‘Paper engineering’ is a good description of what Robert Crowther does. A maker of fantastical, quirky pop-up books, the artist’s favourite readers are the reluctant children who pick up a pop-up without really knowing what’s inside. In his bestselling ABC, kids could pull tabs and lift flaps ‘to make frogs leap, hens peck, koalas climb, … Continue reading
Category Archives: Series: What They Read
Manju Kapur: Keeping it in the Family
Manju Kapur is quite happy to be dubbed a ‘chronicler of Indian families,’ but do feel free to choose any label that will float your boat. “My own feeling is, describe me any way you like, as long as I am relevant, as long as I am read, I don’t really care,” she says. The … Continue reading
DBC Pierre: How Winning the Booker Changed his Life
DBC – ‘Dirty But Clean’ – Pierre, can lay claim to a personal history that is a great deal stranger than fiction. Growing up, it was lavish Mexican mansions, Bengal tigers and neighbours who gave their daughters 13 cars as wedding presents. In his teens, things only got stranger. With the passing of his father, … Continue reading
John Boyne: Recreating Lost Worlds
John Boyne seems to have become a historical novelist despite himself. “At the start of my career I hadn’t planned on writing a series of novels set in the past; it has happened through chance more than design,” he says. The Irish author of the award winning bestseller ‘Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ and more … Continue reading
Jill Dawson: On Lolita and Rupert Brookes
Jill Dawson will tell you, “Novelists thrive on the gaps in a story, the murky places that only imagination can illuminate.” Some of her most recent books straddle the porous line between fact and fiction: her novel ‘The Great Lover’ fictionalises the life of the poet W.B. Yeats once described as ‘the handsomest young man … Continue reading
Sarah Dunant: In the Company of Nuns and Courtesans
“History is largely male and largely the story of those in power,” says Sarah Dunant. Having spent the last few years in hot pursuit of nuns, courtesans and 15th century Florentine women, she should know. Shortlisted for the 2010 Walter Scott Prize, her novel ‘Sacred Hearts,’ is the last in an Italian Renaissance Trilogy that … Continue reading
Joanna Trollope: Re-Writing Jane Austen
What would Jane Austen say? Long after she stopped writing them, her novels continue to have a life of their own – in 2009, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ was even overrun by zombies. Now, bestselling British author Joanna Trollope has undertaken to produce a 2013 “update” of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ for HarperFiction. While we couldn’t reasonably … Continue reading
Josceline Dimbleby: Serving Up British Cuisine with a Twist
Josceline Dimbleby’s culinary lexicon has only expanded with her travels. In India, she fell in love with the delicacy of Gujarat’s Jain influenced vegetarian dishes and in Turkey it was Tavuk Gogsu, that famous, tender dessert made with milk and chicken’s breast; in Morocco, it was pigeon pie Bastilla that made her mouth water and … Continue reading
Smriti Daniel 