James Metcalf on the fictionality of the latest archaeological page-turners
Stephen Puddicombe looks at the unusual appeal of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
Ciaran Rafferty investigates the science of book classification
Rude people criticised
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen’s Music has become the latest in a line of public figures to criticise audience members who let their mobile phones ring during performances, saying that he thinks that they should be fined. Speaking out after mobile phones repeatedly went off during concerts he recently attended, he joins Richard Griffiths and Kevin Spacey in his opinion that rude people should not be tolerated.
More Potter?
Potter author JK Rowling has raised the blood pressures of twenty-somethings everywhere after launching a website - pottermore.com - which links to a youtube countdown promising something really big on the 23rd of July. Apparently it is not a new book, nor is it directly related to the final film, but whatever it is, we at The Yorker are all of a quiver as we desperately try to unfog the future.
Monroe madness
At an auction yesterday in Los Angeles the iconic white dress which Marilyn Monroe wore in The Seven Year Itch was sold for a whopping $4.6m. The dress was part of a collection belonging to actress Debbie Reynolds, who could no longer afford its upkeep, and was sold alongside garments worn by Charlie Chaplin, Elizabeth Taylor and Julie Andrews among other Hollywood greats. Sadly, Reynolds could not persuade anyone to buy them all for the purposes of public display. It’s a shame that these culturally significant objects won’t be shown to the public, but at least they made a washed-up actress a shed-load of cash.
BP Portrait Award
Dutch painter Wim Heldens has been awarded the BP Portrait Award for his portrait of a young man staring distractedly out of frame. The painter has depicted his subject for over 20 years, ever since he was a child. Heldens beat Louis Smith to take the £25,000 prize, since the judges preferred his quietly understated but evocative work to Smith’s near-naked subject of a female Prometheus chained to a rock, about to witness her innards being ripped out by a vulture. Here’s to understatement pipping boobs to the post.
Borrowers Return
Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood and Christopher Eccleston are each to star in a new adaptation of the much-loved children’s classic and 1952 Carnegie Medal winner The Borrowers. The BBC adaptation, due to air at Christmas, will be filmed over the next few weeks and will also star Robbie Sheehan of Misfits.
Festival of Ideas
Finally of course, York's Festival of Ideas has kicked off to great aplomb. Featuring exhibitions by William Etty and Cornelia Parker, talks by JM Coetzee and John Banville, and a great deal more performances and cultural excitement, the festival promises something for everyone.
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