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      Ben East

      Contributor
      Location
      Manchester, England
      Ben East is an award-winning arts, culture, travel and sports journalist based in Manchester. He’s been covering the best books, television shows, artists and musicians for The National since 2009, and also works for The Observer, Metro and Monocle.
      Follow on XLinkedIn

      Articles

      Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta on the beach in a scene from the film 'Grease', 1978. (Photo by Paramount/Getty Images)
      Grease is the word: it's been 40 years since the soundtrack was released

      The soundtrack sold 28 million copies and defined an era in pop music. We look at the electrifying 1970s phenomenon

      MusicApril 09, 2018
      Nikesh Shukla, writer of fiction and television and host of the Subaltern podcast. Pako Mera / Barcroft Media via Getty Images
      Nikesh Shukla on piecing together the immigrant experience in the UK

      The One Who Wrote Destiny is "about what it is to integrate and assimilate, what it is to be an immigrant, ‘the other’" ​​

      BooksApril 08, 2018
      US actor and director Sean Penn AFP
      Put away the pen, Sean: your debut novel belongs on the cutting-room floor

      Yet another actor has deigned to write a book. The loser will be anyone foolish enough to read it

      BooksMarch 29, 2018
      Jose Carlos Martinez performance
      José Carlos Martinez takes a poetic approach to Don Quixote

      'I hope most of all people will feel a lot of emotion as well as appreciate the technical skill of the dancers'

      March 28, 2018
      Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa play the piano while Cori Olan visuals are thrown up behind them in the immersive multimedia spectacular that is Pianographique: Works for two pianos. Abu Dhabi Festival
      Pianographique: taking the stigma away from modern classical music

      Feel the music as images sway to the piano at Abu Dhabi Festival. We talk to the virtuosi who want to attract those who ‘wouldn’t be caught dead at a classical concert’

      March 22, 2018
      Robert Irwin, writer, poses at his house in South London. Photographer Carmen Valino
      Ibn Khaldun – medieval genius alive and well in modern minds

      A new book demonstrates the 14th-century polymath’s enduring influence

      BooksMarch 21, 2018
      She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History by Chelsea Clinton. Courtesy Penguin Random House
      Review: Chelsea Clinton’s latest book is not promising enough to change history

      Ben East finds its heart in the right place but the choices fail to make any real impact, though Alexandra Boiger’s illustrations shine

      BooksMarch 17, 2018
      Writer Philip Hensher. AP
      Philip Hensher on his latest novel, 'The Friendly Ones'

      The award-winning British novelist tells The National how an old injustice and modern-day immigration fuel his latest novel

      March 12, 2018
      Sir Antonio Pappano conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in the Beethoven Violin Concerto with soloist violinist Nikolaj Znaider at Barbican Centre Amy T Zielinski / Redferns
      Sir Antonio Pappano: A sorcerer of the symphony at work

      The conducter tells The National about the magic of conducting and his orchestra’s pieces for the Abu Dhabi Festival

      March 08, 2018
      'Syria: A Conflict Explored' features photos of life in war, such as children in Homs. Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
      'It’s ugly, it’s brutal': exhibition shows harsh reality of Syrian war

      One of the key objects on display in the exhibition is a barrel bomb cut open that reveals shards of scrap metal packed around explosives

      ArtFebruary 27, 2018
      Stuart Turton. Photo by Charlotte Graham
      Murder he wrote: Stuart Turton on ‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’

      The former Dubai resident evokes Agatha Christie in his debut book, a decade in the making

      BooksFebruary 10, 2018
      When Ahmed Saadawi finished writing Frankenstein in Baghdad, a dark fantasy about the war that tore Iraq apart a decade ago, he thought his novel dealt with the past. But just like the monster Mary Shelley first dreamt up exactly 200 years ago, Saadawi's hero took on a life of its own. AFP
      ‘Frankenstein In Baghdad' to be released in English: we speak to Ahmed Saadawi

      As an English translation of ‘Frankenstein In Baghdad’ is unleashed, the author tells us how the civil war exposed Iraq’s dark side

      February 06, 2018
      Robin Moger. Courtesy Robin Moger
      Banipal Prize winner Robin Moger on the tricky art of translation

      Moger won the 2017 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for translating Egyptian novelist Yasser Abdel Hafez's The Book Of Safety

      January 14, 2018
      The Book of Safety: A Novel by Yasser Abdel Hafez Translated by Robin Moger published by Hoopoe Fiction. Courtesy The American University in Cairo Press
      Winner of Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize announced

      Robin Moger won the £3,000 (Dh14,872) prize today for his translation of The Book Of Safety by Yasser Abdel Hafez

      January 10, 2018
      The 12th Doctor is played by Peter Capaldi. Courtesy BBC
      Steven Moffat on why Doctor Who is the ‘greatest television show ever made’

      We catch up with the outgoing writer and producer of the hit TV show

      MarketsDecember 24, 2017
      More Articles

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