All events are based in Charlotte Square Gardens. The box office number is 0131 624 5050 and website is www.edbooktest.co.uk
Tony Benn ' ‘ Saturday9 .. . .. Children's programme / l Edwin Morgan & Andrew Motion
Hilary Mantel ‘.
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‘My internalised folklore tells me that life hangs by a thread'
MONICA ALI
Hype-laden debutant‘s spiritual journey
Internet rumour has it that Brick Lane was originally (and rather implausibly) christened Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers: A Stunningly Accomplished Debut and Already an International Sensation: The Story of One Outsider's Quest. Oh if only.
The author, Monica Ali, is a 35-year-old Oxford graduate. The story goes that only two chapters of the book were completed when she sought comment from a friend in publishing and days later Doubleday made her an offer. In the shops but two months ago, the book has been near smothered by superlatives along the lines of ‘an astonishing success’, ‘believe the hype’, and ‘the sort of book you race through greedily'. It will appear in the US in September and, in all likelihood, the praise will be every bit as lavish.
So what does Ali make of this surely head-spinning success? Well, writing about her experience in The Guardian, she answers the question with one of her own. ‘Why is selling the Catalan language rights the most exciting thing that ever happened to you in your life?‘ What inspired her to write, she believes, is ‘my inherited memory, my internalised folklore that tells me that life hangs by a thread’.
Brick Lane is a spiritual journey from devotion and duty to self-discovery and realisation via personal tragedy, a love of ice skating, 17 frozen cows, marital infidelity, a ‘fallen‘ sister, a visiting jinnee (a supernatural force in animal or human form), 11 September, and an epiphany caused by a chilli. You might say it‘s a hot ticket. (Rodger Evans)
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Jonathan Kaplan .
William Hitchcock & Vitali Vitaliev
Christopher Brookmyre -
As the blonde author brings her light book about fainhalred ladies through the ages to Charlotte Square, we wonder which blokeish bombshells give the Madonnas and Thatchers a run for their money.
I David Beckham If anyone
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. t) . . :>: N l .. ,. epitomises the male dumb , . ,_ . .. r .» J, ,. blonde. it has to be dear old . . . , . . Becks. Fleet of foot on the park, . . ,H . A, , , . slow as a snail on crutches oft . , , , , (will, .. ,' it. having a shouty missus and a . . l . ,,;..._, g, , . z, . team of people looking after his ,, Mt,“ m 3,, “,3 ,, .» own interests has kept him in 1,, 3,”, ~ the money. Should seek better Sue Mme, ,. t , , advice about kids‘ names. (1;.“3' “Mrf ' t r ' .1“ \ , , ,1,“ ,. U Hr IBilIy Idol The permanently , . ,., _. , I“, ,, , , curled lip may have indicated a . , , . .. d. . , , . , moody blonde with a nasty m“, ~- M,- w. d ,m r, “W temper, but the rebel yell Imprisoned Writers , eventually turned out to be a _.. W,“ I,“ W.) Wm A, it,” careless whimper. So obsessed F g 5, J, . i, “A,” ,, , , was he with his own colouring, ., h , fl, ., ,, . he even banged on about a In,” M. 1),, V}, I. . , ‘White Wedding'.
I Michael Caine Born Maurice Micklewhite, Caine has certainly had a blonde’s knack
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,. (L 1, ,( ., for making some stupid i . . , . , ,, y, ., . . , , decisions, freely admitting that . K, ,, ., , . r n” he's done some films purely for . . ,,;, J, . , , the loot. With his screen
i. _. _. presence and dubious acting The Writing Business 1; -.‘"-: abilitY- "'5 perhaps Odd Why he
.~ A”, z, ,; was never genumely touted as origami-w, -. .~ t, the perfect 007. ‘The name's
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I Andy Warhol For someone who was chronically shy, adopting a mad white bush was perhaps not the wisest plan. 80. surrounding himself with blonde beefcakes and fair-haired fag hags became the only solution. I Alexander the Great Debate rages as to the real barnet of the Macedonian leader. But surely there are incontrovertible slices of evidence: the fact that Richard , , Burton played him as blonde
I It w i, and DiCaprio is set to do the
same in Baz Luhrmann's next
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. a .. ,. 12 Aug. 3.30pm. £7 (£5).
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John Lister-Kaye ‘- 1’ : ~ : 2! .- K, I‘
s .— ' .c . 2 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 15