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Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Beginner's pluck: Virginia Evans
A prolific reader who was always writing stories, Virginia attempted her first novel at 19. 'I kept on writing novels. I self-published one, because my computer broke. I needed to sell enough copies so that I could buy a new one, and I did.' Meanwhile, Virginia worked at various jobs. 'I was a paralegal; I scheduled surgery for an orthopaedic surgeon; I worked in customer service and in administration, but I'd get up early and write.' When she was 32 and still unpublished, Virginia was accepted on the MFA for creative writing at Trinity College, Dublin. 'I moved my family over, and life has never been better. We all felt so settled.' She was working on her eighth novel, titled the American Photograph with, among others, Claire Keegan, Carlo Gebler, and Kevin Power. 'I gained my agent from it.' At the start of covid, in March 2020, the family returned to the US. It was a tough time. 'I was a wreck,' she says. 'I was grieving, and the book wasn't selling.' Her agent suggested that she tried something new. 'I'd started writing The Correspondent for myself. My agent persuaded me to let her send it out and it's sold well around the world. I still can't believe it.' Who is Virginia Evans? Date/ place of birth: 1986/ South Carolina. 'But I was brought up in Pennsylvania and Maryland.' Education: High school Annapolis, Maryland; James Madison University in Virginia, English and creative writing; 2019, Trinity College, Dublin, MA of Philosophy in creative writing. Home: North Carolina. Family: Husband Mark, son Jack,12, and daughter Mae, nine, and red labrador, Brigid. The day job: Full-time writer. In another life: 'I would have been an arborist; I'm fascinated by trees.' Favourite writers: Deirdre Madden; John Williams; Anne Patchett; Maggie O'Farrell; William Trevor. Second book: 'I'm working on two first drafts.' Top tip: 'Take a walk with nothing in your ears.' Website: Instagram: @ The debut The Correspondent Michael Joseph, €17.99 At 73, Sybil's life is shrinking. A compulsive letter-writer, she's kept those she loves at a distance. Confronted by a past mistake, it's time to reassess. Is it too late for a happy ending? The verdict: A glorious, life affirming debut. I adored it.
The Age
03-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Age
Spoil mum with gifts she really wants this Mother's Day
Forget about toast and tea… show Mum the love with an irresistible breakfast in bed. The Correspondent (Michael Joseph) by Virginia Evans, $35. Barbour '09' glasses, from $299 for two pairs, from Specsavers. Leif 'Buddha Wood' scented candle, $79. Tissot 'Desir' watch, $650. Country Road silk eye mask, $50. I Love Linen 'Ruby' French flax linen shirt, $129 Mulberry 'Small Darley' bag, $1395. Merit 'Signature Lip' lipstick in '1990″, $42. Puebco brass serving tray, $185. 'Tillandsia' living air plant, $10. Coucou Suzette 'Tortorsell Cat' and 'Yorkshire' hair clips, $12 each. Bonnie and Neil 'Watercolour' coupe, $99 (set of two). Temple of the Sun 'Pompeii' necklace, $349. Marimekko 'Oiva / Piirto Unikko' plate, $34. Bethany Linz semi-precious stone ring, $119, and enamel bangle, $45. Hay 'MVS' cutlery, $109 (set of four). Instax Mini 'LiPlay' hybrid instant camera, $249, from Harvey Norman. Marc Jacobs 'Daisy Wild Eau So Intense' EDP 50ml, $160. Kip & Co 'Supper Club' embroidered napkin, $85 (set of four). Venchi 'Baroque' assorted chocolates, $90 (giftbox 360g). Maison Balzac 'The Good Egg' incense holder, $69. Le Labo 'Hinoki' hand pomade, $68.
Sydney Morning Herald
03-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Sydney Morning Herald
Spoil mum with gifts she really wants this Mother's Day
Forget about toast and tea… show Mum the love with an irresistible breakfast in bed. The Correspondent (Michael Joseph) by Virginia Evans, $35. Barbour '09' glasses, from $299 for two pairs, from Specsavers. Leif 'Buddha Wood' scented candle, $79. Tissot 'Desir' watch, $650. Country Road silk eye mask, $50. I Love Linen 'Ruby' French flax linen shirt, $129 Mulberry 'Small Darley' bag, $1395. Merit 'Signature Lip' lipstick in '1990″, $42. Puebco brass serving tray, $185. 'Tillandsia' living air plant, $10. Coucou Suzette 'Tortorsell Cat' and 'Yorkshire' hair clips, $12 each. Bonnie and Neil 'Watercolour' coupe, $99 (set of two). Temple of the Sun 'Pompeii' necklace, $349. Marimekko 'Oiva / Piirto Unikko' plate, $34. Bethany Linz semi-precious stone ring, $119, and enamel bangle, $45. Hay 'MVS' cutlery, $109 (set of four). Instax Mini 'LiPlay' hybrid instant camera, $249, from Harvey Norman. Marc Jacobs 'Daisy Wild Eau So Intense' EDP 50ml, $160. Kip & Co 'Supper Club' embroidered napkin, $85 (set of four). Venchi 'Baroque' assorted chocolates, $90 (giftbox 360g). Maison Balzac 'The Good Egg' incense holder, $69. Le Labo 'Hinoki' hand pomade, $68.
Irish Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans: A masterclass in how to exquisitely put words on human frailty
The Correspondent Author : Virginia Evans ISBN-13 : 9780241721254 Publisher : Michael Joseph Guideline Price : £16.99 Sybil Van Antwerp is a mother, a retired litigator, and a constant letter writer. She writes to everyone: Ann Patchett, Joan Didion, her friend's troubled teenage son, her next-door neighbour whose wife has just died, her wealthy, Texan love-interest, the customer service representative at the DNA matching company helping to find her birth family. Sybil, when we first meet her, is 73. Cantankerous, stubborn and quite intolerant of the world that refuses to operate in the way she deems best. And while she is immediately engaging, I wasn't sure I was going to like Sybil Van Antwerp. How wrong I was. This is an epistolary novel. These letters cover a period of nine years. In that time, Sybil moves from being an independent, self-righteous woman to someone who must face her deepest hurt: the death of her young son Gilbert. Sybil also grapples with the part she played in her marriage breaking up soon after and the distance she allowed form between her and her remaining two children as a result. Sybil is also going steadily blind, a thing that will undo her, cutting her off from the world and how it is she wishes to communicate with it. The writing here is smart and clever. Take, for example, when Sybil is accused of deliberately mishandling a legal case from her past that resulted in a man's imprisonment. The accusatory letters of that man's now ageing child scatter sparingly throughout the novel, as if almost a stand-alone story that runs alongside the main. But as the book progresses, we observe how salient that narrative is to the whole, leading to a deeper understanding of who Sybil Van Antwerp really is. Evans handles this withholding deftly, and we see clearly that here is a confident, competent author in whom we can trust. READ MORE This debut does not put a foot wrong. The engaging storyline and quality of the writing is a reminder how the sorrow and joy of our humanity can be expressed not just in melodrama but by simply relaying everyday life expertly and humorously on the page. You will fall in love with Sybil. You will not want to let her go. This novel is a masterclass in how to exquisitely put words on human frailty.
The Guardian
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Correspondent review – Richard Roxburgh is excellent as jailed journalist Peter Greste
Latvian-Australian journalist Peter Greste became the story when he was arrested in Cairo in 2013 on trumped-up terrorism charges with two of his Al Jazeera colleagues. In a sham trial the following year he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison, ultimately spending 400 days there. It's no spoiler to say that director Kriv Stenders' grittily immersive film about Greste's story has a happy ending – Greste was returned to Australia in 2015 and freed – capping off a tense and twitchy viewing experience, where the pressure valve is released only at the very last minute. Richard Roxburgh is in fine form as Greste, eschewing the slippery charisma he does so well (in TV shows such as Rake and Prosper) to depict the protagonist as a pragmatic but deep-thinking individual, navigating a crisis in which he's close to powerless. At one point Greste is told by a fellow prisoner that he won't survive 'unless you're able to make peace with yourself'. Lines like that can feel on the nose, but this moment registers, feeding into an important part of Greste's characterisation – as a person who responds to extreme situations partly by looking inwards, analysing himself as well as his circumstances. The Correspondent opens with Greste's editor at Al Jazeera calling him as 'things are crazy in Cairo', asking him to 'cover the desk there, just in case something breaks'. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Early shots incorporate visions of the crisis unfolding in Egypt at the time, when the political arm of Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood was ousted from power and their supporters took to the streets in violent protest. We briefly see Greste reporting on the street, in the thick of it all, but the script – adapted by Peter Duncan from Greste's memoir The First Casualty – doesn't dilly-dally, with authorities raiding his hotel room very early in the runtime and carting him off to prison. Thematically (and to some extent tonally) the ensuing experience has obvious similarities to Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously and Robert Connolly's Balibo, two other Australian films about journalists stationed overseas in terribly fraught political circumstances. There are also notes of Franz Kafka's The Trial, with Greste and his two colleagues – producer Mohamed Fahmy (Julian Maroun) and cameraman Baher Mohamed (Rahel Romahn) – facing preposterous allegations and an obviously crooked bureaucratic system, in which the concept of guilt has nothing to do with justice, entirely defined according to the motivations of those in power. About 20 minutes in, Stenders begins to deploy flashbacks, marking the first point where I felt pulled out of Greste's perilous circumstances. Initially I wasn't entirely sure about these intermittent scenes, which detail the relationship between Greste and BBC journalist Kate Peyton (Yael Stone), as it felt as if the film was sacrificing some immediacy. But rather than being pockets of the past presented here and there, they have a clear dramatic arc and the full weight of their significance is eventually revealed. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Cinematographer Geoffrey Hall (whose other collaborations with Stenders include Red Dog, Australia Day and a Wake in Fright reboot) gives the frame a coarse and grainy veneer – rough and banged up, which suits the material. As does the nervy editing of Veronika Jenet (whose work includes Jane Campion classics The Piano and Sweetie), which adds an additional element of jumpiness, as if the screen itself is being rattled. Like so many films, The Correspondent could do with a trim, feeling a little stretched in its second half. But this is unquestionably an important story, powerfully and robustly told; you've never seen a courtroom drama quite like it. The Correspondent opens in Australian cinemas on 17 April
