Another gem from the British Library blog. Here, Julian Harrison from the Medieval Literature team takes a playful look at the illustrations of the original manuscript. ‘Its full-page illustrations have a charm all of their own, even if they were once dismissed as ‘coarsely executed’. … Continue reading ‘…the Green Knight mounted on his green horse holds his severed head aloft’
The original manuscript of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is held at the British Library and a wealth of material on the poem, and on Arthurian literature in general, can be found on their blog. In this extract from the introduction to his 2009 … Continue reading ‘Not all poems are stories, but Sir Gawain and the Green Knight most certainly is’
Our talk on Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory is now available to watch on our YouTube channel, where you can now find over a year’s worth of Cardiff BookTalk. Thanks to this month’s guest speakers: Jonathan Wise offers a biographer’s perspective on the … Continue reading Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory – watch online
Critic and Arthurian enthusiast Xan Brooks comments on the intertextual adventures of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in The Guardian: ‘I like this idea that Gawain is modern, somehow ahead of his time, complicated in a way that the other knights aren’t. It helps … Continue reading ‘It needs to be nightmarish, hallucinogenic and scary’
Wednesday, 19 January 2022 – The author in conversation with Gwyneth Lewis. Cardiff BookTalk is delighted to invite you to our first event of 2022. Like Any Other Woman speaks to the suffering that cancer causes, and to the profound human experience of renegotiating the … Continue reading Jac Saorsa – Like Any Other Woman
Speakers: Tison Pugh, Sabina Rahman, and Usha Vishnuvajjala. At our 8 December 2021 event we will be considering the recent film The Green Knight (dir. David Lowery and starring Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander) alongside its source text, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a late 14th-century Middle English … Continue reading Cardiff BookTalk: The Green Knight
We’re delighted to share further details of what to expect from our guests Jonathan Wise, Yuliya Kazanova and Martyn Sampson at our Cardiff BookTalk event on Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory tomorrow evening (17 November). Book your free ticket for this online event: … Continue reading Anatomies, Perspectives, Saints – The Power and the Glory
“The first thing I remember is sitting in a pram at the top of a hill with a dead dog lying at my feet.” So opens an early chapter of a memoir by Graham Greene, who is viewed by some—including Richard Greene (no relation), the … Continue reading ‘…not profundity—how hard he reached for it!’
Graham Greene’s interest in Latin America went way beyond his novels. Surprisingly, considering his condemnation of revolutionary violence in The Power and the Glory, he was a prominent supporter of Fidel Castro’s government, and later, of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas. Until the end of his life, … Continue reading ‘If one takes a side, one takes a side, come what may.’
Jon Wise, who will be joining us to discuss The Power and the Glory in a few weeks, appears alongside Mariella Fostrup and guests including Peter James and Louise Doughty for a special Graham Greene-themed episode of Radio 4’s Open Book. Find out about what … Continue reading Open Book’s Graham Greene Special
The BookTalk team are delighted to share our first event of the semester on YouTube. The BBC’s Emma Jane Kirby presents her novel The Optician of Lampedusa. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a memorable evening!
Cardiff BookTalk 