New Times,
New Thinking.

  1. Culture
28 October 2010

Inside Out: Day 4

Blake Morrison and John O'Farrell discuss the literature of the New Labour years.

By Jonathan Derbyshire

As part of the Inside Out Festival, I’ll be chairing a debate tomorrow night at Somerset House in London on the literature of the New Labour years with the writers Blake Morrison and John O’Farrell, and the academics Robert Hampson and Shahidha Bari.

Morrison and O’Farrell appeared on the Today programme this morning to discuss the topic. You can listen to their conversation with presenter Justin Webb here (their contribution starts 2 hours and 54 minutes in). Among the works they discuss are Ian McEwan’s novel Saturday, set on the day of the massive anti-Iraq War demonstration in February 2003, Jonathan Coe’s The Closed Circle and The Ghost by Robert Harris – not to mention Morrison’s own novel South of the River, which opens on 2 May 1997, the day after Tony Blair’s first landslide election victory.The dimming of that glorious “new dawn” explains, Morrison suggested, the “rather disenchanted tone of a lot of the literature [of the period]”.

We’ll have an opportunity to explore that analysis in rather more detail tomorrow night. The event starts at 7pm and tickets are still available. They can be ordered from the Inside Out website.

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how Progressive Media Investments may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU

Content from our partners
The UK’s skills shortfall is undermining growth
<strong>What kind of tax reforms would stimulate growth?</strong>
How to end the poverty premium