Category: Literature

A Murder of Quality

John le Carré wrote A Murder of Quality in 1962, the year before he wrote The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The former introduces George Smiley being a detective after a murder at a famous English public school.

Published
Categorised as Literature

Walkers

Gladwyn Jebb was a distinguished civil servant, diplomat and politician. References to him abound in Kenneth Rose’s Journals and, to a lesser extent, in Harold Nicolson’s Diaries. Curiously Chips Channon only mentions Gladwyn once in his Diaries.

The Fourth Wall

The fourth wall, as you know, is the space which separates a performer from the audience; or, if you will, the conceptual barrier between a fictional work and its viewers or readers.

The Durbar Court

On Monday morning I had to sing for my supper at the Foreign Office. The FCO fund election observation missions and want to know how their money has been spent, what we did and what impact it has.

A Good Gossip

I’m reading The Journals of Kenneth Rose in small doses, not because they are heavy going; they are highly readable; there are aperçus on every page and they deserve to be savoured.

Joyride

  An unexpected present plopping through the letter box on a cold morning brought a surge of gratitude to my thoughtful friend who had sent it.

Published
Categorised as Literature

Side by Side

Side by Side … by Nicolson and Rose. Kenneth Rose’s journals are, I hope, a bright new star in the literary firmament. Let’s see how they match up to Harold Nicolson’s diaries.

Guy Burgess

Andrew Lownie spent thirty years researching this book and interviewed more than a hundred sources, as the list of acknowledgements attests.

High Treason

Is it too soon to digress? Don’t muddle High Toast with High Treason; the former an agreeably astringent snuff but the latter is also to be taken seriously. In ‘the good old days’, the existence of which is very doubtful, the usual punishment for dabbling in the latter was hanging, drawing and quartering.