“Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney heads a roll call of literary figures to have written confidentially to the Dean of Westminster, the Very Rev John Hall, calling for the ultimate accolade to be conferred on Hughes. Other supporters include Sir Andrew Motion, who took over from Hughes as poet laureate, and Lord Bragg as well as prominent academics.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Seattle’s Destination Bookstore Confronts Uncertain Future
The Elliott Bay Book Co. “is facing the likely choice of either moving across town or closing altogether when its lease is up Jan. 31. In some ways it is the familiar story of an independent bookstore getting hammered by book chains, online retailers and big-store discounters. But there are peculiar Seattle wrinkles.”
Dormant Coconut Grove Playhouse Springing Back To Life
“Three years after it abruptly shut down with more than $4 million in debt, Miami’s historic Coconut Grove Playhouse has a new operator — the award-winning GableStage and its producing artistic director, Joseph Adler — and plans to build a new theater.”
BBC Auction Show Bidders Were Ringers, Regulator Says
“Sun, Sea and Bargain Spotting, a BBC Two auction series produced by Reef Television, featured numerous episodes of staff from the independent production company participating in the show while pretending to be members of the public.”
Under New Law, British Library To Return Missal To Italy
“The Benevento Missal, which was stolen from a cathedral in southern Italy soon after the Allies bombed the city during the Second World War, has been in the collection of the British Library (formerly the British Museum Library) since 1947.” The book falls under the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act.
Curatorial Triumph: V&A’s Medieval & Renaissance Galleries
“An entire wing of the Victoria and Albert Museum has been requisitioned. A suite of ten galleries has been completely overhauled. More than £30 million has been spent.” The new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries transform “the V&A from an outmoded Victorian maze of glass cases into a modern museum of world-class calibre.”
Theatre Artists Are Noticing: Kids Make Great Audiences
“Unlike adult audiences, children come with no expectation of what they’re about to see. That makes for a deliciously free space in which to create work, in which innovation, experimentation and risk can thrive.”
Playwright Castigates Critics For Reviewing While Drunk
Timberlake Wertenbaker, whose new play, “The Line,” got mixed reviews, “believes that the actors were not given a fair crack of the whip because many of the critics had spent the day being liberally wined and dined at the Evening Standard theatre awards – a four-hour affair … that involved a champagne reception followed by lunch and as much wine as they wanted to drink.”
What Killed Jane Austen?
“Fresh, retrospective analysis of her symptoms, published today, suggests that the author of Pride and Prejudice may have died prematurely of tuberculosis caught from cattle. Examination of Austen’s correspondence and the recollections of her family prove, it is claimed, that she was not, as previous medical experts hypothesised, a victim of Addison’s disease….”
In An English Village, A Phone Booth Becomes A Library
“Villagers from Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset can use the library around the clock, selecting books, DVDs and CDs. Users simply stock it with a book they have read, swapping it for one they have not.” Says a parish councillor: “This facility has turned a piece of street furniture into a community service in constant use.”