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John Keats: Romantic in sweet unrest
People who indulge their senses to excess are often reproved as sensualists or voluptuaries — a censure that would never attach to Keats. Yet has there ever been a more sensuous poet? His vivid imagery and his evocation of the physical world — the fragrance of flowers, the beauty of…
4–5 minutes -
Comic, comedic and comedy: From Shakespeare to Wodehouse
The Oxford Dictionary of English gives only a partial definition of comedy. A comedy, it says, is a film, play or broadcast programme intended to make an audience laugh. That is true as far as it goes, but it misses something essential. What truly defines a comedy is not simply…
5–7 minutes -
Sound advice: The best RP and BBC English podcasts
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” wrote Shakespeare. But the accent, I would argue, makes a difference. I loved the vowels and diction of the Crawleys in Downton Abbey. The BBC World Service is my favourite news channel. I can’t — and don’t even try to…
5–7 minutes -
The sweetest sounds: Remembering Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys and the music of innocence
When Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys died on Thursday (June 11) at the age of 82, his family announced the sad news in a brief Instagram post, omitting where, when, or how he passed away. They asked for privacy. But Wilson’s genius was never a secret — certainly not…
4–7 minutes -
Truman: His biography by David McCullough
He approved the plan to drop atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II. He had American troops defend South Korea from North Korean aggressors backed by Russia and China. His actions shaped the postwar world, binding Japan and South Korea to America. Yet Harry Truman, the 33rd US…
5–8 minutes -
The Golden Road: Dalrymple celebrates the wonder that was India
The historian A.L. Basham wrote a book called The Wonder That Was India. William Dalrymple ringingly extols the wonders of that land in The Golden Road, offering a paean to ancient India as a fountainhead of human civilisation. Dalrymple paints a fascinating portrait of a civilisation that, for over a…
5–8 minutes -
Source Code: Bill Gates decodes Bill Gates
The earnest, high-minded philanthropist Bill Gates donating billions to safeguard public health we see today has another side, revealed in his memoir, Source Code. It’s striking how engaging he – once the world’s richest man – can be. As in the first chapter, titled Trey, after his nickname. “It was…
5–7 minutes -
Updike romanced the 1950s
John Updike never disappoints. Anytime I pick up his books, I am mesmerised by the beauty of his prose. I don’t read him for his plots, his pace; his novels are to be lingered over and savoured for their vivid images and sensory details. He is a sensuous writer whose…
6–10 minutes -
The most popular love songs of the 1960s and 1970s
“If music be the food of love, play on,” says Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night. Music, pop music, certainly overflowed with love back in the 1960s and 1970. There was no dearth of love in music from the 1950s — I love songs like Walk the Line by Johnny Cash,…
10–15 minutes -
A Strange and Sublime Address: Calcutta as it was
A Strange and Sublime Address vividly recalls Calcutta as it was in the 1970s and 1980s. Amit Chaudhuri’s first novel, published in 1991, A Strange and Sublime Address tells the story of a Bengali boy’s visits to Calcutta. Ten-year-old Sandeep goes with his mother from Bombay (Mumbai) to Calcutta to…
10–15 minutes
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