Tuesday 16 February 2010

Another Night for German Lovers

All you London German lovers, hold onto your hats for the fifth night celebrating contemporary German literature at the Goethe Institut.

I've never been to one, but I like to imagine the illustrious guests – Sir Norman Rosenthal, Royal Academy transformer, Frederick Taylor, war writer, Iwona Blazwick OBE, art gallery director, Peter Florence, Hay Festival director and Chris Petit, film-maker, novelist and journalist – waxing lyrical over the delights of teutonic literature before an orgiastic informal drinks session replete with German wines and cheeses. No doubt they'll all be sporting their medals too, presided over by arts journalist Rosie Goldsmith in a golden dress and the honorary tiara of quadrilingualism. Couples will probably form in shady corners of the corridors, discussing the intimacies of intertextuality in young German writing. As the evening progresses, the atmosphere becomes more and more heady while translators and Germanists discover their common literary preferences. Alles kann, nichts muss.

It's on Thursday, 25 February. Make sure you take the next day off work to pamper the hangover.

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