Journalism

» 8 March 2008
An interview with Sir Bernard Lovell
Aged 94, Sir Bernard Lovell has one final fight – to save the pioneering radio telescope that was named after him but now faces closure in budget cuts

» 29 February 2008
Seizure -- the soundtrack
What music do novelists hear when they write? In Erica Wagner's case, timeless tales of love, bewitchment and betrayal

» 1 February 2008
Peter Carey talks about prose, politics, and his passion for Australia
Erica Wagner meets Australia's greatest literary export to discuss his latest novel, His Illegal Self

» 29 September 2007
How to fly a plane
For one Times journalist, piloting a Russian aerobatic trainer was the next best thing to being a bird

» 1 September 2007
The Secrets of Brooklyn Bridge
Erica Wagner reveals our love affair with New York’s enduring gateway to the world

» 18 October 2000
Divinely inspired: Philip Pullman
Condemned by The Catholic Herald as "the stuff of nightmares", Philip Pullman's trilogy of children's novels, His Dark Materials, draws on a tradition of religious dissent that goes back as far as Blake and Milton

» 10 April 2000
Ted Hughes's archive opened at Emory University

» 16 March 2000
William Maxwell and The New Yorker
... an interview in New York, the last Maxwell gave

» 28 January 2000
You have to be Maddy to sing this
Maddy Prior's voice put English folk music into the charts. Now, 30 years later, she talks to Erica Wagner about her latest work

» 9 September 1999
Bridges span both space and spirit
Down the ages, structures uniting two sides have retained their ability to enthral and impress

» 12 August 1999
An interview with Alan Garner
'I never considered myself a writer for children. A book that can only be read by children isn't a good book.

» 29 June 1999
A hero whose time has come
Profile of Sir Ernest Shackleton

» 24 June 1999
Beyond the Border, 1999
The ancient art of storytelling is celebrated next month at a Welsh festival. Erica Wagner prepares to listen

» 22 April 1999
Let me tell you a story...
an interview with tale-teller Ben Haggarty

» 22 April 1999
Skellig's garage is out the back...
An interview with David Almond

» 9 January 1999
Death school
Ultimately we will all end up in the undertaker's hands, but what sort of people choose to dedicate their lives to our deaths? Erica Wagner visited the College of Funeral Sciences to find out

» 11 September 1998
Poetic giant with his feet on the ground
an interview with Seamus Heaney

» 4 April 1998
Home comforts
His debut novel of love and life during the American Civil War, Cold Mountain, became a modern classic overnight. Erica Wagner talks to Charles Frazier, an author inspired by the beauty of his birthplace and history of his ancestors

» 28 February 1998
'Thomas More's London could be the city of God'
Peter Ackroyd takes Erica Wagner on a tour of the mean streets and divine architecture of the 16th century

Jonathan Coe's The Rain Before It Falls

"Caught on tape"

Ah, the perils of the rhetorical device. Three-quarters of the way through Jonathan Coe’s eighth novel, the narrator, Rosamond, breaks off her story. She is talking not to us but to Imogen, the young, blind relative she tried — and failed — to care for many years before. Now Rosamond is 73 and near death, and she decides to speak the tale of that failure into a tape recorder so Imogen can have some knowledge of her own family’s history. She does this by selecting 20 photographs, then describing them and the circumstances in which they were taken. But by the time she reaches No. 16, the strain is beginning to tell: “Five more to go, then. Thank goodness! I am growing tired of this story, and you must be exhausted, listening to me chatter on for hours on end. Can you bear with me for just a little longer, Imogen? It will be over now, all over, very soon. A relief all round, I am sure.”

Would that the reader were not moved to agree; but alas, she is. “The Rain Before It Falls” is a peculiar book, to put it kindly . . . read the rest

Other pieces…

» 13 April 2008
Jonathan Coe's The Rain Before It Falls
"Caught on tape"
Published in The New York Times

» 20 January 2008
Roddy Doyle's The Deportees
"White Irish need not apply"
Published in The New York Times

» 17 June 2007
Picking up the pieces
a review of Michael Ondaatje's Divisadero
Published in The New York Times

» 24 April 2007
Young man with a gun
a review of Phil LaMarche's novel, American Youth
Published in The New York Observer

» 1 April 2007
Altered States
Erica Wagner describes how her seizures changed her life
Published in Vogue

» 1 April 2007
New York -- still top
After 15 years in London, I've come to miss many things about New York—including, incredibly, its subway system
Published in Prospect

» 25 March 2007
Call me, Ishmael
Why great literature and cellphones don't mix...
Published in The New York Times Book Review

» 3 December 2006
Cruel World
a review of the Everyman edition of Roald Dahl's collected stories -- I was reminded how good the early ones are
Published in The New York Times Book Review

» 17 September 2006
The Birthday Party
a review of Gregoire Bouillier's intriguing memoir, The Mystery Guest
Published in The New York Times Book Review

» 21 May 2006
Little Earthquakes
a review of Amy Hempel's (wonderful) Collected Stories
Published in The New York Times Book Review