Category: Literature

Last Waltz in Vienna

Might it be better to re-read books that have given pleasure and can do so again, rather than read something new which may disappoint?

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Categorised as Literature

August Gleanings

August is the cruelest month to gather gleanings, so a smaller than usual harvest.

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War Games

Perhaps an antagonistic bull would buy this paperback if he were a bull in an airport bookshop. The publisher (Coronet) has packaged it to make it as unappealing as possible to a thoughtful reader.

Afghan Wars

Two Afghan wars in the 19th century are often quoted as a warning the Russians, then the US, UK and their allies and now perhaps China should have heeded.

July Gleanings

“My dear Rick, when will you realize that in this world today isolationism is no longer a practical policy?” (Casablanca)

Glass War

Two examples of dirty tricks targeting foreign powers in the 21st and 17th centuries.

First Catch Your Hare

The illustration is a red herring or a March hare or something. It is an interesting book but of no relevance today.

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Tears Before Bedtime

Obituaries are usually kind but this is the best The Independent could muster when Barbara Skelton died in 1996: “selfish, sulky, socially unmanageable, agreeable only when she was in the mood – the victim of the incurable boredom which fostered her promiscuity and her notorious rudeness”.

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Categorised as Literature

June Gleanings

I find it some consolation that whatever indignities the Catholic Church has suffered in recent years, it retains its pre-eminence in the art of casuistry. (Letter in The Times from Sir Richard Stagg about the Prime Minister’s marriage at Westminster Cathedral) 10th September 2012. The idea of His Blondness with a finger on the nuclear button… Continue reading June Gleanings

A Dolls’ House

I have finished The Quest for Queen Mary. There was one more especially enjoyable piece: James Pope-Hennessy’s visit to Copenhagen to meet Prince and Princess Axel of Denmark.