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We kick off the final season of Book Fight with a guest-free episode--like the old days! Our reading this week is Geoff Dyer's 2022 book The Last Days of Roger Federer, and Other Endings. Which seemed thematically appropriate as we come to our own ending (of the podcast; we're not dying or anything).
Geoff Dyer is an essayist and novelist. His book on Andrey Tarkovsky's Stalker: Zona: a book about a film about a journey to a room is one of my favourites, equalled only by his other book on the Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood starring Where Eagles Dare: Broadsword Calling Danny Boy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The beauty of flower names, time-thieving hedgehogs, the poetry of fertile earth, and the absurdity of English spelling - all appear in The Verb this week. Ian McMillan's guests are the poets Don Paterson, Zena Edwards, and John McAuliffe who's celebrating fellow poet Michael Longley - and we also hear a new 'eartoon' on the origin of words for numbers, by Stagedoor Johnny ( Richard Poynton).Don Paterson shares a brand new poem in which the speaker is a hedgehog who knows 'one big thing' - a big thing that challenges the way we might think about time. Don is also a musician, and a memoirist - his most recent book is 'Toy Fights' - described by the writer Geoff Dyer as 'devastatingly funny'. His award winning collections include 'Rain', 'Landing Light' and 'God's Gift to Women'.Zena Edwards is a poet and theatre maker who has collaborated with many different artists. Her passion for the natural world shines out in her poem 'Tincture' which she shares on the show, and which came about because of a project called We Feed the UK – which brings together spoken word poets from the climate science and poetry organisation Hotpoets, and regenerative farmers – coordinated by the Gaia Foundation. John McAuliffe is poet, and a director of the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester. He has published six poetry collections - and his latest - 'National Theatre' (Gallery) is out now. John celebrates the 'miniature but not minor' poem 'Thaw' by the Belfast born poet Michael Longley who died in January.And we hear another installment of a satirical history of the English language by Stagedoor Johnny - in which the letter 'U' has a crisis of confidence.
For this week's episode, enjoy some of the highlights of Better Known over the years, featuring excerpts from Ivan's interviews with Jonathan Sayer, Kate Mosse, Jon Glover, Geoff Dyer, Alice Loxton, Anand Menon, Helen Lewis and Ben Schott Jonathan Sayer on Le Coq clowning https://sites.google.com/education.nsw.gov.au/jacqueslecoq/jacques-lecoq/overview-of-his-approach-to-acting Kate Mosse on how there are more statues in Edinburgh to animals than to women https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/campaign-seeks-change-fact-edinburgh-statues-animals-women-58867 Jon Glover on Maggie and Ted https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/jun/29/maggie-ted-review-two-tory-prime-ministers-one-long-spat Geoff Dyer on Calabash literature festival in Jamaica https://www.vogue.com/article/calabash-literary-festival-in-jamaica-is-the-islands-best-kept-secret Alice Loxton on The French House, Soho https://www.timeout.com/london/bars-and-pubs/french-house Anand Menon on The Middle https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/21/the-middles-realpolitik Helen Lewis on the Modesty Blaise novels https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/sep/19/crimebooks.features Ben Schott on Polari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polari This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm
Jay Baron Nicorvo joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about his mother's violent rape and how that event coincided with his sexual abuse at the hands of his babysitter, the pervasiveness of sexual abuse for boys and men, how crucial scenes are in memoir and also how difficult to render, exposition to give the reader and ourselves breaks from difficult material, being a multi-genre writer, on not becoming an art monster, why it's hard to read the publishing market, leaving an agent, outlasting crushing rejection and so many no's, exploring and thinking deeply about our obsessions, traumatic memories and the way memoir affects them, how lies work, the experience vs. writing the experience, the impact of desertion on children and his new memoir Best Copy Available. Also in this episode: -writing in the second person -needing and reaching for support -allowing ourselves to be surprised by our material Books mentioned in this episode: The Natural History of Love by Diane Ackerman My Dark Places by James Ellroy The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson JAY BARON NICORVO's true-crime memoir, BEST COPY AVAILABLE, won the AWP Award selected by Geoff Dyer. His novel, THE STANDARD GRAND, landed at #8 on the Indie Next List, and his poetry collection, DEADBEAT, debuted on the Poetry Foundation bestseller list. Connect with Jay: Website: https://www.nicorvo.net Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jbnicorvo Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jay.baronnicorvo x: https://x.com/jbnicorvo Get the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/best-copy-available-a-true-crime-memoir-jay-baron-nicorvo/21321293?ean=9780820367361 – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers
durée : 00:02:19 - Les 80'' - par : Nicolas Demorand - "Le temps devant moi se raccourcit. Il y aura forcément un dernier livre, comme il y a un dernier amant, un dernier printemps, mais aucun signe pour le savoir". La citation est d'Annie Ernaux. 80'' alors que l'aurore brille pour vous parler d'un livre du crépuscule.
durée : 00:03:20 - Le Regard culturel - par : Lucile Commeaux - L'écrivain anglais Geoff Dyer signe un livre sur la fin : retraite des sportifs, œuvres ultimes des artistes, petits maux de la vieillesse : un livre riche, malicieux, plein de vitalité.
Geoff Dyer's many books include But Beautiful (about jazz), the novel Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi and, most recently, The Last Days of Roger Federer. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, his books have been translated into twenty-four languages. He is currently a Writer in Residence at USC. A new book Homework (a memoir) will be published in spring 2025 by FSG in the US and Canongate in the UK. Eric and Tao interrogate Geoff about his apparent adoration of Bob Dylan. A lively conversation ensues....
Photographer and New York Times Photo Editor, Mikko Takkunen, joins me today to talk about his upcoming book, Hong Kong, published by Kehrer Verlag with an essay by Geoff Dyer. Hong Kong is Mikko's farwell to the place where he worked for over 5 years the New York Times desk's Asia photo editor. It is also where he started his family and witnessed some of the greates social upheavals in the country's recent history. We talk about how this book is not a social or political statement but an observation and an embrace of a place he loves and is forever connected through experience. https://www.mikkotakkunen.com https://www.kehrerverlag.com/en/mikko-takkunen-hong-kong This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Mikko Takkunen is a photo editor at The New York Times's For- eign desk where he's spent more than five years between 2016– 2021 in Hong Kong as the desk's Asia photo editor. He began tak- ing these photographs in early 2020 at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and continued until the summer of 2021 when he left Hong Kong. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show
Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages Are you living for 70 years, or are you living the same year 70 times? It's one of the great existential questions that writers and creators face, too – Am I writing many books, or am I writing the same book many times? Sure, the “best” answer seems obvious, but I'm not sure the true answer is always clear-cut. Malcolm Galdwell made popular a study that showed the difference between two great artists, Picasso and Cezanne; there's deep and there's wide, and it's an eternal rhythm. Get book links and resources at https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/ Geoff Dyer is a real writer. He's the award-winning author of four novels, as well as numerous non-fiction titles on D. H. Lawrence, understanding photography, yoga, and more. Geoff reads two pages from ‘The Country and the City' by Raymond Williams. [reading begins at 23:45] Hear us discuss: The relationship between photography and writing. [6:33] | “Write the book that only you can write.” [11:47] | Self-expression as a learnt practice: “I became a very original writer by being incredibly susceptible to influences.” [11:53] | “The writing life is full of surprises.” [35:06] | The most important lessons in writing. [36:53]
In Tessa Hadley's new collection, After the Funeral (Jonathan Cape), small events have huge consequences. As psychologically astute as they are emotionally dense, these stories illuminate the enduring conflicts between responsibility and freedom, power and desire, convention and subversion, reality and dreams. Hadley was in conversation with Geoff Dyer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Late summer is a great time to travel, but if you find yourself between adventures, we are here to help. On this edition of The Weekly Reader, we review two new “travel books” to enjoy in the comfort of your own home whilst dreaming about your next trip: "American Ramble" by Neil King, and "White Sands" by Geoff Dyer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dame Sheila Hancock, Geoff Dyer and Rachel Stott join Matthew Sweet to discuss the work and performance of writers, artists, athletes and musicians near the end of their careers. Old Rage by Sheila Hancock is out now in paperback and she can be seen on BBC i-player in the drama The Sixth Commandment The Last Days of Roger Federer by Geoff Dyer is out now in paperback. Rachel Stott is a composer and plays viola with the Revolutionary Drawing Room, the Bach Players and Sopriola. Producer: Torquil MacLeod You can hear music composed by Beethoven as part of this BBC Proms season available on BBC Sounds.
“With writing I'm trying to use a story to create images, and with photography I'm trying to use images to create a story.” That's S J Watson, best-selling novelist of Before I Go to Sleep. In this episode we talk to him about how street photography feeds his writing and vice-versa, and the way different endeavors contribute to creative mindsets. Guest: SJ Watson (https://www.sjwatson-books.com), Photography (https://sj-watson.myshopify.com/). Hosts: Jeff Carlson: website (https://jeffcarlson.com), Jeff's photos (https://jeffcarlson.com/portfolio/), Jeff on Instagram (http://instagram.com/jeffcarlson), Jeff on Glass (https://glass.photo/jeff-carlson), Jeff on Mastodon (https://twit.social/@jeffcarlson) Kirk McElhearn: website (https://www.kirkville.com), Kirk's photos (https://photos.kirkville.com), Kirk on Instagram (https://instagram.com/mcelhearn), Kirk on Glass (https://glass.photo/mcelhearn), Kirk on Mastodon (https://journa.host/@mcelhearn) Show Notes: (View show notes with images at PhotoActive.co (https://www.photoactive.co/home/episode-148-watson)) Rate and Review the PhotoActive Podcast! (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photoactive/id1391697658?mt=2) Before I Go to Sleep, by S.J. Watson (https://amzn.to/3OWuLWh) Write Now with Scrivener (https://podcast.scrivenerapp.com/27) Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room, by Geoff Dyer (https://amzn.to/3P0ET0l) let's get lit podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-get-lit/id1697518965) The Experiment (https://sjwatson.substack.com/s/the-experiment) Our Snapshots: Jeff: Call Sheet (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/callsheet-find-cast-crew/id1672356376) Kirk: Michael Kenna | Hokkaido 2020 (https://benrido-store.com/product/michael-kenna|hokkaido-2020%E3%80%80/) Subscribe to the PhotoActive podcast newsletter at the bottom of any page at the PhotoActive web site (https://photoactive.co) to be notified of new episodes and be eligible for occasional giveaways. If you've already subscribed, you're automatically entered. If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes/Apple Podcasts (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/photoactive/id1391697658?mt=2) or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast. And don't forget to join the PhotoActive Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/photoactivecast/) to discuss the podcast, share your photos, and more. Disclosure: Sometimes we use affiliate links for products, in which we receive small commissions to help support PhotoActive.
Alexandra was Editor-in-Chief of Bloomsbury Publishing for 20 years and she is now Executive Publisher. She began her career on the art magazine Art Monthly and joined Virago Press in 1978 where she edited the Virago Modern Classics series, becoming Editorial Director in 1984. In 1990 she moved to Hamish Hamilton as Editorial Director and four years later left publishing to become a literary agent during which time her clients included Amanda Foreman, Geoff Dyer, Maggie O'Farrell and Ali Smith. She joined Bloomsbury in 1999. Her list of authors includes Margaret Atwood, Richard Ford, Esther Freud, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sheila Hancock, Khaled Hosseini, Celia Imrie, Nicole Krauss, Jhumpa Lahiri, Colum McCann, Anne Michaels, Ann Patchett, Hannah Rothschild, George Saunders, 2017 Man Booker winner for Lincoln in the Bardo.Kamila Shamsie, Patti Smith, Kate Summerscale and Barbara Trapido. Abdulrazak Gurnah Gurnah was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature
Na estante da semana, a última antes de férias, há poesia badalhoca com um clássico de Pierro Aretino, há o Mar Negro numa novela gráfica sobre o fim do verão, há uma deambulação sobre o modo como tudo acaba na acumulação de pequenas histórias do inglês Geoff Dyer e há uma reflexão poética de Voltaire sobre o terramoto de Lisboa. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Lee Klein https://www.litfunforever.com/about/ @leeklein0 twitter @lee.klein_ Instagram Buy Chotic Good here: @saggingmeniscus https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/chaotic_good/ Gateway Books Peter Pan. Where the Wild Things Are. The Big Book of Jokes and RiddlesBlack Stallion series. D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. Gary Gygax (D&D) Judy Blume's ForeverNarnia/LOTRs (competitively read)Sherlock HolmesThe Bounty Trilogy (Mutiny on the Bounty)Count of Monte Cristo Gatsby, Prufrock, The WastelandBorges (in Spanish)Crime and Punishment (2x)Narcissus and Goldmund Steppenwolf, Demian, Siddhartha, Journey to the EastKafka storiesKerouac (Subterraneans, Dharma Bums, Big Sur)One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestFear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, The Doors of Perception, Island Another Roadside Attraction and Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, Deadeye Dick)The Crying of Lot 49Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Stories by Terry SouthernThe Beat Reader – Burroughs, Corso, Ginsberg >> Blake BelovedLight in AugustSee Under: Love (Grossman -> Bruno Schulz)Maus (graphic novels, Raw vols 1 and 2, Richard McGuire, Here)Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog/Adventures in the Skin Trade (Dylan Thomas) The Tin Drum, A Personal Matter, The Box Man, Carver, Steinbeck short novels, Hamsun (Hunger), Cheever stories, Auster, Beckett, Kafka, Handke, Artaud, Barthelme, Maupassant, Chekhov, TC Boyle, Philip Roth, Sontag essays, Ulysses, Moby Dick DFW essays, Mark Leyner, DeLillo, Moody, The Recognitions, George Saunders, Pnin, The Last Samurai, Bernhard, Sebald, Gogol stories, Salinger stories, Geoff Dyer, Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials) War and Peace, Proust, Musil, Mann, Hamsun Bolano (Between Parentheses) Knausgaard, Rachel Cusk, Houellebecq, Enard, Gracq, Perec, Zweig, Grace Paley, Hrabal, Aira, The Waves Currently reading Ute Av Verden, Knausgaard (in Norsk) Reader's Block, Markson Henri Cartier-Bresson interviews Ubik, Philip K. Dick Looking forward to Middlemarch, Trollope The Wolves of Eternity, KOK MJ Nicholls stories Steinbeck (shorter novels) The rest of Hrabal in English (four books) Cormac McCarthy (his first four books) BTZ-inspired purchases: Monument Maker (David Keenan), The Salt Line (Shimoni), The Logos (Mark de Silva), Traveler of the Century and How to Travel Without Seeing (Andreas Neuman), The Kindly Ones (Littel), Too Much Life (Lispecter), Kafka Diaries Recently read All of Us Together in the End, Matthew Vollmer Bang Bang Crash, Nic Brown All Dag Solstad in English (Novel 11, Book 18) All Tomas Espedal in English (Love, Tramp) I Served the King of England, Hrabal The Belan Deck, Matt Bucher Annie Ernaux (Happening, A Man's Place, I Remain in Darkness) Philip Roth (Zuckerman Unbound, Patrimony, The Facts, The Counterlife) The Magus, John Fowles Desert Island Books The Birds, Tarjei Vesaas (Archipelago)Weight of the World, Handke A Time to Live and a Time to Die, Erich Maria Remarque Garden, Ashes, Danilo Kis A Balcony in the Forest, Julien GracqA Musical Offering, Luis Sagasti (Charco, Fionn Petch)Atomik Aztex, Sesshu Foster (Grove Press)Amazons, Cleo Birdwell (DeLillo)A Time for Everything, KOK (Archipelago)Joseph and His Brothers, Thomas Mann (John E. Woods translation; Modern Library)
Five writers go on five reflective, restorative and often playful journeys in search of the final resting places of their literary heroes. In this final essay of the series, Geoff Dyer retraces a pilgrimage to New Mexico, where DH Lawrence's ashes were supposedly built into a concrete shrine near Taos at the request of his estranged wife Frieda. But were they actually his ashes? Dyer is a multi-award winning novelist and non-fiction writer. His many books include Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of D.H. Lawrence, and his latest The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings, which was published in 2022. Producer: Ciaran Bermingham
Oggi a Cult: Roberto Festa in diretta dal Salone del Libro di Torino 2023, con Geoff Dyer, Marco Corsi e Giovanni Agosti su Giovanni Testori; Barbara Sorrentini in diretta dal Festival di Cannes 2023; la rubrica di lirica di Giovanni Chiodi...
I am so grateful to Dr. Dan Piccolo(dear old friend and percussionist) for recommending this book and to Ross Huff(dear old friend and trumpet player) for joining us on the read. Two big ideas stuck with me from this book. One is that creating music is dependent on the tension between understanding the basics of a deep tradition AND constantly improvising to create something new. Two is the intimacy in Dyer's stories about many of America's most lauded musicians. We see Thelonius Monk, Lester Young, Charles Mingus, Ben Webster, and more not as icons but in their completely messy painful humanity, often suffering at the hands of the country that celebrates their music, dealing with real mental health issues and loss. Dan and Ross were the perfect guests and you should take my advice and go check out their music. www.danpiccolo.com www.rosshuff.com
Alexandra was Editor-in-Chief of Bloomsbury Publishing for 20 years and she is now Executive Publisher. She began her career on the art magazine Art Monthly and joined Virago Press in 1978 where she edited the Virago Modern Classics series, becoming Editorial Director in 1984. In 1990 she moved to Hamish Hamilton as Editorial Director and four years later left publishing to become a literary agent during which time her clients included Amanda Foreman, Geoff Dyer, Maggie O'Farrell and Ali Smith. She joined Bloomsbury in 1999. Her list of authors includes Margaret Atwood, Richard Ford, Esther Freud, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sheila Hancock, Khaled Hosseini, Celia Imrie, Nicole Krauss, Jhumpa Lahiri, Colum McCann, Anne Michaels, Ann Patchett, Hannah Rothschild, George Saunders, 2017 Man Booker winner for Lincoln in the Bardo.Kamila Shamsie, Patti Smith, Kate Summerscale and Barbara Trapido. Abdulrazak Gurnah Gurnah was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature
To Photograph Is To Learn How To Die: An Essay with Digressions by Tim Carpenter is a book-length essay about photography's unique ability to ease the ache of human mortality. It's also a book about photography theory, literary criticism, art history, and philosophy. Drawing on writings and poems by Wallace Stevens, Marilynne Robinson, Vladimir Nabokov, Paul Valery, Virginia Wolff, and other artists, musicians, and thinkers, Brooklyn-based photographer Tim Carpenter argues passionately―in one main essay and a series of lively digressions―that photography is unique among the arts in its capacity for easing the fundamental ache of our mortality; for managing the breach that separates the self from all that is not the self; for enriching one's sense of freedom and personhood; and for cultivating meaning in an otherwise meaningless reality. Printed in three colors that reflect the various “voices” of the book, the text design, provided by publisher and editor Mike Slack, follows several channels of thought, inviting various approaches to reading. To Photograph Is To Learn How To Die is a unique and instructive contribution to the literature on photography, and is as enthralling as other genre-melding photography books, The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer, Robert Bresson's Notes on Cinematography, and more recently, Stephen Shore's book Modern Instances: The Craft of Photography, among others.Carpenter's research offers both a timely polemic and a timeless resource for those who use a camera.Tim and JC caught up recently to discuss this fascinating book, now in its second printing. Reading by Tim CarpenterMusic by Talk Talk
Decía Eduardo Galeano que el fútbol es la única religión que carece de ateos. Y, podría añadirse, la única cuyos dioses conservan vigentes la devoción y el culto. Quizá porque se parecen más a los personajes que antaño habitaban los panteones paganos. Es el mensaje subliminal e implícito que traslada “Lo que el pibe le dijo a Dios”, el libro de relatos que Miguel Venegas publica en Espasa para rememorar sus semblanzas deportivas en La Cultureta. Hablaremos con él y del último ensayo que Geoff Dyer publica sobre los crepúsculos: "Los últimos días de Roger Federer".
Decía Eduardo Galeano que el fútbol es la única religión que carece de ateos. Y, podría añadirse, la única cuyos dioses conservan vigentes la devoción y el culto. Quizá porque se parecen más a los personajes que antaño habitaban los panteones paganos. Es el mensaje subliminal e implícito que traslada “Lo que el pibe le dijo a Dios”, el libro de relatos que Miguel Venegas publica en Espasa para rememorar sus semblanzas deportivas en La Cultureta. Hablaremos con él y del último ensayo que Geoff Dyer publica sobre los crepúsculos: "Los últimos días de Roger Federer".
Brendan receives a postcard from the only registered US historical landmark outside America and then talks with the great essayist, novelist and occasional world-class complainer, Geoff Dyer about travels to Tahiti, India, Venice and more. Then “Euphoria” star Colman Domingo stops by to answer your travel questions, launch a campaign against babies in business class, and roast Brendan for his brunch-avoidant tendencies.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Geoff talks to Dave about his book entitled The Last Days of Roger Federer which is about careers ending and going on with life when the curtains close for those in the spotlight.
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 16, 2023 is: paladin PAL-uh-din noun A paladin is a leading champion of a cause, or a trusted military leader (as for a medieval prince). // The keynote speaker is regarded as a paladin of environmental justice. // The prince summoned the paladin and commended him for his actions in battle. See the entry > Examples: “This collection of stories by one of England's best novelists is both playful and serious in the manner of Laurence Sterne, the 18th-century author of ‘Tristram Shandy.' ... Sterne was the master of the marginal, the random, the inconsequential. In our own day, David Foster Wallace, Geoff Dyer and Ali Smith have become the paladins of this goofy manner.” — Edmund White, The New York Times, 2 Dec. 2016 Did you know? Rome wasn't built in a day, and we know the site where it was founded: Palatine Hill (known as Palatium in Latin), site of the cave where Roman legend tells us Romulus and Remus were abandoned as infants, nursed by a she-wolf, and fed by a woodpecker before being found by a herdsman. In ancient Rome, the emperor's palace was located on the Palatine Hill; since the site was the seat of imperial power, Latin palatium came to mean “imperial” as well as “palace.” From palatium came Latin palatinus, also meaning “imperial” and later “imperial official.” Different forms of these words passed through Latin, Italian, and French, picking up various meanings along the way, and eventually some of those forms made their way into English, including paladin and palace.
Zip up your parkas, load your MP40s and prepare for the Fighting On Film Christmas Special! We're joined by author Geoff Dyer, author of 'Broadsword Calling Danny Boy' (2018) to discuss one of the most iconic men-on-a-mission war films ever made: Where Eagles Dare! Directed by Brian G. Hutton and starring an incredible cast including Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Ingrid Pitt, Donald Houston, Peter Barkworth, Robert Beatty, Anton Diffring and Derren Nesbitt. The film follows the twists and turns of an epic SOE mission to uncover a mole through one of the most rip-roaring commando missions ever to grace the silver screen.
When artists and athletes age, what happens to their work? Does it ripen or rot? Achieve a new serenity or succumb to an escalating torment? Acclaimed author of Out of Sheer Rage and “one of our greatest living critics” (New York) Geoff Dyer considers these questions in his newest book, The Last Days of Roger Federer, an extended meditation on late style and last works. Joining us virtually in conversation with Sam Lipsyte, Dyer gave us the span of his study and delved into the heart of its questions—what would John Coltrane's music have become if he hadn't passed so suddenly? Beethoven's, if he had retained his hearing? Is it better to peak and eke out into oblivion, or better to go out on a high note? (Recorded May 18, 2022.)
In 2014, the Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry guest-edited the New Statesman on the theme of the “Great White Male”. Perry, who is known for his subversive ceramics and tapestries as well as his cross-dressing alter-ego Claire, wanted to explore issues of gender, masculinity, Britishness, class and the grip that white male power still exerts on the UK's culture and politics. In his signature essay for the issue, he characterised this force as “Default Man”. Default Men are middle-class, heterosexual and usually middle-aged: they comprise a tiny global minority but, with “their colourful textile phalluses hanging round their necks”, Perry writes, “they make up an overwhelming majority in government, in boardrooms and also in the media.” By closely examining Default Man's tribe – dress, behaviour, identity – he discovers that, though it masquerades as “normal”, it is in fact deeply odd and, at times, disastrous for society. Perry argues that Default Man's dominance was weakening – and that has been borne out in the years since the article was first published by the changing shape of the British establishment: the percentage of women MPs, for example, has risen from 24 per cent to 34 per cent. In September 2022, Liz Truss's cabinet became the first to have no white men holding any of the four great offices of state. But in the same period, figures such as Jordan Peterson have popularised the idea that masculinity is “under assault” and must be reasserted. The global “men's rights movement” has amplified this message. In this context, Grayson Perry's advice for Default Man – to relax, ditch his macho baggage, and allow his grip on power to loosen – seems as prescient as ever. Written by Grayson Perry and read by Tom Gatti. This article originally appeared on newstatesman.com on 8 October 2014 and in the 10 October issue of the magazine. You can read the text version here. If you enjoyed this, you might want to listen to “How to grow old in America” by Geoff Dyer. Podcast listeners can get a subscription to the New Statesman for just £1 per week, for 12 weeks. Visit www.newstatesman.com/podcastoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“In novels, very often we hear about an evening or an afternoon that changes the character's life forever... actually, some of the big changes in life happen not suddenly, but very gradually.” Geoff Dyer reads from The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings (Canongate, 2022), his paen to conclusions, endings and exits by way of Bob Dylan, Jean Rhys, Friedrich Nietzsche, J.M.W. Turner and the Disintegration Tapes.
“In novels, very often we hear about an evening or an afternoon that changes the character's life forever... actually, some of the big changes in life happen not suddenly, but very gradually.” Geoff Dyer reads from The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings (Canongate, 2022), his paen to conclusions, endings and exits by way of Bob Dylan, Jean Rhys, Friedrich Nietzsche, J.M.W. Turner and the Disintegration Tapes.
As he enters late middle age, Geoff Dyer turns, in The Last Days of Roger Federer, to the question of late – or, indeed, last – style. Lisa Appignanesi writes, ‘Geoff Dyer's wry meditations on mortality and late style have a dazzling way of dispelling gloom. Nietzsche and the Turin horse, vaporised Turner, dolorous Dylan, antics on courts and at Burning Man, Dyer's Last Days had me laughing aloud, a sure signal of deft seriousness. What is there to say except if this is late Dyer, it's great Dyer.' Geoff is in conversation with the poet and critic Mark Ford.Find more upcoming events at the Bookshop here: http://lrb.me/upcomingevents Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Authors Jay Griffiths and Geoff Dyer are our guests for a discussion of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Annie Dillard was only twenty-nine when her first prose book was published in 1974; it went onto win the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction the following year. To discuss this classic of observational nature writing and spiritual enquiry, we are joined by two writers making their Backlisted debuts: Jay Griffiths, the author of Wild: An Elemental Journey and Geoff Dyer, whose most recent book The Last Days of Roger Federer, featured on the Gormenghast episode. By coincidence, Andy has been reading Pages from the Goncourt Journals (NYRB Classics), a spicy, gossip-rich glimpse into 19th century French literary life which has a foreword by Geoff, while John immerses himself in the inner world of John Donne, through regular Backlisted guest Katherine Rundell's widely acclaimed biography: Super Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (Faber). Timings: 08:13 - Pages from the Goncourt Journals 16:46 - Super Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne - By Katherine Rundell 22:26 - Pilgrim At Tinker Creek By Annie Dillard For more information visit https://www.backlisted.fm Please support us and unlock bonus material at https://www.patreon.com/backlisted
On this episode of The Experience, we sit down with club industry icon, Geoff Dyer (AussieFit, LIfestyle Family Fitness, Crunch Fitness). Geoff's career in the fitness business began with an inspiring story of perseverance and determination when, as a 250-pound 18-year-old, he worked tirelessly to lose the extra weight and, in a matter of 3 months, he did! Geoff has lived many lives in the fitness business as the founder of Lifestyle Family Fitness and Aussie Fit and one of the largest franchisees for Crunch Fitness. Join us as we learn his approach to engaging with members in this exciting episode of The Experience.
Each week we're going to bring you some suggestions for your summer reading, taking a different category each time. This week Bob Johnstone, of The Gutter Bookshop, joined Sean with his recommendations for biography and essay. He recommended Rogues:True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe,I Don't Want to Talk About Home by Suad Aldarra,All Down Darkness Wide : A Memoir by Seán Hewitt,Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner,And Away... by Bob Mortimer,The Last Days of Roger Federer And Other Endings by Geoff Dyer,Free : Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi,Fun Home : A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel,All About Me! : My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks,The Troubles with Us : One Belfast Girl on Boys and Bombs and Finding Her Way by Alix O'Neill.
Jonathan Bastian talks with philosopher Kieran Setiya, author of “Midlife: A Philosophical Guide” about the meaning and feeling of hitting midlife and how philosophy helped provide answers to Setiya's own anxieties and perceived failures. Later, Geoff Dyer, author of “The Last Days of Roger Federer And Other Endings” examines what it means to give up something you love and why last works and best works don't need to follow a chronological order. Delve deeper into life, philosophy, and what makes us human by joining the Life Examined discussion group on Facebook.
Soon after finishing his most recent book, The Last Days of Roger Federer, the author Geoff Dyer decided to follow in his hero's footsteps and have surgery. “Strictly speaking, I was following in the footsteps of Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas,” he writes, “in that I would be having surgery on my elbow (left) rather than a knee, but that's just an anatomical detail.” Worsening tennis elbow was the latest sign that, at 63, Dyer might be getting old; “business-class” medical care near his home in Santa Monica, California, promised to undo the damage. In this funny, sad and beautifully written reflection on mortality and late middle age, Dyer examines his own frailties and the differences between American healthcare and that received by his father in England. Meanwhile, the pain of a slow physical recovery is eased by a trip to a seniors' holiday resort called the Fountain of Youth. If the American way is one of constant self-improvement, from yoga to decluttering, and from a bigger house to a better game of golf, what happens when you opt out? Can anyone escape? As Dyer writes: “Gore Vidal mocked F Scott Fitzgerald for whining on in his notebooks about how ‘he was young and now he's middle-aged'. That now seems to me an entirely worthy theme, perhaps the biggest one there is.” This article appeared on the newstatesman.com on 15 June and in the magazine on 17 June. You can read the text version here.Written by Geoff Dyer and read by Chris Stone.You might also enjoy listening to Big Tech and the quest for eternal youth by Jenny Kleeman.Podcast listeners can get a subscription to the New Statesman for just £1 per week, for 12 weeks. Visit www.newstatesman.com/podcastoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
There are few people who can write so brilliantly, about so many subjects, all at once, as Geoff Dyer. The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings could be his most wide ranging to date. It's about tennis—as the title suggests—and specifically about the curtain dropping on the career of one of the most successful, and most technically beautiful players, ever. But it's also about endings of so many other kinds: the significance, or otherwise, of an artist's last work; mental and intellectual decline; finishing and not finishing books; and why, perhaps, deep down, we really just long for everything to come to be over with...*SUBSCRIBE NOW FOR BONUS EPISODESLooking for Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses? https://podfollow.com/sandcoulyssesIf you want to spend even more time at Shakespeare and Company, you can now subscribe for regular bonus episodes and early access to Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses.Subscribe on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/sandcoSubscribe on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/shakespeare-and-company-writers-books-and-paris/id1040121937?l=enAll money raised goes to supporting “Friends of Shakespeare and Company” the bookshop's non-profit, created to fund our noncommercial activities—from the upstairs reading library, to the writers-in-residence program, to our charitable collaborations, and our free events.*Geoff Dyer is the author of Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi and three previous novels, as well as nine non-fiction books. Dyer has won the Somerset Maugham Prize, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, a Lannan Literary Award, the International Center of Photography's 2006 Infinity Award for writing on photography and the American Academy of Arts and Letters' E.M. Forster Award. In 2009 he was named GQ's Writer of the Year. He won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2012 and was a finalist in 1998. In 2015 he received a Windham Campbell Prize for non-fiction. His books have been translated into twenty-four languages. He currently lives in Los Angeles where he is Writer in Residence at the University of Southern California.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Buy a signed copy of his novel FEEDING TIME here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/S/9781910296684/feeding-timeListen to Alex Freiman's Play It Gentle here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Why listen to Alexandra Pringle? Because Richard Charkin told me that she's the best editor in the English speaking world, that's why. Alexandra was editor-in-chief at Bloomsbury Publishing for more than two decades. She was recently appointed Executive Publisher. She began her publishing career at the British magazine Art Monthly before joining the women's publisher Virago in 1978. She became Editorial Director in 1984, and moved to Hamish Hamilton in 1991 to undertake the same role. Through much of the 1990s she was a literary agent for, among others, Amanda Foreman, Geoff Dyer, Maggie O'Farrell and Ali Smith. She joined Bloomsbury in 1999 as head of the adult publishing division where her authors included Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sheila Hancock, Anne Michaels, Ann Patchett, George Saunders and Richard Ford. Among other things we talk about editing's "what if" conversations, about houseboats, socialism, building confidence, Harry Potter, tempering criticism, teasing, instinct, luck, and yes, arm-hair. Note to Listener: My apologies. The Zoom connection was poor on this one. But what Alexandra has to say is delightful and informative, so I hope you'll agree with me that it's worth putting up with. I plan to interview her again. In person. With a good microphone. On her houseboat.
Geoff Dyer talks to Dorian Lynskey about his career and new book The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings. In this, he examines the matter of final performances and pieces, through the tales of artists, sportspeople and writers. The pair also discuss how Dyer's work takes shape, and how he reflects on his own writing. “The sense of not being ideally qualified to write about a subject has been quite enabling for me.” “Write the book only you could write is the mantra I repeat.” “Some genre defying stuff now feels a comfortable genre in itself.” “I think I've managed to turn the lack of a readership into some sort of freedom.” “If you can turn your weaknesses into some kind of strength, that's a very happy outcome.” “The writing life has gone hand in hand with the continuation of my self-education.” “If you're able to engage the reader's curiosity and interest they'll keep on reading.“ https://www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Jade Bailey. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Days-Roger-Federer-Endings/dp/1838855742 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Geoff Dyer, Dame Sheila Hancock and Rachel Stott join Matthew Sweet to discuss the work and performance of writers, artists, athletes and musicians near the end of their careers. Old Rage by Sheila Hancock is out now. The Last Days of Roger Federer by Geoff Dyer is out now. Rachel Stott is a composer and plays viola with the Revolutionary Drawing Room, the Bach Players and Sopriola. Producer: Torquil MacLeod
Novelist Joanne Harris (Chocolat, A Narrow Door) is our guest for a celebration of Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950) and Titus Alone (1959) by Mervyn Peake, three novels which are often referred to, erroneously, as the Gormenghast Trilogy. With Joanne's expert guidance, John and Andy revisit Peake's visionary work for the first time in decades and are surprised and delighted by what they discover. Also in this episode, Andy marks the belated UK publication of Maud Martha, the sole novel by poet Gwendolyn Brooks (Faber); while John enjoys Geoff Dyer's new book about tennis and much more, The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings (Canongate). Timings: 07:49 - Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks 13:55 - The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings by Geoff Dyer 18:07 - The Gormenghast series of books by Mervyn Peake For more information on everything discussed in this episode visit https://www.backlisted.fm You can support us and unlock bonus material at https://www.patreon.com/backlisted All books mentioned in the show are available to purchase at https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted
In this episode, we spoke to the inimitable Geoff Dyer, author of books including Out of Sheer Rage, Zona, But Beautiful, The Ongoing Moment, and Broadsword Calling Danny Boy. His new book, The Last Days of Roger Federer and Other Endings, was published by Canongate earlier this month. Ingeniously structured – separated into three sections of sixty chapters, with its 86,400 words representing each second in a day – it is both witty and wise, and examines the late careers of artists as varied as J. M. W. Turner, Nietzsche, D. H. Lawrence, Bob Dylan and the eponymous Federer on its way to asking the question: "Could it be that our deepest desire is for it all to be over?"Less elaborately structured, our freestyle conversation with Geoff is one we reluctantly ended with a reference to a shampoo scam. Before that? The difficulty of retaining what you read; Geoff's capacity for building atomic weaponry; the case for reading Middlemarch; artist James Turrell's pharaonic Roden Crater project in the Arizona desert; and the genius of Larry McMurtry – all in a mere 2,844 seconds.For initiates and the uninitiated alike, our conversation is a perfect window into the boundlessly curious and original mind of one of Britain's greatest wits.
Beyond the Page: The Best of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference
When artists and athletes age, what happens to their work? Does it ripen or rot? As our bodies decay, how – and why – do we keep going? In this episode, John Burnham Schwartz sits down with the ever-original and wittily ironic GEOFF DYER to discuss the author's own encounter with late middle age against the backdrop of the last days and last works of writers, painters, footballers, musicians, and tennis stars who've mattered to him throughout his life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Creative Process · Seasons 1 2 3 · Arts, Culture & Society
Dyer is the author of four novels: Paris Trance, The Search, The Colour of Memory, and Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi; two collections of essays, Anglo-English Attitudes and Working the Room; and six genre-defying titles: But Beautiful, The Missing of the Somme, Out of Sheer Rage, Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It, The Ongoing Moment and Zona, about Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker. A collection of essays from the last twenty years entitled Otherwise Known as the Human Condition was published in the US in April 2011 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. His most recent book is White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World.www.creativeprocess.info
Dyer is the author of four novels: Paris Trance, The Search, The Colour of Memory, and Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi; two collections of essays, Anglo-English Attitudes and Working the Room; and six genre-defying titles: But Beautiful, The Missing of the Somme, Out of Sheer Rage, Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It, The Ongoing Moment and Zona, about Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker. A collection of essays from the last twenty years entitled Otherwise Known as the Human Condition was published in the US in April 2011 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. His most recent book is White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World.www.creativeprocess.info
Meet Geoff Dyer a fitness industry entrepreneur who's built and sold a successful health club chain that grew to 55 clubs and is now at it again but this time is building a billion dollar company. In this interview we go on the emotional journey of entrepreneurship and discover the many lessons that Geoff has learned along with way including the keys to his success in the fitness industry. Thank you for watching please like, share, and subscribe. Follow and connect:Fitness Industry Success Show website: https://www.leadlionmarketing.com/fit... LEADLION: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leadlionmar... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leadlionmark... Connect with Nick Parker: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heynickpa... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heynickparker/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heynickparker
See/Saw compiles observational musings on over 40 photographers plus reflections on the writings of Roland Barthes and John Berger. Erudite, entertaining and thought-provoking this book is a veritable library of looking. It introduces unheralded imagemakers that capture imagination while sending readers into deep research on the plethora of historical and contemporary references evoked. In this book group, Geoff Dyer discusses, among other things:Talking about meaning versus talking about the photographs Conjuring images in wordsWriting that combines the critical with the creativeLanguage everyone thinks they can speakAbility of photos to illuminate consciousnessInstability and ever-expanding nature of photographic history The aesthethic purity of Walker EvansWhat constitutes signiifers nowA photograph as memorialReferenced in the episodeThe Ongoing MomentThe Street Photography of Garry WinograndOn Photography NYT, The Mysteries of Our Family Snapshots, January 2017The Suffering of Light by Alex WebbCamera Lucida by Roland BarthesMirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960Believing is Seeing Errol MorrisAntonioni's Blow UpGeoff Dyer Website | InstagramEngage with J. Sybylla Smith https://www.jsybyllasmith.com Instagram @jsybylla and Facebook @j.sybylla.smith