Category Archives: Literature

If you have not already seen it, John Naughton has a very interesting account of McGahern’s funeral on his blog. I happened to be reading his Memoirs last week, and so learned of his mother’s death the day before I … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There is no picture to link to, and they haven’t updated the relevant page of their site, but this morning the postman arrived with three copies of the latest Granta, whose theme is God, and which contains amongst other things … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This didn’t happen of course; which is a shame, because if it did, it would be a wonderful story which could then be put up on a blog under some tragic, if faintly pretentious title, like "a rare moment in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

One of the stupidest things I ever did was to decide, at an impressionable age, that since Shelley was respectable, I wanted nothing to do with him. He is a thinker of extraordinary toughness and force who just happened to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

If you are near London, and hurry, you may find in the basement of Forbidden Planet a sale of the paperback collected editions of Brian Aldiss’ novels at a pound each. They were just coming out when I profiled him … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There is an abstract artist living up the road who has sold one of his paintings to Cambridge University Press, which is using it as the cover for Noam Chomsky’s next book. I can’t be sure, but from the web … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The FWB has just sent me a bumper sticker, arising from her latin homework Sic hoc adfixum in obice legere potes, et liberaliter educatus et nimis propinquus ades Continue reading →

and yet another cold. Bodily Harm, an early novel of hers, is larger and more sprawling than the dystopian stories I have been reading recently ( Oryx and Crake, The Handmaid’s Tale ). But it’s well worth the effort — … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The FWB has been studying Merchant of Venice and so we all ended up rereading it and watching a couple of films – an excellent National Theatre production, set in the Thirties, broadcast by the BBC; and the Al Pacino … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Is ready here. I mean to go back and turn it into much better English, but at least this is a draft, which shows the storyline. Continue reading →