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Late stylishness

Thursday, July 7, 2022

The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings By Geoff Dyer (Audiobook read by Richard Burnip, 11h 29m, Canongate Books, £21.87) . It’s late June, Wimbledon’s upon us, and Geoff Dyer is talking about his tennis injuries. Geoff Dyer is always talking about his tennis injuries. It’s one of his endearing features. But when […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged 9/11, Achilles, age, Al Pacino, Alfred Tennyson, Americans, Andy Murray, Anthony Powell, audiobooks, Beethoven, Bjorn Borg, Bob Dylan, Burning Man, Canongate, Chuck Yeager, Coetzee, Custer, David Cameron, David Thomson, De Chirico, DH Lawrence, drugs, epigraphs, football, footnotes, Geoff Dyer, George Best, George Saunders, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gillian Slovo, Gillian Welch, health and safety, Henry James, humour, James Last, jazz, Jean Rhys, JMW Turner, John Berger, John Coltrane, Jorah Mormont, London, loo roll, Martin Scorsese, Mike Tyson, Mohicans, Nietzsche, non-fiction, Paris, Pete Sampras, Peter Ackroyd, Philip Larkin, Raymond Williams, Rebecca West, references, Richard Burnip, Roger Federer, shampoo, Tarkovsky, TC Boyle, tennis, The Doors, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, the Olympics, trains, William Basinski, Wimbledon, work, WWII, YouTube | Comments (0)

Longdon pride

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

In the run-up to the 40th anniversary commemorations, a review of James O’Connell’s step-by-step first-hand account of one of the Falklands War’s bloodiest battles. — For Perspective

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged 3 Para, Aldershot, Argentinians, audiobooks, bayonets, Brian Bowles, Brigadier General Julian Thompson, christenings, Colin Mace, communications, Elliot Fitzpatrick, Freddie Gaminara, Geoffrey Lumb, grenades, helicopters, Huw Parmenter, Ian McKay, injuries, James O'Connell, Joe Gaminara, Korea, landmines, Max Hastings, mental health, Moody Brook, Mt Longdon, non-fiction, Oseloka Obi, Paul Panting, Penelope Rawlins, Perspective, plastic surgery, Port Stanley, Sam Newton, shit, Simon & Garfunkel, tea, the Falkands War, the Victoria Cross, the Victory Bar, Union Jack, war, youth | Comments (0)

News At A Glance #4

Friday, April 22, 2022

Concerning sparrows in Ethiopia, more than one Alma in Wisconsin, and William Langley in Port Stanley. — For The Emigre

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged beards, berries, birds, Cameroon, dogs, Ethel Smyth, Ethiopia, facts, fleas, government, Guinness, intelligence, Moondog, music, Nelson Evening Mail, news, patriotism, publishing, rivers, Rome, Russians, satire, sex, Shantha Bandara, singing, Sri Lanka, Stanley, TE Lawrence, The Emigre, the sea, typos, William Langley, Wisconsin, women | Comments (0)

News At A Glance #3

Friday, April 15, 2022

More or less news more-or-less concerning Lord Salisbury, Quakers, and Chaldaean numerology. — For The Emigre

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Africa, Americans, Australia, big mamas, cars, Chaldaea, China, gold, Guildenstern, lighthouses, Lord Salisbury, maps, March, mental health, natural resources, Nelson Evening Mail, news, numerology, Old Norse, Patrick Watts, Princeton, Quakers, Rosencrantz, satire, Siberia, soup, swearing, The Emigre, the Supreme Court, vitals | Comments (0)

A little less conservation…?

Thursday, September 2, 2021

Wild Souls: Freedom and Flourishing in the Non-Human World by Emma Marris Bloomsbury £20 (hardback) . Stepping slightly sideways from where she left off in Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World, Emma Marris now turns her attention to a series of ‘exercises in practical philosophy’ on the ethics of humans versus(?) wild animals. From […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged biodiversity, birds, books, chimpanzees, ecology, Emma Marris, ethics, evolution, food, Geographical, Hawaii, nature, New Zealand, non-fiction, philosophy, polar bears, rats, the Arctic, the Royal Geographical Society, veganism, Yellowstone National Park | Comments (0)

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, bookshops, champagne, Charles Darwin, Colombo, 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)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, November 2, 2020

. The Paris Louvre is in future to be guarded by watch-dogs. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Monday, July 13 1908 . A gold coin celebrating the assassination of Julius Caesar has been auctioned for more than $3m dollars. 50% of a man’s hair is gone before it becomes noticeable. Good socialists need not refuse […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged antisemitism, army, asteroids, biscuits, cigars, crime, dogs, Doris Lessing, Esperanto, gold, guns, hair, Indians, Jeremy Corbyn, Julius Caesar, LL Zamenhof, marriage, men, money, mountains, Nelson Evening Mail, news, Paris, police, roads, satire, security, socialism, Sri Lanka, stupidity, suicide, Sweden, The Democratic Party, the Louvre, Yorkshire | Comments (0)

Year’s mind

Monday, October 12, 2020

On South Africa’s historic 1995 Rugby World Cup win, its aftermath, and the sad death of James Terence Small . On Sunday morning, the first big international rugby fixture – All Blacks vs the Wallabies – was played since Covid halted the Six Nations back in early March. This will be followed by the other […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Andre Joubert, Andrew Mehrtens, apartheid, Australia, Bledisloe Cup, Butch James, Chester Williams, Chris Hani, drugs, Ed Morrison, Eric Cantona, Francois Pienaar, James Small, Joel Stransky, Johannesburg, John Smit, Jonah Lomu, Jonny Wilkinson, Joost van der Westhuizen, Kent, Nelson Mandela, New Zealand, Os du Randt, parents, Paul Gascoigne, Robben Island, rugby, Rugby Championship, Rugby World Cup 1995, Sean Fitzpatrick, Six Nations, Siya Kolisi, South Africa, sport, Springboks, The Critic, Tom Hardy, TV | Comments (0)

Faux Amis? Or, the art of the nonvel

Friday, October 9, 2020

Inside Story: a novel / How to Write By Martin Amis Jonathan Cape £20 . It is traditionally ‘not done’ to review books in terms of what they’re not. And yet: this book is not a novel. It says it is on the front cover; but it isn’t. And Martin Amis makes it clear it’s […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged 9/11, Amazon, autobiography, Brexit, Christopher Hitchens, Clive James, criticism, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Jane Howard, food, Germany, James Fenton, Jonathan Cape, Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, Mystic Meg, Nabokov, nonvels, Philip Larkin, pilates, publishing, Robert Conquest, rugby, Salman Rushdie, Saul Bellow, sex, Solzhenitsyn, terrorism, the Gulag, the Holocaust, The New Yorker, The Oldie | Comments (0)

The Gentleman’s Marathon

Monday, October 5, 2020

On my attempt to run 26.2 miles, in Pheidippides’ footsteps. — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Afghanistan, army, artillery, Athens, Bosnia, Brett Raymond, champagne, Chariots of Fire, Charlton, Classics, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, gentlemen, Google, Greece, Haruki Murakami, health, hills, Homer, Honourable Artillery Company, Iraq, Joseph James Prosser, kilometers, London marathon, Lucian, Marathon, Merrell, miles, Olympics, Panathinaiko Stadium, Persians, Phaleron War Cemetery, Pheidippides, running, Silverstone, the Aegean, The Critic, war | Comments (0)