Articles, essays,
criticism, & reviews…

Writing is a conversation - sometimes with an author, sometimes with myself - using the best words I can think of, putting them in the best order I can command.

These essays communicate my ideas and opinions and were driven largely by the same curiosities that underpin my travels and interviews: What’s important? Why? How can I best understand this? What have I learned? Who are the experts? What do they do? How do they do it? Why do they do it? Where can I find proof of what they’ve done? Where’s the material record and what can I learn from it? What do I like? What don’t I like? Why?

Find exactly what you’re looking for

Encompassing two decades’ worth of essays, reviews, and reflections, there’s plenty to explore here — from literary criticism and profiles, to features on culture, travel, and collecting. Use the search below to wander the archive, follow your curiosity, and discover the next idea worth underlining.

FEATURED ESSAY & CRITICISM

Aristotle and
Keeping it Real

Aristotle bust andKeeping it Real

It's one of the most contentious debates in the literary blogosphere, but its roots stretch back more than 2,000 years. Is realism, "lifeness" or verisimilitude a necessary quality of good literature? Former Guardian books editor James Wood argues forcefully that it is, and in so doing has trampled on and trounced some glamorous, bulgy, iconic American novels. This has fuelled fireworks and lit up a lot of Yankees. Votaries of Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace and Don DeLillo are particularly hostile. Wood's extolling of "lifeness" and character as key to "how fiction works" has resulted in much red-flagged response from those who favour avant-garde experimentalism.

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FEATURED BOOK REVIEW

Revolutions, Essays on
Contemporary Fiction

Revolutions, Essays onContemporary Fiction

There are two premises to this book of essays: first, crudely put, no-one gives a shit about Canadian novels, and second, they're no good anyway. Now that I think about it, there's a third, and it's the most problematic: the reason Canadian fiction is no good is that a range of spent old volcanoes has had undue influence over subsequent generations of Canadian writers, almost all of whom expend their energies copying a tired, boring style in an effort to win the Giller Prize. Pretty grim sounding isn't it.

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REVIEWS & REFLECTIONS

What the Literati are Saying

  • "I very much enjoyed our conversation. Your knowledge of the story of publishing, the current questions facing publishers, and specifically the long and recent history of Faber & Faber, bears testament to your expertise, vocation and deep interest in the story of reading and writing seen particularly through an industry lens. If it's valuable now, which it is, in the future it will be an essential archive of our febrile times, and of publishing in the second half of the twentieth century. Keep doing it!"

    —  Stephen Page, Chair of Faber & Faber, one of world's leading independent publishers, after having been Chief Executive for 20 years.

  • "Nigel Beale is one of the sharpest readers and reviewers of our age. His profound knowledge of every aspect of the literary business is carried with grace and charm in podcasts that will delight all who read."

    — Author and political analyst David Frum

  • "I wanted to thank you for your many generous and intelligent words about my new book How Fiction Works (and other stuff)... I get great pleasure from reading your blog."

    — Critic,James Wood,The New Yorker

  • “You can find very bad writing and sloppy impressionism in literary blogs, but also incisive, fresh, thoughtful criticism from voices unencumbered by the politics of Grub St. I would put your blog in the latter category, which is why I’m responding here… Congratulations on a very fine blog."

    — Scholar, Dr. Ronan McDonald, author of The Death of the Critic

  • "The Biblio File is an extraordinary, eclectic audio archive of writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, the whole international book trade. Nigel Beale has achieved this through doggedness, professionalism, decency and an ambition to capture the essence of the world’s literary community. It is a huge achievement and will only grow in significance and value as years pass. It completely overshadows all other such enterprises."

    — Richard Charkin, former Chief Executive of Macmillan Publishers Limited and Executive Director of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck. 2015-17 President of the International Publishers Association

When Essays Become Conversations & Vice Versa

From the Page to the Podcast

I write to understand. I talk and listen to understand.

Many of these writings have come out of my travels, and interviews conducted, for The Biblio File — and vice versa . Extended reflections they are, on talks I’ve had with authors, editors, and critics - and myself. Think of the podcast as a companion volume to the essays: same motivation, different format. Hopefully you’ll understand.

Explore the Biblio File Podcast