Peter Lantos

On Monday, 10 March 2014, the first play of Peter Lantos, The Visitor, had a rehearsed reading in The Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, London. Jemma Gross directed a dedicated group of actors who performed in period costume and although had the script in their hands, it turned out to be a credible performance rather than reading. The play was produced by Epsilon Productions.

“Congratulations. It was fascinating to see your play given a dramatic reading. The actors rose bravely to the challenge.” Nicholas deJongh

On Thursday 27 February Peter Lantos was interviewed by Alain Elkann, the well known writer and journalist who has a weekly column in La Stampa. His interviews, including artists, like Sophia Loren and Pavarotti,  scientists, politicians and statesmen are posted on the web. See Peter Lantos’s interview at: alainelkanninterviews.com/2014/03/02/peter-lantos. 

On 27 January 2014, International Holocaust Day, Peter Lantos was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme by Evan Davis and later in the afternoon by Huw Edwards on BBC’s 24 hour News Channel. As a result the sale of Parallel Lines on Amazon shot up from nowhere to the 214 position of all books sold.

Parallel Lines was republished by Arcadia Books London with a new cover and foreword by Lisa Appignanesi in January. This is the fourth impression of this much acclaimed book.

“Closed Horizon is about the future – a future that is not too far distanced from the here and now – and for that reason elicits a cold frisson of fear…One is reminded again of  Orwell and Big Brother.”  Review, Camden New Journal

“You do not need to be familiar of the breakthroughs of neuroscience to be grasped by Closed Horizon…The book’s cast is vividly constructed, as is the physical setting: the city of London, with its exquisite blend of shiny modernity and misty tradition, is a character itself…The humanity in everything that fascinates Lantos, and that permeates the entire book…Last but not least, the book is fun!” International Journal of Social Psychiatry

“Despite the predictable Orwellian overtones, I really enjoyed this book…It is a hard task to bring a new perspective to the slightly hoary sci-fi trope of a totalitarian near-future, but Lantos’s scientific background gives him an edge here… This novel had a lot to live up to, given the success of his autobiography, Parallel Lines. …Overall, this is an impressive debut novel…”  The Bulletin of the Royal College of Pathologists

Peter was invited to two literary festivals in Australia in 2012. At the end of August at the Sydney Jewish Writers’ Festival in Sydney, he was invited to read from his favourite book at the Opening Ceremony (he selected Andre Schwarz-Bart’s The Last of the Just) and participated in three sessions: Stolen Childhoods, Tell All? How Much Do You Reveal in a Memoir? and Power and Politics. To the first two discussions, he brought experience from his well-received memoir, Parallel Lines, which has been reprinted for this occasion. His novel, Closed Horizon, paints a terrifying picture of the surveillance state of the near future in which power lies in the politics of information gatherings of individuals.

At the beginning of September, at the much larger Brisbane Writers’ Festival,  opened by Germaine Greer with a controversial speech, the subjects of his sessions were even more challenging with a bias towards human behaviour: What Makes Us Happy? and Humans Are Fascinating. The third discussion was easily the most controversia, having the title of Extreme Right. This session, broadcast live by ABC National Radio, and screened in a shortened form on television, had the ambitious aim of discussing the rise of extreme right throughout the world.

In Melbourne Peter gave an interview on National Radio’s  Sunday Extra in the Extra Perspective Series. Both in Sydney and in Melbourne he signed copies of his books: Parallel Lines and Closed Horizon.