Listen to Will Self talking on the Today programme on the day of the Man Booker prize announcement, which will be at around 9.40pm tonight. There’s also a news story on the BBC about Will and Hilary Mantel being joint favourites for the prize.
Insight Radio podcast
Listen to Will Self talking about Umbrella on Insight Radio here. Will is also appearing on BBC 6 Music on Monday 15 October on the Radcliffe and Maconie show after 2.30pm. Listen again here.
Shortlist interview
A recent interview with Will Self in Shortlist magazine, taking in Umbrella, the Booker, the Olympics and more besides.
Umbrella reading and introduction
Will Self introduces Umbrella.
Will Self reading from Umbrella.
Open Book
Listen to Will Self talking about Umbrella on Open Book here.
Channel 4 News
Watch Will Self on Channel 4 News tonight at 7pm talking about his Booker-shortlisted novel Umbrella.
Will is also going to be on RTE1 on Thursday at 10.45pm. You can also watch him debating the legacy of the Olympics on Newsnight here.
Man Booker shortlist
Will Self’s Umbrella has made it on to the Man Booker shortlist, along with Tan Twan Eng’s The Garden of Evening Mists, Deborah Levy’s Swimming Home, Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies, Alison Moore’s The Lighthouse and Jeet Thayil’s Narcopolis.
To read a sample chapter from Umbrella go here.
The winner of the 2012 prize will be announced on 16 October.
Today programme interview
Listen to a longer interview with Will Self on the Today programme on the BBC website here, talking about encephalitis lethargica, the subject of his latest novel, Umbrella.
Umbrella events schedule
(Also look out for interviews with Will on the Today programme, in Time Out, the Spectator, and on the Robert Elms Show. More to follow.)
August 24: 4pm, Happy Days, Belmore Street, Enniskillen, Will Self in Conversation.
August 25: 9.30pm, Edinburgh book festival, In discussion with Stuart Kelly.
August 26: 8.30pm, Edinburgh book festival, in discussion with “deep topographer” and author of Scarp, Nick Papadimitriou.
September 6: 7pm, Will Self on the digital essay, LRB bookshop event, 14 Bury Place, London, WC1A 2JL.
September 13: South Bank, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Will Self launches his new novel, Umbrella, in the first of a series of events curated by him exploring the legacy and provocation of modernism upon writing today.
September 15: An audience with Will Self, St Georges Theatre in Great Yarmouth.
September 19: 6.30pm, The Idler Academy, St Stephen’s Church, Westbourne Park Road, London W2 5QT. Will Self returns to the Idler Academy to read from his new novel, chat and answer your questions. This is a special chance to meet him properly in an intimate setting over a drink and ask him to sign your book.
September 21: 6pm, Main Hall, BHASVIC, 205 Dyke Road, Hove, BN3 6EG, £8, tickets available from City Books, 23 Western Road, Hove, email info@city-books.co.uk.
September 25: 7.30pm, Clapham Bookshop, free, no need to book.
September 27: Wreford Watson lecture, Edinburgh.
September 29: Midday, South Bank, modernism lecture with Gabriel Josipovici – Will Self chairing. 2pm: South Bank, modernism lecture – Jonathan Coe on BS Johnson – Will Self chairing.
October 4: Intelligence Squared Bloomsbury Book Club with Will Self. Come and discuss Will Self’s most ambitious novel to date with Will and his editor at the offices of Bloomsbury Publishing in Bedford Square.
October 7: 2pm, Hall One, Kings Place, London, Will Self: Kafka and Dissonant Bohemia.
October 7: 7.45pm, Cambridge Arts Theatre.
October 11: 7pm, An evening with Will Self, Oxford Waterstones, 01865 790212.
October 14: 7.30pm, Close Up with Will Self, Manchester Royal Exchange.
October 15: 7.30pm, Royal Festival Hall, Man Booker shortlist event. Note, this event will also be shown live at the Picturehouse chain of cinemas. More details here.
October 16: London Transport Museum, “Join broadcaster Robert Elms, Will Self and artist Stephen Walter as they discuss what lies beneath London. Explore forgotten sewers, lost graveyards and hidden rivers … and maybe some of London’s sunken treasures.” NB This event will now be on November 19.
October 17: 7pm, Hull, Ideas Allowed, Orchard Park Centre.
October 22: 7pm, Brunel university, Newton Room, Hamilton Centre, Modernism: an evening of debate with Will Self and John Carey.
October 23: 8pm, Inside Out Festival, Safra Lecture Theatre, King’s College London
October 24: 8pm, Bath, Topping & Company Booksellers.
October 25: 6pm-7pm, Bristol, Arnolfini.
October 29: 7.30pm, Chester Literary Festival.
November 1: Waterstones, Hampstead.
November 7: 7.30pm, free, at the Literary Leicester Festival.
November 12: 7pm, Brunel university, Newton Room, Hamilton Centre, Modernism: an evening of debate with Will Self and Iain Sinclair.
November 14: Friern Barnet library, 7pm, details here.
November 19: London Transport Museum. ”Join broadcaster Robert Elms, Will Self and artist Stephen Walter as they discuss what lies beneath London. Explore forgotten sewers, lost graveyards and hidden rivers … and maybe some of London’s sunken treasures.”
November 22: Longford lecture, Assembly Hall of Church House, Westminster SW1P 3NZ. Mind Bending Behind Bars: Drug Use in British Prisons.
December 1: University of Roehampton, London.
Umbrella interview and pieces
As the publication of Umbrella on August 16 nears, Will Self talks to the Observer about his new Man Booker-longlisted novel (and, briefly, his next novel, which will be “Jaws without the shark”.)
Will has also written a piece in the FT about what he terms “everythingitis”, which he feels every time he finishes a book, and how he conducts his research. There’s also a long piece here that he wrote for the Guardian Review about modernism and how he got going as a writer.
