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Telegraph
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
So you want to be a writer? Here's some (polite) advice from the best
The persistent allure of Shakespeare and Company, Paris's most mythologised bookshop, has long been its ability to function both as a kind of temple and as a performance space. Shakespeare and Co is associated with both the history of modernism and the Beats: the original shop, founded in 1919 by Sylvia Beach, was the site of the publication of Ulysses, and when George Whitman opened a shop of the same name, at a different location nearby, it became a place of pilgrimage for the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin. Now, under the stewardship of Whitman's daughter, also Sylvia – and certainly in this collection of interviews, edited by the novelist Adam Biles – the shop continues to attract plenty of famous authors and names, who are regularly hosted to do public talks. And talk they most certainly do. The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews offers 20 conversations with writers who have appeared at the shop over the last decade or so. The names of the novelists, short story writers and non-fiction authors are mostly Anglophone and Anglo-American – George Saunders, Percival Everett, Rachel Cusk, Geoff Dyer are just some – with a few francophone and international presences (Annie Ernaux, Meena Kandasamy) thrown in to interrupt the inexorable drift towards the Anglosphere. There's a brief introduction by Whitman and a foreword from Biles, the bookshop's literary director and all-round in-house interlocutor. Otherwise, what we're left with is a loose transcript of exchanges – by turns illuminating, meandering, sharp, glib and ruminative – about books, ideas and the writing life. As a document of the current literary moment, it's perhaps uneven, but also rather revealing. The format is simple. Each chapter reproduces a recorded interview from one of the shop's live events – which is also typically released as a podcast – lightly edited and mercifully short. It's a winning approach. The unguarded setting – a small Parisian bookshop, a live audience, a fellow writer asking questions – often coaxes from the guests a nice, informal exchange of ideas. Writers who can often seem rather verbose and stage-managed – George Saunders, say, or Karl Ove Knausgaard – come across here as lucid and personable. One of the things that the book demonstrates most clearly is that the idea of the 'writer' has become rather diffuse. Save the venue, no unifying theme or thread really binds the interviews together: we get theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli, talking about his book The Order of Time, for example, alongside Reni Eddo-Lodge on Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race. These days, novelists are also often simultaneously essayists, memoirists, activists and cultural critics. Olivia Laing, for example, reflecting on her book about the curses and blessings of urban life and solitude, The Lonely City, glides effortlessly from discussing art to sex to psychiatry in little more than 10 pages of transcript. Like many of the authors, Laing is intellectually supple, charismatic and finely attuned to the needs of the audience. These reflections on writing are various, and often fascinating: Marlon James, for example, reveals that after a long day's work he tends to crash and burn 'and cry about my miserable life'; George Saunders talks about his life as an 'aspiring Buddhist', and Leïla Slimani reflects on the challenges of writing about the psychology of children. At its best, the book presents writers trying to think aloud rather than simply performing thought. Percival Everett is a case in point: a writer who resists the very format of the interview itself. Wry, dry and reluctant to indulge in interpretation or self-revelation, he dispatches many of Biles's questions about his Booker-shortlisted novel James with an easy shrug. Asked about his hopes for his work, he replies, 'Most of the time I just hope that when I'm driving down the freeway the other driver stays on his side of the road.' This refusal is pointed. In a literary culture where authors are often expected to expound upon their work and sum it up into neat little paraphrases, Everett's resistance is a demonstration of integrity. As such, the collection's tone varies throughout. Some writers approach the interview as a site of intellectual play – Cusk does so brilliantly – while others treat it as a promotional stop over. Colson Whitehead 's chat, for instance, is extraordinarily smooth, with him reciting the origin story of The Underground Railroad in the same press-friendly cadences one suspects he may have used elsewhere. The conversation with Claire-Louise Bennett – the author of Checkout 19 – by contrast, is a brisk, personal and lively exchange, offering more insight per page than most: she's at once frank, funny and revealing. The idea of 'Paris' as an exclusive home-from-home for the literary elite hovers politely in the background throughout the book. It's rarely discussed, but you can sense the effect the city exerts on the writers, with its subtle invitation to cosmopolitanism and a certain café-theoretic fluency. And even more noticeably – for better or worse – Shakespeare and Company now presents itself not so much as a bohemian curiosity of that city but as a high-end cultural export: a kind of unofficial literary embassy for English-language publishing in France, complete with its own tote bags. It's notable that few of the writers engage seriously with French literature or culture – save Nobel Prize-winner and memoirist Annie Ernaux, of course, whose conversation, translated by Alice Heathwood, is one of the strongest in the collection. Compared to the other writers, Ernaux is trenchant and unsentimental. She reminds us how rare it is to hear a writer speak directly, without stylised modesty or career-consciousness, about class, gender and politics. But Ernaux is the exception. Most of the writers here speak in the rather careful language of contemporary publishing, which means that the interviews can tend towards the predictable: 'This was a book where I wanted more than anything else that the book that's in my head comes on the page'; 'I'm a big believer that when I write, I show up to work'; 'my process is very intuitive and very iterative'; 'The voice gives me absolutely everything.' This is no fault of Biles, who is a genial host rather than a probing interlocutor: he draws writers out but seldom challenges them. The effect is that one finishes the book both entirely satisfied and yet curiously uninformed: this is what literary conversation sounds like when everyone is being terribly well-behaved. Ultimately, this is both the book's great strength and its weakness. As a time-capsule of early 21st-century literary decorum, it's essential: all of the authors here are smart, likeable, articulate, politically aware, vaguely progressive and professionally successful. But it's also perhaps symptomatic of a literary climate that privileges affability over aesthetic risk. You won't find here the combative energy of, say, a 1960s or 1970s Paris Review interview with Robert Lowell, Marianne Moore or William Gaddis. That kind of personality – prickly, unreconciled, unreconstructed – is either unwelcome or extinct. This is because literary culture has changed, just as the bookshop has changed: Shakespeare and Company today is no longer the domain of exiles or provocateurs but of visiting authors on European tours, filmed, streamed, and politely applauded. The authors are engaged in reiterating a kind of contract between writer and reader: trust me, I've thought about this; I'll try not to bore you; we're in this together; and, fundamentally, everything is fine. As a performance, this is both pleasing and reassuring. As an insight into the messy, irrational, perverse work of writing, it's incomplete. If there's one thing missing here, then, it's dissent. Not rudeness or incivility as such – who wants any more of that, in a world of endless online hot-takes, take-downs and click-bait? – but a simple willingness to say what might be even slightly unpalatable or unresolved. This book, for all its charm and clarity, rarely risks that. Then again, perhaps its most eloquent testimony is unintended: that today, even in the heart of literary Paris, the truly novel idea is the one we don't yet quite know how to speak aloud. ★★★☆☆
Irish Times
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life director Laura Piani: ‘I didn't want to do a film about a woman who is saved by a man'
Shakespeare and Company , the Paris bookshop, is celebrated for its literary heritage and cultural influence. Even its location is cool. Founded in 1951 by the late George Whitman, the store sits on the Left Bank of the Seine, opposite Notre Dame Cathedral, a refuge and meeting point for generations of writers, poets and thinkers. It's not just a bookseller but a thriving literary space, offering free lodging to aspiring writers – known as Tumbleweeds – in exchange for help around the store. One such weed is Laura Piani, the French writer-director of the new film Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, who has chronicled Whitman's handover to his daughter, Sylvia. From the get-go it was an adventure. 'It all started in a bathroom of a bar in Rome, where I was studying cinema and literature,' Piani says. 'I met a depressed Canadian guy, an artist who became one of my closest friends, and who was staying in Shakespeare and Company for many months, between his travels. READ MORE 'When I came back from Rome I went there. I met Sylvia and George Whitman. I became friends with her. She was my age. And, like anybody who ever met George, I was completely infatuated with him, because he was so clever.' Piani worked at Shakespeare and Company while studying screenwriting at the European Conservatory of Audiovisual Writing . She was in the inaugural cohort of the showrunner course at La Fémis , France's premiere film school, and has subsequently written for both television and cinema, including the crime show Spiral and the pre-Tár woman-conductor drama Philharmonia. Her writing continues to engage with literature and with those old bohemian friends. 'Many years after that first meeting, when I was doing my PhD, I came back to work in the bookshop,' she says. 'I was doing the night shift. It was a very interesting crowd. The people who worked there were all aspiring writers, actors and musicians. I was trying to become a scriptwriter. We were talking about poetry and literature. We were all dreamers.' At Shakespeare and Company (whose name Whitman took from the bookshop opened nearby, in 1919, by Sylvia Beach, first publisher of James Joyce's Ulysses) Piani learned how, after asking one or two questions, to identify the book that might just change a customer's life. It's a skill she uses to craft her fictional characters and find their back stories. The bookstore and its artistic community feature prominently in Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, the title of which acknowledges one of Piani's great passions. 'I discovered Jane when I was a teenager,' she says. 'She's not something that you learn at school in France. She's famous, but not as famous as in the anglophone countries. But I was a very, very active reader, and I wanted to read love stories. I remember looking for kisses and sex scenes. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life: Camille Rutherford as Agathe in Laura Piani's film 'When I was in my 20s, at Shakespeare and Company, I was confident enough to reread Jane Austen in English, and read the ones that I didn't read when I was a teenager. That's when I got the humour, the tenderness and the political questions that she was raising. Because women had to get married to survive, but it was in their hands. Suddenly, they were allowed to choose.' Piani's film puts a clever spin on the Austen-influenced romcom. It's a much-needed revival for a genre that, despite having yielded It Happened One Night, His Girl Friday and When Harry Met Sally, has been largely discarded by Hollywood and disparaged by others. 'I think that says a lot about them,' the film-maker says. 'I don't know how things are in Ireland, but in France right now, even more than love stories, we need stories of consolation. 'I do feel there is a common and shared joy in the romcom. A big reason for me to make the film was for friends who are stuck watching the same romcoms from the 1990s. You don't need to be sophisticated when you start to do something as long as it comes from a very sincere and organic place. I wanted to give something to the people I love.' Leaving aside the 17 adaptations (and counting) of Pride and Prejudice since 1938, there is a strong argument for positioning Austen as the godmother of the modern romcom. Bridget Jones's Diary, from 2001, leant into Colin Firth's post-Austen celebrity; Clueless seamlessly relocated Emma to 1990s Beverly Hills; Fire Island, from 2022, repopulates Pride and Prejudice with gay men; and Austenland, from 2013, adapts a classic romantic misunderstanding to a Regency theme-park setting. Austen is, as Piani notes, a universally acknowledged cultural force. 'I've found Jane Austen societies everywhere, in every single country from Greece to Spain to Italy,' the writer-director says. 'It gives me a big hope for humanity, because these people come together and talk about literature and poetry everywhere. She belongs to everyone. She's timeless. And the world needs romance that is not marketed product for streaming platforms.' Jane Austen Wrecked My Life: Pablo Pauly as Félix and Camille Rutherford as Agathe in Laura Piani's film Jane Austen Wrecked My Life follows Agathe (Camille Rutherford), a clumsy yet endearing Parisian bookseller at Shakespeare and Company. Despite her passion for literature and her dreams of becoming a writer, Agathe is blocked, both creatively and romantically. Her best friend, Félix (Pablo Pauly), secretly submits her work to the Jane Austen Writers' Residency in England, leading to her unexpected acceptance. At the retreat Agathe encounters the preoccupied Oliver (Charlie Anson), a brooding Austen descendant, igniting a complex romantic triangle between him – a great-great-great-nephew of the writer – and her chum Félix. Who will Agathe blame for this predicament and all its complications? 'When you try to approach a romcom after the masterpieces that were made already, you need to think about what you can bring on the table – something a little bit new without being pretentious,' Piani says. 'A love triangle has worked since the beginning of dramatology. I wanted to have dance as a turning point and all these things that consciously we wait for. But I did not want to do a film about a woman who is saved by a man. I believe in love, but not that. I wanted her to have this goal of becoming a writer. I allowed myself to play with the cultural differences between France and England without being too obvious.' The rival suitors are notably not as unsuitable as many of Austen's failed gentlemen callers. Félix is a flirt, but he's not a cad like George Wickham in Pride and Prejudice. Neither character is as pretentious as the Emma reject Mr Elton or as overbearing as the other Emma reject, Mr Knightley. 'I didn't want men who were seducers,' Piani says. 'I wanted the audience to love both suitors. Félix sincerely loves women. I took my cues from Austen. Because Mr Darcy is the opposite of an alpha or toxic male. I tried to be meta as much as I could. The fact that Jane Austen was sharing her bed with her sister when she died moved me a lot. So I brought a sister into the story.' Austen fans will (gleefully) welcome the parallels between Rutherford's lovelorn Agathe and Anne Elliot, the protagonist of Persuasion. Just as the stoic Anne aches for Captain Wentworth, whom she once rejected, Agathe, too, is in a self-imposed limbo. Unsurprisingly, Anne is also the Austen character whom Piani feels closest to. 'The one that moved me the most was Persuasion,' she says. 'I think it's because it's darker. She's older and she thinks that life is over for her. She's, what, 27? And she feels like she missed the train. I cannot even remember how many times I heard that in the mouth of a woman. The feeling of limitation and of being overdue, Jane Austen was writing about this very modern idea 300 years ago.' Jane Austen Wrecked My Life was snapped up by Sony Pictures Classics at Toronto International Film Festival last year, and has opened in the United States to rave reviews. 'When I made the film I thought, Okay, maybe the audience for our film will be women,' Piani says. 'But not at all. There are young men and older men. Everyone. I've been hugged by so many people saying the same thing: 'Thank you for making me smile and cry.' That's the most special part of this for me.' Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is in cinemas from Friday, June 13th
Euronews
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
These are the 10 most Instagrammable bookstores in the world, according to a new study
ADVERTISEMENT There's something quite magical about a beautiful bookstore - the quiet rustling of pages, the smell of old paper, and, increasingly, the perfect photo op! Sustainable retailer Awesome Books has put together a list of the most Instagrammable bookstores around the world, ranking based on the number of posts tagged with the store's name. Among the top 10, four are tucked away in Europe, with bookstores in Porto, Paris, London, and Venice making the cut. At the top of the heap is The Last Bookstore, a unique gem in Los Angeles, famous for its 'book portal' - a tunnel constructed entirely from old books. The quirky shop also features local art on its walls and a selection of vinyl records. With 113,000 hashtag mentions on Instagram, and an impressive 156k followers on its own page, it takes the crown as the number one most Instagrammed bookstore in the world. View this post on Instagram A post shared by One Thousand Libraries 📖 (@1000libraries) At number two is Porto's Livraria Lello, a neo-gothic and art nouveau architectural wonder, and one of the oldest bookstores in Portugal. With its stunning neo-gothic interiors and show-stopping central staircase, the store is credited to have influenced J.K. Rowling 's vision of Hogwarts during her time living in Porto as an English teacher. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Livraria Lello (@ In third place is another European entry, the legendary English-language bookstore Shakespeare and Company, located in the literary heart of Paris on the Left Bank. Since being opened by bohemian American George Whitman in 1951, it's been a meeting place for anglophone writers and readers. Inside, visitors can find creaking floors, old typewriters, sleepy cats and a piano for anyone to play. Outside, the green and yellow facade next to two stunning cherry blossom trees looks like a movie set - and it has been, notably featured in Richard Linklater's Before Sunset and Woody Allen 's Midnight in Paris . View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ophélie Schaffar / Travel Blogger (@limitlesssecrets) Ranked in sixth place is Libreria Acqua Alta in Venice - a charmingly eccentric literary treasure. The whimsical shop is crammed from floor to ceiling with books, magazines, maps, and curious ephemera. Due to the city's risk of flooding and the store's close proximity to water, volumes are stacked in bathtubs, waterproof bins, and even inside a full-size gondola that sits in one of the rooms. Fittingly, its name translates to 'Bookstore of High Water.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by April Chu (@aprilchutravels) Here is the full list of the 10 most photogenic bookstores in the world: The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles Livraria Lello, Porto Shakespeare and Company, Paris BookPeople, Texas Powell's Books, Oregon Libreria Acqua Alta, Venice National Book Store, Metro Manila Strand Book Store, New York Daunt Books, London Books Actually, Singapore
Forbes
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
5 Excellent Bookshops In Paris With English-Language Literature
Paris, France: Shakespeare and Company Bookstore located in the Saint Michel district. Paris has been known for its affinity for arts and literature for centuries at this point—so it only makes sense that the city has some of the most beautiful bookstores in Europe. Many of the city's bookstores could be classified as equal parts gallery/museum and shop—which is great for browsing but not the best if you prefer to read English literature and non-fiction. Despite being, well, France, you'll still find a handful of excellent English-language bookstores in and around Paris. The following bookshops boast a large selection of English books, ranging from secondhand paperbacks to high-end art books and everything in between. Here are five excellent bookshops in Paris with English-language literature: Shakespeare and Company was founded in 1951 by American George Whitman and is still largely considered one of the most beautiful English bookstores in the city. It's conveniently located opposite the Notre-Dame Cathedral on the banks of the Seine which has made it an easy stopping point for tourists. Keep in mind that this bookstore has, as such, become very popular and usually draws large crowds and oftentimes has a line out the door. Smith & Son is another independent English-language bookstore with a huge selection. The shop was first opened in 1870 and continues to be the best bookshop in the city if you're looking for a large selection of everything from best-selling beach reads to contemporary non-fiction, graphic novels, cookbooks, and more. While Librairie Galignani isn't exclusively an English-language bookstore, it still offers a very large selection of English books. The beautiful bookshop boasts fiction and contemporary non-fiction but its speciality is really in higher-end fine art books (that would make for great Parisian souvenirs). If browsing for used books is more your speed, then you'll want to add the Abbey Bookshop to your literary itinerary. Perhaps one of the best used bookstores in the city (although they also have a great selection of new titles as well), the Abbey Bookshop boasts more than 40,000 English titles and the hunt of finding your next great read is all part of the charm. San Francisco Book Company is another excellent option for those who prefer shopping for used books over new titles. The shop first opened on the Left Bank back in 1997 and has since expanded online as well (the shop ships worldwide). San Francisco Book Company boasts everything from paperbacks and science fiction to art and philosophy. It's also worth noting that this shop takes requests for hard-to-find books on their clients' wishlists.
