by Daisy Owens
Hallgrimur Helgason, reviewed by James Watts
Upon seeing the phrase “A Hitman’s Guide to Housecleaning” on my ticket, I instantly re-read it out of confusion. Would this event instruct me how to simply clean a house, or did clean have more sinister connotations? In all honesty, neither possibility interested me. A little research filled me with delight when I discovered that […]
Guy Ware and Adam Marek, reviewed by Robynne Orley-Simmons
Manchester Literature Festival Event: Adam Marek & Guy Ware, Sunday 21st October, 3:00pm, International Anthony Burgess Foundation I arrive early at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. I grab a coffee at the entrance cafe and head through to the small brick-walled adjoining room, taking a seat on one of the red velvet chairs in the […]
The Manchester Letters, reviewed by Sean Doherty
Words with Friends The Manchester Letters Saturday 20th October 2012 International Anthony Burgess Foundation An interesting project, The Manchester Letters consists of a series of correspondences between UK writer and University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing alumnus Jenn Ashworth and the Turkish novelist (now based in Barcelona) Nermin Yildirim. Meeting for only the second […]
Manchester Letters: Jenn Ashworth & Nermin Yildirim, reviewed by Jessica Holloway
It’s the morning of Manchester Letters and having never been to an event within the Manchester Literature Festival before, I am wracked with curiosity. What will the event be like? What types of people go to these sorts of events? Will it be obvious that I haven’t been to these sorts of events before? The […]
Wang Anyi, reviewed by Cicely Abdy Collins
As I enter the International Anthony Burgess Foundation I realise I’m early for Wang Anyi’s talk on the subject of her novel, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow. The room is empty but Anyi soon enters and begins talking with the organisers from Manchester Literature Festival as well as members of Confucius Institute, an organisation that […]
Manchester Letters: Jenn Ashworth & Nermin Yildirim, reviewed by Charlotte Rowland
Letters, landscapes and the truth behind truth: shifting the solitude of writing Manchester Letters: Jenn Ashworth & Nermin Yildirim Saturday 20th October Manchester Literature Festival 2012 By Charlotte Rowland It might look like letters and landscapes have nothing in common besides their alliterative beginnings. One’s intimate; one’s endless and vast. If one’s paper and letters, […]
Tramlines, reviewed by Stephanie Thorpe
Review of Tramlines, Manchester Literature Festival International Anthony Burgess Foundation. 20th October 2012. Stephanie Thorpe 519 words I was not sure what to expect from an event named ‘Tramlines.’ I had looked into the event on the Manchester Literature festival website. I had visions of traipsing around Manchester’s tramlines being told stories as we go. […]
Sex and the Cities, reviewed by Katie Blagden
“Sex and the Cities” Reviewed by Katie Blagden Friday 19th October International Anthony Burgess Institute 697 words When first given the ticket to review ‘Sex and the Cities’ my heart sank. I had horrible premonitions of having to listen to four ageing socialites talking about their latest sexual adventures in New York City. Thankfully, Sarah […]
The Blog North Awards, reviewed by Dana Fowles
The Blog North Awards: a pleasant surprise Wednesday 17th October was officially the worst day of my life. I managed to lose my keys, bus pass, student card and some important notes. Then, I got home and my favourite picture fell off the wall and smashed into a million tiny pieces. I cried. . . […]
Sex and the Cities, reviewed by Talitha Colchester
‘Sex and the Cities’ Friday 19th October, 7.30 pm, Anthony Burgess Foundation I arrive at the venue early (possibly for the first time in my life), so wait for proceedings to start in the trendy cafe cum bar cum all-things-Anthony Burgess bookshop. To all the fans of A Clockwork Orange (of which I’m sure there […]
James Kelman, reviewed by Helen McCarthy
It felt a little bit like sacrilege to sit in the presence of James Kelman and not have a clue who he was. The rest of the audience had Americanos in their hands and serious, eager looks on their faces. And there was Kelman, loitering behind the stage and pouring himself a strong looking ale […]
The Manchester Sermon: Ali Smith, reviewed by Gemma Fairclough
‘The Manchester Sermon: Ali Smith’, Thursday 18th October 2012, 7pm, Manchester Cathedral It is already dark outside when I arrive at the Manchester Cathedral for this year’s Manchester Sermon delivered by author Ali Smith, which is part of the Manchester Literature Festival. The only light inside the cathedral comes from the spotlights high in the […]
Fifty Years of A Clockwork Orange, reviewed by Debbie Headdey
Review of ‘Fifty Years of A Clockwork Orange’ by Debbie Headdey As a true fan of A Clockwork Orange I was extremely excited to attend the lecture on the cult classic phenomenon; reverently held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and marking the fiftieth anniversary of its creation, the event had the potential to inspire […]
Fifty Years of A Clockwork Orange, reviewed by Emma Shaw
Celebration: Fifty Years of A Clockwork Orange, with Dominic Sandbrook, Thursday 18th October, 7.00pm, International Anthony Burgess Foundation. Words by Emma Shaw Last night, Dominic Sandbrook offered up a fiftieth birthday celebration of Anthony Burgess’s most enduring work. Sandbrook provided a wide-ranging contextual history for both the book and Stanley Kubrick’s film, released ten years […]
The Manchester Sermon: Ali Smith, reviewed by Rachel Heaton
Manchester Sermon – Ali Smith 18th of October 2012 Reviewed by Rachel Heaton. I approach Manchester Cathedral with a certain amount of trepidation; I have never been inside and only know it as ‘that great big ‘churchy’ thing behind M&S’. Inside it is suitably cathedral-like (I nervously pull my too-short skirt down) and, despite my […]
The Manchester Sermon: Ali Smith, reviewed by Stephanie Scott
The Manchester Sermon – Ali Smith 18th October 2012 Having never been to Manchester Cathedral before, the first thing that struck me on arrival was the incredible beauty of the venue. The acoustics, the holy, hushed atmosphere and the high arches which are all typical of Christian places of worship, seemed an odd and foreboding […]
Fifty Years of A Clockwork Orange, reviewed by Elizabeth Stancombe
“Fifty Years of A Clockwork Orange” – Reviewed by Elizabeth Stancombe This year Anthony Burgess’s self-dismissed novel “A Clockwork Orange” celebrated its fiftieth birthday with a special edition and a host of events in Manchester, his birth town. On the 18th of October “Fifty Years of A Clockwork Orange” was held part of the Manchester […]
Blog North Awards, reviewed by Joanna Byrne
Blog North Awards –Reviewed by Joanna Byrne Arriving early for the first ever ‘Blog North Awards’, I couldn’t help but feel slightly thrown by my surroundings. Like most students, the Deaf Institute for me is a place I usually visit much later on in a night, and normally when I’m not in a condition to […]
Deryn Rees-Jones and Paul Farley, reviewed by Flora Anderson
Deryn Rees-Jones and Paul Farley by Flora Anderson As part of Literature Live, I went to see Paul Farley and Deryn Rees-Jones reading from their new collections The Dark Film and Burying the Wren respectively. It was run as a University of Manchester event in the John Thaw Studio on Oxford road, and was a […]
Blog North Awards, reviewed by Charlie Boorman
Blog North Awards, reviewed by Charlie Boorman With previous visits in mind, I associate The Deaf Institute with fly-paper dance floors and minor tinnitus, so my initial reservations concerning the venue for The Blog North Awards may have been justified. However, the moment I walked through the Gothic front-door (sober, for once) I realised my […]
Blog North Awards, reviewed by Christina Hirst
The Blog North Awards – Review by Christina Hirst As I walk towards the Deaf Institute I wonder what the first ever Blog North Awards will be like. I shuffle my way through the dimly lit room to the bar observing the abundance of people around me holding up their phones, taking pictures of the […]
James Kelman, reviewed by James Horrocks
James Kelman, Saturday 13th October 2012, 7.30pm, International Anthony Burgess Foundation I had not entirely known what to expect when I set off to spend my Saturday evening at a reading of James Kelman’s new novel Mo Said She Was Quirky. I knew the work of Irvine Welsh who has been compared with Kelman, […]
Biopunk, reviewed by Beckie Stewart
A Review of Bio Punk with Jane Feaver, Gregory Norminton and geneticist Neil Roberts, MadLab, 13th October 2012 By Beckie Stewart MadLab, on the edge of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, is a modest venue resembling a rundown exhibition space, made haphazard with mismatched chairs, crates and sofas. If it weren’t for the clinical whiteness, […]
James Kelman, reviewed by Angus Nisbet
The chill of the current seasonal change rushes in with me as I enter The International Anthony Burgess Foundation; the setting in which I have come on Saturday 13th October to understand more about the mind, musings, political positions and fictional creations of one of Scotland’s most controversial modern day writers. Upon winning the Booker […]
Manchester: Home of the Beautiful Game?, reviewed by Matt Holt
Home of the Beautiful Game? As I entered the National Football Museum for the first time I got the same feeling, that jolt that I always get whenever I run out onto a football pitch, or emerge from the underbelly of a stadium and find myself surrounded by thousands of fellow fans, or even when […]
Bringing Literature to Life, reviewed by Robert Beck
Bringing Literature to Life at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 13th October 2012 By Robert Beck As a theatre goer and prolific reader, it comes as no surprise that I love it when a story that I have enjoyed reading is adapted to the stage. Yet where does one start in recreating the essence of […]
Home of the Beautiful Game?, reviewed by Dylan Wiggan
Review of Manchester: Home of the Beautiful Game? By Dylan Wiggan My experience of ‘Manchester: Home of the Beautiful Game?’ began in surprise. The Urbis, an alternative museum, had been rebranded as the National Museum of Football. As a Manchester native I felt somewhat embarrassed I was not aware of this, apparently, non-recent transformation. As […]
Bringing Literature to Life, reviewed by Victoria Carter
“Literature is not easy but without Literature we are lost.” This message welcomes you into The International Antony Burgess Foundation, and being an English Literature student I wholeheartedly agree. It’s Saturday 13th October and I am attending an event by the Literature festival, “Bringing Literature to Life”. I have no expectations of this event, as […]
Penelope Lively: A Reading Life, reviewed by Zoe Weldon
Review of ‘Penelope Lively: A Reading Life’, by Zoe Weldon 10th October 7.30pm Whitworth Art Gallery £10/8 entry I am afraid to admit that thus far, I have ignored the cultural and artistic imperative to visit the Whitworth Art Gallery and so, the visit held many firsts for me; my first time to the gallery, […]
Salley Vickers, reviewed by Leo Mercer
Vickers and Cathedrals Leo Mercer A hundred people gathered in Manchester Cathedral on Thursday night – not for a bible reading, but for a book reading, party of the Manchester Literature Festival. There could be no more appropriate place in town for author Salley Vickers to introduce her new novel, The Cleaner of Chartres, which […]