Web Resources for

Contemporary British Literature

Note: Not all links have been checked for current access; links are checked and updated periodically when readings are assigned.

Below you'll find web links for British history and culture and for the authors we're reading this semester, as well as other authors from the period. Some sites are better than others; as always when using the web, evaluate not only the quantity of the information presented, but its quality (the source of that information or its sponsor, date uploaded, etc.).

British History and Culture | Authors

British History and Culture

Historical background

• England in the Twentieth Century (by Peter Williams, from Britannia): The Post-War Year, Thatcher's government and the "Dismantling of the Welfare State", The Governments of John Major and Tony Blair.
• British History Post-WWII at the BBC web pages on "The Making of Modern Britain" includes links to information on "Britain, the Commonwealth, and the End of Empire," the Suez Crisis in 1956, Thatcherism and its legacy, and multi-racial Britain.
• "A Short History of Immigration" from BBC news offers information about immigration in 1946-1948, 1950-1971, 1972-1979, the 1980s, and 1987-2002.
• "Arriving in Britain," the introduction to the web exhibition "Black Presence: Asian and Black History in Britain, 1500-1850" at the National Archives, provides information about race in Britain. See the galleries on Early Times, Work and Community, and Culture, in particular. (For more resources on Black Britain, visit the resources page for ENGL 350: Black Britain at Humbolt State University; also, listen to a RealAudio story from NPR's Morning Edition for June 22, 1998 on the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush in England.)
• The Partition of India provides maps before and after partition, a timeline of British presence in India (1600-1971), a discussion of the reasons for partition, and further resources.
• The Carribean.
• Also see the General Literary Resources below for more information on post-imperialism and post-colonialism.
• Web sites for Channel 4's The 1900 House and The 1940s House offer a contemporary perpective on these two time periods.
• History of paperback book publishing in the U.K.

Cultural Contexts

London

• The British Pathe web site and YouTube channel hold an archive of videos, including those features London culture and places.
• An overview of immigration, post-World War II, from the National Archives.
• The British Library has a series of short histories on immigration, including "Immigration from India" and "Windrush: Post-War Immigration."
• Videos on immigration
  • "The SS Empire Windrush 1948" (archival Pathe interview with arrivals on the Empire Windrush, including the musician Aldwyn Roberts [Lord Kitchener], who sings "London Is the Place for Me") [alternate link at Pathe]
  • An excerpt from Part 1 of the documentary Playing the Race Card (1999), and another on discrimination in the workplace in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
  • Part 1 of the documentary Playing the Race Card (1999)
  • "Our Jamacian Problem (17 Jan 1955)" (archival video from Pathe)
• Videos of London
  • "Looking at London (1946)" (archival, MGM)
  • "This Is London Reel 1 and 2 (1950-1959)" (archival British Travel Association travelogue)
  • "Journey Through Britian Reel 2 (1960-1969)" (archival British Travel Association travelogue)
  • "Review of the Sixties (1970)" (archival, British Pathe)
• Exploring 20th Century London provides information about cultural events, people, and places organized by themes, places, and timeline, including:
  • "Migration and Citizenship"
  • "London at War"
  • "Youth Culture and Fashion"
  The London Transport Museum provides an online gallery of images dating from the 19th century, including a number of images from World War II.
• Moving Here provides information about immigration to London as well as other parts of England.
  • The section on Migration Histories offers details on Carribean, Irish, Jewish, and South Asian immigrants.
  • The Gallery provides images and accompanying cultural information on a variety of topics, such as War and Military Experience and Food and Drink.
• Ten Generations draws upon a variety of resources to present London life across ten generations, oragnized by themes such as Communities and Work.
• PhotoLondon provides a selection of images from the 19th and 20th centuries from a variety of public collections.
• Derelict London records images of the city in disrepair or destruction.

Media

• The Times and The Sunday Times.
• The Independent.
• The Guardian and the Observer, including the Guardian Books page.
• The Irish Times.
• The Scotsman.
• The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).

Television

• EastEnders (1985-present)
  • The BBC site for EastEnders.
  • The page for EastEnders at NostalgiaCentral offers information about the series.
  • "Happy Birthday EastEnders" (BBC, 16 Feb 2000) looks back at the show's episodes and success.
• Coronation Street (1960-present)
• Little Britain.
• Dr. Who.
• Blind Date.
• "British Politics links" at C-Span, including a link to Prime Minister's Questions.
• History
  • BBC Four provides a brief overview of t.v. in the 1960s in Britian.
  • For a detailed history of television in Britain, visit BFI's Screenonline site.

The Prisoner

• Six of One, The Prisoner Appreciation Society, offers a wealth of information about this cult favorite starring Patrick MacGoohan. "The Prisoner" was broadcast first in the UK in 1967 and then in the US in June, 1968.
• Kipp Teague's well-organized RetroWeb Classic Television Page for "The Prisoner" is the official "sister site" to that of Six of One, The Prisoner Appreciation Society. It offers "original publicity write-up on the series by ITC, including descriptions of each episode and several high-quality episode images."
• Information about the filming location in Wales and the annual Prisoner Convention held there.
• BFI's Screenland also offers a brief overview of the series, as well as video clips and links.
• Read about recent re-releases of "Prisoner" episodes and other news in Frantz Lidz's "After 34 Years, Unable to Let Go Of The Prisoner" (New York Times, 19 Oct 2000).

The Avengers

• The Avengers Forever offers a comprehensive site on The Avengers.
• James Dawe's Unofficial Home Page about The Avengers, an award-winning site from the UK on this other cult t.v. favorite. [currently offline]

Exhibitions

• A comphrensive site about the Festival of Britain in 1951, which celebrated "the achievements in all fields of activity of the United Kingdom soley" (Lord Ismay, 1951).

Film

• "Made in the U.K." (Guardian, 24 Jan 2003) on UK films abroad in America, in light of the release of The Hours.
• An article by Nora Sayre, "British New Wave Film Flourishes," offers an overview of British film of the 1960s.

Football

• An article by George Vecsey, "England Battle Racism That Infests Soccer" (New York Times 2 Feb 2003) offers an overview of racism in European football clubs and games.

The Booker Prize

• A site devoted to the Booker Prize offers a history of the Booker Prize, founded by Booker plc, Britain's leading national food wholesaler. The site also includes short-listed authors, winners, and panel judges for recent years.
• A discussion of the Booker Prize, including the marketing and publicity around the prize, the panel of judges, and some recent winners.

The Orange Prize

• "Textual Politics" (Guardian, 6 March 2005) offers a history of this controversial award for women's fiction.
• The Orange Prize also sponsors various surveys and research projects related to women writers
  • "Women are still a closed book to men" (The Observer, 29 May 2005) reports on the most recent survey of men and women readers in the U.K., as does "Why Men Just Can't Read Women" (Telegraph, 1 June 2005).
  • "The Life-Changing Novels Every Woman Should Read" reports the results of a survey from 2004 of women and the books that have made a difference in their lives.

Authors

General Literary Resources

• Alan Lui's Voice of the Shuttle page for English Literature -- Contemporary.
• Jack Lynch's Literary Resources -- Twentieth Century British and Irish provides information on selected modern and contemporary authors.
• George Landow's Contemporary Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature in English site is uneven, but can provide some helpful historical context and critical commentary. (The Postimperial Literature in English part of this larger site links to information on UK authors.)
• The BBC pages on Contemporary Irish Poets (includes links to Real Audio recordings by selected poets).
• The Imperial Archive, a "site dedicated to the study of Literature, Imperialism, Postcolonialism" and authored by students working on the MA degree in Modern Literary Studies in the School of English at the Queen's University of Belfast.
• An Introduction to Postcolonial Studies at the site for Postcolonial Studies at Emory.
• "Imperialism to Postcolonialism: Perspectives on the British Empire" provides a clear discussion of the terms imperialism and colonialism (located at W.W. Norton's site of web resources for the Norton Anthology of English Literature).
• Detailed discussion of realism, the realist novel, and metafiction and historiographic metafiction.

Douglas Adams

• A biography of Adams from the BBC Science page.
• The BBC also has an extensive web page on Adams and his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which included links to other resources.
• "Wired for Books" has several audio interviews with Adams.
• "Floor 42" is a fan site with a variety of resources, as does another titled "Douglas Adams -- A Science Fiction Writer?"
• The New York Times obituary for Adams.

Fleur Adcock

• Fleur Adcock -- The Expatriate Poet offers detailed biographical profile and critical overview of Adcock's work.
• A brief critical overview and a brief biographical profile.
• Read an interview with Adcock at the Guardian (29 July 2000), in which she discusses her childhood, England, New Zealand, relationships, and her art.
• From this BBC World Service page on Adcock, you can listen to Adcock read one of her poems, "Miramar," read other poets' comments on her poem, and go to other pages about Adcock
• The New York Times obituary for Adams.

John Agard

• The British Council's site on Contemporary Writers offers a brief biography of Agard.
• A discussion of Agard's time at the poet in residence at the BBC in 1998, the 50th anniversary of the Windrush's arrival.

Monica Ali

• The British Council's site on Contemporary Writers offers a brief biography of Ali.
• "My Year as a Star," an interview with Ali for the Telegraph (10 May 2004), offers some details about Ali's life as a writer before and since the publication of Brick Lane.
• Read an interview with Ali, "Ali's in Wonderland" (1 June 2003), from the Guardian.
• Natasha Walter's review of Brick Lane, "Citrus scent of inexorable desire" (14 June 2003), from the Guardian.
• "Local Protests over Brick Lane Film" (Guardian, 18 July 2006) describes how residents of Brick Lane are trying to prevent filming of Ali's novel in East London; other Guardian article offers some further information.
• Monica Ali talks about the controversy over the film and the process of the book's translation to the screen in "The Outrage Economy" (13 Oct 2007) for the Guardian.
• Some history on Tower Hamlets.
• "It's Brick Lane by any other name" (Guardian, 14 Sept 2003) offers a discussion about the publication of Brick Lane for the US market.

Monica Alvi

• The British Council's site on Contemporary Writers offers a brief biography of Alvi.
• The author page for Alvi at her publisher, Blood Axe Books.

Martin Amis

• The BBCi Author Pages for Martin Amis offer a brief overview of his life and work.
• The British Council's site on Contemporary Writers also provides a brief biography.
• A comprehensive site by James Diedrick (Professor of English, Albion College) on Martin Amis offers biographical and bibliographical information as well as links to interviews and criticism. Frequently updated.
• Reviews and articles about/by Amis in the NYT.
• Listen to several BBC Four interviews with Amis.

Kingsley Amis

• Web resources: "Why Lucky Jim Turned Right" , Gareth Jenkins' interesting essay that reevaluates Amis' "angry young man" status.
• Listen to excerpts from several BBC Four interviews with Kingsley Amis.
• Recommended reading: Lucky Jim (1953).

Margaret Atwood

• Web resources: The Margaret Atwood Society homepage provides up-to-date information on Atwood's writing as well as an extensive bibliography and links to other sites.
• Recommended reading: The Handmaid's Tale (1985).

Pat Barker

• Biographies:
  • The British Council's site on Contemporary Writers offers a brief biography of Barker and critical overview of her work.
  • Another brief biography of Barker at Penguin.
  • A bibliography of Pat Barker's work and reviews of her work, as of 1999 (link courtesy of the Internet Archive).
• Interviews:
  • Read "A Backdoor into the Present,"an interview with Barker (translated from German) at LOLA Press (link courtesy of the Internet Archive).
  • Her interview, "It's a Disaster for a Novel to Be Topical,"with the Guardian's Robert McCrum (1 April 2001).
  • Search the archives of the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air" for an interview with Barker on 13 July 1999.
  • Debbie Taylor writes about her interview with Barker in Mslexia, "Regular insight into the working methods of a top woman author" (link courtesy of the Internet Archive).
  • From the BBC programme "Front Row," listen to interviews with Pat Barker:
    • Barker discusses a three-part "reality t.v." history show called "The Trench" (March 2002), which invited contemporary people to live in the conditions of trench warfare. (RealAudio file.)
    • Barker discusses the use of medical hospitals as settings for books and films, including her use of this setting in Regeneration (May 2002). (RealAudio file.)
• Reviews and critical essays:
  • Reviews published in the NYT; summary of reviews and reader comments at Amazon.com.
  • Read the first paragraph of Rosemary Dinnage's essay review of the Regeneration trilogy, "Death's Gray Land" (New York Review of Books), and see David Levine's sketch of Barker which accompanies the review.
  • Scholar Peter Hitchcock offers a critical analysis of Prior's character and masculinity in his essay "What is Prior? Working-Class Masculinity in Pat Barker's Trilogy" (Genders 35, 2002).
  • "Pat Baker's Regeneration: Critical Contexts" offers brief analyses of Barker's novel, focusing on the people, places, and cultural references which appear in the narrative.
• Information on Dr.W.H.R. Rivers:
  • Biographical information about Dr W.H.R. Rivers.
  • Background on "shell shock" in WWI.
  • "Freud and the War Neuroses'" offers background on the therapies popular during WWI for treating shell-shock and which Rivers rejected in his treatments at Craiglockhart (link courtesy of the Internet Archive).
  • Read Rivers' "An Address on the Repression of War Experience," originally published in The Lancet in 1918.
• Links to historical background on the First World War:
  • Explore the site for World War One at BBC Knowledge for links to a summary of the war years, Daily Mirror articles from the 1940s about the war, interviews with veterans, a 3-D virtual tour of a trench, and information about making of the UK feature-length television drama "All the King's Men" (1999).
  • "The War Poets at Craiglockhart" (sponsored by Napier University, which resides on the former site of Craiglockhart Hospital) offers a history the site in the context of WWI and the poets who stayed there.
  • The First World War Poetry Archive: an on-line archive with material on Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, other poets, and WWI which offers an incredibly deep resource for background material on Barker's novel, including digital facsimiles of all of Owen's war poetry, a selection of his letters and photographs, and his personal records. In addition, the archive has over 250 Photographs of the Western Front (1914-1918); 250 Modern Photographs of the Western Front; c.50 Video Clips from the 1916 films "The Battle of the Somme" and "The Battle of the Ancre: The Advance of the Tanks" (QuickTime and MPEG); 100 Audio Clips from interviews with veterans from the Great War (RealAudio);and c.30 Modern Video Clips of the Western Front. (Most of the photos were taken from the collections of the Imperial War Museum.)
  • Information about The Hydra, the publication of Craiglockhart Hospital edited by Wilfred Owen during his stay at Craiglockhart, and about the grounds of Craiglockhart Hospital.
  • Information about the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment).

Julian Barnes

• Web resources: The Julian Barnes Page for a brief biographical profile and links to bibliography, critical works, and interviews.
• Recommended reading: England, England (1998) and Flaubert's Parrot (1984).

A.S. Byatt

• The British Council's website on Contemporary Authors offers a biography of Byatt.
• A web site devoted to A.S. Byatt has links to information about her books, appearances, essays written by Byatt (including an introduction for Babel Tower), and an extensive bibliography of Byatt's work and secondary criticism on her work. (Links courtesty of the Internet Archive.)
• The Guardian Books page for Byatt has a brief overview of her career and recommendations for further reading.
• Interviews and reviews
  • A video interview (25 Aug 2010) with Byatt from the 2010 Edinburgh Book Festival about Byatt's Booker-short listed novel The Children's Book, religion, and more
  • An interview, "Writing in Terms of Pleasure" (24 April 2009) for the Guardian offers background on Byatt's life
  • An interview with Byatt at The Paris Review (1998)
  • An interview with Byatt by Laura Miller at Salon.com during Byatt's U.S. tour for Babel Tower
  • Reviews and articles about/by Byatt in the NYT.
• Background for Babel Tower (1996), the third novel in the Frederica Quartet:
  • A summary/overview of The Virgin in the Garden (1978), the first in the series.
  • A summary/overview of Still Life (1985), the second in the series. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
  • Byatt's introduction for Babel Tower, outlining its themes and concerns.
  • Penguin/Random House's overview and reading guide for Babel Tower.
  • The Reading Group Guide's summary and reading questions for Babel Tower.
  • Reviews
    • Ann Hubert's "Hungry for Books" (New York Times, 9 June 1996)
    • Laura Miller's review (Salon.com)
    • D. J. Taylor's "Byatt's Tower Risks a Topple" (Mail & Guardian, 16 June 1997; link courtesy of the Internet Archive)
  • Marianne Brace's interview with Byatt, "That Thinking Feeling" (Guardian, 9 June 1996) at the time of Babel Tower's publication.
  • General history resources for 1950s and 1960s
    • General background on "Britain from 1945 Onwards" and "Thatcherism and the End of Postwar Consensus" (BBC History)
    • Background on "Conservatives in Power 1951-1964" and "Harold Wilson and Labour 1964-1970" (BBCi Timelines), and an overview of England's history between 1952 and 1970 from Britannia's "England: A Narrative History." (Links courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
  • Education
    • "Beat School (1961)" (British Pathe archival video about an alternative/progressive school)
      • Compare with the video-only (no sound) "Schooling 1960-1969" (British Pathe archival video)
    • "Royal Visit (1965)" (British Pathe archival video about the Queen's visit to a comprehensive school in London)
    • Some information on British Art Schools in the 1960s from the BBC television series Time Shift.
  • Some archival video and audio resources from the BBC on "Marriage in the 1950s and 1960s."
  • Some archival video and audio documenting the history of homosexuality and gay rights in 20th century Britian.
  • Further resources on 1960s culture are available from the BBC Four site for its programme series "Art & the 60s: Summer in the Sixties" in 2004, including overviews on art, 1960s t.v., and sport.

Angela Carter

• A biography of Carter is available through The Unofficial Angela Carter Page.
• Read reviews and articles about/by Carter in the NYT.
• A bibliography of Carter's work is available through the Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Utopia website.

Caryl Churchill

• A brief biographical profile, from the British Council, and a bibliography of Churchill's work.
• A New York Times review of Churchill's plays, "Caryl Churchill's Gripping Imagination" (10 November 2002), which also includes an overview of her career.
• Productions of Cloud 9
  • A few production photos and a review of a performance of Cloud 9 at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City in 2015. (Compare this 2015 production review with the one from 1981, referenced in the 2015 review.)
  • Production photos from a performance of Cloud 9 at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2007.
  • A number of production photos from a performance of Cloud 9 at UMKC in 2006 from their production archives.
  • A number of production photos from a performance of Cloud 9 at the Antaeus Theatre Company in 2016.
  • A production photo from the first run of Cloud 9 at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1979.
  • From a class web site on Cloud 9 (Clemson University), there is an interesting page on the set design and sound design for a recent production of the play. (Links courtesy of the Internet Archive .)
  • Production photos and publicity for a production of Cloud 9 at the Bench Theatre in Havant, U.K., in 1986.
  • A review of a production in 2004 which includes some production photos of Betty's character.
• Some study/reading questions for Cloud 9. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
• Context
  • A definition of Berthol Brecht's "alienation effect" from Britannica.com, and a more detailed description with references to Brecht's writing.
  • A biography of Berthol Brecht which includes a description of Brecht's influential theory of dramatic performance, the "alienation effect" (or, "A-effect").
  • PBS's website no longer has the rights to share information for the episode "Between Brecht and Beckett" from the series Changing Stages, hosted by Richard Eyre. This episode investigates Brecht's and Beckett's influence on the British theatre of the 1960s and 1970s. However, you can watch an interview with Eyre and Charlie Rose, and view a capture of the episode.

J. M. Coetzee

• Web resources: Articles by Coetzee and reviews of his work in the NYT.
• Recommended reading: Foe (1987).

Merle Collins

• The author page for Merle Collins at her publisher, Peepal Tree Press.

Wendy Cope

• The British Council's website on Contemporary Authors offers a brief biography of Cope.
• An author profile of Cope from the BBC pages.
• The Poetry Archive provides a brief overview of Cope's career with links to her reading some of her poems.
• An interview with Cope from the Guardian ("Happiness Writes Good Poems," 3 June 2001), on the occasion of a new collection of her poetry.
• Cope discusses the possessions with meaning in her life in the multi-media slide show "Wendy Cope: Pieces of Me" (Guardian, 6 Jul 2008).

Roddy Doyle

• Web resources: The Roddy Doyle Page.
• Recommended reading: The Commitments (1987) and Booker Prize Winner Paddy Clark, Ha Ha Ha (1993).

Margaret Drabble

• Web resources: Reviews and articles about/by Drabble in the NYT.
• Recommended reading: Jerusalem the Golden (1967).

Helen Fielding

• A overview of Fielding's work as of 2008 appears at the Guardian.
• Penguin USA has a reader's guide to Fielding's novel, which includes an interview with Fielding, a brief biography and more.
• Check out the differences between the US and UK dust-jackets for Bridget Jones's Diary and The Edge of Reason.
• The Bridget Archive provides links to interviews, reviews, and additional information.
• The transcript from an online chat with Fielding in 1998 with Time.com.
• "The Chick Lit Challenge" (March/April 2004, Utne) offers an overview of chick lit, a publishing trend which began with Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary.
• Review of Fielding's Bridget Jones Diary and Nick Hornby's About a Boy.
• If you enjoyed Fielding, try Nick Hornby or Roddy Doyle.

Penelope Fitzgerald

• Web resources: Brief overview of her novels by her publisher.
• Recommended reading: The Bookshop, Offshore, Human Voices.

John Fowles

• John Fowles -- The Web Site offers biographical information, as well as information about Fowles' projects, awards, and his nomination for the Nobel Prize.
• Biographical sketch and information on Fowles' papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at UT Austin.
• Reviews and articles about/by Fowles in the NYT, including Christopher Lehmann-Haupt's review of The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969).
• Detailed discussions of realism in the context of the Victorian novel, the realist novel, and the postmodern novel, as well as a detailed discussion of metafiction and historiographic metafiction. A comparison of the Victorian novel and the modernist novel might be helpful, too.
• The BBC's "History Trail" for Victorian England offers a range of information about every-day life in England during the 19th century, including a section on "The Ideals of Womanhood."
• Further information about people, places, and things which appear in Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman:
  • Lyme Regis (9/Chp 1)
  • Monmouth (9/Chp 1)
  • Henry Moore (9/Chp 1; alternate link)
  • Darwin (14/Chp2)
  • Chartism (16/Chp3)
  • Marx (16/Chp 3)
  • Almack's (17/Chp 3)
  • Oxford Movement (18/Chp 3)
  • infra dig (18/Chp 3; alternate link)
  • Low Church (23/Chp 4)
  • bombazine (26/Chp 4)
  • Phiz and John Leech (26/ Chp 5)
  • Becky Sharp (27/Chp 5)
  • melancholia (33/Chp 6; alternate link)
  • Sam Weller (39/ Chp 7)
  • Cockney (39/Chp 7)
  • echinoderm fossils (tests) (42/Chp 8)
  • Occam's razor (64/Chp 11)
  • Bosch (18/Chp 12; alternate link)
  • Robbe-Grillet and Barthes (80/Chp 13)
  • Bentham (124/Chp 19)
  • Voltaire (124/Chp 19)
  • Pre-Raphaelite (143/Chp 20)
  • Millais and Ford Madox Brown; Constable and Palmer (143/Chp 20)
  • men's collars (168/Chp 26)
  • Malthus (180/Chp 180)
  • Pisanello (191/Chp 29)
  • Mayhew (214/Chp 35)
  • Atreids (215/Chp 35)
  • Toby jug, RalphWood (220/Chp 36)
  • Mr Jorrocks (222/Chp 37)
  • Marcus Aurelius and Lord Palmerston (223/Chp 37)
  • Candide (229/Chp 38)
  • milk punch (235/Chp 39)
  • Mytton and Casanova (236/Chp 39)
  • Christina Rossetti (357/Chp 60)
  • Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood (357/Chp 60)
  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti (361/Chp 61)
  • flanerie (362/Chp 61)
• If you enjoyed Fowles, try Julian Barnes.

Brian Friel

• Biographical profile and overview of Friel's works.
• Historical background on Friel's Translations.
• A Scenic Design for a production of Friel's Translations at the University of Tulsa in 1986.
• Background on the Field Day Theatre Company, founded by Brian Friel and actor Stephen Rea in 1980.

Mark Haddon

• A biography of Haddon at the British Council's site for Contemporary Writers.
• A detailed Reading Guide to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is available through Penguin U.K., which includes Haddon's commentary about writing the book and the appearance of the words "Asperger Syndrome" on the front cover to the first edition of the book.
• A Reading Guide to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is also available at Penguin/Random House USA.
• Haddon reflects on the success of Curious Incident... and on writing fiction in "B is for Bestseller" (Guardian, 11 April 2004).
• An interview with Haddon at Powells.com.
• Reviews
  • Charlotte Moore reviews Curious Incident... in "Just the Facts, Ma'am" (Guardian, 24 May 2003), which includes an image of the U.K. adult edition's dust-jacket design.
  • A review of Curious Incident... -- "A Journey to Shock and Enlighten" (Guardian, 29 Jan 2004 ) -- by William Schofield, a student with Asperger's syndrome.
  • Nani Power reviews Curious Incident... in "Feeling His Way" (Washington Post, 10 Aug 2003).
• John Mullan's four-part discussion of Curious Incident... for the Guardian: "Through Innocent Eyes" (24 April 2004), "Expletives Not Deleted" (1 May 2004), "Letters Patent" (8 May 2004), and "Funny Old World" (15 May 2004)
• Mark Haddon's own website, where you can view the dust-jacket and cover designs for a number of international editions of Curious Incident....

Tony Harrison

• A brief biography of Harrison at the Poetry Foundation and another biography at the British Council's site for Contemporary Writers.
• The Poetry Archive provides a brief overview of Harrison's career with links to him reading four of his poems.
• The Guardian has an overview of Harrison's career as well as a collection of links to past Guardian reviews and articles on Harrison and his work.
• Harrison's response to the possibility of being Poet Laureat appears in this Salon article (20 April 1999).
• "Tony Harrison: Not to be Read Quietly" (Independent, 1 April 2007) offers a detailed profile, written upon Harrison's 70th birthday. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)

Seamus Heaney

• The Poetry Archive provides a brief overview of Heaney's career with links to him reading four of his poems.
• A more detailed overview of his career.
• Read Heaney's Nobel Prize lecture.
• Reviews and articles about/by Heaney in the New York Times.
• Photos of the "Windeby Girl," the inspiration for Heaney's poem "Punishment," along with some photos from the book Heaney read, as well as the body of a sixteen year old Yde girl and the Tolland man, all recovered from the bogs.
• For Heaney reflecting on his own career, see "Seamus Heaney chooses two poems to sum up his lifetime achievement"  (Guardian, 19 March 2009).
• The obituary for Heaney at the Economist and the obituary at the BBC.

Georgette Heyer

• :The Georgette Heyer Homepage has information about Heyer's life and works, as well as links to other sites on Heyer and Regency Romance.
• G.A. Michael Sims' "Biographical Note and Bibliography" provides detailed bibliographic for Heyer's publications.
• A Gallery of Heyer Images offers cover art for Heyer's novels.
• BBCi's overview "The Romantic Novels of Georgette Heyer" describes the types of romance novels Heyer published.

Nick Hornby

• A brief biography of Horny at the British Council's site for Contemporary Writers.
• Nick Hornby's own web site.
• Penguin's web site for Hornby has a link to an interview with Hornby about his work, including Fever Pitch, and about his writing interests.
• Penguin Putnam's web site has a brief biography, as does the "Nick Hornby" page at the BBC Book Pages.
• The Guardian Books page on "Nick Hornby" offers a brief overview of his work, followed by links to Guardian reviewsof Hornby's work and interviews with Hornby.
• An interview with Hornby at Salon about Fever Pitch (1995) and High Fidelity (1996).
• For some further cultural context, you might want to read the (often "R" rated) football songs and chants of the English League teams -- such as Arsenal, Leeds United, Man U, and others -- as well as songs and chants for the England National Team. For general information about football chants, visit the Wikipedia page, "Football chant."

Ted Hughes

• The Poetry Archive provides a brief overview of Hughes's career with links to him reading two of his poems.
• The Ted Hughes Pages, maintained by Claas Kazzer, provide a wide range of information about Hughes' life and death, as well as his poetry and essays, with links to information about Hughes' work.
• The Ted Hughes Society Journal has a set of links to a range of Ted Hughes Resources Online, including biographical and manuscripts and archives.
• Some of Ted Hughes's papers are located at Emory University's Manuscript, Archive, and Rare Book Library; at its site, you can see details about the holdings and read a brief overview of Hughes's career.
• Other papers, as well as sound recordings, are held by the British Library.
• A ten-year archive of articles and reviews on Hughes at the Guardian, including a profile of Hughes by poet Simon Armitage following the ten-year anniversary of Hughes's death.
• Reviews of Hughes' work and related articles by/about Hughes in the New York Times, at a site dedicated to the work of Plath and Hughes.

Kazuo Ishiguro

• The British Council's biography of Ishiguro.
• "Living Memories" (Guardian, 18 Feb 2005) provides a recent profile of Ishiguro.
• "The Hiding Place" (Telegraph, 6 March 2005) offers another profile.
• An interview with Ishiguro -- "For Me, England is a Mythical Place" (Guardian, 20 Feb 2005) --on the occaison of the publication of Never Let Me Go (2005).
• For historical context for Remains of the Day, visit the historical background resources above for the post-war years, including information on life after WWII and the Suez Crisis of 1956.
• If you enjoyed Ishiguro, try Penelope Fitzgerald, A.S. Byatt, Pat Barker, or Muriel Spark.

Neil Jordan

• The Official Neil Jordan Website includes a biography and filmography.
• History of cricket.
• If you enjoyed Jordan, try Hanif Kureishi.

Jackie Kay

• A brief biography of Kay at the British Council's site for Contemporary Writers.
• A brief biography of Kay at the Poetry Archive, with links to Kay reading from her work.

Hanif Kureishi

• Web resources: A brief biographical and bibliographical profile, an interview with Kureishi about his novel, The Black Album (1995), and reviews and articles by/about Kureishi in the NYT.
• Recommended reading/viewing: My Beautiful Launderette (1985), London Kills Me (1991), The Buddha of Suburbia (1991).

Philip Larkin

• An overview of Larkin's poetry and career.
• The Philip Larkin Society offers a biography of Larkin's life and career.
• Detailed biographical and bibliographical information at the University of Hull, the location of Larkin's papers. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
• Biography and select bibliography at the Academy of American Poets site.
• "High Talk: Influences from the British Isles" (also at the Academy of American Poets site) places Larkin within the context of other U.S. and British poets of his day.
• Hear Larkin read some of his poems at The Poetry Archive.

Andrea Levy

• The British Council provides a biography of Levy as well as some other resources
• A biography of Levy at her author web site.
• Levy's obituary in the Guardian (15 Feb 2018)
• "Empire's Child" (Guardian, 31 Jan 2004) offers an interview with Andrea Levy, and "The Guardian Profile: Andrea Levy" (Guardian, 21 Jan 2005) offers more information about Levy and her work.
• Levy describes her relationship with England and Britain in "This is My England" (Guardian, 19 Feb 2000).
• In "Made in Britain" (Guardian, 18 Sept 2004), Levy offers her description of the day 50 authors of Caribbean, Asian, and African decent appear to be photographed.
• Reviews of Levy's Small Island:
  • "Roots Manoeuvre" (Guardian, 14 Feb 2004) by Mike Phillips.
  • John Mullan offers a four-part critical review of Levy's novel for the Guardian: "Mind Your Language" (11 Dec 2004), "Pregnant Silence" (18 Dec 2004), "It's a Small World" (1 Jan 2005), and "Fear and Longing" (8 Jan 2005)
• In "Eyes on the Prizes" (Guardian, 31 Jan 2005), critic and historian John Sutherland reflects on the award culture in the context of the prizes awarded to Small Island: The Orange Prize (2004), Whitbread Novel of the Year (2004), and Whitbread Book of the Year (2004).
• The British Library has several resources on Levy and her work, including: "'How come England did not know me?': Recording Andrea Levy for Authors' Lives"; "An introduction to Andrea Levy's Small Island" by Hannah Lowe, which includes some biographical information and photographs about Levy; and "Windrush and the making of post-imperial Britain" by Harry Goulbourne, among other resources.

Doris Lessing

• Web resources: Reviews and articles about/by Lessing in the NYT.
• Recommended reading: The Golden Notebook (1962) and The Fifth Child (1988).

David Lodge

• The British Council provides a biography of Lodge as well as some other resources.
• The "David Lodge" page at Literary Heritage West Midlands offers a brief biography, a bibliography of Lodge's work, and some links to other resources.
• An interview with Lodge, published by România literar (18-24 April, 15/2001).
• "Bad Reviews Spoil My Lunch" (Telegraph, 23 Aug 2004) offers a recent profile of Lodge in the context of his recent novel about Henry James.
• Elaine Showalter reflects on the genre of academic novels in "Campus Follies" (Guardian, 10 Sept 2005), an excerpt from her book Faculty Towers: the Academic Novel and its Discontents (2005).
• If you enjoyed Lodge, try another academic novel by Kingsley Amis or another view of the 1960s presented by A.S. Byatt or Margaret Drabble.

Colin MacInnes

• A biography of MacInnes is available through the University of Rochester, which holds a number of MacInnes's papers and manuscripts.
• Caryl Phillips "Kingdom of the Blind" (Guardian, 17 July 2004) provides a brief biography of MacInnes and an analysis of his place within the British literature of the 1950s.
• Nick Bentley provides a literary anaylsis of MacInnes's narrative form in "Writing 1950s London: Narrative Strategies in Colin MacInnes's City of Spades and Absolute Beginners" (2003).
• Historical Contexts
  • On the 50th anniversay of the Notting Hill riot, the Independent offered a detailed account in "White Riot: The Week Notting Hill Exploded" (28 August 2008).
  • The release in 2002 of previously secret police reports revealed details about the riots, as explained by the Guardian in "After 44 years secret papers reveal truth about five nights of violence in Notting Hill" (24 Aug 2002).
  • Archival and recent videos about the Notting Hill riot and London in 1958
    • "London race riots interviews 1958 historic Notting Hill street views" (archival)
    • "Notting Hill Riots" (archival with contemporary commentary)
    • "Racial Troubles in Notting Hill (1959)" (archival interview about "the evils of the coloured invasion" with a representative of the White Defense League)
    • "Notting Hill Gate Tension (1959)" (archival footage without sound of Notting Hill and of White Defense League rally in Trafalgar Square, London)
    • "The More We Are Together 1958 East End London" (archival)
  • Information on "Teddy Boys" or "Teds"
    • Interesting information about teenagers and the "Teddy Boy" in the UK in the 1950s.
    • More information on "Teddy Boys," or "Teds," in comparison to punks and into recent decades, as well as more details about the "Teddy Boy" look and a picture (link courtesy of the Internet Archive).
    • Another description of the development of the Teddy Boy culture during the post-war years, authored by Brian A. Rushgrove, with an emphasis on how the look was reported in commercial venues, along with quotations from the Daily Mail and other periodicals. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
    • "Teddy Boys interviewed in 1950s England" offers a brief vintage video clip of Teds. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
    • Rare photos of Teddy Girls, as well as a photo essay that discusses the Ted look for men and women, appear to be no longer online. However, you can read about the exhibit and see some photos in this blog post from 2008 and the article "When the Girls Came Out to Play" (Times, 5 March 2006). More photos and additional text from the Times article are available a page at The Edwardian Teddy Boy.
    • At the BBC 20th Century Vox archive site, visit the "Entertainment" page and the excerpts under "Saturdays" to listen to former "Teddy Boys" talk about a Saturday night on the town. The excerpts "Down at the Boozer" and "Out with the Girls"offer some further historical context, too. (RealPlayer required.) (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
• Further information about people, places, and things which appear in MacInnes's Absolute Beginners (1958):
  • "Laurie London era" (11) [more on Laurie London]
  • "Cinerama" (11) [more on Cinerama]
  • "Spade" (16) (scroll to definition 3a.) [More on "spade."]
  • "mug" (17)
  • "Vespa cycle" (21) [more on the Vespa]
  • "Ella" (19), "Billie H." ("Lady Day") (26), "Frankie S." (52), "the MJQ" (50)
  • "yobbo" (31)
  • "Ed the Ted" and "full Teddy uniform" (42)
  • "those Wolfenden creations" (75)
  • "any other law in England" (113) [could also be this "law"]
  • "my Polaroids" (149) [more on Polaroids: scroll to definition 2]
  • "locks" (151) [more on locks: scroll to definition 9]
  • "dekko" (153)
  • "toffs," "mashers" (154)
  • "George Formby" and "Albert Chevalier" (158)
  • "Czar Tusdie" and "Maria Bethlehem" (162)
  • "What's My Line" (190)
  • "England's green and pleasant land" (190) [more on this lyric]
  • "White Protection League" (191)
  • "a battered Anthony Eden" (192)
  • "Hooray Henries" (193)

Ian McEwan

• The BBC Author Pages for Ian McEwan offers a brief biography.
• The Ian McEwan Website provides links to bibliographies and criticism on McEwan's novels, including Atonement.
• Historical resources for Atonement:
  • Historical overview of England "Between the Two World Wars" and "World War Two" at Britannia's History of England.
  • Information about the retreat to "Dunkirk" at the BBCi History pages.
  • A series of links, pictures, and stories for "Dunkirk Remembered" at BBC News, in honor of the 60th anniversary of the rescue, including one on "Dunkirk: The Propaganda War."
• Atonement won the People's Booker in 2001 -- read the commentary on its award, and visit links to an audio and a video interview with McEwan.
• Some reviews and articles about/by McEwan in the NYT.
• An interview (31 March 1998) with McEwan at Salon.com, and another interview with Random House's Bold Type online magazine after the publication of Black Dogs (1992).
• Listen to part of a BBC Four interview with McEwan.

Paul Muldoon

Iris Murdoch

• Web resources: One page has a detailed biographical profile and another a bibliography as well as links to other sites.
• Recommended reading: The Sea, the Sea (1978).

John Osborne

• A biography of Osborne posted on the BBC - Shropshire pages.
• "Fifty Years of Anger," by Marc Lawson (Guardian, 31 March 2006), recounts the history surroudning the opening night of Look Back in Anger on 8 May 1956.
• The National Theatre offers excerpts from critical reviews of a well-received production of Look Back in Anger, staged in 1999. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
• Resources on post-war drama from the "1956" program of Changing Stages.
• In "Godotmania" (Guardian, 4 Jan 2003), director Peter Hall discusses the influence of Beckett's Waiting for Godot on the British theater in the 1950s and the first British production, which appeared the year before Look Back in Anger. (Further information about Beckett is available from the online exhibition "Fathoms from Anywhere," sponsored by the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin.)
• Information about Butler's Education Act of 1944 and its implications for education across social classes.

Caryl Phillips

• Caryl Phillips, Writer offers some biographical information about Phillips, as well as summaries of his work and a calendar of recent reading tours.
• A site titled Caryl Phillips provides a more detailed biography of Phillips along with links to primary and secondary resources.
• The "Caryl Phillips" page at the site for Contemporary Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature in English, has links to short critical commentaries as well as some historical and political contexts for Phillips' work.
• Listen (or watch) Zadie Smith and Caryl Phillips read from their work at Harvard's Du Bois Institute (12 Feb 2003).

Philip Pullman

• "Are You There God? It's Me, Philip Pullman" (Book, Nov/Dec 2002) briefly describes the controversy Pullman offers in his trilogy.
• "His Dark Materials -- Bridge to the Stars.Net" offers a frequently updated, comprehensive fan site with many resources.
• Some annotations to Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
• For a complete listing of online resources for Pullman, visit Phil Nel's links for Pullman.

Craig Raine

• A brief biography of Raine at the British Council's site for Contemporary Writers.
• For a rather acerbic review of recent collections of Raine's poetry and criticism, see Michael Hofman's "Raine, Raine, Go Away" in the Guardian (3 Dec 2000).

Jean Rhys

• The Christophine Site provides historical background on Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), as well as links to a biography and bibliography for Rhys.
• Historical background on the Carribean.
• Compare cover designs for different editions of Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea.
• Information about Rhys' papers, held in the Special Collections at the University of Tulsa.

J.K. Rowling

• Visit J. K. Rowling's own website.
• The Leaky Cauldron offers up-to-date news on Rowling, the series, and the films.
• The Harry Potter Lexicon offers a wealth of information about the series.
• For more, see Phil Nel's comprehensive web links for Rowling.

Meg Rosoff

• The British Council website has a brief biography and critical overview of Rosoff's work.
• Explore Meg Rosoff's own website, including her C.V. and the books she wishes she had written.
• Meg Rosoff is active on Twitter; follow her at megrosoff.
• Read Rosoff's entries for her book blog at the Guardian.
• At the Random House website, Rosoff offers a brief autobiography and describes the inspiration for and composition of How I Live Now.
• Interviews and profiles
  • A Q&A with Rosoff from the Guardian (22 Nov 2013)
  • An interview with Rosoff from the Guardian (5 Sept 2013) on the occasion of her seventh book, Picture Me Gone (2013)
  • An interview with Rosoff from the Guardian (30 July 2006) on the occasion of her second book
  • Another interview from Penguin Books
  • A profile from School Library Journal (1 March 2005 ) which offers some details on Rosoff's trans-atlantic career.
• Several reviews of How I Live Now
  • A review from the Observer (25 July 2004)
  • Reviews from the Guardian, both an initial review (7 August 2004) and a later one following the award of the 2004 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (9 October 2004)
    

Arundhati Roy

• The Arundhati Roy Page at the SAWNet (Southern Asian Women 's NETwork) site offers a brief biographical profile, links to print and RealAudio interviews with Roy, and information on the reaction of Kerala's Communists to Roy's novel.
• The Arundhati Roy Web provides biographical information as well as a map of Kerla, the setting for The God of Small Things.
• Read Roy's essay about the U.S. invasion of Iraq, "Mesopotamia. Babylon. The Tigris and Euphrates," published in The Guardian (2 April 2003).
• Information about Kerala, about divorce in India, about the caste system, and about communism in India from the site for Postcolonial Studies at Emory.
• Professor Paul Brians' study guide for The God of Small Things.
• An interview with Roy at Salon.

Salman Rushdie

• The British Council's biography of Rushdie.
• A biography of Rushdie.
• The Postcolonial Web's page on Rushdie, with links to critical readings of his works.
• Salman Rushdie Page by Subir Grewal offers extensive information about Rushie, from biography to interviews to information on the fatwa.
• The site for Postcolonial Studies at Emory provides historical and cultural context for Rushdie's work:
  • The Partition of India provides maps before and after partition, a timeline of British presence in India (1600-1971), a discussion of the reasons for partition, and further resources.
  • "Salman Rushdie's Female Characters" places Rushdie's depiction of female characters within an historical and cultural context.
• Reviews and articles about/by Rushdie in the NYT.
• Reading resources on for Midnight's Children
  • Some study questions.
  • An overview of the novel with discussion questions from Penguin.
  • The promise of a multi-media study environment for Rushdie's novel from Columbia University.
  • Resources on Laurence Sterne and Tristram Shandy (1759-67), an inter-text for Midnight's Children
    • The title page of Volume 2 and a brief overview of the novel.
    • A summary of the novel and its themes.
• Links to Professor Paul Brians' annotations for Satanic Verses.

Samuel Selvon

• A brief biography of Selvon at Wikipedia.
• Another biography of Selvon, courtesy of the British Library.
• Selvon is one of several Black British authors from the Carribean whose radio broadcasts for the BBC in the late 1950s were collected for publication in a pamphlet titled Going to Britain? (BBC, 1959). Selvon's contributions include "Rules of the House," "Landlord and Landlady," and "Parties." The British Library has a scan of the publication.

Alan Sillitoe

• An overview of Sillitoe's life and work.
• A profile of Sillitoe on his 80th birthday by D. J. Taylor for the Guardian (1 March 2008).
• A series of oral history videos from family, friends, and co-workers of Sillitoe.
• An interview with Allan Sillitoe appears in a special issue of LeftLion magazine from August 2008, shortly before Sillitoe's death (scroll to page 9 for the interview).
• The Sillitoe Trail is an online resource about five city locations named in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. The site was commissioned by Arts Council England, and the project forms part of the BBCs experimental digital arts platform "The Space."
• Information about and pictures of the type of factory where Arthur Seaton (of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) works, by way of the Raleigh Cycle factory where Sillotoe worked when he was young.
• Kalle Virnes reports on some of the regional dialect in the novel. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
• Information on "Teddy Boys" or "Teds"
  • An overview of Teddy Boys.
  • More information on "Teddy Boys," or "Teds," in comparison to punks and into recent decades, as well as more details about the "Teddy Boy" look and a picture (link courtesy of the Internet Archive).
  • [Currently offline: "The Edwardian Teddy Boy" is a comprehensive site devoted to Teddy Boy (and Teddy Girl) history with many archival images and video clips. See the photos provided for "Bombsite Boudiccas 1" and "Bombsite Boudiccas 2" at the Edwardian Teddy Boy site. ]
  • Another description of the development of the Teddy Boy culture during the post-war years, authored by Brian A. Rushgrove, with an emphasis on how the look was reported in commercial venues, along with quotations from the Daily Mail and other periodicals. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
  • While the complete exhibition of Ken Russell's 1955 "Bombsite Boudiccas" appears to no longer be online, you can read about the photo exhibit of Teddy Girls exhibit and see some photos in this blog post from 2008 and the article "When the Girls Came Out to Play" (Times, 5 March 2006). (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
  • Some of Ken Russell's photos of Teddy Girls appear in this Guardian article "Ken Russell's post-war London – in pictures" (29 Nov 2016)
  • [Currently offline: At the BBC 20th Century Vox archive site, visit the "Entertainment" page and the excerpts under "Saturdays" to listen to former "Teddy Boys" talk about a Saturday night on the town. The excerpts "Down at the Boozer" and "Out with the Girls"offer some further historical context, too. (RealPlayer required.)]
  • [Currently offline: "Teddy Boys interviewed in 1950s England" offers a brief vintage video clip of Teds.]
• Information on Goose Fair
  • When Arthur Seaton responds to Doreen as if he doesn't know about Goose Fair, he's really trying hard to dissemble: read about the centuries-old Goose Fair and view pictures of the fair across the decades of the 20th century, including a photo of "Bingo and Side Stalls" from the 1961 fair.
  • [Currently offline: Further information and images available from The Alan Sillitoe Website and its page on "Carnival of the Bizarre: Arthur Seaton and the Goose Fair."]
• Film adaptation
  • General information about the film version of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning from the BFI.
  • An interview with Shirley Anne Field (Doreen).
  • A comparison of the locations from the film alongside photos of how the area appeared in 2008.
• Information about a new radio adaptation of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning airing on the BBC (September 2013).
• Sillitoe reflects on his writing process on the occasion of a visit to Bradford for a screening of the film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. He offers more on his writing process while commenting on Nottingham, his former home.
• The program for a conference titled "The Importance of Being Arthur: Representations of Men and Masculinity, 1954-1963" sponsored by the University of Surrey Roehampton (13-14 July 2002), including abstracts for the papers presented. (Links courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
• If you enjoyed Sillitoe and would like to read more about 1950s Britain through literature, try Colin MacInnes's Absolute Beginners (1958).

Helen Simpson

• The BBC World Service page on Helen Simpson provides a brief biography and an overview of her work to date, including quotations from Simpson about her work.
• The British Council website for contemporary authors has a brief biograpy of Simpson, which includes the awards she has won.
• Simpson's author page as Random House includes reviews of her first work published in the States, Getting a Life.
• Check out the differences between the US and UK dust-jackets for Simpson's Hey Yeah Right Get a Life.

Zadie Smith

• A biography of Smith is available from the British Council's website on Contemporary Authors.
• The Postcolonial Studies's page on Smith offers a biography and overview of her work and its reception.
• Zadie Smith's author page at Penguin UK has links to a 2015 discussion of Smith's work as well as "An A-Z by Zadie Smith" (links courtesy of the Internet Archive) with entries on topics from "Anchoress" to "Zora."
• An interview with Smith at Random House. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
• The Harvard Gazette reports on "The Ethical Strategies of Novels," Smith's lecture about her current project while at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute.
• Read more about Smith's theories of the novel in her essay on E. M. Forster, "Love, Actually," for the Guardian (1 Nov 2003) which is based on her Orange Word Lecture delivered 22 Oct 2003 in London.
• While you can no longer listen or watch Zadie Smith and Caryl Phillips read from their work at Harvard's Du Bois Institute (12 Feb 2003), you can read a brief synoposis of the event (link courtesy of the Internet Archive) and read the Harvard Crimson's report of the event.
• "Zadie Bites Back" (The Observer, 25 August 2002) includes comments from Smith about her novel and about the Channel 4 adaptation of White Teeth, while also reflecting on Smith's status in the publishing world.
• "Knocking Copy" (Guardian, 10 Sept 2002) responds to some backlash against Smith and her success.
• An interview with Smith in Interview magazine (2013).
• Smith responds to claims that she is too beautiful to be a great writer in an article from the Daily Mail (21 Sept 2013).
• Sarah Hughes provides a discussion of the representation of London in Smith's novels in "Zadie Smith: The Smart and Spiky Recorder of a London State of Mind" (Guardian, 6 Nov 2016).
• Resources on White Teeth
  • A reader's guide to White Teeth by Smith's U.S. publisher, Random House. (Alternate link.)
  • John Mullan's four-part discussion of White Teeth for the Guardian Book Review: "Size is Everything" (21 Sept 2002), "Short Sharp Shocks" (28 Sept 2002), "Past Imperfect" (5 Oct 2002), and "After Postcolonialism" (12 Oct 2002).
  • An interview from 2002 with Smith published by Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal.
  • Check out the differences between the US and UK hard-back dust-jackets for White Teeth.
• Resources on On Beatuty (2005)
  • Smith writes about her novel in "On the Beginning" (Guardian, 16 July 2006)
  • John Mullan offers critical commentary on On Beauty for the Guardian: "University of Strife" (1 July 2006) and "Sincerest Form" (8 July 2006).
  • Listen to a podcast of Smith talking about On Beauty from the Guardian Book Club podcasts (MP3 file)
• Resources on NW (2012)
  • A review of NW by Adam Mars-Jones for the Guardian (31 Aug 2012).
  • Cartoonist Tom Gauld's visual commentary (21 Nov 2016) on the 2016 adaptation of books for the screen, inspired by the BBC's adaptation of NW.
• Resources on Swing Time (2016)
  • A review of Swing Time by Aminatta Forna for the Guadian (4 Nov 2016).
  • A review of Swing Time by Taiye Selasi for the Guardian (13 Nov 2016).
  • Zadie Smith talks in the Guardian about "What Beyonce Taught Me" (29 Oct 2016)

Muriel Spark

• Web resources:
• Recommended reading: Girls of Slender Means.

Wole Soyinka

• The "Wole Soyinka" page at the site for Contemporary Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature in English, has links to short critical commentaries as well as some historical and political contexts for Phillips' work.
• A biography of Soyinka and an overview of his literary work and artistic practice, with links to a bibliography and interviews, sponsored by the Stanford Presidential Lectures and Symposia in the Humanities and Arts.
• A biography of Wole Soyinka in 1986 at the time of his Nobel Prize.
• A brief overview of Soyinka's work.
• A detailed interview with Soyinka (16 April 1998), sponsored by the "Conversations with History" series at U of California Berkeley; the subjects range from Soyinka's early years to his work for the theater and his political activism.
• Listen (or watch) Wole Soyinka read his work at Harvard's Du Bois Institute (21 April 2003).

Tom Stoppard

• A biography of Stoppard is available from the British Council's website on Contemporary Authors.
• The Stagecraft of Tom Stoppard offers biographical and bibliographical, as well as stage histories for some of his work.
• The Arcadia Study Guide (Swarthmore College), though created in 1998, still has a wonderful group of resources, including an overview of Tom Stoppard's career, a detailed glossary of definitions and terms, and a discussion of landscape architecture, among other topics.
• From the UMKC production archives, view a number of production photos from a performance of Arcadia at UMKC in 2009, as well as the playbill and publicity poster.
• The publicity poster for a production of Arcadia at the Duke of Yorks Theatre in London.
• Professor Robert L. Devaney (Boston University) offers "an animated description of some of the mathematical ideas lurking in the background of Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia."

Graham Swift

• Web resources: The Graham Swift Page.
• Recommended reading: Waterland (1983).

Derek Walcott

• The Derek Walcott Page offers biographical and bibliographical information.
• A biography of Derek Walcott in 1992 at the time of his Nobel Prize.
• A brief overview of Walcott's work.
• Reviews and RealAudio of Walcott in the NYT.
• Listen (or watch) Derek Walcott read from his work at Harvard's Du Bois Institute (14 April 2003).

Alex Wheatle

• The British Council's Author Page on Wheatle provides a biography and an overview of his work.
• An interview with Wheatle by Claire Armitstead (17 Nov 2016) and another interview with Homa Khaleeli (18 Nov 2016) when Wheatle won the 2016 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for Crongton Knights.
• Wheatle on Tolkien's influence on his writing and play with language (15 March 2016).
• Wheatle on the evolution of his approach to dialogue in "Writing YA fiction requires new skillsets: slang dates more swiftly than X Factor winners" for the Guardian (25 Oct 2016).
• Wheatle on the need for diverse books and a range of experiences in fiction in "What happens when diverse readers see themselves reflected in fiction" (Booktrust, 23 Oct 2018).
• A video interview (19 Dec 2017) with Wheatle by Carole Burns, writer and head of creative writing at the University of Southampton as part of the university's "Writers in Conversation" series.
• A review of Crongton Knights by Nicholas Tucker (March 2016).
• A review of Kerb Stain Boys (2018) by Karen Sands-O’Connor on the blog theracetoread that historicizes Wheatle's novel in the context of representations of Black British characters and crime in novels for young readers from the 1960s and 1970s: "Wheatle's book is revolutionary because it exposes the system that creates criminals, and does not damn the boys for trying to break out of that system."
• Alex Wheatle's website.

Jeanette Winterson

• The British Council's Author Page on Winterson provides a biography and an overview of Winterson's work.
• Be sure to visit Jeanette Winterson's own site for a wealth of information, including Winterson's monthly columns to her readers and links to her journalism.
• The Jeanette Winterson Reader's Site offers extensive information about Winterson and her work, as well as links to interviews, criticism, and other sites. (Links courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
• The author page for Winterson at the Guardian provides links to recent and archived articles by or about Winterson and her work.
• Interviews
  • "Rogue Element" (28 April 1997, Salon.com) offers Laura Miller's interview with Winterson. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
  • Read Winterson's interview with The Paris Review in 1997.
  • Winterson was interviewed by Bill Moyers for his series on "Faith and Reason" in 2007; you can read the transcript or watch the interview online.
  • View a five-minute interview with Winterson at the BBC (11 Feb 2011).
• References in Sexing the Cherry
  • The story of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"
  • Browning's "My Last Duchess" (1842)
  • Byron's "She Walks in Beauty" (1815)
• For a discussion of the way Winterson's persona has been presented in the media, you might enjoy a paper I presented a few years ago: "With 'money and a room of her own': The Legacy of Woolf's Advice for the Woman Artist at Century's End."

Benjamin Zephaniah

• The British Council's Author Page on Zephaniah provides a biref biography.
• An interview with Zephaniah at the Guardian (4 July 2009).
• A website devoted to Benjamin Zephaniah and his work.

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