Category Archives: Literature

was of course P. Larkin. Almost the high point of my journalistic career came last year when Bob Conquest handed me his copy of High Windows, inscribed by Larkin with a joke about limericks. Those bits of Larkin that eveyone … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I don’t think that Tolkein was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, but Tove Jansson just might have been; it turns out that she did the illustrations for an early Swedish translation of the Hobbit. I had … Continue reading → Continue reading →

were sent to Hogwarts — the parody I’ve linked to is wonderfully funny, and too long to quote. So you’ll just have to click on it. Continue reading →

The oddest gig of my professional life to date: I spent most of the day in the windowless basement of the Hilton Mews hotel in Mayfair helping to choose the books which will be introduced into the National Curriculum at … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Three small items of financial news today. Someone made an offer onthe Japanese rights of the Worm Book. I accepted. My friend Damian told me what he he’d got for three hours’ work writing about Rowan Williams for the Daily … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Click here for some real writing. Continue reading →

to feet of clay: John Leonard (Andrew’s dad) takes down Norman Mailer in the New York Review of Books: But his footwork is fanciest when he gets to style. Why Are We in Vietnam? does not seem to have been … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Conquest profile just got linked from Arts & Letters. Continue reading →

TNH on the right patron saint for the Internet: Saint Isidore never had to be told to RTFM. As one who argues long and hard in a newsgroup, he fought against the errors of the Arian and Acephalic heresies. Like … Continue reading → Continue reading →

William Gibson blogs! Continue reading →