-
Top guns: Britain’s favourite crime writers
American thriller writer James Patterson is very popular with library users in Britain. Not only is he the author of Sail, the most borrowed book last year, but of 17 others on the list of 250 most borrowed books. Most of them, however, were collaborations with other authors. That leaves the field clear for another…
-
TS Eliot Britain’s favourite poet
TS Eliot is Britain’s favourite poet, according to a BBC online poll. More good news: John Donne came in second and Yeats and Dylan Thomas also ended up in the top 10. I am surprised Auden didn’t make the list. How couldn’t he? More than 18,000 votes were cast and the top 10 favourite poets…
-
BBC poetry site polling for Britain’s favourite poet
Carol Ann Duffy is the poet laureate, but who is Britain’s favourite poet? The BBC poetry site is running an online poll which closes on September 1. Voters can choose from a shortlist of 30 poets selected by a panel of judges. One can vote for TS Eliot, WB Yeats, Dylan Thomas, WH Auden, John…
-
Britain and Pakistan
The Shadow Of The Great Game: The Untold Story Of India’s Partition by Narendra Singh Sarila Tony Blair had to go because his Iraq policy proved deeply unpopular. We have read how Britons disapprove of their military presence in Iraq. But he was only pursuing traditional British policy. The Middle East matters so much to…
-
A rare English novel
I just finished reading Ian Rankin’s Fleshmarket Alley. What struck me was not so much the storytelling or the characterisation — Rankin has done better in earlier John Rebus novels which go deeper into characters and atmosphere. But this is a book one should read not only as a crime novel. What sets it apart…
READISCOVERY 