Issue 15

Issue 15 goes behind the scenes and looks at the literary life of actors and dramatists; what’s different about reading plays and performing them, how does an actor prepare for a role? In the background, as A-level students write about Waiting for Godot and Mark Haddon, we investigate literary education. Jane Davis’s editorial demands that a sense of depth and creativity be restored to literature teaching, before school children are permanently immunised against Shakespeare and the rest of the canon.

Corin Redgrave talks to Ian MacKillop about political writers and Collateral Damage:

I thought this is the sort of thing people want – a certain level of culture in times of danger and stress.

Will Self goes on a country walk to Toddington Services:

The first beauty spot is a rubbish bin overflowing with half-chewed chips, mashed chicken nuggets, mushed burger buns...

Lecturer and poet John Redmond remembers reading adventures in the Butler’s Pantry:

...the books were exceptionally educational. Like a steady hum in the background, they taught me all the time without my noticing it...

ALSO: Actor Edward York wonders if textual notes are really necessary; new poetry and fiction; we hear from The Racketeers book group; a reader’s obsession with Henry V; reviews and recommendations of Lynne Truss, Isabel Allende and Euripides.

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