Granta 80: The Group

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #80

by Ian Jack (Editor)

Everybody has been a reluctant or willing member of the family, the school, the football side, the quiz team. Group photographs are their souvenir. In this issue of "Granta", writers take out their group photographs and evoke the times, places and people they used to know.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Photography

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 6, 2003

About the author

Ian Jack is a British journalist and writer who has edited the Independent on Sunday and the literary magazine Granta and now writes regularly for The Guardian.

Reviews

[Rob]

I always buy a few old copies of Granta from the annual UQ Alumni book fair that happens at the University of Queensland every year. This edition is an example of why I do it. The short stories are timeless and the essays are just as interesting 20 years later. The theme of "The Group" is group photographs taken in the authors' past. I found the first few pieces very moving, with people reflecting on times past - Apartheid, childhood, unemployed youth. The middle of the collection flagged a bit, but "Scouting for Boys" by Paul Theroux was poignant and morally challenging and I was still thinking about it days later.