British Writers

CBC Radio, Canada, on Pinter

2008-12-25T08:39:00.000-08:00

On October 13, 2005, CBC Radio announced the news that Pinter had won the Nobel Prize:

The citation said that in his plays, Pinter "uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms."

This is quite an interesting description of Pinter's work. I might call it apt but I would also call it reductive. As a writer, Pinter is most difficult to slot into any literary schema. He cuts across with ease and is able to create a world that can only be called Pinteresque.

On Harold Pinter

2008-12-25T07:12:00.001-08:00

I would discuss about Harold Pinter in further detail very soon but for those, who might like a peek into this magnificent writer, you should check out his Nobel acceptance speech at the following link: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture.html

News: Harold Pinter dies

2008-12-25T07:07:00.000-08:00

It is with a sad heart that I am breaking the news of Harold Pinter's death. You can see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/theater/26pinter.html?hp for a detailed article on his death. He died on Dec 24th and the cause was cancer. He was 78 years old.

When Pinter won the Nobel Prize in 2005, I used to teach his play, The Homecoming to my M.A. students. It was a great experience teaching him. He was one irrepressible person and I admired him a lot for his views as well as his plays.

May his soul rest in peace in the heavens because he was constantly restless here.

Ben Okri

2008-11-07T19:50:00.000-08:00

I read Ben Okri's The Famished Road years ago, soon after it won the Booker Prize in 1991. I even had the wonderful occasion to hear him speak and read from his novel. He had been invited to New Delhi by the British Council Division, New Delhi, and the Confederation for Indian Industry (CII) many years ago. When Okri read from his novel, I could feel the same magic that I felt when I read his book. I still remember that he spoke of 'transaction the commerce of words'. I loved the phrase and remember it even now though there are some of my ossified colleagues who find it abominable to mix literature with commerce in one phrase. :)

Great British Writers Since 1945

2008-11-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

I found a very interesting blog post about the greatest British writers since 1945 and I quote below:

The Times list of the Greatest British Writers Since 1945 caught my eye recently and I’ve been slowly working my way through the massive amount of information on the authors and their works. The list consists of 50 British authors, but only eleven of them are familiar to me (Orwell, Tolkien, Lewis, Murdoch, Rushdie, Fleming, Byatt, McEwan, Rowling, Pullman and Sutcliff). Perhaps if I was British I would know more of them? It would be interesting to know what kind of a list people outside of England would come up with and how it would compare.

The link for the post is http://bibliophilist.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/link-great-british-writers/

Introduction

2008-11-07T05:13:00.000-08:00

The term 'British writers' could mean just about anything. It could even mean Geoffrey Chaucer and it could mean William Shakespeare. However, this website would endeavor to talk about recent writers who have become sensations and who have made Britain their new home.