Introducing Video of the Week from Wales Arts Review. We’ll be showcasing some of the best new art in Wales with a new video shared every week. From music to drama and everything in between, videos will not be limited by medium. Today we take a look at the Angels of Cairo book launch from Parthian Books.
This week, we’re taking a literary turn for our #WARVideoOfTheWeek with a look at the Q&A between Gary Raymond and Dr Emma Schofield recorded as part of the book launch for Raymond’s new novel, Angels of Cairo. Hosted by Parthian Books, in association with Book-ish bookshop, the launch includes readings from the book, a discussion between Raymond and Schofield about the writing process, Cairo as a setting, and how to approach comedy in literature – in addition to questions from a livestream audience.
Angels of Cairo is a comic novel, which follows protagonist Robert Clifford on his trip to Cairo where he is meant to be presenting his latest film for a festival prize. The novel was selected as Waterstones’ Welsh Book of the Month for July. It is described on Waterstones’ website as: “Freewheeling, spiky and laugh-out-loud funny, Raymond’s giddy comedy of angst-ridden filmmakers adrift in the heat of Cairo fizzes with one-liners and exquisitely constructed set-pieces.”
Writing about the playlist created to go along with his novel, Raymond describes Angels of Cairo in Wales Arts Review, saying: “So, my new novel is about the art and influence and industry of cinema, and the characters discuss it and live it and fall back into it, and the narrative uses cinema to tell its story, and the scenes are built that way too.”
You can watch the video for Parthian’s Angels of Cairo live-streamed book launch below.
Angels of Cairo is available now via Parthian Books and Book-ish bookshop.
