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News At A Glance #15

Friday, July 8, 2022

On Georgia(n)s, music, and the state of education. — For The Emigre

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Belarusians, books, drink, education, employment, Falklands Radio, fish, Georgia, Islam, Karl Marx, marriage, Michelle Donelan, mobility, Nelson Evening Mail, novels, Pakistan, racism, Reuben Harwood, Russians, sex, South Africans, the apocalypse, The Emigre, the UK, theremins, Turkey, Twitter, Ukrainians | Comments (0)

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, death, DH Lawrence, drugs, epigraphs, football, footnotes, Geoff Dyer, George Best, George Saunders, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gillian Slovo, Gillian Welch, health and safety, Henry James, 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)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, August 24, 2020

. The Challenger voyage report is in 48 volumes, which weigh over 400lb. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Thursday, November 22 1906 . In the Republic of Cameroon Guinness is thought to be an aphrodisiac. A search for ‘fat naked German man chasing pig’ did not match any image results. Bernard Lout was buried in […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged apparel, Bernard Lout, books, bookshelves, Cameroon, Challenger, Chrysippus, death, emus, England, finance, food, France, Germans, government, Greeks, Guinness, machine guns, Nelson Evening Mail, news, nudity, pigs, quizzes, satire, science, sex, Testudines, the Falklands, the internet, vocabulary, Warren Buffett | Comments (0)

The One That Got Away – Ruvin de Silva

Sunday, August 2, 2020

The Sri Lankan actor-director and documentary photographer talks about the greatest shot he never got… and one he did. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times

Filed in column, interview, Journalism | Also tagged acting, Barefoot, beer, cameras, Colombo, Deshan Tennekoon, dogs, Enda Walsh, Facebook, family, fashion, Flickr, Galle Literary Festival, girls, HSBC, Kilinochchi, Korn, money, Mount Lavinia, photography, Red Bull, Ruvin de Silva, Sri Lanka, Sunday Times (SL) | Comments (0)

State of the nation

Thursday, July 9, 2020

Review of Andrew Fidel Fernando’s debut book Upon a Sleepless Isle, which has just won Sri Lanka’s Gratiaen Prize (2019) for English-language literature. — For The Critic

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Andrew Fidel Fernando, Anuradhapura, beards, beer, Booker Prize, children, Colombo, colonialism, cricket, elephants, English, ESPNCricinfo, Gratiaen Prize, Jaffna, John Still, Kandy, LTTE, Michael Ondaatje, Minneriya, New Zealand, Nuwara Eliya, Picador India, Polonnaruwa, Shehan Karunatilaka, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, tea, the British, The Critic, the Victorians, tourism, travel, tuktuks, Uva Rebellion, writers | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, June 22, 2020

. The veddahs, or wild hunters, of Ceylon mingle the pounded fibres of soft and decayed wood with the honey on which they feed when meat is not to be obtained. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Monday, January 21 1907 . Samuel John Taylor Coleridge is the first descendant in more than two centuries to be […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged bears, cartography, Ceylon, drink, family, food, hair, honey, hotels, Laurie Lee, libel, London Zoo, Maradana, monarchy, Native Americans, Nelson Evening Mail, news, Oxford, parsnips, Richard Branson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, satire, the Welsh, veddahs, Washington Redskins | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, December 2, 2019

. 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, clothing, drink, ducks, English, food, goldfish, health, Hegel, history, holidays, London, madness, Nelson Evening Mail, new, politics, religion, Rioja, Robert Southey, Russia, satire, Scotland, Smak, Spinoza, the Irish, WG Grace | Comments (0)

Out and aboutpost

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Outpost: a journey to the wild ends of the earth by Dan Richards Canongate £16.99 (hardback) . Imagination fired by a picture of his father outside an Arctic shed, artist and writer Dan Richards sets off in search of places that ‘allow mankind a foothold in otherwise inhospitable terrain’. Icelandic ‘houses of joy’ (not what […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged architecture, art, Björk, boats, Canongate, Dan Richards, fire-fighting, Geoff Dyer, Geographical, Iceland, Jack Kerouac, lighthouses, Mars, non-fiction, Norway, Ranulph Fiennes, Robert Macfarlane, Roger Deakin, science, Svalbard, Switzerland, the Arctic, travel, Turner Prize, walking, Wendell Berry, Werner Herzog | Comments (0)

All good things must come to an end

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Some Trick: thirteen stories by Helen DeWitt New Directions, £22.95, pp.197 Certain American States by Catherine Lacey Granta, £12.99, pp.190 Hostages by Oisín Fagan Head of Zeus, £8.99, pp.269 Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus Granta, £12.99, pp.266 The Abyss and Other Stories by Leonid Andreyev Alma Books, £8.99, pp.315 . Only Helen DeWitt […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Alien, Alma Books, Americans, Anglo-Irish, art, Ben Marcus, Berlin, Bertrand Russell, bombs, books, Britishness, Catherine Lacey, children, coffee, computers, Cotton Eye Joe, crucifixion, death, domestic affairs, footnotes, genius, Granta, handjobs, Head of Zeus, Helen DeWitt, Ireland, Islam, Leon Wieseltier, Leonid Andreyev, linguistics, madness, maths, mental health, music, New Directions, New York, novels, Oisín Fagan, Oxford, painting, parents, plays, Poetry, publishing, revolution, Roy Keane, Russians, short stories, South Park, Spectator, terrorism, the Kaddish, Tolstoy, torture, WWI, xkcd | Comments (0)

Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy Bluffer’s Guide

Monday, June 4, 2018

Last weekend I played host to a particularly friendly cricket match – by which I mean that both teams had no clue what they were doing. The opposition, Rain Men, were captained by my friend and usual team-mate Simon, whose excuse was that he’d only played the game 263 times previously. The other captain was, […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged beer, Bluffer's Guides, Boris Starling, Brexit, cats, conversation, cricket, cycling, Duckworth Lewis, Englishmen, etiquette, fishing, footnotes, Fuller Pilch, girlfriends, golf, Harry Eyres, Haynes Publishing, James Trollope, Jonathan Goodall, Keith Hann, leadership, management, Marcus Berkmann, Mike Brearley, Nick Yapp, opera, Rain Men, Samuel Johnson, Serbo-Croat, social media, South Africans, Susie Boniface, Test Match Special, The Oldie, Town Malling, William Hanson, wine, wisdom | Comments (0)