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, bookshops, Buddhism, Ceylon, Ceylon Bible Society, charity, China, Chuck Palahniuk, 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
|
The Sri Lankan writer and photographer talks about the greatest photo he never got… and one he did. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times
Filed in column, interview, Journalism
|
Also tagged Buddhism, China, David Blacker, demons, Interview, Kandy, light, monks, New York Times, novels, photography, Ritigala, Sinhala, Sri Lanka, Sunday Times (SL), Sweden, terrorism, travel, veddahs, war
|
Among the Ewe people of Togo (formerly Togoland), the village of Bé lies at the foot of the Tokoin plateau, between a stagnant lagoon and a sacred wood, the meagre remnant of an ancient equatorial forest that once covered the south of the country in its entirety. Here, the animist bokonon priests and priestesses of the python cult worship the forces of […]
Filed in Fictions
|
Also tagged Africa, animism, Borges, Dahomey, fear, Greenland, James Kirkup, Post-modern Bestiary, religion, sadness, snakes, Tété-Michel Kpomassie, Togo, translation
|
. One’s past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Wednesday, August 29 1906 . Globalisation is going into reverse. The (great) auk became extinct because he forgot how to fly. Your underpants contain cellulose. In the medieval period, walking through a labyrinth or […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
|
Also tagged Africa, aristocracy, auks, Australia, chemistry, crime, death, diamonds, Europe, fear, genealogy, globalisation, Greenland, Herodotus, history, hunting, Jeff Bezos, Jerusalem, keyboards, labyrinths, money, Nelson Evening Mail, poker, satire, the Bible, the Koran, walking
|
. There are more kilts in London than in Scotland. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Thursday, May 9 1907 . At 45% of the population, white Christians are a shrinking demographic in America. Hermal eggings are so leek. No sensitive person would choose to be the historian of the Irish asylums in the first part of the […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
|
Also tagged America, children, drink, ducks, English, food, goldfish, health, Hegel, history, holidays, humour, London, madness, Nelson Evening Mail, new, politics, religion, Rioja, Robert Southey, Russia, satire, Scotland, Smak, Spinoza, the Irish, WG Grace
|
. During one year a high police official in New York was offered £120,000 in bribes to “look the other way.” — The Nelson Evening Mail, Tuesday, June 22 1909 . The night is chilly to a man without clothes. You get a free tote bag if you subscribe to almost anything. Sussex folk have few superstitions. There […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
|
Also tagged Americans, bags, books, cricket, crime, death, elephants, garlic, Glasgow University, international affairs, mental health, monarchy, money, Nelson Evening Mail, news, Pocahontas, rabies, religion, satire, sex, sleep, Sussex, the English, the Irish, the Lonely Planet, Thomas Mann, towns, travel, trees, weather
|
. The King has a collection of 170 curious walking sticks. One is made from one of the piles of old London Bridge. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Wednesday, April 10 1907 . All the best people are born in October. In Moldova (and Czechoslovakia), ‘carp’ is spelled ‘crap’. In 1492 Native Americans discovered Columbus lost […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
|
Also tagged books, buses, Christopher Columbus, cutlery, Czechoslovakia, democracy, engineering, fish, grandmothers, health, honey, London, Max Hastings, Moldova, monarchy, mountains, Mozart, Native Americans, Nelson Evening Mail, news, October, painting, piles, rugby, Rugby World Cup 2019, Russia, satire, Scotland, sex, stupidity, termites, walking sticks, war
|
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, bookshops, Brighton, Bruce Chatwin, Byron, Canada, Charing Cross Road, Christopher Hitchens, 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
|
Monday, February 19, 2018
. In China the dials of a clock turn round instead of the hands. — The Nelson Evening Mail, September 8 1908 . Benedict Cumberbatch reads Oryx magazine. A piece of pasta (dry) weighs essentially one gram. A man can only care about so many things. Labels are for clothes. In Bosnian there are no words for […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
|
Also tagged Benedict Cumberbatch, Bosnian, brothers, China, cows, Darryl Gerrity, death, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Englishmen, fiction, film, friends, grapes, Hawaii, health, horology, Islam, love, magazines, measurements, men, music, Nelson Evening Mail, non-fiction, pasta, pornography, Qatar Airways, Reading, religion, Russians, Virginia, white goods
|
Monday, September 11, 2017
. Miss Mary Elsen, of Chicago, is suing Dr. Charles Weser, a local doctor, for 60 breaches of promise during a four years’ courtship. — The Nelson Evening Mail, June 22 1912 . Soldiers are quite fond of children. Chopsticks are the reason the Chinese never invented custard. The senior members of the House of Commons are not […]
Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE
|
Also tagged actors, Americans, army, Belgium, chickens, custard, dairy, Elton Jantjies, Epicurus, fleas, French, hair care, Karl Marx, Nelson Evening Mail, Penge East, politics, religion, Richard E Grant, romance, rugby, sex, shopping, South Africans, statuary, the Chinese, The Erotic Review, Tiberias, vanity, women
|