Buscando. Searching. Who Was Borges? - A Biographer's Approach

James Woodall will be our guest lecturer for the 28th Borges Lecture. James will explain how Borges’s life can be written: where to look and to whom to talk. He will evoke some of the major figures in Borges’s life who were key in his – James’s – own researches over thirty years ago (Adolfo Bioy Casares, María Esther Vázquez, Norman Thomas di Giovanni). This will lead in the talk to a portrait in the twenty-first century of the great Argentine himself: to leave an audience with as clear and unequivocal sense as possible of Borges’s quirks, habits, artistry and radical importance in modern letters.

James Woodall’s biography of Borges, The Man in the Mirror of the Book, was published in London in 1996 and in New York a year later. It was the first in English after the writer’s death in 1986 and went on to appear in eight other languages. In 2023, James embarked on complete revision and updating of the book, which will inform this lecture.

Guest Lecturer - James Woodall

James Woodall was raised in Hertfordshire and educated at Oxford. His first literary articles were published in the mid-1980s. By the end of that decade he was in London publishing. His first book, on Spain, was published in 1992. This led to his second, a biography of Jorge Luis Borges, published in 1996.

That year he moved to Berlin. There, he lectured on English literature for the British Council and on contemporary Britain for the Humboldt University. During this time, he travelled in Europe reporting on the arts for, among others, the Financial Times and The Economist.

Back in Britain, from 2009 he lived and worked (initially for Anglia Ruskin University) in Cambridge. In 2017 he secured a three-year Royal Literary Fund Fellowship at Magdalene College. He is on sabbatical to overhaul his book on Borges. Other topics James has published on include Brazilian music and The Beatles.

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This event is free to attend, but donations are warmly welcomed to support our ongoing work. We suggest a contribution of £10, though any amount you’re able to give is greatly appreciated.

As a thank-you, everyone who donates will be entered into a raffle to win a signed copy of James Woodall's The Man In The Mirror Of The Book - A Life of Jorge Luis Borges. Donations can also be made on the night of the event.

Drink refreshments will be available at this event.

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