The Guardian's Blog, page 135

A real character: Is Prospero Shakespeare?

Many people reckon The Tempest's island sorcerer formerly known as the Duke of Milan was actually a self-portrait of the playwright. What do you reckon?

In this article I'll be considering the links between Shakespeare and his character, Prospero. But before we begin, would you be able to help me in a small literary investigation? Before you read any further could you skip down to the comments section and say whether or not you identify/identified Prospero with Shakespeare when you read the play?

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What book would you send to someone in prison?

Leading authors have shared the books they would send an inmate and why, as part of the campaign Books for Prisoners. What book would you choose to send?

"Books represent a lifeline behind bars, a way of nourishing the mind and filling the many hours that prisoners spend locked in their cells." This was the main thrust of the letter that more than 80 prominent members of the British literary establishment sent to justice secretary Chris Grayling last month, expressing their disagreement with the newly enforced ban on family members and friends sending books to prisoners. The campaign against the measure continues to gain momentum, as was made clear again recently at the London Book Fair. At the invitation of English PEN and the Howard League, leading writers set out, in a set of postcards to be sent to Grayling, which books they would send prisoners and why. Here are some of the choices:

Martin Amis:

I would recommend Primo Levis If This is a Man. It is a masterly evocation of something much worse than prison: murderous enslavement for the crime of being born.

Id send the Prison Trilogy by Pramoedya Ananta Toer written in the head and remembered while on Buru prison island, but denied pen, paper and books.

I would send Jimmy Boyles visceral autobiography, A Sense of Freedom. It describes his journey from a violent, criminal youth to the degradation, shame and remorse he experienced in Scotlands most draconian prisons and the redemption eventually delivered by literature and art in the special unit at Barlinnie. It is a book everyone concerned with this current debate should read when the most wretched of our fellow citizens, who have nothing, are now being told they have less than nothing.

I would recommend giving prisoners Touching the Void by Joe Simpson. Its a true account of a disastrous climb in the South American Andes in which the two climbers face terrible choices, hit rock bottom, facing death, yet manage to survive. I can imagine prisoners would find a lot to relate to in the story of finding a way up and out from the worst moment of your life.

The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad. Because it shows the danger and treachery and fear in English public life.

The Grass Arena by John Healy. Its a long and brilliant postcard from hell. A brutal childhood, alcoholism, a London underworld this is what its like to touch bottom, then find your way up through the game of chess.

50 Shades of Grayling I presume the Lord Chancellor appreciates bondage.

My Books for Prisoners recommendation would be Rumis Masnavi, composed of six books of poetry.

The style is extraordinary, interwoven with stories within stories. The themes Rumi deals with (death, body, love, birth, beauty) are both universal and timeless. His peaceful voice speaks to our hearts and minds across all national and religious borders, and challenges head-on the teachings that promote bigotry, xenophobia and discrimination.

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Tips, links and suggestions: What are you reading this week?

Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them

Welcome to this week's blog. Here's a roundup of your comments and photos from last week.

sheen_shine let us in on the way they divide up their reading by age. It sounds like a nice way to balance classics and new releases. Does anyone else do anything similar to this?

I'm 25 and mostly read a mix of classics and new releases. Last night I finished The Godfather, an old battered copy I borrowed from my Dad who bought it way back in 1971. Today I started the new Bridget Jones which my sister bought for me from a charity shop for £3. I also read a lot of classics on my Kindle because they're free and then I hunt around charity shops to find a real copy so I still have it on my bookshelf.

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By sheen_shine

7 April 2014, 14:23

I just finished Stoner and now feel I have to read something upbeat and amusing. I found the prose in Stoner too flowery for my taste and overall a downer of a book. I suppose you have to take into consideration that it was written several years ago in a different style than today's.

Interesting to hear a dissenting voice on Stoner. I picked it up not exactly because of the hype, but because the publishers, in their efforts to generate a buzz, gave out truckloads of free copies, including mine. I could see why people liked it, the prose style was very fine, and I really wanted to be amazed by it, but just wasn't. I found it a little conventional for my tastes. Perhaps if I had been in a different frame of mind I might have enjoyed it more. Halfway through, I kept finding myself picking up other books in preference, and months later accepted that I just didn't have any real desire to go back to it.

Just finished Stoner - which felt substantial during the reading, but isn't really staying with me.

Touching, tragic, funny,terrible, wonderfully0-constructed account of life in an Albanian town during the Second World War. on the Man Booker INternational in 2005 and richly deserved.

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By Joaker

8 April 2014, 1:27

Sometimes I like big, so it was fun to see that The Hindus was as fat & tall as The Essential Ellison

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By Jantar

7 April 2014, 20:26

Neither of those two was a match for The Absolute Sandman (which itself was trounced by The Annotated Sandman that arrived here two weeks ago.)

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By Jantar

7 April 2014, 20:32

I have a confession to make. I have never read Sherlock Holmes. Second confession, i liked the tv series but felt some of the stories were too far fetched. Notably the one with the blade inserted into the guardsman's belt. How do the two compare?

@GuardianBooks about to finish @GlaisterLesley Little Egypt. Such a sense of place, am eking it out!

@GuardianBooks Loving Khaled Hosseini's And the Mountains Echoed, giving away my hardcover copy to a Twitter follower when I'm done....

@GuardianBooks I'm Reding 'Taunting the dead' by @writermels brilliant book. Highly recommended.

@GuardianBooks Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury. To be honest, I'm starting to wonder why I'm bothering. #Hardwork.

Oh, I Capture the Caste. A very, very important book for me. I may even have been the person going on about how great it was here. I loved it so, so much (and the last line is just ... wow).

It was the book I was reading when I met my girlfriend, and the first gift I gave her was a copy of it. And I have a very, very old, special copy from my mum (so special it is literally in bubblewrap in my flat). It's associated now with a lot that I love most.

I completely relate to feeling that special emotional connection with a book. Mine is A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.

An excellent book on a fascinating country.

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By stevenpj

9 April 2014, 4:14

One day soon I will be able to read a book about something other than Indonesia without feeling guilty...

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By TimHannigan

8 April 2014, 22:02

Looks through a highly personal lens at the lives of public musical icons that have changed the face of music in the 21st century. Spans from the early country rock of the 1950's and 60's to the rise in the Seattle grunge movement through to the dawn of inner city rap in the 90's. Insights so rare and subjects so varied they range from Elvis to Cobain to Dr. Dre.

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By kathbutty

9 April 2014, 10:21

It's been on my bookshelf for months. Wish I'd picked it up sooner. Astonishing (fictionalised) portrait of Marilyn Monroe. And I'm only half way through.

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By Nicolereal

13 April 2014, 12:53

A £1 charity shop find.

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By davpra

9 April 2014, 19:05

Mountolive - thanks btw to those people who encouraged me to persist with the Quartet despite the sudden change to third person narrative - (and the jump back in time). Interestingly it's written like a conventional novel but I'm now wondering whether this new viewpoint is any less blinkered than the others, or is still one particular individual's perspective. It's seeped very much in the feelings and observations of one individual, even the things a person wouldn't remember or necessarily consciously notice but might well feel in the moment being repulsively hot in a uniform, or inexplicably happy, or distaste for a particular colleague.

I'm also now reading The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier, which does a similar thing regarding perspective but much more overtly, moving between the different children's understanding of their childhood and their parents as they try to work out what really happened one summer years ago - all aware that they've only got part of the story.

I have read other books which use a similar device, namely, taking a narrative and turning it round so that the story is seen or told by someone from a different viewpoint. I can't remember what they were. Does anyone here know of any?

A very dear friend has given me a copy of The Luminaries with these words: "once you reach page 600 it gets very good". Is this the most underwhelming recommendation ever?

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Poem of the week: The Anniversary by John Donne

Written with a musical setting in mind, this metaphysical celebration of 'everlasting' fidelity sings with love and intellectual honesty

John Donne was the grandson of last week's poet John Heywood. It's not impossible that Heywood saw the young boy who would turn out to inherit his talents, growing up to take the verbal wit he so enjoyed to bold new heights of poetic expression. Donne was born to Heywood's daughter, Elizabeth, in 1572. Although by this time, Heywood was in exile in Malines, and had only six years or so to live, he had permission from Elizabeth I to visit England. John Donne, of course, was also a child of precarious political times.

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The best books on Somalia: start your reading here | Pushpinder Khaneka

Our literary tour of Somalia examines lives blighted by conflict, and finds reasons for optimism in the 'world's most failed state'

Set in Somalia around the 2006 US-backed Ethiopian invasion, the final volume in Farah's Past Imperfect trilogy can be read as a standalone novel. This absorbing story puts a human face to the tragedy of a failed state.

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Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and the literary spouse

When Steinbeck was stumped for a title for his novel, his wife saved the day. Literary history is full of marital interventions, but what's your favourite example of writers wedded to their inspiration?

The 75th anniversary of the publication of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath on Monday April 14 is a reminder of the potentially key role of literary spouses. Steinbeck didn't like his own ideas for the title, so when his wife Carol proposed a phrase from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" he adopted it at once.

This set us thinking about the impact of other partners on the history of literature. As the following examples show, though usually either dismissed as humble help­meets or complained about as posthumous image-protectors, they can sometimes decisively shape a book or career.

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The five best poetry slams with a message

Jess Green's spoken word poem Dear Mr Gove has become a web sensation what other political poetry had a similar impact?

"Anything can be a slaaaam poooeeeem if you say it like thiiis," says Amy Poehler's formidable character Leslie Knope in NBC's Parks and Recreation. Style can often trump substance in performance poetry, but Jess Green has managed to buck this trend with Dear Mr Gove.

Reading on mobile? Watch Jess Green's Dear Mr Gove here

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Adrian Mole's best quotes: what are your favourites?

The angst-ridden, adorably eccentric adolescent left us with innumerable memorable lines. Here are some classic Mole statements, but what are your favourite Sue Townsend quotes? We will update the list with your suggestions

Why Adrian Mole was my kindred teenage spiritQuiz: How well do you know the secrets of Adrian's diaries?

There's only one thing more boring than listening to other people's dreams, and that's listening to their problems.

I'm not sure how I will vote. Sometimes I think Mrs Thatcher is a nice kind sort of woman. Then the next day I see her on television and she frightens me rigid. She has got eyes like a psychotic killer, but a voice like a gentle person. It is a bit confusing.

My mother is in the hospital grounds smoking a cigarette. She is looking old and haggard. All the debauchery is catching up with her.

I don't know why women are so mad about flowers. Personally, they leave me cold. I prefer trees

[Good Friday] Poor Jesus, it must have been dead awful for him. I wouldn't have the guts to do it myself.

I used to be the sort of boy who had sand kicked in his face, now I'm the sort of boy who watches somebody else have it kicked in their face.

My father was reading Playboy under cover of the candlelight and I was reading Hard Times by my key-ring torch.

I have never seen a dead body or a female nipple. This is what comes from living in a cul de sac.

Glenn has been excluded from school, for calling Tony Blair a twat.

My brother has published a volume of poetry, called Blow Out The Candle. The reviews were ecstatic. I hate him already.

I fear I am losing the battle to mould William's character to my own satisfaction. He's only six, but at his age Mozart was selling out concerts all over Europe.

My skin is dead good. I think it must be a combination of being in love, and Lucozade.

Nigel is a punk at weekends. His mother lets him be one providing he wears a string vest under his bondage T-shirt.

Went to see Hadrian's Wall. Saw it. Came back.

I am an intellectual, but at the same time I am not very clever.

Pandora! / I adore ya! / I implore ye / Don't ignore me.

The woman said it is important for an author of romantic fiction to have an evocative name, so, after much thought, I have decided to call myself Adrienne Storme.

Jason Westmoreland's copper-flecked eyes glanced cynically around the terrace. He was sick of Capri and longed for Wolverhampton...

At tea-time I was looking at our world map, but I couldnt see the Falkland Islands anywhere. My mother found them; they were hidden under a crumb of fruitcake.

I've changed my mind about going to London. According to The Guardian lead pollution is sending the cockneys who live there mad.

Nigel says that Sharon Botts will show everything for 50p and a pound of grapes.

A telegram! Addressed to me! The BBC? No from my mother. 'ADRIAN STOP COMING HOME STOP.' What does she mean? 'Stop coming home'? How can I stop coming home? I live here!

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Why Adrian Mole was my kindred teenage spirit

Sue Townsend's spotty comic creation was the same age as me his cul-de-sac growing pains struck a poignant chord
Sue Townsend dies aged 68

What an awful start to a Friday morning to hear that Sue Townsend, beloved creator of Adrian Mole and one of the very very few authors who genuinely made me laugh out loud, has died.

I first came to Adrian when I was, very satisfyingly, 13 and three-quarters (my copy was like this I loved the Noddy toothbrush) and I was enthralled. The spots, the languishing, the overthinking, the "just my lucks". I thought it was hilarious. Easter: "Poor Jesus, it must have been dead awful for him. I wouldn't have the guts to do it myself."

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Africa39: how we chose the writers for Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014

As Port Harcourt prepares to become the World Book Capital 2014, Margaret Busby describes how a panel of judges selected 39 African writers to represent the continent

Among the first events of this week's London Book Fair (LBF) was a breakfast press conference to reveal an eagerly anticipated rollcall of 39 writers under the age of 40 from Africa and its diaspora. This afternoon, at a second briefing in the presence of Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the countdown will begin to the start of Port Harcourt's tenure as World Book Capital 2014.

Africa39 is the latest phase of the Hay festival's initiative of working with the World Book capitals Bogotá in 2007 and Beirut in 2010 to highlight the local talents and languages with the potential to define the literature of the future. As one of three judges, including Osonye Tess Onwueme and Elechi Amadi, who are tasked with making the final selection, I regard the list as a sort of snapshot of what is to come. But equally pertinent is how it came about.

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