This week on The Book Show Sinéad Gleeson talks to former Granta editor John Freeman about his new publication Freeman’s Journal (Grover Press). He has chosen the theme of ‘arrival’ to mark the debut edition – always a good place to begin and he explains to Sinéad that arrival, as a theme, is open to many interpretations.
Kamila Shamsie is Pakistani novelist who has written a short piece for the journal. She joins Sinéad and John and says that for her, returning to her home country – she now lives in the UK – is another form of arrival and that is the subject of her contribution to Freeman’s Journal. We hear her read an excerpt from that and also hear Jamaican poet Ishion Hutchinson read his poem ‘Windfall’.
The journal also has work by Colum McCann, Haruki Murakami, Helen Simpson and Aleksandar Hemon, as well as a number of other lesser known writers. John Freeman explains how, in his role as editor, he works with the writers.
Olivia Laing’s latest non-fiction work The Lonely City (Canongate) is a powerful exploration of loneliness in the city. It draws on the lives of famous artists such as Edward Hopper, and David Wojnarowicz and Andy Warhol, to examine modern urban living and the various crises it throws at us. Her book weaves stories about artists and their struggles with her own story of moving to New York where she came face to face with her own lonely life. How is it possible to be lonely in a city the size of New York? Surely technology and social media mean that you never need to be alone? Olivia and Sinéad unravel these paradoxes.
Zoe Comyns joins Monkeyshine Theatre Company for their latest show ‘The Magic Book Shop’ which is currently on a nationwide tour. A small audience joins the actors on the stage – which is designed to look like a book shop. Featuring storytelling and puppetry, the actors have fun while also pointing out that readers of all ages should treat their books well. Dreadful things can happen to books that have been neglected!
