Web Resources for

Contemporary British Literature

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 Years, The Suez Crisis (1956) and the British Commonwealth, 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 Radio 4 web pages begins with the period 1945-1951, with links to other periods including the Suez Crisis in 1956, Thatcherism, and Tony Blair and New Labour.
• "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

• PhotoLondon provides a selection of images from the 19th and 20th centuries from a variety of public collections.
• 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.
• 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."
• BBC Four provides a brief overview of the series, which they re-aired for a programme series "Art & the 60s: Summer in the Sixties" in 2004.
• 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 NYT article.

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

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.
• Ali is represented by The Marsh Agency; from their homepage, click on her name or photograph, and then on the link for Brick Lane for a list of countries where the novel has been published and for a collection of reviews.
• 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.
• Some history on Tower Hamlets, and a virtual tour of Brick Lane.
• "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.
• Responding to the film adaptation of Brick Lane and the people who criticized Ali's depiction of the community, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown argues for why "Every Londoner Should See This Film" (Evening Standard, 16 Nov 2007).

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.
  • A bibliography of Pat Barker's work and reviews of her work, as of 1999.
• 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."
  • 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.
  • "Freud and the War Neuroses: Pat Barker's 'Regeneration'" offers background on the therapies popular during WWI for treating shell-shock and which Rivers rejected in his treatments at Craiglockhart.
  • 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).
  • "Craiglockhart Connections" (sponsored by Napier University, which resides on the former site of Craiglockhard Hospital) offers links to three areas of the site: "The Lands of Craiglockhart" (a history of the land and its buildings), "The War Poets" (links to materials related to Sassoon and Owen), and "Visiting Craiglockhart" (how to arrange a visit to the campus).
  • Wilfred Owen Multimedia Archive: an on-line archive with material on Wilfred Owen 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 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, and an archive of several issues of the magazine.
  • 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.
• An interview with Byatt at Salon; 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.
  • Byatt's introduction for Babel Tower, outlining its themes and concerns.
  • The Reading Group Guide's 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.
  • 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.)
  • Some information on British Art Schools in the 1960s from the BBC television series Time Shift.
  • 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 homosexuality, 1960s t.v., and sports.

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

• Brief biographical profile with links to other resources.
• Another brief biographical profile, from the British Council, and a bibliography of Churchill's work.
• A recent New York Times review of Churchill's latest plays, "Caryl Churchill's Gripping Imagination" (10 November 2002), which also includes an overview of her career.
• 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 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.)
• 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 biography of Berthol Brecht which includes a description of Brecht's influential theory of dramatic performance, the "alienation effect" (or, "A-effect").
  • A definition of Brecht's "alienation effect" from Britannica.com, and a more detailed description from BBC2.
  • PBS's website 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.

J. M. Coetzee

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

Wendy Cope

• An author profile of Cope from the BBC Books pages.
• Brief biographical profile.
• An interview with Cope from the Guardian ("Happiness Writes Good Poems," 3 June 2001), on the occasion of a new collection of her poetry.

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 biography of Fielding at the BBC Books pages.
• Interview with Fielding at Amazon.com.
• RealAudio interview with Fielding on NPR on 18 July 1998.
• Review of Fielding's Bridget Jones Diary and Nick Hornby's About a Boy.
• Check out the differences between the US and UK dust-jackets for Bridget Jones's Diary and The Edge of Reason.
• "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.
• 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

• The British Council's website on Contemporary Authors offers several pages on Fowles, including a biography.
• John Fowles -- The Web Site offers biographical information, as well as updates about Fowles' current projects, awards, and his nomination for the Nobel Prize.
• Biographical sketch and information on Fowles' papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Reasearch 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.
• Further information about people, places, and things which appear in Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman:
  • Lyme Regis (9/Chp 1)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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 [scroll down upon arrival] (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.
• A detailed Reading Group Guide to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is available through Vintage, and a shorter Reader's Guide is available from Random House.
• 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 biography of Harrison and a few links to related articles on his work.
• A brief critical overview of Harrison's poetry.
• Harrison's response to the possibility of being Poet Laureat appears in this Salon article (20 April 1999).

Seamus Heaney

• The Seamus Heaney page at UNC's Internet Poetry Archive offers biographical and bibliographical information, as well as Heaney's Nobel Lecture.
• Reviews and articles about/by Heaney in the NYT.
• Photos of the "Windeby Girl," the inspiration for Heaney's poem "Punishment," as well as the body of a sixteen year old Yde girl and the Tolland man, all recovered from the bogs.
• A page of critical readings of some Seamus Heaney's poems, designed to help students prepare for the GSCE exam in the UK.
• Listen to excerpts from BBC Four interviews with Heaney.

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

• Penguin's web site for Hornby has a link to a recent 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 High Fidelity (1996) and an interview about Fever Pitch (1995) and About a Boy (1998).
• 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.

Ted Hughes

• The Ted Hughes Pages, maintained by Claas Kazzer, provide a wide ramge of information about Hughes' life and death, as well as his poetry and essays. Also has links to information about Hughes' papers at Emory.
• The Centre for Ted Hughes Studies, maintained by Sylvia Paul, also has a wealth of information about recent publications by and about Hughes, translations, exhibits, a bibliography, a biography, and more.
• Reviews of Hughes' work and related articles by/about Hughes in the NYT, at a site dedicated to the work of Plath and Hughes.

Kazuo Ishiguro

• The British Council's biography of Ishiguro.
• Biography, bibliography, and more.
• An interview with Ishiguro about his recent novel When We Were Orphans (2000).
• 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.

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

• Detailed biographical and bibliographical information at the University of Hull, the location of Larkin's papers.
• 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.

Andrea Levy

• The British Council's site on Contemporary Writers offers a brief biography of Levy.
• "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).

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
  • A page detailing the history of Notting Hill offers information about the Notting Hill race riots of 1958., as well as further political context for the violence at another website.
  • 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," from the 1950s to the 1980s, as well as more details about the "Teddy Boy" look and a picture (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.
    • 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.)
• Further information about people, places, and things which appear in MacInnes's Absolute Beginners (1958):
  • "Laurie London era" (11) [scroll to second question]
  • "Cinerama" (11) [more on Cinerama]
  • "Spade" (16) [scroll to definition 3a.]
  • "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) [scroll to 1933, 1935, 1937, and 1939]
  • "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)
  • "White Protection League" (191)
  • "a battered Anthony Eden" (192) [scroll to "Early Career"]
  • "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.
• 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.)
• Production stills from U of Tennessee (Chattanooga) production (1999-2000) of Look Back in Anger.
• 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

• Carly 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

• There's very little available on the web about Raine, but 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.

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.
• The page for "Samuel Selvon" at World Literature in English offers a brief biography with information about his work and its cultural context.

Alan Sillitoe

• A biography of Sillitoe, sponsored by the British Council Bologna.
• Another biography -- longer, but without notes or citations for its information -- is also available. Here, you can see a picture of the sort of factory where Arthur Seaton (of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) works. (Link courtesy of the Internet Archive.)
• Kalle Virnes reports on some of the regional dialect in the novel.
• Interesting information about teenagers and the "Teddy Boy" in the UK in the 1950s.
• 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.
• More information on "Teddy Boys," or "Teds," from the 1950s to the 1980s, as well as more details about the "Teddy Boy" look and a picture (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.
• 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.)
• Information about the film version of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning from the BBC.
• 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.)

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 an interview as well as "An A-Z by Zadie Smith" with entries on topics from "Anchoress" to "Zora."
• 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.
• Listen (or watch) Zadie Smith and Caryl Phillips read from their work at Harvard's Du Bois Institute (12 Feb 2003).
• "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.
• Resources on White Teeth
  • A reader's guide to White Teeth by Smith's U.S. publisher, Random House.
  • 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)

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 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

• 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) 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.
• Professor Jay Clayton (Vanderbilt University) and his students have created a hyperlinked glossary of terms for Stoppard's Arcadia, keyed by scene and page number.
• 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.
• 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).

Jeanette Winterson

• The British Council's Author Page on Winterson provides a biography. (Note: In the "Critical Perspective" section of this page, the author incorrectly identifies Henri of The Passion as a woman; critics usually read this character as male.)
• 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.)
• "Rogue Element" (28 April 1997, Salon.com) offers Laura Miller's interview with Winterson.
• 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.
• Read an interview with Winterson about her recent novel, The.Powerbook, at Amazon.co.uk.
• 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."

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