Readiscovery

What I've read and discovered

  • The Singapore Grip

    The Singapore Grip by JG Farrell Anyone who loves Singapore should read The Singapore Grip by JG Farrell. He won the Booker Prize in 1973 for The Siege of Krishnapur about the 1857 War of Indian Independence. The Singapore Grip is also a historical novel, describing Singapore at the time of the Japanese invasion during

    Read more

  • An absorbing history of India since independence

    India After Gandhi: The History Of The World’s Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi: The History Of The World’s Largest Democracy is a riveting account of India since independence  in 1947.  The narrative never flags. Historical figures are brought to life and history re-enacted in its pages. It makes you appreciate

    Read more

  • Simon Schama’s American history

    The American Future: A History by Simon Schama The American Future is a labour of love by the British historian Simon Schama, who clearly admires America. This is a loving exploration of American history highlighting the dreams and ideals that created the country and continue to animate it. Schama also notes the darker currents —

    Read more

  • Carol Ann Duffy: The first woman poet laureate

    Carol Ann Duffy became the first woman poet laureate today. She was considered a frontrunner for the post in 1999 following Ted Hughes’ death in October 1998. But she lost out to Andrew Motion then amid speculation that Tony Blair had decided that Middle England was not yet ready for a lesbian laureate, says the

    Read more

  • A New York minute with Billy Collins

    The Singapore River isn’t the Hudson But it has a homely charm of its own, The Botanic Gardens no Central Park But a tranquil, sylvan landmark Well worth a visit or two. Life in Singapore is nothing to rue Unless you make much ado About the Straits Times Being no New York Times. Then you’re

    Read more

  • Talk Like Shakespeare Day today

    Dost thou think, because there’s something rotten inthe state of the economy, there shall be no more cakes and ale? Fie, dismiss thy fears.We shall revel today in wholesome mirth and laughter in fulsome praise of thegenius of Master Shakespeare. Sweet Bard of Avon, begetter of the finest verseand plays, who was born today and

    Read more

  • Shakespeare in love: The youth and the Dark Lady of the Sonnets

    Shakespeare’s sonnets are the greatest love poems in English literature, says The Times. And they are mostly homoerotic, says Bill Bryson in his book, Shakespeare. That makes them all the more remarkable. For, let’s not forget, as late as 1960 Penguin Books was tried for obscenity when it published Lady Chatterley’s Lover in Britain. Shakespeare’s

    Read more

  • Shakespeare On The Double! The Bard in plain English

    Shakespeare On The Double! Twelfth Night translated by Mary Ellen Snodgrass The greatest English playwright in plain English at long last! Now I can understand every word written by the Bard as long as I have a copy of Shakespeare On The Double! in my hand. Shakespeare On The Double! The unusual format of this

    Read more

  • Ballard’s terrible Shanghai in Empire Of The Sun

    The Japanese committed terrible atrocities in the Second World War, as we all know, but they had no monopoly on cruelty. One has only to read JG Ballard’s Empire Of The Sun to see what a terrible city Shanghai was when it fell to the Japanese. I was going through the novel again after hearing

    Read more

  • Gold ain’t what it was in Goldfinger

    Gold is no longer what it used to be when Ian Fleming wrote Goldfinger or Sean Connery starred in the film with Honor Blackman playing Pussy Galore in 1964. Consider the plot: Goldfinger plans to steal the gold in Fort Knox. What’s at stake is the entire world economy. For Fort Knox contains the American

    Read more