Hints and tips:
...Now I’ve moved on to Zadie Smith’s The Fraud (reviewed by Stephen in August) and happily I have the rest of the week off to savour it — this one is fantastic if, like me, you are a fan of Victoriana....
...Now try this I’m rereading Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, which really is a brilliant, brilliant novel....
...Denis Johnson’s story “Two Men” begins at one party, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, and moves to another, in a cornfield (element of travel), where a group of intimidating strangers are listening...
...No wonder, then, that Johnson was Zadie Smith’s favourite contemporary American writer, or that Michael Ondaatje would describe him as “one of the best prose writers of our time”....
...Feel Free, by Zadie Smith, Hamish Hamilton, RRP£20/Penguin, RRP$28 The second collection of essays from the British novelist and critic....
...Swing Time by Zadie Smith, Fen by Daisy Johnson and Colin Dayan’s The Law is a White Dog. What book changed your life? Dictee, by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha....
...I love the London of today, that of Martin Amis, Zadie Smith, Hanif Kureishi, Will Self, Jonathan Coe. But I miss the London of le Carré, Wodehouse or Dickens....
...Don’t You Leave Me Here: My Life, by Wilko Johnson, Little, Brown, RRP£18.99 Wilko Johnson writes like he plays guitar, one moment staccato, the next chugging....
...Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize....
...Authors on the shortlist include Zadie Smith and Barbara Kingsolver, both previous winners....
...Penguin, home to Ken Follett and Zadie Smith, is also in the top four....
...I mention a recent article by Zadie Smith, entitled “Joy”, and he exclaims in delight....
...“I identify with the ancient nation of Shakespeare and Dickens and Orwell and, for that matter, Linton Kwesi Johnson, the Specials, Zadie Smith and Steve McQueen,” writes the novelist Tim Lott....
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