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Women Travel Writers: Two Episodes complete, and the Road Ahead to Spring 2027
My neighbour, the travel writer Stephen Powell, and I started this series with a simple question, what did it take for a woman to travel, alone, and write about it, in centuries that gave her almost no permission to do either? Two episodes are now complete and the answer is turning out to be different every time. Two women, living nearly 80 years apart, travelling for entirely different reasons, and writing books that still need to be read. In May 2026, we facilitated a Travel Writing Retreat at our homes in the Algarve. For a few years I have offered writers the opportunity to meet and learn together in a…
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Bernardo Carvalho and Will Self – Flipside
One of the liveliest sessions of Flipside was created by the presence of Will Self. He explained that he enjoyed exploring women characters “as he is not a very manly man.” “It is like shape-shifting to explore the female persona.” Will read from his book “Umbrella”, and the whole text came alive as he invited the audience to hear his London 1930s characters’ voices. On the same platform, Bernardo Carvalho shared his thoughts on identity. He read from his novel “Nine Nights” and said that in contrast to Will’s novel, he felt his writing lacked description. Will contradicted this observation with examples of description from “Nine Nights” and then made profound statements about…
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Flipside day 2 – Brazilian Literature and Music Festival
The sun and smiles came out for the 3rd day and final day of the Flipside Festival. Identity was the theme that permeated the day yesterday and dislocation and exile is the undercurrent to the first session today. Adriana Lisboa and James Scudamore both shared aspects of their novels that delve into this rich source of inspiration. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Adriana Lisboa has many awards, including the José Saramago Prize for her novel, “Symphony in White”. Her new novel “Crow Blue” is one of the many Portuguese/Brazilian books that Bloomsbury has published in translation. This book was launched today at Flipside. This event was chaired by Daniel Hahn , the Director…
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Flipside – Brazilian Society through Football
In the lunchtime event on Sunday at Flipside, the author Alex Bellos talked to Susie Nicklin from the British Council, about the Brazilian defeat in the 1950’s World Cup to Uruguay. As old footage was shown, Bellos commentated and explained the coverage which focused both on the pitch and the animated and excited crowd. He told the audience at Flipside, that after the defeat all aspects of that game were considered, even the fact that the team wore white and there was a thought that this was the wrong colour for a Brazilian team. This prompted a competition to be developed with the condition that all four colours of the…
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Flipside – Festival of Literature and Music – Looking for the Portuguese – Day 1
What is so refreshing about Flip and now Flipside, its English new born baby, is the opportunity to see and feel the contrast of cultures. The first encounter of the day was a discovery and sharing of inspiration between Milton Hatoum and Ian McEwan, two masters of their craft. They explored how different political and cultural traditions influenced their work, but they also found common ground in literary experiment. Milton, of Lebanese heritage, gave a very thoughtful explanation of what it is to be Brazilian, the melting pot, that is only one part Portuguese, perhaps in its food. Milton was born in Manaus, the wild town, that is the gateway…
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Flipside – Festival of Literature and Music – Looking for the Portuguese
The Snape Maltings setting for this International Festival is full of contrasts with Paraty, the home of FLIP. Arriving early on Saturday morning, meant I was able to not only see the setting up of the Festival, but I also wandered around, a very English Farmer’s market. The market did have echoes of Portugal and Brazil, not least in the selling of fish, olive oil and succulent tomatoes. It was not Portuguese though, the sounds the smells, the warmth were absent, but the food looked colourful and very inviting.
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Flipside – Brazilian Literature and Music – the start
Snape Maltings, in west Suffolk, is the home of Aldeburgh Music, which is renowned as an outstanding year-round performance centre. On Friday evening, the Flipside Literature and Music Festival opened with “The boys from Ipanema”, by paying tribute to the composer and essayist Vincius de Moraes and the musician Antonio Carlos Jobin. They “boys” (actually two men and a woman) sang and played their way through a fabulous and clear explanation of Bossa Nova, illustrating the entwining of Greek myths and African rhythms. Author and composer, Jose Miguel Wisnik, Arthur Nestrovski, a very talented guitarist and Paula Morelenbaum, one of Brazil’s great singers, entertained and enlightened an appreciative audience. The…
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FLIPSIDE in Suffolk
Last year we went to Brazil and one of the highlights of the trip was the Paraty FLIP book festival. This weekend some of that glamour, joy and humour of FLIP, will be in Snape Maltings in Sufflok and I am going to bask in the experience. I received the press release this week and here are some of the highlights. “Brazilian literary stars Bernardo Carvalho, Milton Hatoum and Adriana Lisboa, Ana Maria Machado, Patricia Melo and Ferréz, are just some of the headlining authors taking centre stage in Suffolk this weekend for the inaugural FLIPSIDE Festival of Brazilian literature, Music and the Arts. As they line up alongside UK…
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Books, London Book Fair and Tavira reading “flash mob”
A couple of years ago a few book enthusiasts organised an event for young people at the Library in Tavira. The idea was that children of different cultures would come together and share their favourite books and read in their own language from those books. Children practiced their reading aloud to an audience and each other and on the performance day they were very excited about being heard and being able to read their treasures. This last week in Tavira, there has been a celebration of reading and young people from many of the local schools have organised themselves with the help of their teachers and the Library to read and create…
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Chris Keil and Jenny Grainer – Writers in Tavira – Follow up
Chris Keil and Jenny Grainer came to Tavira to read in the not to be missed bookshop A Lura dos Livros. Both writers have a passion for their work. Jenny writes regularly for the Algarve Resident and has written for the Portugal News. Her latest article about the recent tornado and the aftermath is here Jenny has a keen eye for what has gone on over the last 30 years as an expat and resident. What was obvious during the book reading and the workshop the following day is that Chris Keil, inhabits a world of his senses. He comes to the Algarve for the sensuality, passion, intensity of this…
