are coming out with Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalisation of Love by Naomi Wolf this month which – if you were lucky enough to drop into the Weston Library for their banned books exhibition back in January – promises to be both a delightful companion and also a deeper look into the difficult relationship between censorship, sexuality, and literature.

April also welcomes the Oxford Literary Festival for 23rd year running. Having been on both sides of the curtain, I can tell you the extraordinary preparation, logistics, team-work, and stress that goes with it, so if you see a bookseller during this period give them good luck. Suitably, the Festival this year has a focus on sustainable living and farming, under the banner of Pasture to Plate, and all of the standard favourite fixtures (Marcus du Sautoy, Ben Okri, and Joanne Harris to name but a few).

Whew. See you all in May, for the beginning of the Summer Reads season.

RECOMMENDED

Naila Hazell The Kiss oil and acrylic on linen 2024 thb5eg
Thu 10 Oct 2024

Making Women’s Work Visible

The Women in Art Fair at Frieze London

After last year’s successful launch, the Women in Art Fair (WIAF) returns as part of London Frieze Week. Drawing together women artists, gallerists and curators, this year’s show received over 2,000 submissions following an open call on the theme of ‘the creative process’.

Default fifty people of a variety of races and genders gather 1 1 ghsihy
Thu 10 Oct 2024

The Didcot Mind Body Wellbeing Show has a new venue - Hagbourne Village Hall. The event takes place on Sunday 13th October 11-5pm, marking a change from its previous location at the Didcot Marlborough Club.

HN FLYER uevx5p
Wed 9 Oct 2024

Pick up ‘Playing Hooky’ and discover 175 years of heritage and history at Hook Norton Brewery, Oxfordshire. Written by the award-winning journalist Adrian Tierney-Jones, the book takes you on a fascinating journey through the history of the brewery, its pubs and of course its beer.

debbie biog pic zrvdbt
Fri 4 Oct 2024

This autumn, a limited-edition hand-printed book by Artweeks artist Deb Sutcliffe, Animals in Antiquity, promises a series of stunning linocuts each derived from sketches of striking sculptures and painted ceramics in the collections of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.