I finally forced my way through Durrell's Avignon Quintet. It is his centenary this year, something I only realised when I was halfway through. Considering the fact that I think Justine is one of the three or four greatest novels of the 20th century, this later collection of short novels was a massive disappointment. First of all, the writing is ( Read more... )

One of Paris's many summer festivals is on this weekend, a literary festival organised by the legendary left-bank bookshop Shakespeare & Co. Hannah and I cycled over this morning to see if we could get a seat to hear Martin Amis in conversation with Will Self. It was a bit chaotic - there's no tickets, it's first come, first served and consequently ( Read more... )

One of the really fascinating things about many African countries is that they are wrestling with issues from Western Europe's past, in the modern world. For example, ‘tribalism’ of the kind that Western Europe hasn't known for 1000 years is a massive issue in sub-Saharan Africa. Botswana is lucky - as in so many things - in the fact that ( Read more... )

(By the way -- I asked someone about Obama's name.  They told me "Obama" is an archaic dialect name which means "one who is not straight, a crook".  Huh.  I can see why he doesn't make much of that ( Read more... )

According to www.genderanalyzer.com:

We have strong indicators that http://wwidsith.livejournal.com is written by a woman (91%).
So what is it, exactly?

( Read more... )

Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage/relationship (or if you think you might be someday), and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

1. The Bishop of Lincoln is obsessed with my girlfriend's breasts. (Now how's that for a sentence you don't get to read every day.) He has told more than one erstwhile colleage at the Beeb about this interest, in unnecessary detail. ‘Last time she interviewed me,’ the right reverend apparently said, ‘I spent the whole time staring at her ( Read more... )