5.00pm, Thursday 17 May 2001 Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Site, Cambridge

5.00pm, Thursday 17 May 2001
Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Site, Cambridge

The novelist and journalist Dr Philip Hensher will give a special lecture entitled 'The Novel in 2001' on Thursday 17 May 2001. Dr Hensher, who is judging the 2001 Booker Prize, is an alumnus of the Faculty of English and will return to his academic roots with a lecture that discusses pastiche and the new historical novel.

Opening with a consideration of the art of parody, Dr Hensher will reflect on the role of pastiche in novels in general and in the historical novel, in particular. By way of illustration, Dr Hensher will conclude with the first public reading from his latest novel, The Mulberry Empire, which describes the disastrous British intervention in Afghanistan in 1838-42. Dr Hensher has only recently completed the book and describes it as: "A slightly unusual thing these days - a 600-page epic in praise of imperialism and the British Empire in particular."

An audience of current students, Faculty members and alumni will take part in a subsequent discussion chaired by A S Byatt, another distinguished literary alumna and a former winner of the Booker in 1990 with her novel Possession: A Romance.

Dr Hensher is perhaps best known for his journalistic work in The Spectator and The Independent. He completed his doctorate at Cambridge in the early 1990s, and since then has published several well-received literary works. Previous novels include Other Lulus, Kitchen Venom and Pleasured; in 1999 Chatto and Windus published his first collection of short stories, The Bedroom of the Mister's Wife.

For more information, contact:
Elisabeth Wadge or David Clifford at The Events Office, Faculty of English, 9 West Road, University of Cambridge
Tel: 01223 335080 Fax: 01223 335075 Email: english-events@lists.cam.ac.uk
Or visit the English Faculty webstite


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