From Carl Hunter’s ‘When is a film not a film?’:

['The premise of Accelerate'] is that the woman finds away of making time pass more quickly, by selling some seconds out of every minute so that her days become “the edited highlights of themselves”. It was the perfect marriage of subject and medium – after all, what is a still photograph but a moment pulled out of the stream of time. If you had all the money and time in the World, this would still be the best way to tell that story. Young people seem to photograph everything nowadays. If you go to a concert, the audience is watching it but also filming it on their mobiles. We’d found a story and a storytelling style that tapped right into that jumpy, digital way of seeing things.

Watch the film here.

To read the story, you can download The Reader 31 from our ‘Downloads’ page by clicking here.

We’ve published another of Frank’s short stories in the current issue of The Reader, which you can buy here.

Set almost entirely in Wales, the drama tells the story of 10-year-old Dylan Hughes and his family’s small petrol station; when his father leaves the family, it coincides with the arrival of a contingent from the National Portrait Gallery in London, who have brought paintings to Wales for safe-keeping after the gallery was flooded. The novel was inspired by the real-life practice during the Second World War of keeping paintings in Welsh mines.

(www.thebookseller.com)

Framed was directed by Andy De Emmony, and stars Trevor Eve and Eve Myles.

It is a free two day festival of sport, music, art and education which works to encourage racial harmony and better community relations. There will be workshops promoting social and life skills, football tournaments, art workshops, music and dance performances, plus much more!

For more information on the Festival, please visit the Anthony Walker Foundation Website, where you can also view the Festival brochure.

If you would like tickets for the AWF Carnival at Alma De Cuba, please email: info@anthonywalkerfoundation.com

Set in the same dystopian world as her previous novel Oryx and Crake, it tells the story of God’s Gardeners – a religion devoted to the preservation of all species. The Gardeners have long predicted the Waterless Flood, which arrives in the form of a global pandemic obliterating most of human life. The survivors are left to battle over an existence amongst themselves and the other gene-spliced life forms now running amok – will the human race make it, and more to the point, should it?

The event, a unique literary performance with music, is part of a selective UK tour to support the work of the RSPB & BirdLife International, and to raise awareness of species decline.

The event will take place at Manchester Cathedral on Tuesday 1st September at 7.30pm. Tickets priced £8/£6 concessions are now on sale and can be booked through the box office on 0870 428 0785 or online, following this link.

On Sunday 13th July 2009, the winners of the Shirley Jackson Awards were announced at Readercon in Burlington, Massachusetts. The awards are given each year for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic, in recognition of one of America’s greatest writers and the author of the classic short story ‘The Lottery’.

The New Uncanny, edited by independent publishers Ra Page and Sarah Eyre of Comma Press, explored and updated Freud’s famous theory of the uncanny – or the ‘unheimliche’ – which laid out a psychoanalytic framework for understanding horror writing. The anthology featured specially commissioned stories by the likes of AS Byatt, Hanif Kureishi, Christopher Priest, Matthew Holness, Jane Rogers, Alison MacLeod, and Frank Cottrell Boyce, among others. The anthology was nominated alongside authors such as Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates and Etgar Keret (in other categories).

For Manchester-based Comma Press, this award comes hard on the heels of winning the World Fantasy Award 2008 for Best Collection for Tiny Deaths, by Robert Shearman. A not inconsiderable feat given that these are Comma’s first two publications in the realm of fantasy.

Congratualations, Comma!

with Jane Davis, Director of The Reader Organisation

25th August, Liverpool

19 Abercromby Square, Liverpool, L69 7ZG

What have I to leave you but the ruins of old courage, and the lore of old gallantry and hope?  

 

If Wordsworth were to be reborn as a twentieth century American, Gilead is the book he would write. Human, humane, real, devout, and connecting the inner spiritual with the outer public life, this moving novel was mentioned by Barack Obama as a favourite.

While you read this, I am imperishable, somehow more alive than I have ever been.

 

Jane Davis is Founder and Director of The Reader Organisation, a charity on a mission to bring about a reading revolution, making the content of great books available to all. Jane’s talent, energy, and belief in the value of reading are an inspiration to all who meet her: don’t miss this chance to experience the power of the reading revolution for yourself!

For more information please contact Casi Dylan, Training Manager, on casidylan@thereader.org.uk or 0151 794 2830.

You can download a booking form here: PDF/ Word.

Events are being held at Sale Waterside Arts Centre and surrounding libraries, as well as many other venues across the borough. Although many events are free, booking is essential.

You can find specific details of events, plus information on how to get tickets, by following this link to the festival homepage.

Browne states that one of his main aims as Children’s Laureate will be:

to raise the profile of, and respect and enthusiasm for, picture books

Browne has written and illustrated almost forty titles and, of these, it is The Shape Game that will be central to his campaign promoting picture books: a story based on a childhood game involving drawing.

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of international bestsellers Blink and The Tipping Point. Outliers is his new book, and this time he deals with the subject of successful people. He argues that real secrets of success can be found in people’s life stories, exploring the culture they have grown up in, twists of fate, and how they have spent their time. All this ensures Outliers makes for a very liberating and inspirational read, and it is the content of this book which forms the basis for Malcolm’s show at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, which he describes in his own words:

Just so we’re clear, there will be no tap-dancing, mime, or impersonations of pop stars during my shows. It will just be me, giving you what I hope to be some of the most interesting bits from Outliers. I’d be delighted if you could come.

Malcolm Gladwell will be performing at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on Wednesday 24th June 2009, 7.30pm. Tickets are £16 and £21, for more information please click here or contact the Liverpool Philharmonic Box Office on 0151 709 3789.

I didn’t want to make Jack a good man in a conventional sense, I wanted to make him a person of value in terms of the whole complexity of his life.

On the decision to award Robinson the prize, Fi Glover, Chairman of the judging panel says:

We were unanimously agreed – it is a profound work of art

See which other novels were short-listed here.

The Reader No.32 featured an extract from Home, and you can find details on how to get hold of a copy here.