Category Archives: Literature

I don’t know whether Rowan Williams got into any trouble for praising the works of William Mayne, a children’s author convicted last year of sexual offences against young female fans. I hope not. Since it was the Sunday Times that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The FWB read Lonesome Dove in about 20 hours: not bad for 925 pages; her brother, when he heard the news, said “Well, if times get hard, you can always sell her for medical research.” It took me a little … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There is less than a week in which to write my Analysis script on demography and I finally managed to scan in one of the passages which inspired the thought that informed opinion knows what will happen to the population … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m fifty today. Below the fold is a fragment shored against my ruin. (warning. long; boring; also copyrighted) Continue reading →

Poking around the second-hand bookshops of Walden on Saturday, I found an Alison Lurie novel I didn’t know existed. Other people might get that excited about the discovery of lost plays of Sophocles. I just want to say that The … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The FWB and I have been watching the television mini-series of Lonesome Dove. This has had three consequences. I have ordered five McMurtry books from Abebooks. I have known, and loved, one of his early lnovels, All My friends are … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I have started to translate another Selma Lagerlöf story of supernatural malevolence over at the Changeling. It’s not improving, but it is wonderful. Continue reading →

for much of this afternoon I have been dreaming that I am in an armchair reading Raymond Tallis and waking to find that I am. None the less, his latest book, which I am reviewing for the Graun is very … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Was perfect again this week. Though the one that made me laugh loudest this year was earlier. The archive is here, and if I have linked to it before, well, you should have gone the first time. Continue reading →

And remembers a conversation with a smart military man, seven years ago, and how it filled him with hope for the US Army: One actually has to be something of a specialist, today, to even begin to grasp quite how … Continue reading → Continue reading →