Category Archives: Literature

Back to bed with Diarmaid

Posted on July 5, 2008 by acb

Another hundred pages of MacCulloch’s Reformation this morning; wonderful stuff. The parallels with today are not in the least bit cheering; among them the way in which the printing press, like the Internet, allowed everyone, however ignorant, to join in theological … Continue reading →

Posted in God, Literature | 1 Comment

Buy this week’s New Yorker

Posted on July 5, 2008 by acb

for a wonderful essay on Chesterton by Adam Gopnik (not online) which tackles the question of his anti-semitism head on. I had not realised quite how vile it was; as Gopnik says, if he was a man of his time, … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Literature | 1 Comment

Book reviews

Posted on June 27, 2008 by acb

I am exhausted from a rather wonderful launch party last night, but the first review of Fishing in Utopia is up, in the Economist. Very gratifying, with just the right touch of vinegar to keep it from being cloying—did you … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Journalism, Literature | 5 Comments

Getting better

Posted on June 21, 2008 by acb

I have been reading Dairmaid Dermot Diarmaud Diarmaid MacCulloch’s rather wonderful Reformation; this clears up a lot of confusion about the roots of the Church of England and its model of authority. In modern political terms, all Henry VIII did … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Literature | 2 Comments

Market failure

Posted on June 11, 2008 by acb

or possibly Amazon failure. I was putting the world’s smallest and most discreet book-buying link into the sidebar right now (obviously it would be wrong to link to it here) and thought that I might as well point the links … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Literature | 4 Comments

A Pelican History

Posted on June 1, 2008 by acb

England in the Eighteenth Century is a lovely, succinct and succulent volume from the Pelican History of England, written in 1950, at a time of fierce self-improvement. To quote the contemporary review in the Listener: As a portent in the … Continue reading →

Posted in British politics, Literature, Science without worms, War | 1 Comment

In praise, again, of Brian Aldiss

Posted on May 26, 2008 by acb

I really think he may be the most under-rated writer in England today. I am continually surprised by the range of his accomplishments. Years ago I scanned in a large extract from the opening of one of his books about … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | Comments Off on In praise, again, of Brian Aldiss

Robert Harris’s “Ghost”

Posted on May 10, 2008 by acb

I read this last night in one gulp, which shows the essential virtue of his writing. The story, for American readers, concerns Adam Lang, a Labour ex-prime minister who is holed up in Martha’s Vineyard with his wife and dwindling … Continue reading →

Posted in British politics, Literature | 3 Comments

Ecstatic blurb

Posted on April 21, 2008 by acb

To London, to meet with Pru Rowlandson, the publicity director at Granta. Stunned to discover that she has actually read the book and thought about it. Has no one told her how publishing works? Also, a lovely cover blurb has … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Sweden | Comments Off on Ecstatic blurb

A distinctive programme

Posted on April 9, 2008 by acb

I maintain in my own usage a distinction between “program” and “programme”. This doesn’t depend on whether I am writing to Americans or not. The distinction is between two referents (I nearly wrote “things”, but neither are tangible). A program … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, nördig | 9 Comments