What’s new?

I’m so thrilled to discover that — along with the wonderful Olivia Laing — I am the 2014 Eccles British Library Writer in Residence! That will keep me cheerful all next year and beyond. Cheerful and busy — as along with chair A.C. Grayling, and fellow judges Alastair Niven, Jonathan Bate, Dan Glaser and Sarah Churchwell, I’ll be taking on the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

I’m writing for The Financial Times, The Economist, The New York Times… follow me @EricaWgnr where I’ll post links to my pieces! Meantime,  the show I’ve made, A Concert of Stories, with storyteller Abbi Patrix and percussionist Linda Edsjo is now part of the touring repertoire of Compagnie de Cercle — here are details about the show, and where to see it (mostly in France, and in French…). If you want to read about how it came about you can do that here. My novel, Seizure, is published in French now as La Coupure. If you’re heading that way… “Seizure is terrific.” Philip Pullman

Upcoming events

Thanks to all everyone who came to Readings by the River at The Wapping Project! And huge thanks to my wonderful speakers, Rachel Cooke, Sathnam Sanghera, Lisa Jardine, Andrew Motion, Henry Marsh, Bernardine Evaristo, Jeanette Winterson and Lionel Shriver. The wonderful Wapping Project remains open until December 22: don’t miss Jules Wright and Thomas Zanon-Larcher’s immersive exhibition based around Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea.

Starting on January 7, I’ll be teaching a three month course for the Faber Academy —  Getting Started: Beginners’ Fiction. There are still places available…

Quote of the day

• Charles Darwin takes the waters at Malvern, 1849 — “At present I am heated by Spirit lamp till I stream with perspiration, & am then suddenly rubbed violently with towels dripping with cold water: have two cold feet-baths, & wear a wet compress all day on my stomach… I feel certain that the Water cure is no quackery.”