Category: Books
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Simon Schama inspired by nature
Read more: Simon Schama inspired by natureThe historian Simon Schama is a wonderful writer bringing historical figures to life, vividly recounting the past. He humanises history. Like any good writer, he also has the gift of metaphor. Striking analogies are to be found in his writing. He finds inspiration in nature as he writes about history. As a historian, of course,…
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Clive James on empire, Naipaul, and music
Read more: Clive James on empire, Naipaul, and musicBooks are like the web. I wanted to read more books by Clive James after reading one of his essays that led me to other authors. Along the way, James disclosed the secret of success in the arts. I will share it, too, but patience! James is celebrated for his style and wide reading. Both…
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How to read a poem — and fall in love with poetry
Read more: How to read a poem — and fall in love with poetryHow to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry is an exceptional book – a book on poetry that is sheer poetry. The author Edward Hirsch writes about poetry with a lyrical effusion. “I have tried to be as clear as possible… but I have also tried to give my prose the wings…
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T.S. Eliot and Four Women
Read more: T.S. Eliot and Four WomenTS Eliot was the greatest English poet of the 20th century. American-born in St Louis, Missouri, he died a British citizen in London at the age of 76 on January 4, 1965 – the year after the Beatles invaded America and made their first film, A Hard Day’s Night. The contrast between the austere Eliot…
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Salman Rushdie’s magical Victory City
Read more: Salman Rushdie’s magical Victory CityVS Naipaul called Vijaynagar “the last great Hindu kingdom”. Now Salman Rushdie has brought it to life in Victory City, probably his breeziest novel since Haroun and the Sea of Stories, published more than 30 years ago. While Naipaul mourned the destruction of Vijaynagar by Muslim invaders in India: A Wounded Civilisation, and again in…
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Kolkata and Singapore
Read more: Kolkata and SingaporeI wonder why there is no street named after Calcutta in Singapore, nor after Singapore in what is now Kolkata. For their histories are interlinked. Both were ruled by the British and share some street names. Both had Armenian Street, Synagogue Street, Elliot Road and roads, bridges and landmarks named after generals and administrators such…
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The magic and mayhem of Salman Rushdie
Read more: The magic and mayhem of Salman RushdieWhen Salman Rushdie graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in history in 1968 and said he wanted to be a writer, his father yelped in pain. “What,” he cried, “will I tell my friends?” Events eventually forced Anis Rushdie, a barrister who had also graduated from Cambridge, to change his opinion. Nineteen years later,…
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Niall Ferguson’s Empire
Read more: Niall Ferguson’s EmpireAmerica’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…
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Roger McGough’s Summer with Monika
Read more: Roger McGough’s Summer with MonikaI 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…
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John le Carre’s spymaster George Smiley and his faithless wife
Read more: John le Carre’s spymaster George Smiley and his faithless wifeI 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.
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