Andrew Sanger

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Andrew Sanger

Andrew Sanger

Registered: 9 February 2009
Location: Golders Green
I'm a long-established travel writer, author of some 30 guidebooks (mainly to France, but also Israel, Ireland, Tenerife and a few other places). I've won some awards for my travel journalism. I am also the author of The J-Word, a novel on a theme of secular Jewish identity, set in Golders Green. Published by the independent publisher Snowbooks in January 2009, it has been well received, and is available at nearly all bookshops. You can read more about The J-Word at http://www.andrewsanger.com/the-j-word

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America starts to discover The J-Word

By Andrew Sanger, March 21, 2010

It almost started to seem that The J-Word, despite its success in the UK, was not going to be noticed at all in the US.

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Tzipi visit will force change in UK's Universal Jurisdiction law

By Andrew Sanger, February 4, 2010

It is really excellent news that Tzipi Livni plans to visit Britain soon regardless of whether the UK's law of universal jurisdiction has been changed. If she is arrested it will highlight the stupidity and arrogance of this legislation and embarrass the government which brought it in.

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The Anti-Israel Obsessives campaign for Universal Jurisdiction law

By Andrew Sanger, January 18, 2010

The UK’s powerful Palestinian lobby – which has a grip on the BBC, a number of British universities, several newspapers and the trade unions – is gearing up its campaign to prevent any change to the UK’s law on universal jurisdiction (‘war crimes’ law).

This is a law which permits any UK magistrate to issue, on request by anyone who can show prima facie cause, a warrant to arrest anyone in the world for “war crimes” as soon as they step foot on UK soil.

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The J-Word - Can Americans be interested in a Golders Green story?

By Andrew Sanger, January 10, 2010

The J-Word is now available in North America and on Amazon.com at http://bit.ly/5g9Thw. Of course I'm thrilled. But I wonder - can Americans be interested in a Jewish story set in Golders Green? Many Jewish writers in the United States have used the Jewish condition as a metaphor for the American condition. Jews and their problems, anxieties and moral dilemmas, it seems, serve as the paradigm of American society.

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JFS case is not to do with racism or "Who Is A Jew"

By Andrew Sanger, October 24, 2009

Contrary to what Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and others are currently quoted as saying on BBC Radio 4, the case against the JFS - now coming before the Supreme Court - does not imply that Judaism is racist, and nor is it anything to do with how Jewishness is defined.

We are perfectly free, as always, to define a person as Jewish on the basis that his or her mother is Jewish (circular as that logic may be). The case is about whether we can refuse people a school place on that basis.

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The J-Word at Scribblers On The Roof

By Andrew Sanger, September 18, 2009

I was surprised and delighted and very honoured to be asked by a new California-based website for Jewish writers and Jewish writing, called Scribblers On The Roof, if I would be the site's very first guest blogger. My contribution is now online at http://bit.ly/2RnkzD. They've given it a neat heading too - Travelling Home.

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Free signed copy of The J-Word on blog OyVaGoy!

By Andrew Sanger, September 8, 2009

The J-Word (signed by the author, of course!) is currently the prize in a competition on the blog OyVaGoy: http://bit.ly/Qluh2 The blogger, writer Chas Newkey-Burden, will pick the winner randomly.

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Ruth Gledhill (The Times) 'strongly recommends' The J-Word.

By Andrew Sanger, August 16, 2009

I have just seen the very pleasing comments by Ruth Gledhill (The Times' Religion Correspondent) about The J-Word.

She says, “For an exploration of Jewish identity, I strongly recommend Andrew Sanger's new novel The J-Word.”

The comment is buried deep in her article about the JFS Appeal Court ruling. I don't actually agree with the thrust of her article about the JFS, but I am delighted that she liked The J-Word! Her full article is at http://bit.ly/2ZnHPS.

(My own page about The J-Word is at http://www.andrewsanger.com/The-J-Word)

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Association of Jewish Refugees reviews The J-Word

By Andrew Sanger, August 11, 2009

I am honoured and delighted that The J-Word has been reviewed by the journal of the Association of Jewish Refugees (August 2009 issue). And it's a really excellent review.

It is not online, but here's a little extract: “Paradoxes are integral to The J-Word, the accomplished first novel of travel writer Andrew Sanger, which brings to life the vagaries of Jewish identity and adherence against a vivid north-west London backdrop.”

I hope that tempts one or two people to borrow the book from the library!

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Hampstead & Highgate Literary Festival 2009

By Andrew Sanger, August 6, 2009

The website of Hampstead & Highgate Literary Festival 2009 is now online. I'm honoured and thrilled to be invited to the festival to discuss The J-Word (and my travel books too?) with Ellie Levenson - the event is on 14 September. See http://www.hamhighlitfest09.com/events/monday

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Appeal Court's JFS ruling is nothing to do with "Who is a Jew"

By Andrew Sanger, July 12, 2009

The Appeal Court has no interest in how Jewishness is defined. Nor did the court say we are racists, as some people seem to think. We are perfectly free, as always, to define a person as Jewish on the basis that his or her mother is Jewish (circular as that logic may be).

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So grateful to Appeal Court for JFS ruling

By Andrew Sanger, July 2, 2009

Schools in receipt of state funding should be open to all who require the type of education on offer. An Orthodox Jewish school should be defined by the type of education on offer - not the type of pupils who may attend.

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The J-Word - Ham & High review

By Andrew Sanger, June 16, 2009

Good, interesting, rather academic review of The J-Word in this week's Ham & High (Hampstead & Highgate Express).

Here's a link to a PDF of two pages in the Ham & High - the review spans the two pages: http://tinyurl.com/jword-1

The reviewer, Emma Klein (author of Lost Jews), analyses the story, the characters and the development of the plot in The J-Word in a way I'd never be able to do myself!

She says some very nice things, too:
"A fascinating exposure of the vagaries of Jewish identity and its impact on individual lives. ... A considerable achievement."

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The J-Word - and Masorti

By Andrew Sanger, May 10, 2009

In the age of the internet, authors can bite back against reviewers! No one is safe from blog posts! Not that I'm complaining at all about the lovely review of The J-Word which appeared in the JC.

It's just that some who read the review have since asked me: in The J-Word, do I really refer to "pick and mix" Masorti Jews? Of course not! This comfortable, judgemental cliché belongs entirely to the reviewer.

I hope that in The J-Word I have portrayed the Jewish world as so much more complicated than that! Everyone picks and mixes - frum and secular alike.

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The J-Word and reading groups

By Andrew Sanger, April 6, 2009

It has been very pleasing to learn that several reading groups have been discussing The J-Word!

This week I was impressed by the question from one reading group - would I come to their meeting and talk to them about the book?

The answer is yes. If a group is not too small and not too far away, I'd be happy to do that.

To learn more about The J-Word, see the JC's review at http://www.thejc.com/articles/grandad-fights-back

For links to some other reviews of the book, see http://www.andrewsanger.com/The-J-Word

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