Alexander Starritt
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2019}}
{{Short description|Scottish-German writer}}
Alexander Starritt (born 1985) is a Scottish-German novelist, journalist and entrepreneur.{{Cite web|url=http://www.unitedagents.co.uk/alexander-starritt|title=Alexander Starritt {{!}} United Agents|website=www.unitedagents.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-04-23}} Starritt was educated at Somerville College, Oxford. He came to public attention in 2017 with the release of his debut novel The Beast.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/29/evelyn-waugh-beast-england-febrile-scoop-journalism|title=Waugh's Beast is back, still satirising those who make England so febrile {{!}} Ian Jack|last=Jack|first=Ian|date=2017-07-29|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-04-23}} He was also one of the founding team on the policy platform Apolitical,{{Cite news|url=https://apolitical.co/team/|title=Our Team {{!}} Apolitical|work=Apolitical|access-date=2018-04-23|language=en-US}} which in 2018 was listed by US business magazine Fast Company as one of the World's 'Most Innovative Companies'.{{Cite news|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/company/apolitical|title=Apolitical: Most Innovative Company {{!}} Fast Company|work=Fast Company|access-date=2018-04-23|language=en-US}}
Starritt has also published several translations from German, including works by Stefan Zweig and Arthur Schnitzler.{{Cite web|url=https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/news/somerville-alumnus-to-release-debut-novel/|title=Somerville alumnus to release debut novel — Somerville College Oxford|website=www.some.ox.ac.uk|date=21 June 2016 |language=en|access-date=2018-04-23}} In 2020 he published We Germans, a novel about Germans defeated on the Eastern Front of World War II.
''The Beast''
The Beast is a satire of British tabloid journalism.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/the-beast-alexander-starritt-i-d-die-for-you-and-other-lost-stories-f-scott-fitzgerald-the-animals-among-us-john-bradshaw-the-ascent-of-gravity-marcus-chown-wonderland-brett-westwood-and-stephen-moss-this-is-going-to-hurt-adam-kay-gone-min-kym-3tgh7s6vr|title=The best new paperbacks: The Beast; I'd Die for You and Other Lost Stories; The Animals Among Us; The Ascent of Gravity; Wonderland; This Is Going to Hurt; Gone|last=Times|first=The Sunday|website=The Times |date=14 April 2018 |language=en|access-date=2018-04-23}} It has been described by critics as a successor to Evelyn Waugh's novel Scoop. It tells the story of a downtrodden sub-editor, Jeremy Underwood, who notices two figures dressed in burqas outside the offices of the tabloid newspaper where he works. When he mentions this to his colleagues, their paranoia and hunger for a story take over. The Beast's journalists come to believe they are the target of an imminent terrorist attack and events quickly escalate out of control.
The novel deals with themes such as the rapaciousness of the tabloids, the decline of print journalism, and Islamophobia in the British media. Several critics have pointed out that the novel contains a great deal of affection for the world it describes. For example, te Scottish journalist Hugh Macdonald, reviewing the novel in The National, wrote, "This may not be a love letter to the ailing print media but it will serve as an elegy."{{Cite web|url=http://www.thenational.scot/culture/15526733.Book_review__The_Beast_by_Alexander_Starritt/|title=Book review: The Beast by Alexander Starritt|website=The National|date=11 September 2017 |language=en|access-date=2018-04-23}}
Bibliography
= Books =
- {{cite book|title=The Beast|last=Starritt|first=Alexander|publisher=Head of Zeus|year=2017|isbn=978-1784979959|location=London|pages=}}
- {{cite book|title=We Germans|last=Starritt|first=Alexander|publisher=JM Originals |year=2020|isbn=9781529317244 |location=|pages=208}}
= Translations =
- {{Cite book|title=Late Fame by Arthur Schnitzler|last=Starritt|first=Alexander|publisher=NYRB Books|year=2017|isbn=978-1681370842|location=London|pages=}}
- {{Cite book|title=A Chess Story by Stefan Zweig|last=Starritt|first=Alexander|publisher=Pushkin Press|year=2013|isbn=978-1784979959|location=London|pages=}}
= TEDx lectures =
- {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPGUJuGutog&t=2s|title=What Happens When You Watch The News | Alexander Starritt at TEDxFrankfurt|author=TEDx Talks|author-link=TED (conference)#TEDx|date=19 December 2017|website=|publisher=TEDx Talks|accessdate=23 April 2018}}
References
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