Category: Literature

A Forgotten Author

I don’t know how I know the story of The Monkey’s Paw. Perhaps it was done as a play at Castle Park or read to us there? It is a short story published in 1902 and subsequently adapted for stage, screen and the wireless. The genre, if you don’t know it, is spooky, chiller,thriller.

Eton Voices

When I heard that Tam Dalyell had died I remembered that he had been interviewed by Danny Danziger in Eton Voices.

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Categorised as Literature

Book Reviews

You scan the book reviews? Some are plodding, dull recitals of the plot – actually this is good – saves reading the book; others are masterful.

Testament

A few mid 20th century writers have been mentioned here as being unjustly neglected today: Alec Waugh and Peter Fleming, both overshadowed by their younger brothers, William Sansom and now I have another name to add to the list.

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Categorised as Literature

Ego

I mentioned at the beginning of last month diarist and theatre critic, James Agate (Men of Letters). I have the second volume of his diaries, Ego 2, but Lyttleton, Hart-Davis and Leigh Fermor have stopped me reading it.

Dashing for the Post

You may recall that I feel an especial affinity with Patrick O’Brian’s series of novels about Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin (A Spy in the Family) but nevertheless I have got but never read the last (twentieth) in the series – too sad-making I was told. Fiction doesn’t have to have a sad ending but… Continue reading Dashing for the Post

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Categorised as Literature

The Tartar Steppe

It’s feast or famine at No. 56 and right now it’s feast. A feast of lovely books and I will share them with you as I read them. First I never got round to mentioning that I was given two books after I fell downstairs.

Suez and Brexit; Keep the Aspidistra Flying

As the Suez Crisis unfolded, as with the war we waged in Iraq, it became clear that there had been a pretty big bish. International opinion consigned Britain and France to the dog house; petrol was rationed; the Prime Minister went to recuperate at Goldeneye (Ian Fleming’s house in Jamaica). George Lyttleton expressed his feelings… Continue reading Suez and Brexit; Keep the Aspidistra Flying