Get ready for the London Word Festival

For those of you who are after a true celebration of the humble word, events which find a fresh and exciting approach to those little sounds that spill out of our mouths, look no further than London Word Festival. Now in its fourth year, this East London literary festival is as far removed from those stale, celebrity ridden festivals as an aardvark from a zyxt (Kentish second singular indicative present form of the verb see) and boasts a host of exhilarating poets, writers, musicians and comedians.

Jonathan Franzen reads at Serpentine, glasses stolen off face, ransom note delivered, and helicopter scrambled

That Bond Street jewellery robbery had nothing on this. Jonathan Franzer was minding his own business at a Serpentine Gallery party for the launch the of his new novel Freedom last night when someone came up to him and—yoink—pulled off his glasses, dropped a ransom note for £100,000 and jumped into the water. A man has been arrested. Franzen is described by onlookers as “extremely disgruntled.”

Jonathan Franzen: thief steals author’s glasses and demands ransom at book launch party

05 Oct 2010