The National, March 2014 “Ismii Eddie, ana min al-Yaman”. This sentence, the Aden-born, British comedian Eddie Izzard tells me, is the extent of his Arabic language skills. Oh, and “shukran”. Not a bad starting point […]
The National, March 2014 Authors are faced with a multitude of challenges when they set out on the long road to fashioning their latest opus. Plotting, ideas, settings, characters – all are key. But the […]
Great to see Hassan Blasim’s short story collection The Iraqi Christ on the longlist for the 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize . It seems like a long time since I caught up with him at Manchester Piccadilly, […]
The National, March 2014 1. Guitar Hero? Eric Clapton actually created the idea In 1963 BC (Before Clapton), The Beatles were celebrating their first No 1 single. But competing with Merseybeat was the nascent blues-rock […]
The National, February 2014 It’s hard to “make it” in the literary world. Most authors would probably consider it a big achievement to get published at all, let alone have a seven-book, 15 year-career in […]