It's been ten years since Elena Ferrante’s bestselling quartet took the world by storm. The books have gained millions of readers around the world, in over forty languages. Marking the occasion, we are delighted to welcome a panel panel of writers and critics each of whom have loved Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels from the very beginning.
Margaret Drabble, Catherine Taylor and Natasha Lehrer will be discussing their first encounters with Ferrante’s work and what the books have meant to them as readers and writers over the years. They will be in conversation with European Literature Network Director, and fellow Ferrante enthusiast, Rosie Goldsmith.
We hope you will be able to join us for an evening of celebratory conversation as part of Europa Editions' launch of a glorious new all-four-volumes-in-one publication of My Brilliant Friend.
Margaret Drabble
Dame Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the author of eighteen novels including A Summer Bird-Cage, The Millstone, The Peppered Moth, The Red Queen, The Sea Lady and the highly acclaimed The Pure Gold Baby. She has also written biographies, screenplays and was the editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. She was appointed CBE in 1980, and made DBE in the 2008 Honours list. She was also awarded the 2011 Golden PEN Award for a Lifetime’s Distinguished Service to Literature. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd and lives in London.
Natasha Lehrer
Natasha Lehrer is a prize-winning writer, translator and editor. Her long form journalism and book reviews have appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, the TLS and others. The writers she has translated include Neige Sinno, Nathalie Léger, Chantal Thomas, Vanessa Springora and Amin Maalouf.
Catherine Taylor
Catherine Taylor is a writer, editor, and critic (The Guardian, FT, Observer, Irish Times, TLS) and former deputy director of English PEN. Her first book, The Stirrings: A Memoir in Northern Time, won the 2024 TLS Ackerley Prize for autobiography and life-writing.
Rosie Goldsmith
Rosie Goldsmith is an award-winning journalist specializing in arts and foreign affairs. She is Founder and Director of the European Literature Network, Editor-in-Chief of The Riveter magazine and Artistic Director of the European Writers’ Festival.
