Page 27 - Jonathan Coe News Today

Lionel Shriver Warns Readers Not to Meet Their Favorite Authors Credit...Rebecca Clarke May 27, 2021 “The warts-and-all version is almost always a disappointment, and they risk a retroactive taint,” says the novelist, whose forthcoming book is “Should We Stay or Should We Go.” What books are on your night stand? Two books to prime for my next novel: Eric Hoffer’s “The True Believer” and Charles Mackay’s “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.” One exercis...

The novelist and Brexit critic Jonathan Coe suggested the BBC was obsessed with Britishness Credit: Hay Festival I am British: I was born in Homerton hospital in Hackney, and have lived most of my life no further than spitting distance from it. And yet I’ve always ticked the box for “Irish” when asked on forms for doctors or employers. Identity is complicated: first-generation immigrants are more likely to embrace “Britishness” in an attempt to blend in, but their kids are often nosta...

The Covid era seems to have destroyed our critical faculties As Britain’s arts return, we need to abandon our forgiving standards and appetite for trash, and bring some rigour back to the conversation The picture of disappointment: Grayson Perry and his Art Club became a pandemic hit Credit: Channel 4 During the past year, the damage to the arts has been greater than at any other time in recent history. We have seen vast job losses at institutions such as the National Theatre; all major event...

It’s Me, Jack. My United Kingdom Is Fraying May 05 2021, 9:36 PM May 05 2021, 9:31 AM May 05 2021, 9:36 PM (Bloomberg Businessweek) -- The British and I have always had a complex relationship. Over the centuries, I’ve stood for empire-building and division, flown through war and peace, represented football hooliganism and royal pageantry, and adorned iconic designs as well as millions—maybe billions—of knickknacks and souvenirs. (Bloomberg Businessweek) -- The British and I ...

WHETHER it’s Union flags on playparks or £200 million royal yachts, we are constantly being reminded of our place in the Union.

Project Fear 2 and Europe for Scotland With less than a week to go to voting at Holyrood the media has been awash with nostalgia as all platforms and mediums beamed out Project Fear 2. Nicola Sturgeon was hounded from studio to studio and a sort of feeding frenzy emerged as papers and programmes tried to out-bid each other in the war against a referendum: “Nicola Sturgeon struggles to answer key questions about Scottish independence” tried the Telegraph, “Independence would result in a ha...

Patricia Nicol who has been watching lots of movies with her husband, has picked out a selection of captivating books about filmmakers including Mr Wilder & Me and Trio.

Last modified on Mon 15 Mar 2021 20.02 EDT If Dorian Gray were reborn in our age, it seems entirely fitting that he would be a social media star obsessing over his image. So it makes great intuitive sense for this adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel to situate its protagonist in the centre of the digital whirl of 2021. There is now no physical painting: the deal made with Basil Hallward allows Dorian eternal youth and beauty online, but age marks him in the real world, his face becoming etch...

Fionn Whitehead as Dorian Gray When it comes to portraying haunted disquiet, young actor Fionn Whitehead, 23, somehow arrived on the scene having fully mastered the art of it. Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk fired on all cylinders on many fronts. But it was the fearful, famished looks of Whitehead’s beachbound soldier (Tommy) that brought the thrumming nightmare home with pupil-dilating subtlety. That same gift for registering inner perturbation – letting it steal across his face – is found...

Dunkirk star Fionn Whitehead on updating Oscar Wilde for the Instagram age A new theatre-film production imagines Dorian Gray as a young man who enters a Faustian pact to maintain the perfection of his online image Fionn Whitehead stars in The Picture of Dorian Gray Credit: Barn Theatre In his annus mirabilis of 1891, Oscar Wilde wrote his first successful play (Lady Windermere’s Fan), most of Salome, a long political essay and four books, among them his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray...