John Baker’s Blog

At the first of Mariella Frostrup’s shows in the Sky Arts Studio we found that Ian Rankin had been relegated in favour of Gordon Brown. What a disappointment.
Brown had nothing to say, of course, apart from name-dropping the courageous people he had met. Thomas Keneally, the Australian novelist, was on the same bill, also to [...]

There are many problems with a list like this. It heavily favours white American males, and in its myopia manages to avoid mention of some of the 20th century’s best novelists while including other names which really shouldn’t be there.
The list was compiled by the editorial board of the Modern Library, which is a division [...]

Novelists do not write into a void. They require an answering response, an audience of readers outside their family circle, and they also need the approval that professional publication brings. Next week, next year; surely she would hear soon. This hope must have remained with her, but the impulse to produce more novels withered.
It might [...]