It’s Hari Kunzru’s first press trip to London for a few years, this time to discuss his fifth novel, White Tears. It’s that rare beast: a novel of ideas that is also a transfixing thriller. The morning after he arrives from New York, we meet in a room just off the lobby of his hotel to discuss the book. I was interested in why he wanted to write such an overtly political novel, which confronts issues of race and representation head on.
KINGDOM'S REALM: The Mail on Sunday
When retired engineer Ralph Dixon picked up a note that had been pushed through his letterbox asking if he was interested in his home being used in a television drama, he was rightly suspicious. ‘The message and a telephone number were written in pencil and on a page ripped from a reporter’s notebook. I thought it was a wind-up,’ recalls the 71-year-old. Not surprisingly, Ralph and his wife Marilyn, 68, a retired NHS nurse, carried out thorough background checks before agreeing to allow their Grade II listed property, Oakleigh House, in the Norfolk market town of Swaffham, to feature in the ITV drama Kingdom.
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?
Kathleen Collins’s (1942–88) short stories, written in the 1960s and 70s, were unpublished in her lifetime. Alice Walker, then an editor at Ms. magazine, wrote Collins a generous rejection note but it took a posthumous screening of Collins’s film Losing Interest last year, organized by her daughter, for her prose to reach an audience.
This first published collection of stories offers an important perspective on themes of racial identity, sexual freedom and erotic fulfilment.
The Benefits of Blusher
Knackered, pasty, complexion like a tub of custard? Join the club, says Alex Peake-Tomkinson. Here’s how to cheat that elusive healthy glow
I love blusher like only a pale woman can. And of course, the main reasons I am cravenly dependent on it is that I am one of those people that never blushes. I am often hideously embarrassed, excited and out of breath. And yes, sometimes, I am all three of these things at the same time but – for whatever reason – this never results in a flushed face.
Nape
We’re much enamoured of the jamon bars of Seville (truth be told, it’s one of the main reasons we visit the city every summer) and are constantly on the hunt for similar places in London. And yes, one can eat very good tapas in London now if one is prepared to pay through the nose. We want the kind of relaxed and inexpensive night (that might turn into a very late one) that you can only really have in a charcuterie bar, however.
Andrew O’Hagan: Friendly fire
I have tea with Andrew O’Hagan one morning at his house in Primrose Hill. We start talking about Seamus Heaney, a great friend of O’Hagan’s who died two years ago. I ask if he misses Heaney.
“Oh, every day. He had this brilliant tendency to take you under his wing, to be concerned about you in a very local way. He didn’t make friends with writers in order to pay attention to their reputations, or read reviews of their books, or to figure them in some higher or lesser constellation. He was interested in you humanly: he was a good person to have around if you had a cold.