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John Fowles
Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Author John Fowles dies aged 79 I was sad to read of the death of Fowles. The French Lieutenant’s Woman will go down as one of the most engaging postwar British novels, notable especially for a postmodern twist: alternative endings, presented by an intrusive narrator. That novel is a…
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Literature-Map – The tourist map of literature
Literature-Map – The tourist map of literatureThis is an interesting concept. Key in a writer’s name and watch the map develop. An interesting way of finding new authors similar to ones you already like, methinks.
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End of the book?
BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft scans British Library Reading stufff like this makes you wonder how long the printed book has got left. But the book has a great resilience, and I can’t imagine a time when it would be more pleasant to sit under a tree on a summer’s day with a hand…
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Blunkett resigns
BBC NEWS | Politics | Blunkett resigns from the CabinetBlimey! Cabinet minister does honourable thing shock horror…
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Jail for eBay phishing fraudster
BBC NEWS | England | Lancashire | Jail for eBay phishing fraudster A long time ago, in another lifetime, I taught this man. The last thing I recall him saying to me was that he was going to be famous one day. Well, he made it.
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The English Disease
Weekly book reviews and literary criticism from the Times Literary SupplementThe last time I mentioned Theodore Dalrymple in this blog, I received an angry comment from a reader in which Dalrymple was labelled a fascist. I replied, mildly, that although I could see that Dalrymple was certainly conservative (and maybe Conservative) that didn’t mean he…
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Famous portrait ‘not Shakespeare’
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Arts | Famous portrait ‘not Shakespeare’This is hardly a shock. Actually, if you google for the Grafton portrait, the first hit is the Norton site claiming it’s Marlowe. This is another example of the way that Shakespeare gets romanticised. We seem to want to possess him, and an authentic portrait…
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Keep on Blogging…
…because it’s changing the world aparently, according to this article on the new Flock browser. I just liked the picture.
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Word verification on
I’ve reluctantly turned this on, as I keep getting comment spam from brainless morons in Coleslaw Arizona…
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Malayan pantoums
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Stephen Fry’s Malayan pantoumsI agree with McMillan about Fry – he does seem, damn him, the complete renaissance man. McMillan is a lively and interesting poet, who has written much whimsical and humorous stuff, but who has a serious side too. I like “The Er Barnsley Seascapes” for their…