The autobiography from world-renowned artist Richard Thompson, co-founder of the legendary folk rock group Fairport Convention, coming 15 April 2021. ‘Thompson could be said to be an English Dylan – only in some ways he’s even better than that.’ Guardian Richard Thompson came of age at an extraordinary moment in British culture. It was…
Faber Radio presents Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies jukebox.
‘Completing my last promise to our late pal Keith Martin, that we’d put his Top 50 records into the vintage jukebox at Sam’s Cafe, Primrose Hill. . . It’s like Mayflies come to life. . . What, no ‘Teenage Kicks’? The inclusion of OMD? Let the arguments commence!’ Listen to the music that inspired Andrew…
Announcing Max Porter’s The Death of Francis Bacon.
Madrid. Unfinished. Man Dying. A great painter lies on his deathbed. Max Porter translates into seven extraordinary written pictures the explosive final workings of the artist’s mind. ‘This is my attempt to write as painting, not about it; an attempt to replicate thought, struggle, the struggle of thought, but also the sheer energy of the…
Announcing Georgia Pritchett’s My Mess Is a Bit of a Life.
English teacher ‘in despair’ as Faber buys Georgia Pritchett’s My Mess Is a Bit of a Life. This memoir, told in gloriously comic vignettes, is an utterly joyful reflection on living – and sometimes thriving sometimes not – with anxiety. From worrying about the monsters under her bed as a child (Were they comfy…
Faber Radio presents Dylan Jones
Tune in to Dylan Jones’s synth-heavy New Romantics playlist. “Punk. Soul. New Romantics. Synth pop. What worlds they were. Sweet Dreams is the story of how these worlds and narratives inter- linked, and how they were all undeniably helixed together. The original New Romantic scene revolved around self-expression, being a platform for identity. Today…
Faber announces two new urgent and masterly acquisitions for the 2021 poetry list
Faber is delighted to announce two new collections of poetry for 2021: Living Weapon by Rowan Ricardo Phillips (21 January 2021) and an as yet untitled work by Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe (1 July 2021). In a bracing renewal of civic poetry, the award-winning essayist and poet Rowan Ricardo Phillips presents his first publication in…
Faber Radio presents Alexis Taylor’s Robert Wyatt playlist
To celebrate the publication of Robert Wyatt & Alfie Benge Side By Side, Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor has curated a playlist of the influential artists’ songs. ‘These are just some of my favourite Robert Wyatt songs, and Robert Wyatt songs are some of my favourites, full stop. I hope you enjoy listening to this…
Faber to publish a new portrait of Christopher Nolan by Tom Shone.
We’re delighted to announce the publication of The Nolan Variations on 5 November 2020. Tom Shone was given unprecedented access to Nolan’s notes, scripts, storyboards and artwork, and deftly navigates the film-maker’s preoccupations, influences, and working methods; as both a writer and director. Nolan discusses the evolution of his pictures, and the writers, artists, directors…
Announcing Brian Eno’s Diary, A Year With Swollen Appendices
The diary and essays of Brian Eno, republished twenty-five years on with a new introduction by the artist in a beautiful hardcover edition. Faber will publish a new edition of A Year with Swollen Appendices by Brian Eno in November 2020. At the end of 1994, musician, producer and artist Brian Eno resolved to…
Faber presents Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay
A portrait of the tempestuous life of the pioneering and iconic blues singer by Scotland’s National Poet. ‘[Bessie Smith] showed me the air and taught me how to fill it … she’s the reason I started singing, really’ – Janis Joplin Bessie Smith was born in Tennessee in 1894. Orphaned by the age of…
Faber Radio Presents Billy Bragg’s In the Country of Country.
‘Did you ever see Dallas from a DC9 at night? Country music has the ability to take the mundane and make it seem magical, to elevate the yearnings of ordinary folk into something Shakespearean. Yes, it can be sentimental, but it’s never schmaltzy. At its best, it taps into the existential struggles of isolated…
Announcing Sweet Dreams: The Story of the New Romantics.
Dylan Jones’s definitive history of the Blitz Kids, Synth-Pop and the Style Press from 1975 to 1985. Sweet Dreams charts the rise of the New Romantics, a scene that grew out of the remnants of post-punk and developed quickly alongside club culture, ska, electronica, and goth. One of the most creative entrepreneurial periods since…
Announcing Robert Wyatt and Alfie Benge, Side by Side.
Presenting the life’s work of two of British music’s most unique and timeless artists, with an introduction by Jarvis Cocker. Side by Side presents the lyrics, poems, writings and drawings of innovative musician Robert Wyatt and his creative partner, English painter and songwriter Alfie Benge. Artist and collaborator Brian Eno said ‘Whenever an aspiring…
Akwaeke Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji
The captivating, complex and mercurial new novel from the author of Freshwater. They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died. One afternoon, a mother opens her front door to find the length of her son’s body stretched out on the veranda, swaddled in akwete material, his head on her welcome mat….
Faber Radio presents Richard King
Richard King introduces his Tan Corduroy Jacket Sutras. “This is a two-hour playlist of contemplative music from Brazil, France, Algiers, Belgium, Venezuela, Cameroon and America and none, I realise as I write this, from the UK. It’s been compiled with the idea of enabling the listener to spend time in a sort of universal…
