Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Oct 23, 2011, 6:05 am
Today's my birthday and this is the cake that Michelle McGrane has made to celebrate it. I'm beyond touched.
(And if you don't pick up the literary reference, click here. You know the next step.) Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Oct 5, 2011, 3:47 am
Rob Redman, founder of The Fiction Desk, has been asked to guest edit this month's blog for Context Travel, a 'network of architects, historians, art historians, and other specialists who organize over 300 different walks in 15 cities around the world', including Rome. He's exploring the relationsh... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Oct 4, 2011, 8:47 am
Well, it's all over, for a while at least. Amanda Knox is back in Seattle, Raffaele Sollecito is at his family home near Bari, Rudy Guedé is in jail and Meredith Kercher is dead. The screaming mob outside the courthouse in Perugia yesterday evening will no doubt be looking forward to reading the re... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Sep 29, 2011, 1:16 pm
These small white pills are homoeopathic remedies for back-ache. Anyone who follows this blog will know that I'm not a fan of alternative medicines, but this doesn't mean that the various metaphors of homoeopathy aren't as potent as the remedies themselves are ineffective and, in the wrong hands and... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Sep 26, 2011, 6:15 am
A couple of days ago a site called listaouting published the first of a series of promised lists. The list contains the names of ten Italian politicians who have voted consistently in favour of anti-gay legislation, despite being, according to the people who've put the list together, gay themselves.... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Sep 19, 2011, 5:27 am
This is Tim Parks, one of my favourite writers, looking rather like a wiser, crisp-free version of Gary Lineker. You can find out more about him on his own website here. If you'd like to know what I think about him and why he's been an influence on me and on my work, you can click here. And if you... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Sep 11, 2011, 8:39 am
Every fortnight, from June 2010 to June 2011, a copy of the London Review of Books fell onto the stone floor of my house in Italy. It lay there until the person who fed the cats took it upstairs with the rest of the post and left it on an ever-growing pile on the kitchen table. I was in England. I c... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Aug 20, 2011, 9:49 am
We went to see the temporary exhibition at the Beaubourg yesterday. It's called Paris - Delhi - Bombay and contains the work of around 50 artists, divided more or less equally between France and India. It's a fascinating exhibition for many reasons, not the least being that it's small enough to deal... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Jul 9, 2011, 10:23 am
Lovely, isn't it? It's the courthouse of Terracina, a small town on the Italian coast about 70 miles south of Rome. I first saw the building a few years ago, when I was sued for non-payment of an absurdly inflated bill by a structural engineer who ran his business from behind a pull-down shutter. I ... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Jun 4, 2011, 10:31 am
It's been asserted recently - we needn't dwell on by whom - that women's writing can be distinguished from men's after reading a single paragraph. This certainly isn't the case for me, and, as the author of a novel whose first-person narrator is a woman, I hope other readers are equally gender-blind... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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May 30, 2011, 5:38 am
These are David Mitchell and Enid Blyton. If you'd like to know what links them, click here. Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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May 11, 2011, 5:52 am
...and the Antipodes. Confused? You needn't be. Just click here. Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Apr 4, 2011, 4:14 am
This is Eros, the god of love. If you'd like to know where he hangs out, click here. Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Apr 2, 2011, 10:35 am
This is an image of a low moon. If you'd like to know what it has to do with poetry and ghosts, click here. Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Mar 4, 2011, 5:55 am
Somebody likes The Scent of Cinnamon very much indeed. Want to know who? Click here. Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Feb 19, 2011, 10:38 am
Not the most attractive looking man you'll ever see, but there's nothing that distinguishes him from a thousand other petty bureaucrats, the kind of people you see in offices throughout Italy, helping or hindering their fellow citizens, as the case may be. His name is Massimo Sensini and he's the el... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Feb 19, 2011, 5:26 am
Fancy something a bit creepy for the weekend? Need some advice? Click here. Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Feb 12, 2011, 5:41 pm
If you want to know what this instrument of torture has to do with Any Human Face, click here. Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Feb 10, 2011, 4:37 am
Girls made out of flowers, brothers becoming beasts and breeding, David Beckham an object of blind irrational worship. What is the world coming to? Find out here.
And if you want to see some seriously demented whimsy, google for images of Blodeuwedd... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Jan 26, 2011, 7:39 am
Want to know more about the man who wrote Struwwelpeter? Click here. Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Jan 22, 2011, 11:43 am
I've just posted a review of Ishiguro's novel (not the film, which I haven't seen, and probably won't see) over at my other blog - the serious one I save for talk about books... You can find it here. And if you haven't read the book, or seen the film, try not to think too hard about the implications... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Jan 20, 2011, 7:01 am
The woman on the left of this photograph - the one who looks as though she's just heard someone fart - is called Elena Donazzan. She's a ferventissimo Catholic and member of Berlusconi's Freedom Party (no, that's the political party, not the ones with 14 overpaid whores dressed as nurses and a gaggl... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Nov 6, 2010, 8:56 am
If you visit this blog on a regular basis, you'll have had a disappointing few months, and I apologise. I've been in the UK for personal reasons that I haven't really wanted to talk about here, and the various things that so preoccupied me seem to have lost their immediate relevance. My two black ... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Nov 3, 2010, 3:07 pm
If I had a thousand pounds for every time I've heard people complain that the use of the word 'gay' to describe what these same people tend to refer to as the 'homosexual life style' had deprived them of the only word available in the English language to talk about the really important things in lif... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Sep 15, 2010, 10:39 am
I'd often been intrigued in the past by an ad in the LRB inviting me to spend some time in a large old country house near Girona, in Catalonia, with the author Charles Pallisser, working on the art of fiction-writing. How pleasant it must be, I used to think, to be able to sit around in the sun with... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Sep 15, 2010, 8:36 am
I spent most of last week in Catalonia, the first few days rather wonderfully in the country near Banyoles (about which I’ll be writing very soon) and the last two in Barcelona. I don’t know how large the real city of Barcelona is, the city where people live and work and conduct their daily busi... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Aug 26, 2010, 8:52 am
A few weeks ago Rob at the Fiction Desk reviewed Any Human Face and, with great generosity, gave away ten free copies of the novel. One of the copies went to the man behind the book blog His Futile Preoccupations... You can see the impression the novel made here. Here's a bit to be going on with:
I ... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Aug 15, 2010, 8:32 am
Clare Dudman, author of A Place of Meadows and Tall Trees (which I'm currently reading and wholeheartedly recommend - but more of that later), has interviewed me for her Sunday Salon on her literary blog, Keeper of the Snails. We talk about Any Human Face, life-changing moments and pride (with a sma... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Aug 13, 2010, 12:27 pm
Assuming you know nothing of the work of the nineteenth century Argentine writer Esteban Echeverria, you can approach this book, one of the Friday Project’s Library of Lost Books, in two ways. The first is to cut to the chase and read the beating and rather bloody heart of it, the long short story... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Aug 11, 2010, 10:27 am
Is it just me or are the two people with Barbara Cartland in this photograph Peter Mandelson and Paul McCartney in drag? Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Aug 7, 2010, 8:58 am
According to an article in today's Independent, Maria Vittoria Brambilla, the Italian minister for tourism (seen here discussing policy with her employer), has announced that the Palio di Siena, the traditional horse races that occupy the city's main square for much of the summer, should be banned, ... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Aug 6, 2010, 2:30 pm
If any of you are lucky, or clever, enough to be able to read Arabic you can now enjoy The Scent of Cinnamon in translation, in the Albawtaqa Review.
For more information, click here. Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Aug 2, 2010, 4:46 am
Thirty years ago today I was teaching English at a summer school in Malvern. The students, aged between 12 and 16, were mostly from Europe and the largest group came from Italy. They rarely watched the television - I don't remember now if they were discouraged from doing so or simply preferred to do... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Jul 23, 2010, 11:31 am
And here's another review of Any Human Face, from The Fiction Desk this time. It's typically perceptive and I particularly enjoyed this sentence:The character interactions are driven by Lambert’s interest in the way people react to power and vulnerability in themselves and in each other; it’s te... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Jul 13, 2010, 12:59 pm
This is getting better and better. Bookeywookey (subtitle: LITERATURE GOOD AND BAD, THEATER,AND NEUROSCIENCE....NO REALLY), who wrote the excellent review of Any Human Face mentioned in the previous post, has turned his critical eye on Little Monsters. To flattering effect. Here's a preview:Lambert ... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Jul 4, 2010, 2:07 pm
And I found this review of Any Human Face waiting for me when I turned on my laptop this afternoon... Here's a taste of it.This is an unusual book in that it has everything - love, suspense, moral conflict, social criticism, psychological acuity, and crack writing - but none of it is expected.As Giu... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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Jul 4, 2010, 1:48 pm
Any Human Face had its official UK launch yesterday evening in the Travel Bookshop, a place I wholeheartedly recommend for all your reading needs should you be in or near Notting Hill, and probably worth a specific trip for. (It is a travel bookshop, after all.) I was accompanied by Simon Barracloug... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Jun 18, 2010, 4:57 pm
I'll be reading from Any Human Face on Saturday, 3 July, at The Travel Bookshop in Notting Hill, London. Even better, I'll be accompanied by Forward shortlisted poet Simon Barraclough, for an Italian-themed evening. This is the cover of Simon's fine collection. I haven't added mine because I'm sure ... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Jun 17, 2010, 1:25 pm
Forgive my absence. If this blog were a different kind of open book from the one it is, I'd have a lot to tell, but, post-Diana, and unfashionably, I've opted for discretion. Which means that all I'm using it for at the moment is the most fleeting self-promotion. For anyone who'd like to see some tr... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Jun 2, 2010, 6:37 am
I've just discovered that Amazon knows - and registers - whenever Kindle users highlight a passage on their Kindles, and it reminded me of something I saw many years when John Wilkinson and I were on a walking (actually, hitch-hiking) tour of western Scotland and the Hebrides. We were holed up in th... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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Jun 1, 2010, 6:28 am
I can't be the only person who remembers that wonderful, exhilarating, fuck-you-all moment from a documentary on Louise Bourgeois when the interviewer, appalled, watches the artist smash a sculpture he'd, inappropriately in her opinion, praised. I've just found out about her death from Baroque in Ha... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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May 30, 2010, 8:16 am
Rob Spence reviews Any Human Face on Topsyturvydom, his highly recommended blog. It's a great thrill when someone whose opinion you respect gets it, and Rob certainly gets it here. This is a taste of the review:
This novel is, in concept, an excellent, disturbing, stylish thriller, but one with aspi... Comment - Like
Charles L. posted an article on
Charles Lambert
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May 30, 2010, 5:51 am
An excellent review of Any Human Face in The American in Italia. This is the best bit:
Andrew's solitary life suddenly becomes a thriller in itself, as Lambert takes the wraps off dangerous and age-old Italian conspiracies. Yet the larger tale belongs to Andrew himself. Through colloquial, reflectiv... Comment - Like
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Charles Lambert
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May 28, 2010, 5:57 am
Well, Any Human Face is now officially launched in its home city of Rome, in the Trastevere studio of Paola Casalino, just round the corner from the setting of the first chapter and a five minute walk from Andrew Caruso's first cold-water garret. I had a wonderful time and I hope everyone else did. ... Comment - Like
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