In these troubled times, I thought these books, suggested by Pam Lock, a Lecturer in English Literature (Specialist in Victorian Literature and Alcohol) from the University of Bristol, in the Conversation, might be of interest.

The evolution of the novel and short story in the 19th century brought us one of the greatest human sources of comfort, besides food and a nice hot bath. When someone tells me they are planning to “curl up with a good book”, I am filled with a sense of peace on thei...

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We were all a bit surprised when Bob Dylan was awarded his Nobel prize for literature.  Our Charles Dickens Christmas Crawl stops at the very pub where Bob Dylan gave his first ever public performance outside the USA!  This is what Richard Brown, Reader in Modern Literature at the University of Leeds thought about it.

To the surprise of many, Bob Dylan has become the first singer-songwriter to win the Nobel prize in literature.

As the news broke, I was in the middle of teaching James Joyce to s...

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It's the New Year and you should come and visit us in London as soon as you can. Outside of town, check out some of the Literary Festivals we host in the UK.

There are now literary festivals throughout the year in most areas of the country. The largest ones include:

The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, at the end of March
The Hay Festival, in late May
Edinburgh International Book Festival, in August (Hear Nick Hennegan at the 2015 Festival on our podcast page)
Cheltenham Festival of Literatu...
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I should be writing here more often, but to be honest, running the London Literary Pub Crawl takes a chunk of time.  We've done incredibly well over our first year or so, but I've decided we could do much better, so we're looking to raise £30k for marketing.  It'll make us a real attraction in London and my Chinese actors stand poised, ready to go.

But we're writers, not accountants.  Fortunately I've found a brilliant accountant who is able to frame my terms of reference in accounting speak ...
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An Evening at The Wheatsheaf Pub, Rathbone Place, London, W1. 8pm

Dylan's Day is a celebration of Dylan Thomas.  14 May has been chosen because marks the day Under Milk Wood was first read in public.

We hope you can join us for what will be a memorable night. As you know, we produced Under Milk Wood on the 60th anniversary of Dylan's death and we were involved in Griff Rhys Jones' Dylan Thomas in Fitzrovia Festival, so I feel very close to the Welsh Wizard!  We're planning music, poetry and a r...
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If you're coming to see us over the summer, the chances are you might meet one of this talented bunch of actors. If you've already been on the London Literary Pub Crawl, you may recognise the alleyway next to the Newman's Arms, George Orwell's local.
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One of the pubs we visit on the tour is The Newman Arms. It's a great pub and unusual in that it's one of very few pubs in the area still owned outright by a family, rather than a brewery. I'll go into more detail about the pub in a later post, but I love the place. And it's appeared in some famous films. But perhaps most famously it's where George Orwell used to drink and is widely believed to be the template for the Proles pub in his novel 1984. You can hear some of his description of the p...
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This is a new feature and will be a mix of comments about our writers, tour and actors. Come back and say Hi and hopefully there's a bit that allows you to comment. Well it is a NEW feature...!
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