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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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Jan Morris and Harold Evans
Read more: Jan Morris and Harold EvansTwo 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.
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Can literature be a healer in a pandemic?
Read more: 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?
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The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Read more: The Narrow Road to the Deep NorthThe 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.
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In praise of PG Wodehouse
Read more: In praise of PG WodehouseIt feels like heaven,To be reading PG Wodehouse again,Hailed by critics one and all,As the Garden of Eden before the Fall,
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Jan Morris’ beautiful diary
Read more: Jan Morris’ beautiful diaryEven 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…
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Not quite limericks
Read more: Not quite limericksThere is a gentleman in BeijingBy the name of Xi JinpingWith a burning ambitionAnd steely determinationTo be the world’s uncrowned king. ***