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Trouble at’ Mill

Monday, May 31, 2021

Notes on the life (and afterlife) of JS Mill, philosopher . The classical liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill was born and died this month – in, respectively, 1806 and 1873 – and in between he wrote (or co-wrote, with his wife, and then his step-daughter) On Liberty, Utilitarianism, Principles of Political Economy, Considerations of Representative Government, […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Amazon Kindle, Avignon, Bertrand Russell, champagne, Charles Darwin, Colombo, death, Dilsiri Welikala, economics, education, Edward 'Clerihew' Bentley, Eliza Jarvis, Falkland Islands Radio Service, finance, Florence Nightingale, France, Frederick Langmead, furniture, GF Watts, Greek, Harriet Taylor Mill, health, Helen Taylor, Homer, housing, India, James Mill, Jean-Henri Fabre, Jeremy Bentham, John Milton, John Stuart Mill, Journalism, Joy Lo Dico, Kalpitiya, Latin, Matt RIdley, medicine, Millicent Fawcett, Monty Python, obituaries, philosophy, politics, Rupert Jarvis, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sri Lanka, the Chapman brothers, the East India Company, the Falklands, the London Stereoscopic Company, The Spectator, The Times, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Thomas Carlyle, Tom Holland, UCL, Utilitarianism, Vernon Bogdanor, Westminster, women, writing | Comments (0)

In-line, online, and where to draw the line?

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Notes on Colombo’s books and bookmen in the time of Covid-19. — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged alcohol, Aleksandar Hemon, Amazon, Ashok Ferrey, B&Q, Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, books, Buddhism, Ceylon, Ceylon Bible Society, charity, China, Chuck Palahniuk, clothing, Colombo, Colombo Fashion Week, Colombo International Book Fair, construction, Covid-19, Dan Brown, David Duchovny, democracy, Denis Johnson, Donald Trump, Dr Sudath Samaraweera, Dutch Burgher Union, education, Emma Donoghue, Emmanuel Carrere, England, Eventbrite, Facebook, Galle Literary Festival, Harrods, health, hygiene, Iran, James Hadley Chase, Jilly Cooper, Kumar Sangakkara, letters, LIDL, Lt General Shavendra Silva, Malaysia, Michael Chabon, Milo, money, music, Nicholas Mosley, Nixon, Northern Ireland, novels, One Galle Face, Ottawan, Panos Karnezis, rain, religion, Robert Knox, satire, schools, Shangri-La, Shehan Karunatilaka, shopping, Sinhala, snacks, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Exhibition & Conference Centre, Tamil, TASCHEN, taxes, TGI Fridays, The Big Bad Wolf, The Critic, the internet, the Sistine Chapel, Tisara Prakasakayo, TS Eliot, tsunami, VIPs, Waterstone's, weddings, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, August 17, 2020

. An architect named Firth was found at a Weymouth inquest to have shot himself in the side with a toy cannon while temporarily insane. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Tuesday, December 22 1908 . The SAS have killed some people in Afghanistan. The Veneziana pizza was invented in the 1970s by Pizza Express. In […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Afghanistan, anatomy, architecture, artillery, children, China, Christmas, cocks, Colombo, fathers, food, greed, humanity, laziness, madness, magic, Nelson Evening Mail, news, Pizza Express, reindeer, religion, robots, Russian, SAS, satire, Sir Isaac Newton, Sydney, the Dutch, trees, Venice, Weymouth, wolves | Comments (0)

Booksheds

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

As Colombo emerges from the Covid lockdown, I go immediately to one of my favourite places. — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Alfred Douglas, Andre Gide, Arthur C Clarke, bibliomania, books, Borges, Ceylon, coconuts, Colombo, colonialism, Covid-19, Craig Raine, Cyril Connolly, David Blacker, David Kugultinov, David Nichol Smith, Dee Brown, Dervla Murphy, Dickens, Edmund Waller, education, EM Forster, English, fauna, Georges Bataille, Gerald Manley Hopkins, Harold Nicolson, Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, Joan Collins, Joseph Conrad, Kalmykia, Lenin, libraries, Lionel Shriver, Louis Mountbatten, Madeleine Albright, Maradana, Michael Ondaatje, Nabokov, Peter Ackroyd, Richard Flanagan, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Sinhala, Sri Lanka, Tamil, Teilhard de Chardin, The Critic, the Duke of Pirajno, The New Yorker, Tom Wolfe | Comments (0)

Did The English Patient send me to Afghanistan?

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Two nights from now, by way of (ahem) a birthday present, I will be attending a live-orchestra screening of The English Patient at the Albert Hall. I had invited an old friend, a raven-haired young lady (named in Debrett’s) of impossibly romantic tendency, who first exposed me to the film in, I’d say, about 1998 […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Academy Awards, Afghanistan, Ahmed Hassanein, air travel, American University in Cairo, anatomy, Anthony Minghella, Arabic, army, Banana Republic, bedouin, Benny Goodman, Booker Prize, books, Brighton, Bruce Chatwin, Byron, Canada, Charing Cross Road, Christopher Hitchens, clothing, Debrett's, deserts, Dorset, Egypt, Egyptology, exploration, film, French Foreign Legion, Gabriel Yared, Geoff Dyer, Geographical, Geographical Journal, Herodotus, Hungarian, Hungary, JM Coetzee, John Ball, John Hare, Joseph Conrad, Justin Marozzi, Kensington Gore, Kristen Scott Thomas, László Almásy, London, Long Range Desert Group, Lorenz Hart, love, Michael Ondaatje, mountains, music, novels, Orientalism, Oscar Wilde, Oxford, Picador, plums, Ralph Bagnold, Ralph Fiennes, Ranulph Fiennes, Richard Bermann, Robert Twigger, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Geographical Society, Saul Kelly, Sinai, SOE, song, South Africa, the Himalayas, the Nile, The Oldie, the Sahara, the Western Desert, war, WG Sebald, William Golding, wind, women, WW2, YouTube, Zerzura | Comments (0)

Failure to launch?

Thursday, September 14, 2017

To Daunt’s in Marylebone, last night, where former pretty-boy and nightclub bouncer (and Amorist ‘Fiascos’ columnist) Anthony McGowan launched his latest literary venture, The Art of Failing. Subtitled Notes from the Underdog, the book chronicles a year in the life of West Hampstead’s shambolic would-be flâneur, by way of library mishaps, bad packed lunches, and […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Anthony McGowan, Charlie Campbell, cricket, Daunt, drink, Facebook, health, London, love, Oneworld Publications, parties, publishing, Sebastian Faulks, sex, Stewart Lee, The Amorist, Tom Holland, West Hampstead, wives | Comments (0)

23.10.12 – UPDATE (1)

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

1645 Pick up Derek Walcott’s Selected Poems in bookshop. p197 ‘the madman who tore Achille’s undershirt from one shoulder also tore at his heart.’ – FROM Omeros (1990)

Filed in Non-fictions | Also tagged books, Derek Walcott, diary, micro-non-fiction, Poetry | Comments (0)