Anne Sebba's Blog, page 5
October 11, 2014
Troubled Waters
Learning that Patrick Modiano was the 15th Frenchman to win the Nobel Prize for literature since the first was awarded in 1901, beating such American favourites regularly passed over as Philip Roth, surely makes anyone interested in culture at least pause for breath�What is it about French literature that the rest of the world holds [...]
September 1, 2014
A Dying Breed
It�s been a dreadful week for deaths. It always is, I know. But recently, I daren�t open the obits page for fear I�ll meet someone I know or someone I was hoping to interview but left it too late.� There are always far too many obituaries of men and women who die long before their [...]
August 15, 2014
Strangers you meet on holiday …
Seven years ago, wandering along a sunny Cretan beach, I was approached by a striking duo; the mother, an elegant American with curly, white blonde hair and her sophisticated daughter, a tall and poised twelve year old with a mane of equally curly, brown hair.� This was their first holiday since the woman�s husband and [...]
July 24, 2014
Rhodes – a lost culture
I have just spent a few days on the idyllic Greek island of Rhodes. We ate well, enjoyed the tourist shops and explored some fascinating ancient and medieval sites. But the heart of the visit was the short time we spent inside the oldest Synagogue in Greece, now the only one remaining on Rhodes. The [...]
June 20, 2014
Why Books Matter in Prison
On Thursday my day started with a parcel, both unexpected and unordered, delivered by my cheery postman. ‘Young Titan,� the Making of Winston Churchill’ �by Michael Shelden had been sent to me by a fellow Churchill obsessive, a man who knew that, tantalisingly, I had never been able to prove the existence of a serpent [...]
June 9, 2014
I�ve got prison on my mind right now!
I�ve got prison on my mind right now! This weekend I spoke in the beautiful old Town Hall in Devizes and right next to the entrance way was the old lock up cell for the town, �more of a dungeon than a prison,� I was told. �You wouldn�t want to spend a night in there.� [...]
May 19, 2014
Museums and Women!
As book titles go, Museums and Women is about as boring as it gets. But in John Updike�s hands, of course it is emotional and sensuous, intellectual and erotic. It is the title of a short story (and subsequent volume) about a small boy first visiting a museum with his mother which morphs into a [...]
April 14, 2014
Tales from the front line � Finding the right words for Pain and Courage
�Je suis fini,� I told the librarian in the subterranean Bibliotheque Nationale, to guffaws of laughter. �Vous avez fini,� he reprimanded me as he brought his laughter under control. Yes, I agreed with him I had finished but in English we might also say �I am finished for the day or with these books.� Clearly, [...]
March 7, 2014
Paris in the springtime
Paris in the springtime may be a romantic clich� but the day I have just spent in the city was everything the song promised. It was one of those blue sky sunny days which offer so much hope for the summer to come. And it was in the middle of Paris fashion week so the [...]
February 19, 2014
What I really mean when I say I am going to Paris for a few days…
Why does nobody believe me when I say I am going to Paris to work? No, not shopping, I pronounce confidently, it�s a research trip. �Ha, ha! Have a nice holiday,� they say as they wave me off. If I told people I was going to Berlin or Edinburgh, or even Geneva, they wouldn�t make [...]
