Category Archives: Literature

Granta is going to take my piece about Sorsele (where the photo above was taken). It wasn’t at all what I set out to write there. But it’s not at all bad. I will make another smug little post when … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This is glorious. John M Ford has started selling his poems and parodies printed on T shirts. I love the idea of poetry being sold on T shirts rather than in paperbacks which cost almost as much and will be … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There is a superb essay in the current Atlantic magazine on Elmore Leonard which shows with clarity and sympathy just what is good and what is bad about him and how they interact. It’s also very funny: Though pioneered a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Is there anyone who can cast light on this entry from the Library of Congress catalogue? Author: Dawkins, Richard, 1941- Title: The selfish gene / Richard Dawkins ; with a pref. by Anaïs nin. Published: New York : Oxford University … Continue reading → Continue reading →

No: better than that. The best advice you could ever give your children. (from Making light). Continue reading →

If he is remembered now, it is as the author of Tarka the Otter, a fine book that is still in print. But he was more than a nature writer. He’s one of the three really good writers I know … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I have only just discovered the detective novels of Sarah Caudwell, Claud Cockburn’s daughter by Jean Ross (who was the original of Sally Bowles). They got great reviews when she died a few years ago, but I loathe the puzzle … Continue reading → Continue reading →

One of the most perfectly done spoofs I have ever read. (via) In this context, there is a Kingsley Amis poem, below the fold, in which the Englishman appears more interested in sex than his French crewmates … Continue reading →

My first agent, and continuing friend, Xandra Hardie the Countess Gowrie Bingley has published a memoir of her childhood which has been getting excellent reviews all over the place. Not that I’m suggesting you buy it, or anything … Continue reading →

It turns out you can’t photocopy the bound volumes of the Times and TLS in the London Library. They’re too fragile. Typing is hard on a reading pulpit, but I copied out the last three paragraphs (about half) of Alfred … Continue reading → Continue reading →