The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2007

James Fenton, who was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2007 in April this year was interviewed last night by Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4's arts programme Front Row. He will collect the award on Thursday from HM The Queen, at Buckingham Palace.

The following books are available in the Wodehouse Library:

Terminal moraine 820/FEN
The poetry quartets: 3 (2 cassettes) with Tony Harrison, Peter Reading and Ken Smith 821/POE
Translation by James Fenton of Tirso De Molina Tamar's revenge 860/DEM

It became apparent in the interview that he would rather receive this award than be made Poet Laureate. The award is made based on a recommendation by the Poet Laureate - currently Andrew Motion. He commented that although Andrew Motion's poetry had not suffered under the office, he felt that Ted Hughes' had. Fenton was honoured to receive an award which had previously been made to TS Eliot when it was The King's Gold Medal for Poetry.

You can read the citation on the Buckingham Palace website:
http://www.qmmemorial.gov.uk/output/Page5946.asp
or listen again to the interview from the BBC Radio 4 website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/frontrow/

The Mersey Sound

Roger McGough and Brian Patten were interviewed this morning on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. They are two of the authors of the The Mersey Sound anthology first published in 1967 , the other was Adrian Henri. They each read a poem from this distinctive collection which has sold one million copies and has just been re-published to mark the anniversary.

They will be reading their 20 most requested poems as part of the Southbank Literary Festival in an event called Roger McGough and Brian Patten: 40-Love in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 29 June 2007 at 7.30pm. Follow this link to book tickets or for more information:

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/literature-spoken-word/productions/roger-mcgough-and-brian-patten-16723

International Man Booker Prize

The second Man Booker International Prize has been awarded to Nigerian author and poet, Chinua Achebe. The Man Booker International Prize recognises one writer for their achievement in fiction. 2005 saw the awarding of the inaugural prize to Albanian author, Ismail Kadare. The prize is awarded once every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English, or generally available in translation in the English language.

Orange Prize Winner Announced

Half of a Yellow Sun by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. Her first novel Purple Hibiscus was shortlisted for the award in 2006. Both books are available to borrow in the Wodehouse Library.

For more details about the winner see the Orange Prize website:

http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/opf/winner.php4

New Ondaatje novel

Old Alleynian, Michael Ondaatje (1954-62), has just published a new novel Divisadero, named for a street in San Francisco where one of the characters, Anna, used to live. The book was reviewed in the New Yorker on 4th June and another review from Time Out New York is available online at http://www.timeout.com/newyork/Details.do?page=1&xyurl=xyl://TONYWebArticles1/609/books/divisadero.xml

Homage to Raymond Chandler

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by the American author Michael Chabon was reviewed on Saturday Review (Radio 4) by Tom Sutcliffe and guests: Susannah Clapp – theatre critic,
Howard Schuman – screenwriter and Amanda Vickery – historian . The story is written in the style of a noir thriller and is both a whodunit and an exploration of what it means to be in exile, and they felt it was an homage to OA Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. It imagines that the new state of Israel collapses and that Alaska is designated as a temporary safe haven for the Jews in 1948.

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon is published by Fourth Estate.

Silent Spring

For a few months now I have been trying to work out where to shelve a book called Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson. It is in the Archives because the introduction is written by Lord Shackleton, the son of OA Sir Ernest Shackleton, but not an OA himself. So I was intrigued when listening to Open Book on Radio 4, which last week came from the Hay Festival, to hear that it is regarded by most people as the first environmental book. Carson's controversial book, and her legacy were discussed by Rosie Boycott, author of Our Farm: A Year in the Life of a Smallholding and Mariella Frostrup.

The book was chosen for discussion because May 2007 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rachel Carson. She battled a place for herself in the male dominated world of marine biology and zoology. In Silent Spring, published in 1962, she was the first person to make the fundamental connection between pesticides sprayed onto crops and the damage caused to wildlife. She was attacked in the press and by chemical companies including Monsanto. It was John F Kennedy who recognised the book for what it was, which no doubt helped it to sell 500,000 copies. Rosie Boycott admitted that the writing is certainly not as lyrical as some of the science books that have appeared since but it is still worth reading.

You can borrow the copy from the Archives, it is also published by Penguin and you can listen to the discussion at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/openbook/ram/openbook.ram

The discussion does not start until 22:30 minutes into the programme.

A Verity translation

Anthony Verity's excellent new translation of the Greek poet Pindar's victory odes for winners in the ancient Games, has just been published by Oxford University Press as part of the Oxford World's Classics series with comprehensive, up-to-date introductory material and annotation by Stephen Instone. Anthony Verity's translation is readable, lucid, and keeps close to the Greek without lapsing into obscurity. I will be ordering a copy for the Archives if anyone would like to borrow it.

Extremely loud and incredibly close, Jonathan Safran Foer

The staff reading group is meeting on Friday June 8th - 4.30 in the Masters' Library. Some reviews of this book, which is bound to divide opinion as it has divided the critics:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,,1494641,00.html
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1498126,00.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/06/05/bofoe05.xml
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article526274.ece

Interview with Jonathan Safran Foer:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,1488795,00.html

Haven't read it? Try the digested read...
http://books.guardian.co.uk/digestedread/story/0,6550,1505170,00.html