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Lisa Appignanesi

Personal Information

Born January 4, 1946 (80 years old)
Łódź, Canada
Also known as: Elżbieta Borensztejn Appignanesi, Lisa Appignanesi
19 books
3.7 (10)
131 readers
Categories

Description

Elżbieta Borensztejn was born on 4 January 1946 in Łódź, Poland, the daughter of Hena and Aaron Borensztejn with Jewish origin. Following her birth, her parents moved to Paris, France, and in 1951 they emigrating to Canada. She grew up in the province of Quebec - first in a small Laurentian town, subsequently in Montreal. She graduated from McGill University with a B.A. degree in 1966 and her M.A. the following year. During 1970-71 she was a staff writer for the Centre for Community Research in New York City and is a former University of Essex lecturer in European Studies. She was a founding member and editorial director of the Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative. Through the eighties she was a Deputy Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, UK, for whom she also edited the seminal Documents Series and established ICA television and the video Writers in Conversation series. She produced several made for television films and had written a number of books before devoting herself to writing fulltime in 1990. In recognition of her contribution to literature, Lisa Appignanesi has been honoured with a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government. In 2004, she became Deputy President of English PEN and has run its highly successful 'Free Expression is No Offence Campaign' against the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. In 2008 she became President of English PEN. She writes for The Guardian, The Independent and has made several series for BBC Radio 4, as well as frequently appearing as a cultural commentator. In 1967, she married Richard Appignanesi, another writer, with whom she had one son in 1975, Josh Appignanesi, a film director. They divorced in 1984. With her life partner John Forrester, she had a daugther, Katrina Forrester, a Research Fellow in the history of modern political thought at St John's College, Cambridge. She lives in London.

Books

Newest First

A Good Woman

3.5 (2)
28

Annabelle Worthington, born into a life of privilege, was raised amid the glamour of New York society. But everything changes on a cold April day in 1912, when the sinking of the Titanic alters her world forever.Finding strength within her grief, Annabelle throws herself into volunteer work, nursing the poor and igniting a passion for medicine that will shape the course of her life. But a seemingly idyllic marriage brings more grief, and pursued by a scandal she does not deserve Annabelle flees New York for war-ravaged France. There she finds her true calling, working as an ambulance medic on the front lines. When the war ends, Annabelle begins a new life in Paris – now a doctor and mother, her past almost forgotten. . . until a fateful meeting opens her heart to the world she had left behind.

Sanctuary

3.0 (4)
71

Kurzbeschreibung Insel der Sehnsucht (Sanctuary) - Nora Roberts Die erfolgreiche Fotografin Jo Hathaway hat ihr Leben fest im Griff - jedenfalls bis zu dem Tag, als sie in ihrer Post anonyme Fotos findet: Schnappschüsse und Nahaufnahmen von ihr selbst. Sie ist zutiefst beunruhigt - wer konnte ihr unbeobachtet so nahe kommen und diese Bilder machen? Als dann auch noch die Fotos einer wunderschönen, nackten, toten Frau geschickt werden, bricht Jo zusammen - diese Frau war ihre Mutter. Jo war noch ein kleines Mädchen, als ihre Mutter eines Nachts spurlos verschwand. Der schmerzliche Verlust entzweite und zerstörte die Familie Hathaway. Daraufhin floh Jo, wild entschlossen, ihre Familie und ihr Elternhaus nie mehr wieder zu sehen. Widerstrebend beschließt sie nun, wegen dieser Fotos nach Hause zu fahren, um dort die Antwort auf ihre Fragen zu finden. Ihr Elternhaus auf der wildromantischen Insel Desire ist mittlerweile ein kleines Hotel, das ihr Bruder führt. Die Begegnung mit den Geschwistern und dem Vater führt erneut zu geschwisterlichen Rivalitäten, Eifersüchteleien, Schmerz und Bitterkeit. Aber auch auf Desire ist Jo nicht sicher; wieder tauchen Fotos auf. Jos Freund aus Kindertagen, der Architekt Nathan Delany, steht ihr zur Seite und aus Zuneigung wird schnell Liebe. Nathan aber scheint nicht nur über die Geheimnisse von Jos Seele Bescheid zu wissen ... In der Konfrontation mit dem Mörder muss Jo sich schließlich ihrer eigenen, tragischen Vergangenheit stellen...

Kicking fifty

0.0 (0)
2

Being a singleton of a 30-something may have its problems. Being one as you approach fifty and have a teenage daughter to boot would provide a challenge even to Jane Austen. Enter Jude Brautigan, divorcée, bookshop owner, daughter, mother, friend, and fierce letter writer. Kicking fifty, Jude finds herself sandwiched between a demented mum and a rarely sensible daughter--whose hormones rage in a direction opposite to her own, though not always with dissimalar consequences.

The Things We Do for Love

5.0 (2)
0

The man Mary Anne Drew wants is marrying someone else! So to win him back, she buys a love potion. Mary Anne's not convinced spells and potions work, but still, she has to do something. Too bad the wrong man—aka Graham Corbett—drinks it.Then strange things begin to happen....Graham has never shown any interest in Mary Anne. In fact, their arguments are legendary. But now Graham is acting anything but hostile! Could the potion really work? Or was Mary Anne looking for love in the wrong place all along?

The cabaret

5.0 (1)
4

"This book presents a comprehensive cultural history of cabaret, where the most radical of artists, poets, writers, musicians, and theatre directors have gathered since 1881. Lisa Appignanesi takes us to the original cabaret - the smoke-filled rooms of the Chat Noir in Paris that served as a meeting place for the avant-garde and a laboratory of subversion against the establishment. She then follows the journey of the cabaret across Europe, through its satirical Weimar peak, and to the US and Britain, vividly tracing each development in cabaret history. Bringing that history to the present day, Appignanesi discusses the comedy/satire wave in the UK and US and examines the recent splintering of cabaret into its component parts, from comedy to political song to late night lifestyle." "This revised and updated edition of Appignanesi's classic work is enriched with materials that have only become more accessible in the post-Soviet era. It also features a variety of new illustrations from both East and West. The author sheds new light on The Four Cats cabaret in Barcelona where Picasso's work was first shown in 1900; London's Cave of the Golden Calf where a modernist avant-garde gathered in 1912; The Stray Dog, headquarters of pre-revolutionary St Petersburg bohemia; The Thorn, East Berlin's answer to West Berlin's cabaret culture during the Cold War; and Under the Sign of the Rams, an energetic Cracow cabaret that operated throughout the Communist years." "From its self-conscious origins at the end of the nineteenth century through the Great War, Weimar Germany, World War Two, the Cold War and the final decades of the twentieth century, the cabaret has reinvented itself repeatedly. This book provides a look at all aspects of cabaret, where art and entertainment join to mock and provoke, and where radical artistic, literary and political ideas have found expression for more than 120 years."--BOOK JACKET.

Freud's Women

0.0 (0)
0

Pitting biography against case history, mining dreams, correspondences and journals, this book tells the many stories of the women in Sigmund Freud's life, family, friends and patients.

Mad, Bad and Sad

0.0 (0)
5

A brave and brilliantly researched study of the relationship between women, mental illness and the 'Psy' professions. Exploding misconceptions and bringing new theories to light, this is a startling work from an acclaimed novelist and writer.