Well not theirs exactly but the first novel from Jo Eames who is one of the owners, and very good it is too….see our review

We are very pleased to announce that John Sutherland and John Crace will be coming to Warwick Words as an unmissable duo as part of our ‘Meet The Author’ series.  John Sutherland will be talking about his new book ‘Love, Sex, Death and Words: Surprising Tales from a Year in Literature’, and this promises to be one of the most entertaining talks you have heard in a long while if one of his previous books ‘Curiosities of Literature’ is anything to go by.  ‘Love, Sex, Death and Words: Surprising Tales from a Year in Literature’ is a rich and varied exploration of the human condition across the centuries in which John turns up the most inspiring, enlightening, surprising or curious artefacts that literature has to offer day by day throughout the year. Particular emphasis will be laid on the dates of the Warwick Words Festival itself, so this will be of added interest. John’s brief CV tells you an awful lot about him………..’John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus of Modern English Literature at UCL (”emeritus” being Latin for “scrapheap” and “Northcliffe” journalistic shorthand for “you cannot be serious”). He currently teaches at the California Institute of Technology and is the author of twenty-odd books, mainly on books of a more important kind than his own.’

His partner at the event John Crace will be talking about his new book which is due out at Warwick Words `Brideshead Abbreviated The Digested Read of the Twentieth Century’.  John, the creator of the Guardian’s Digested Read column, hilariously summarises the great – and not so great – classics of modern literature…His Guardian pieces have rightly acquired a cult following. Each week fans avidly devour his latest razor-sharp literary assassination, while authors turn tremblingly to the appropriate page of the review section, fearful that it may be their turn to be mercilessly sent up.

Now he turns his critical eye on the classics of the last hundred years, offering bite-sized summaries of everything from Mrs Dalloway  to Possession via Lolita and Midnight’s Children. Those who have never quite got round to reading Ulysses  will be delighted to find its essence distilled into a mere four paragraphs. Those who have never quite got on with Seven Pillars of Wisdom will be pleased to find it hilariously parodied in an easily swallowable 752 words. And those who find all such books intimidatingly highbrow will be relieved to find that they can also discover, between the covers of this book, John Crace’s take on the likes of Jeffrey Archer, John Grisham and J.K. Rowling.

Witty, occasionally a bit cruel, the two Johns are ideal foils to each other and this promises to be a real highlight of the Festival, and not to be missed….

The talk has been re-scheduled from the times shown in the hard copy version of the Warwick Words programme and now takes place on Monday 4th October at 7.30pm and is in the Bridge House Theatre.

Andrea Gillies has been receiving a lot of publicity recently for her book ‘Keeper’. We had already recognised its potential , and asked if she would give a talk at Warwick Words which we are glad to say she has agreed to do.  A two page article about the importance of her book was in this week’s ‘Times’, and below is the article that appeared in ‘The Bookseller’.

Gillies Keeps Orwell Prize

20.05.10 | Victoria Gallagher

Andrea Gillies’ Keeper ‘(Short Books) has won this year’s Orwell Prize for political writing.
Gillies fought off competition from titles including Petina Gappah’s An Elegy for Easterly (Faber), Christopher De Bellaigue’s Rebel Land and Kenan Malik’s From Fatwa to Jihad (Atlantic) to claim the £3,000 prize money and plaque. The book chronicles the author’s experience of caring for her mother-in-law, Nancy, as her Alzheimer’s disease accelerates.

This year’s Book Prize judges were Jonathan Heawood, director at English PEN, Andrew Holgate, literary editor of the Sunday Times and Francine Stock, writer and broadcaster.

The judges said: “Andrea Gillies’ extraordinary first-hand account of caring for a relative with Alzheimer’s disease rises beyond memoir – although it is a startlingly honest and vivid one – to deliver a radical exploration of identity and memory.

“She argues powerfully for change in the way we deal with age and senility, a looming political issue for the 21st century.”

‘Keeper’ also won the inaugural Wellcome Prize for medicine in literature.

2009 saw the launch of the Usborne Young Writers’ Award. Created to celebrate five years of fiction from Usborne, the award offered children the unique opportunity to write a storywith a real author. The competition was an unrivalled success with over 5,000 entries and 15,000 hits on the dedicated website.
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Read more on The Usborne Young Writers’ Award 2010

Warwick Words                          Festival of Literature and Spoken Word  

1 – 10 October 2010 Warwick Poet Laureate 2010/2011

Warwick Words presents its seventh poetry competition to find Warwick Poet Laureate 2010/2011. The competition is open to anyone aged 18 and over living in Warwickshire. You must send four poems including one poem based on the National Poetry Day theme of Home and a statement of interest.

Details of how to apply and where to send your entries can be obtained by emailing info@warwickwords.co.uk.

 The position of Warwick Poet Laureate is an honorary one, for which there is no payment. Candidates must be capable of writing good poetry and willing and able to perform their own work. The Laureate must be willing to get involved in key events and activities throughout the year. The Laureate will be commissioned to write some poems about Warwickshire throughout the year.

The winner and runners-up will have the opportunity to read their poems at the Festival Launch on Friday 1 October at 6.00pm at Warwickshire Museum.