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  • Niall Ferguson’s Empire

    Niall Ferguson’s Empire

    America’s abrupt pullout from Afghanistan, completed on August 30, 2021, was anticipated by the Scottish historian Niall Ferguson almost 20 years ago. America invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 to oust the Taliban after 9/11. Soon after, Ferguson began speculating about an imminent American withdrawal from the country. American intervention in a crisis is routinely followed […]

    January 24, 2022
  • Roger McGough’s Summer with Monika

    Roger McGough’s Summer with Monika

    I have been a fan of Roger McGough, Adrian Henri and Brian Patten ever since I came across The Mersey Sound, Penguin Modern Poets 10, in my schooldays. Published in 1967, the same year that the Beatles came out with Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it had the same mixture of whimsy, youthfulness and […]

    September 29, 2021
  • John le Carre’s spymaster George Smiley and his faithless wife

    John le Carre’s spymaster George Smiley and his faithless wife

    I can’t forget John le Carre’s description of spymaster George Smiley catching a glimpse of his wife Ann cheating on him. The scene came to my mind as I read the obituaries of John le Carre, who died on December 12 at the age of 89.

    December 19, 2020
  • Jan Morris and Harold Evans

    Jan Morris and Harold Evans

    Two people I admire greatly died this year: the legendary editor Harold Evans and Jan Morris, the only writer I know who had written both as a man and a woman.

    December 14, 2020
  • Can literature be a healer in a pandemic?

    Can literature be a healer in a pandemic?

    Hamlet tells Horatio: There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. His words seem all too true today if you substitute science for philosophy. Who ever thought a virus transmitted by a bat could disrupt the whole world?

    September 30, 2020
  • The Narrow Road to the Deep North

    The Narrow Road to the Deep North

    The Narrow Road to the Deep North, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2014, depicts the suffering and brutality inflicted on Australian prisoners of war (POWs) by their Japanese captors who forced them to build the infamous Death Railway though the jungle from Thailand to Burma.

    August 8, 2020
  • In praise of PG Wodehouse

    In praise of PG Wodehouse

    It feels like heaven,To be reading PG Wodehouse again,Hailed by critics one and all,As the Garden of Eden before the Fall,

    July 24, 2020
  • Jan Morris’ beautiful diary

    Jan Morris’ beautiful diary

    Even in her 90s, Jan Morris remains a pleasure to read. I am re-reading her book, In My Mind’s Eye: A Thought Diary, first published in 2018, when she was 91 or 92 years old. And what a pleasure it is. She is observant as ever, recording her observations in beautiful prose. Filled with fond […]

    July 17, 2020
  • Not quite limericks

    Not quite limericks

    There is a gentleman in BeijingBy the name of Xi JinpingWith a burning ambitionAnd steely determinationTo be the world’s uncrowned king. ***

    July 15, 2020
  • Unleash the poet within

    Unleash the poet within

    Unleash The Poet WithinIs a primer for womenTo try their hand at verse,Though why it’s male-averseI’ve no notionOr explanationFor. Is the author,Wendy Nyemaster,A literary feminist,A versifying specialist,Intent on a sororitySkilled in prosody,But absolutely no timeTo teach men to rhyme?

    July 13, 2020
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