Uploaded February 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
A conversation between Lily Le Brun and Alice McCrum at the American Library in Paris. Filmed on 31/01/2023 with a live audience both in person and on Zoom.
Experience Britain through the eyes of its artists as they look out to sea and look inward upon their nation with author Lily Le Brun.
Across British history, from ancient conflict to contemporary Brexit, the water surrounding the islands has served as a symbolic and political boundary as well as a physical landmark. Lily Le Brun’s innovative work Looking to Sea examines the central motif of the ocean across representations of modern British life. The sea–an instrument of both imperial expansion and isolation, a place of both leisure and work, representing both refuge and danger–has served as muse to British artists across centuries. Considering ten depictions of the sea from the past hundred years, Le Brun uncovers a changing and multifaceted image of Britain itself. Join her at the American Library to discuss navigating the troubled waters of identity and ways of seeing oneself through the sea.
About the speaker:
Lily Le Brun is a writer from London. A graduate of Edinburgh University and the Courtauld Institute of Art, she has written on art for publications such as Art Quarterly, the Financial Times and the Economist. In 2018 Lily won a Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award for the early chapters of Looking to Sea. She lives in Paris, and this is her first book. Author photo © Sophie Davidson.
Evenings with an Author is generously sponsored by GRoW @ Annenberg.
A conversation between Lily Le Brun and Alice McCrum at the American Library in Paris. Filmed on 31/01/2023 with a live audience both in person and on Zoom.
Experience Britain through the eyes of its artists as they look out to sea and look inward upon their nation with author Lily Le Brun.
Across British history, from ancient conflict to contemporary Brexit, the water surrounding the islands has served as a symbolic and political boundary as well as a physical landmark. Lily Le Brun’s innovative work Looking to Sea examines the central motif of the ocean across representations of modern British life. The sea–an instrument of both imperial expansion and isolation, a place of both leisure and work, representing both refuge and danger–has served as muse to British artists across centuries. Considering ten depictions of the sea from the past hundred years, Le Brun uncovers a changing and multifaceted image of Britain itself. Join her at the American Library to discuss navigating the troubled waters of identity and ways of seeing oneself through the sea.
About the speaker:
Lily Le Brun is a writer from London. A graduate of Edinburgh University and the Courtauld Institute of Art, she has written on art for publications such as Art Quarterly, the Financial Times and the Economist. In 2018 Lily won a Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award for the early chapters of Looking to Sea. She lives in Paris, and this is her first book. Author photo © Sophie Davidson.
Evenings with an Author is generously sponsored by GRoW @ Annenberg.
