Upcoming Waugh Events: Aberdeen and Leipzig

Random House has announced a Waugh-related promotional event at the upcoming Leipzig Book Fair next month.  They will offer two readings by Jan Weiler of selections from his audiobook in German of the unexpurgated translation of Waugh’s novel Scoop.  This is newly available in on a CD recording (8 hrs 34 min).  The readings will be presented on 12 March at 2000p and 13 March at 1230p. For more details see this link. The audiobook will be released on 9 March and is currently for sale on Amazon.de.

–Daisy Waugh will appear later this month at a writing festival in Aberdeen called Granite Noir. Her event is a writing workshop scheduled at Aberdeen Central Library on Saturday, 22 February at 2.30pm. She discusses this in an interview with David Knight of the Aberdeen Press and Journal:

Q. I heard Daisy’s voice from my mobile on the table, “Do you mean me, David?”. This was becoming more like PG Wodehouse. […] I then went and spoiled it all by saying something stupid like, “you have such famous writers as father and grandfather – has that been a help or hindrance in your career?” I cringed as the words tumbled out.

A. “I get asked that all the time,” she answered with a tart dollop of exasperation in her voice. I grew up in a big fat house and had a great time. Comparisons are made endlessly, but I am proud of my family.”

Q. When Brideshead became a global television hit she was still at school. How cool was that?

A. “I think I was a bit tetchy, chippy and arrogant at the time to be honest,” she told me.[…]

Q. She also writes novels under the pseudonym E V Harte and enjoyed success with her “Dolly Greene” detective stories. The eponymous heroine lives a chaotic lifestyle as a tarot reader with weird neighbours, who turns sleuth. Glowing reader reviews praised her style as “gentle and cosy” crime with lots of great characters.

A. “I can’t stand horrible sadism and torture in many crime books. We need more funny books,” Daisy explained.

Q. It might sound like the antithesis to Tartan Noir, but crime writing is a broad church. It’s also a huge business which outsells all other fiction genres. Daisy has a new comic murder-mystery coming out this month in her name, too.

A. “You need to let your imagination run, but never forget you are building a jigsaw of plot and false trails which must ultimately fit together,” said Daisy. “You also need to find a niche.”

No doubt, she will also be discussing her new book In the Crypt with the Candlestick to be released a few days before the event. For tickets and other details, see this link.

–New York area readers may be interested in a notice on the New Criterion’s  website about a Wednesday (12 Feb) lecture at NYU on English country house preservation:

“Recent Research in Preventative Conservation at English Heritage,” with David Thickett, at the Institute of Fine Arts (February 12): It’s easy to visit a historic country house and admire the condition of the furniture, the silver, and the china without considering how exactly the items remain in such good condition. This Wednesday, David Thickett, a Senior Conservation Scientist at English Heritage, will speak at the IFA on the high-tech methods being used today to keep objects gleaming.

Waugh’s novels A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited were forerunners of the movement that was led by English Heritage and the National Trust to preserve country houses as a important part of English culture and history. For details and reservations, see this link.

 

 

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