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RTÉ News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Trinidadian-Irish writer makes Booker Prize longlist
The longlist for the Booker Prize has been announced with no Irish-born authors included this year. However, Claire Adam, a Trinidadian-Irish writer, whose mother is from Cork, is among those selected for her novel 'Love Forms'. Chosen from 153 submissions, the list of 13 authors - described as a "baker's dozen" - celebrates the best works of long-form fiction by writers of any nationality, according to the Booker Prize committee. The nominated books are: Love Forms by Claire Adam (Faber) The South by Tash Aw (4th Estate) Universality by Natasha Brown (Faber) One Boat by Jonathan Buckley (Fitzcarraldo Editions) Flashlight by Susan Choi (Jonathan Cape) The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (Hamish Hamilton) Audition by Katie Kitamura (Fern Press) The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits (Faber) The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (Sceptre) Endling by Maria Reva (Virago/Little, Brown) Flesh by David Szalay (Jonathan Cape) Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (Viking) Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga (Daunt Books Originals) The 2025 judging panel is chaired by Ireland's 1993 Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle and includes award-winning actor, producer and publisher Sarah Jessica Parker, Booker Prize-longlisted novelist Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, writer, broadcaster and literary critic Chris Power, and New York Times bestselling and Booker Prize-longlisted author Kiley Reid. The committee described its job as looking for the best work of fiction, selected from entries published in Ireland or Britain between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025. The list, which features seven women and six men, includes five authors who identify as British or joint British - including one who identifies as Hungarian-British - and four who identify as American or joint American - including one who identifies as Albanian-American. Mr Doyle said: "There are short novels and some very long ones. There are novels that experiment with form and others that do so less obviously. "Some of them examine the past and others poke at our shaky present. They are all alive with great characters and narrative surprises. "All, somehow, examine identity, individual or national, and all, I think, are gripping and excellent."
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
This year's Booker prize longlist looks in new directions
This year's Booker judges had a crowded field to pick from, with scores of eligible books from previously nominated writers and five new novels from winners alone (John Banville, Kiran Desai, Alan Hollinghurst, Ian McEwan and Ben Okri). Of these, Hollinghurst is one eyebrow-raising exclusion, for his elegiac and beautifully composed panorama of gay life in Britain over the past seven decades, Our Evenings. But it's no surprise that the list is headed by Desai's epic The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, a novel in the works since her Booker win two decades ago and due out this September. Clocking in at nearly 700 pages, this is a love story about two people pulled between India and the US, family inheritance and personal ambition, intimacy and solitude. Immersive and gently funny, her vast canvas painted with an exquisitely fine brush, it looks like a leading contender on a canon-building list – nine of the authors are making their first Booker appearance. There is an emphasis on family stories; sometimes intimate and direct, as in Claire Adam's account of a woman forced to give up her baby as a teenager, Love Forms, or Ben Markovits's rueful study of a father contemplating life once the kids have left home, The Rest of Our Lives, but more often as a lens through which to examine the forces of history. Love Forms by Claire Adam (Faber) The South by Tash Aw (4th Estate) Universality by Natasha Brown (Faber) One Boat by Jonathan Buckley (Fitzcarraldo Editions) Flashlight by Susan Choi (Jonathan Cape) The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (Hamish Hamilton) Audition by Katie Kitamura (Fern Press) The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits (Faber) The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (Sceptre) Endling by Maria Reva (Virago) Flesh by David Szalay (Jonathan Cape) Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (Viking) Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga (Daunt Books Originals) Desai's novel is an intricate portrait of an interconnected world, while Tash Aw's The South, the first in a proposed quartet, looks at two farming families in 1990s Malaysia against a backdrop of tumultuous change and ominous signs of climate crisis. Susan Choi's previous novel, 2019's Trust Exercise, was a standout in American fiction; Flashlight is straighter and less playful, but scales up her ambition and breaks new ground in its examination of one family with roots in Korea, Japan and the US, illuminating the seismic effects of political upheaval on individual lives. The two debut novelists on the list respond to the forces of history with formal invention. Canadian-Ukrainian author Maria Reva begins Endling as a comic caper through Ukraine's marriage industry, from the perspective of a cash-strapped scientist with a passion for endangered snails; Russia's full-scale invasion blows the book wide open, calling into question the role of the writer and the purpose of fiction – and offering answers that are full of energy. Albanian-American author Ledia Xhoga toys subtly with realism. Misinterpretation, her portrait of an Albanian interpreter in New York, caught between two cultures and struggling with compassion fatigue and her own traumas as she tries to help others, is full of misunderstandings and missed connections that echo the faults and gaps of translation. Two slim, slippery books revel in formal disruption. Katie Kitamura's enigmatic Audition, focusing on an American actor and a man young enough to be her son, offers contradictory narratives in order to explore identity, performance, and what we are to one another: this is a book to ponder and argue over. In Universality, Natasha Brown is also interested in the power dynamics of storytelling: she constructs a merciless satire of the current media landscape, with its meretricious culture wars, through the jigsaw-puzzle chronicle of a long read that goes viral. The four remaining books are all by men, an answer perhaps to claims that male writing in the UK is in crisis, and they all do fascinating things with interiority. Jonathan Buckley writes spare, slightly Cuskian philosophical novels; in his 13th, One Boat, a woman's sorties to Greece to work through her bereavements lead into reflections on ethics, memory and the processes of thought. In Benjamin Wood's quiet but immensely atmospheric Seascraper, a young man plies his grandfather's trade of 'shanking', scraping the seashore for shrimp in an England that is moving on without him. Muted but precise prose burrows into his hopes and dreams for a tale that resonates far beyond the telling. Andrew Miller's The Land in Winter is also situated in a postwar England on the brink of change, here the 'Big Freeze' of 1962-3, and travels deep into the hearts of its characters, two young married couples in the West Country. This novel has had my heart since it was published last November, and I'm delighted to see it on the list: I think it's the best book yet from a stellar writer who's been publishing for three decades. (By contrast, this year's Booker blow for me is the exclusion of Sarah Hall; I've been telling everyone that her magisterial, millennia-spanning Helm, out at the end of August, was a likely winner.) The final title, also a favourite of mine this year, creates powerful effects through an unusual tactic: utterly refusing interiority. Flesh by David Szalay is a very modern everyman story, with his central character at the mercy of forces beyond his control, a rise and fall playing out across a depressed childhood in Hungary, life in the army and an upwardly mobile stint in on-the-make London. By keeping his antihero a mystery to the reader, Szalay opens up the biggest questions about what we can and cannot know. It feels like something that hasn't been done before in quite this way – and that only fiction could do. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion To explore all the books on the longlist for the Booker prize 2025 visit Delivery charges may apply.
Wales Online
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Roald Dahl sketches sell for almost £24,000 at auction
Roald Dahl sketches sell for almost £24,000 at auction The collection of sketches were produced by Dahl in black ball point pen for his memoir, Boy (1984), in which he describes his experience of growing up (Image: PA ) Original drawings by Roald Dahl which were found in an envelope have sold for almost £24,000. The collection of sketches were produced by Dahl in black ball point pen for his memoir, Boy (1984), in which he describes his experience of growing up. They were found in an envelope marked "Dahl's drawings & odds and sods", which belonged to Ian Craig (1944-2023), art director at the author's publishing firm, Jonathan Cape, in London. Mr Craig, who died in 2023, created the final illustrations for the book, inspired by Dahl's drawings. The sketches were auctioned as part of the production archive from the late Mr Craig's estate and sold for £23,940 when they went under the hammer at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on Wednesday. Dominic Somerville-Brown, Lyon & Turnbull's rare books & manuscripts specialist, said: "This archive is unique in the Roald Dahl canon – it's very rare to find material by his own hand. Article continues below "This is reflected in the price achieved which also demonstrates the enduring popularity of his children's stories 35 years after his death." Dahl died in 1990 aged 74 and Boy is the only book which he produced illustrations for during his career of almost five decades. In the book, he writes about his childhood exploits, including playing a prank with his friends on the local sweetshop owner, Mrs Pratchett, by putting a dead mouse in a gobstopper jar. To accompany the story, Dahl drew a mouse lying on top of the sweets with its legs in the air. The collection of sketches was bought by a single buyer who wished to remain anonymous. A collection of rare manuscripts from Kilravock Castle, near Nairn in Highlands, also went under the hammer on Wednesday. It included a selection of letters and documents signed by Mary Queen of Scots, her father, James V, son, James VI and I, and mother, Mary of Guise. The collection sold for £124,614 to a number of different buyers as part of Lyon & Turnbull's Books & Manuscript auction. Described as one of the most important collections of historical Scottish manuscripts ever offered for sale, it included a letter from Mary, Queen of Scots to the Laird of Kilravock, appointing him Sheriff for Inverness and dated September 26 1565. The letter, signed by both the Queen ("Marie R.") and her then husband, Henry Stewart, Earl of Darnley ("Henry R.") sold for £15,120. Another of her letters, again signed jointly by the pair, in which they remove the charge of Inverness Castle from the Laird of Kilravock and give it to the Earl of Huntly, dated October 9 1565, went for £11,340. A group of five letters from her mother, Mary of Guise, sold for £6,930. Cathy Tait, head of books & manuscripts at Lyon & Turnbull, said: "We are absolutely delighted with the results of the archive from Kilravock Castle. "There was a great deal of interest from a wide range of collectors, both private and institutional." "The documents sold today comprise a range of very old and important items, illuminating Scotland's history, and we are pleased that they have found good homes." Article continues below All prices include buyer's premium.
The Independent
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Roald Dahl sketches sell for almost £24,000 at auction
Original drawings by Roald Dahl which were found in an envelope have sold for almost £24,000. The collection of sketches were produced by Dahl in black ball point pen for his memoir, Boy (1984), in which he describes his experience of growing up. They were found in an envelope marked 'Dahl's drawings & odds and sods', which belonged to Ian Craig (1944-2023), art director at the author's publishing firm, Jonathan Cape, in London. Mr Craig, who died in 2023, created the final illustrations for the book, inspired by Dahl's drawings. The sketches were auctioned as part of the production archive from the late Mr Craig's estate and sold for £23,940 when they went under the hammer at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on Wednesday. Dominic Somerville-Brown, Lyon & Turnbull's rare books & manuscripts specialist, said: 'This archive is unique in the Roald Dahl canon – it's very rare to find material by his own hand. 'This is reflected in the price achieved which also demonstrates the enduring popularity of his children's stories 35 years after his death.' Dahl died in 1990 aged 74 and Boy is the only book which he produced illustrations for during his career of almost five decades. In the book, he writes about his childhood exploits, including playing a prank with his friends on the local sweetshop owner, Mrs Pratchett, by putting a dead mouse in a gobstopper jar. To accompany the story, Dahl drew a mouse lying on top of the sweets with its legs in the air. The collection of sketches was bought by a single buyer who wished to remain anonymous. A collection of rare manuscripts from Kilravock Castle, near Nairn in Highlands, also went under the hammer on Wednesday. It included a selection of letters and documents signed by Mary Queen of Scots, her father, James V, son, James VI and I, and mother, Mary of Guise. The collection sold for £124,614 to a number of different buyers as part of Lyon & Turnbull's Books & Manuscript auction. Described as one of the most important collections of historical Scottish manuscripts ever offered for sale, it included a letter from Mary, Queen of Scots to the Laird of Kilravock, appointing him Sheriff for Inverness and dated September 26 1565. The letter, signed by both the Queen ('Marie R.') and her then husband, Henry Stewart, Earl of Darnley ('Henry R.') sold for £15,120. Another of her letters, again signed jointly by the pair, in which they remove the charge of Inverness Castle from the Laird of Kilravock and give it to the Earl of Huntly, dated October 9 1565, went for £11,340. A group of five letters from her mother, Mary of Guise, sold for £6,930. Cathy Tait, head of books & manuscripts at Lyon & Turnbull, said: 'We are absolutely delighted with the results of the archive from Kilravock Castle. 'There was a great deal of interest from a wide range of collectors, both private and institutional.' 'The documents sold today comprise a range of very old and important items, illuminating Scotland's history, and we are pleased that they have found good homes.' All prices include buyer's premium.
BBC News
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Roald Dahl's sketches for memoir sell at auction for £24,000
Original sketches done by children's author Roald Dahl for his memoir have sold for nearly £24, who was born in Llandaff, Cardiff, produced the sketches in black ballpoint pen for the book Boy, which was published in his almost five-decade long career, these are the only book sketches he ever sold in Edinburgh for £23,940 as part of Lyon & Turnbull's books and manuscripts sale on Wednesday. In the book, Dahl - who moved to Buckinghamshire and died in 1990 at the age of 74 - wrote about his childhood exploits, including playing a prank with his friends on the local sweetshop owner, Mrs Pratchett, by putting a dead mouse in a gobstopper jar. To accompany this tale, Dahl drew a mouse lying on top of the sweets with its legs in the drawings were found in an envelope which belonged to the late Ian Craig, from Ipswich, who was art director at the author's publishing firm, Jonathan Cape, in sketches were sold as part of the production archive from Mr Craig's estate and included Mr Craig's own designs, as well as the publisher's original page layouts and Somerville-Brown, Lyon & Turnbull's rare books and manuscripts specialist said: "This archive is unique in the Roald Dahl canon – it's very rare to find material by his own hand."This is reflected in the price achieved which also demonstrates the enduring popularity of his children's stories 35 years after his death."
