Category: Literature

Canary Tweets

Guess how many islands belong to Spain. Now check on Wikipedia – there are 179 – but some are tiny.

Overlap

I have almost finished the biography of Churchill by Roy Jenkins. In a way I wish it were shorter, in a way I find it engrossing and in another way I find it induces post-prandial somnolence.

Project Gutenberg

The oldest library in the world is thought to be the Library of Ashurbanipal in modern day Iraq. When it was founded in the 7th century BC it was in Assyria, a city-state in Mesopotamia. The oldest continuously working library may be the Al-Qarawiyyin library in Fez, Morocco, dating from 859 AD (a suspiciously precise… Continue reading Project Gutenberg

Reginald in Russia

Reginald sat in a corner of the Princess’s salon and tried to forgive the furniture, which started out with an obvious intention of being Louis Quinze, but relapsed at frequent intervals into Wilhelm II. He classified the Princess with that distinct type of woman that looks as if it habitually went out to feed hens… Continue reading Reginald in Russia

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Quare Fellows

I get muddled between Bowles and Burroughs. Both American writers who lived in Tangiers, were gay and of a similar vintage; Bowles 1910 – 1999, Burroughs 1914 – 1997.

Christmas with Chips IV

Chips (Channon) records Christmas Day in his diary: 1944 – 1952. Monday 25th December, 1944. The Old Rectory, Elveden, Suffolk. A day too ghastly and cold almost to chronicle! Paul and I started out in the very cold for Henlow at 11.15: thick fog overtook us as we crept the whole way – warm welcome… Continue reading Christmas with Chips IV

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Christmas with Chips III

Chips (Channon) records Christmas Day in his diary: 1940 – 1944. Christmas Day, Wednesday 25th December, 1940. HMS Edinburgh Castle, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Of all the Christmases this is the most exhausting and unpleasant. I didn’t sleep last night for the noise of the lizards at Bathurst racing in my room . . . and… Continue reading Christmas with Chips III

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Christmas with Chips II

Chips (Channon) records Christmas Day in his diary: 1936 – 1939. Friday, 25th December, 1936. A day of cards, we must have had nearly 300 from all over the earth, but none from either poor Wallis Simpson nor the Duke of Windsor. Many cables, but bad presents. Honor, Paul and I are all ill, or… Continue reading Christmas with Chips II

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Christmas with Chips

Chips (Channon) records Christmas Day in his diary: 1924 – 1935. Thursday, 25th December, 1924. Christmas – the gloomiest of days. I arrived from New York feeling very lonely and thinking of all the happy Christmases I have had in England and of Madresfield where I had promised to be now – a bitterly cold… Continue reading Christmas with Chips

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From Conrad

To Diana Cooper, 23rd December 1945, Barhatch, Cranleigh, Surrey. And I got your letter about Maurice.* It was of deep interest to me. Especially as I can’t talk to Diana about him. Diana thinks writing poetry and being a Catholic (or having any religion) the two big unpardonable idiocies. So you can’t expect much sympathy… Continue reading From Conrad

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