News
Jane's Fame will be BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week, starting 1 June 2009 at 9.45 am. The adaptation is by Polly Coles and the reader is Alice Krige.
Forthcoming appearances
South Bank Centre, London, 11 July
Edinburgh International Book Festival, 21 August
Knutsford Literary Festival, October 2009
Manchester Central Library, 21 October
Bridport Literary Festival, 19 November 2009
Recent Interviews
19 April -interview with Mariella Frostrup on Open Book, Radio 4
April 2009 - interview with Mark Thwaite at The Book Depository
27 April - interview with Harriet Gilbert on The Strand, World Service, also featuring Seth Grahame-Smith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Week of 20 April - podcast interview with Peter Cox on Litopia.com
Recent journalism
Times Literary Supplement, 19 June 2009: 'Virginia Woolf's neat brown paper parcels', review of The Essays of Virginia Woolf, vol 5.
Literary Review, June 2009: 'A Dissenting Voice', review of Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment by William McCarthy
Evening Standard, 21 May 2009: review of The Blue Hour: a portrait of Jean Rhys by Lilian Pizzichini
Prospect, April 2009: 'Picking Jane's Brains': zombies home in on Meryton
Evening Standard, 16 March 2009: 'Mum turns Roman Matron', review of The Lost Child by Julie Myerson.
Sunday Telegraph, 25 January 2009; review of Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's worst husband met his match by Wendy Moore.
Evening Standard, 12 January 2009; 'From unhappy faculty wife to New York lesbian intellectual', review of Reborn: Early Diaries by Susan Sontag.
Sunday Telegraph, 14 December 2009: review of Lady Worsley's Whim by Hallie Rubenhold.
Literary Review, November 2008, 'The Best of Friends'; review of Hester: The Remarkable Life of Dr Johnson's "Dear Mistress", by Ian McIntyre.
Fiction
June 2008: Claire is runner-up in the V.S.Pritchett Memorial Prize for her story, 'Bad Luck for a Bride'.
Click here for RSL link
The Warwick Review, December 2008: short story, 'Otherwise Engaged'.
Books
Published on 2 April 2009
Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World will be published in April by Canongate Books. It is a history of Austen's fame, the changing status of her work and what it has stood for, or been made to stand for, in English culture in the two hundred years since her death. Starting with Austen's own experience as a beginning author, her difficulties getting published and her determination to succeed, I explore the history of how her estate was handled by her brother, sister, nieces and nephews, the eruption of public interest in Austen in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the making of her into a classic English author in the twentieth century, the critical wars that erupted as a result and, lastly, her powerful influence on contemporary phenomena such as chick-lit, romantic comedy, the heritage industry and film. Part biography, part cultural history, it's a fascinating story, full of odd anecdotes and some new insights too.
Click here to go to Jane's Fame page
Australian edition of Jane's Fame due on 4 May 2009
go to Text Publishing web page
June 2009 – Sylvia Townsend Warner's Summer Will Show
A new edition of Warner's 1936 novel, published by New York Review of Books Classics, with an introduction by Claire.
March 2008 – New Collected Poems of Sylvia Townsend Warner
The New Collected Poems of Sylvia Townsend Warner was published by Carcanet Press on 28 March 2008. This is a significantly larger collection, with over 90 previously uncollected and unpublished poems, a new introduction, expanded notes and a chronology.
Order this book from Amazon
Ali Smith's review of this book in the TLS, 3 January 2009: 'Sylvia Townsend Warner, ghost writer'
Click here to read
20 March 2008: Woman's Hour. A discussion of the poetry of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland. 10.00am, BBC Radio 4.
Click here to listen
Guardian Review, 29 March 2008: 'Lightning from Skies' – Sylvia Townsend Warner's chequered poetic career.
Click here to read article
