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
Just for comparison
Annual salary of Gareth Daniel, Chief Executive of Brent Council: £194,550 [pdf link]
Annual cost of the now closed Kensal Rise library: £162,468 [pdf link]
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- The five best places in London to have an epiphany
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- Diary of the shy Londoner
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision
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