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Norman Geras, 1943- 2013
I never met Norman Geras, but he’s been part of my daily life for years. His blog was always entertaining, intelligent, and thought-provoking. We had a shared interest in cricket, and I sometimes had exchanges with him via Twitter or e-mail about England’s chances against his beloved Australia, or who was the best spin-bowler of…
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Tash Aw
To the Burgess, to be present at the 2013 Burgess lecture, given by the Malaysian novelist Tash Aw, author of The Harmony Silk Factory, A Map of the Invisible World, and, most recently, the Booker-nominated Five Star Billionaire. Aw was an inspired choice to deliver the lecture, as it turns out he was a great…
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Judy Collins
What a privilege to be a few feet away from Judy Collins as she performed in St Ann’s Church in Manchester yesterday. There were no more than 130 people arranged on the pews to see this legendary (I use the word advisedly) artist perform. Blimey, I’ve given lectures to more people. Maybe more people would…
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The Lyons Lithographs
To the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, to view the Lyons Lithographs, three series of prints commissioned by the Lyons company, who owned the chain of Corner House tea-shops which were ubiquitous in England from before the First World War to the 1970s. After the Second World War, with many shops in need of refurbishment, and resources…
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The Trip to Jerusalem
I’m tempted to use “the mixture as before” for the third successive post. This is the next story in the Bracewell mysteries, and all the familiar ingredients are there: dastardly acts of sabotage by the Earl of Banbury’s Men; a player who is not what he seems; the abduction of one of the boy-players; marital…
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The Best British Short Stories 2013
Thanks to Salt for sending me this collection, the latest eclectic volume in their series. It’s very much the mixture as before, with well-established authors rubbing shoulders with newer names, with stories garnered from a variety of sources, from the august (Granta, The Edinburgh Review) to the obscure (Willesden Herald New Short Stories 6) and…
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The Merry Devils
The second volume of the Bracewell mysteries is very much the mixture as before. The familiar figures of the Earl of Westfield’s players, presided over by the calm and commanding presence of Nick Bracewell, encounter a series of baffling events that threaten their livelihood. Our hero’s wit, persistence and fortitude allow him to engineer the…
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The Queen’s Head
I came across Edward Marston, a new-to-me author the other day, and was impressed enough by his prolificity to have a go at one of his period detective stories. Marston has published over forty detective novels, all historical, as befits someone whose background is as a historian. What attracted me particularly to The Queen’s Head…
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Exterminate All The Brutes
What to do about the rising tide of human population? It’s quite simple, really. Here’s a neat solution, to be applied in a Utopian future republic: Procreation is the triumph of the living being over death; and in the case of man, who adds mind to his body, it is not only in his child…
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One Hand Clapping
To the Burgess, for an excellent adaptation of the master’s rather obscure early novel, the film rights to which were once held by Francis Ford Coppola.Here’s my review, posted at the IABF site.