Charlie Connelly

Jan 21, 2025 | theneweuropean.co.uk | Charlie Connelly

When André the Giant was a boy during the 1950s, an Irishman bought some land close to his family home at Molien, near Grenoble, and built a house there. André, already six feet three inches tall by the age of 12, would walk the two miles to school every morning as part of a group of local children, their route taking them past the new dwelling.

Jan 21, 2025 | theneweuropean.co.uk | Charlie Connelly

Of all the literary anniversaries that fell during 2024, one passed under the radar. It was understandable, the 40th anniversary of an obscure, long-forgotten book that barely troubled the sales charts, but one that could in hindsight turn out to be the foundation of a new literary age. A little over 40 years ago, in the autumn of 1984, Warner Books published the curiously titled The Policeman’s Beard is Half-Constructed by an author credited on the cover as Racter.

Jan 14, 2025 | theneweuropean.co.uk | Charlie Connelly

Few international football matches have been mythologised as Austria v Germany at Vienna’s Prater stadium on April 3, 1938. It was three weeks after the Anschluss and the match was intended as a celebration of the nations’ unification under Hitler. At the time Austria were one of, if not the greatest team in the world, renowned for the advanced tactics and sheer beauty of their playing style spearheaded by charismatic team captain and striker Matthias Sindelar of FK Austria Vienna.

Jan 14, 2025 | theneweuropean.co.uk | Charlie Connelly

While it is still too early to say how well or otherwise the publishing industry in the UK fared in 2024 there is no reason to doubt that, financially at least, the sector is in pretty rude health. In 2023 UK publishing revenue topped £7bn for the first time, contributed £11bn in total to the economy and supported 84,000 jobs, all while continuing the small but steady year-on-year revenue increases we’ve seen since before the pandemic. There is much to celebrate.

Jan 7, 2025 | theneweuropean.co.uk | Charlie Connelly

If you love books and happen to be in New York over the next month or so, it might be worth your while dropping by the Grolier Club on East 60th Street to see an exhibition that shimmers with the magic of literature. Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books is an art installation in which its curator Reid Byers has created physical copies of books that don’t exist.