Category: people

Lyttelton will leave an enormous gap not just in British cultural life as a whole but in the lives of many millions of listeners,” BBC Director-General Mark Thompson said in a statement today. “One of the towering figures of British jazz, he excelled too as a writer, cartoonist, humorist and, of course, as a broadcaster.”

A composer of hundreds of works, many featuring enormous and unique ensembles such as 80 trombones, Brant was one of last surviving members of the original generation of early 20th century American maverick composers.

“An archive of Mallory’s personal papers, recently bought by Harvard University, was shown exclusively to The Sunday Times on Friday. It contains a devastating portrait of Mailer’s sexual decline from world-class lothario to malfunctioning lover.”

An actress and writer who said she was Norman Mailer’s former longtime mistress has sold papers that include lengthy accounts of their sex life and hand-edited drafts of her writing to Harvard University, Mailer’s alma mater.

“The 97-year-old estate where the Pulitzer Prize-winning author penned House of Mirth and found inspiration for Ethan Frome has temporarily avoided foreclosure after raising $800,000 by today’s deadline.”

“At 42 Augusten Burroughs is the first to admit he has written ‘more memoirs than anyone my age should be entitled to write.'” But he’s got another coming out, about his father this time, and “gone are the sharp one-liners, the exaggerated portraits and the wacky antics. In their place is a chilling and terrifying depiction of a soulless sociopath who can barely contain a murderous rage.”

“I’m the author of some 30 plays, and I think only six or seven returned their investment, I have a very bizarre mind, by the way. I can read a book and forget about it. … And 20 years later, a character that I am writing can quote from the book. and I can’t even recall that I read it.”

“At 68, Trevor Nunn has every reason for confidence but is surprisingly insecure. He is principled, wealthy, married to the actress Imogen Stubbs and, all cavils aside, a brilliant director. Nobody can handle a large stage, and few a small one, more effectively than Nunn.”

Why the FBI chose to pursue this case is unclear, but Kurtz’s supporters are convinced that it was an intentional attempt to punish an artist who is critical of the government’s authoritarian tendency. As Nature magazine put it: “It seems that government lawyers are singling Kurtz out as a warning to the broader artistic community”.

Today’s Zimbabwe is filled with a sense of foreboding, though many had hoped that the recent election would enable it to sing again. But the country has a long tradition of writers speaking out – sometimes prophetically – against the excesses of dictators.