George Szirtes - The Photographer at Sixteen The Photographer at Sixteen George Szirtes was born in Hungary and emigrated to England with his parents - survivors of concentration and labour camps - after the crushing of the 1956 Budapest uprising. His first book, ‘The Slant Door’ (1979), won the Faber Memorial Prize. Bridge Passages (1991) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Prize. Reel (2004) won the TS Eliot Prize, and his New and Collected Poems was published by BloodAxe in 2008. His latest book The Photographer at Sixteen is a tender yet unsparing memoir of his mother that flows backwards through time, and through a tumultuous period of European history. Chaired by Sheilagh Matheson Booking for this event has now closed.