Literary purists – JM Coetzee, Martin Amis, Zadie Smith, myself – like to argue that the writing of fiction is a solitary, often anguished, occupation. Increasingly, though, the idea is taking route that writing can be a social, even larky pursuit. The Quill and Quire blog has picked up a story suggesting that 18th century… Continue reading Where writers go wild
Read moreDecember is, traditionally, a moment when those who write and review books express seasonal good cheer by puffing their friends’ latest work in the newspapers’ Christmas recommendation lists. A few take a more self-promotional approach, preferring to remind the world of their own intellectual sophistication by selecting as their book of the year an obscure,… Continue reading We must ride to the rescue of books
Read moreA DJ leaves his morning show. The nation mourns. When Terry Wogan presented his last morning Radio 2 show this week (he’ll be back in another next year), it was an event which was marked in the BBC news throughout the day. There was a sombre, formal farewell message from the radio knight himself. Emotional… Continue reading The rage of the Woganites
Read moreThere are, it seems, two categories of lying in public life. There is the personal, self-serving lie, designed to advance a career, cover up a scandal, to make some extra cash from a sloppily structured expenses system. Then there is the institutionalised lie – a wilful distortion or suppression of any evidence which is likely… Continue reading Governed by the ill wind of deception
Read moreOh, bugger. At the very moment when finally – and nervously – I am joining the blogging community, the whole thing is slipping out of fashion. In a brilliant Observer article about writing in the digital age, Tim Adams refers to a backlash against online communication. “The capacity for rigorous sentence construction… is being replaced… Continue reading A blog virgin confesses…
Read moreHere is the latest news from Planet Bonkers: in order to encourage children to become involved in the 2012 Olympics, a computer simulation of running round a track is being sent to schools. The ultimate in sport for all (it is so inclusive that children will not even have to move off their obese behinds… Continue reading In cyberspace, I can hear the addicts scream
Read moreBy now the story has become such a media archetype that it almost writes itself. There is the grim housing estate, the baby-sitting session that turns into a nightmare, the traumatised aunt or grandparent, the shocked neighbours, the remorseful parents. Dog kills child. Oh dear, poor little thing. It is another grisly, depressing, predictable tale… Continue reading Protecting a country gone to the dogs needs licences help
Read moreIt has taken some time but at last Britain has come up with a symbol to represent our commitment to the environment and concern for the planet. Our version of the polar bear on a melting ice cap is to be… the tree. It is now National Tree Week and it would be churlish to… Continue reading Planting trees is a facile option
Read moreAt about the same time as a dastardly hacker was stealing the email archive of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, a senior member of the same faculty was addressing a group of villagers in south Norfolk. The professor’s themes were energy and climate change, matters of particular interest in a part of… Continue reading Science must never be political or emotional
Read morePositively the last word on the strange saga of Elizabeth Truss, the Dave’s Darling would-be MP for south-west Norfolk, and her run-in with the Turnip Taliban: it was not about sex or even about using Google. When members of the local Conservative Association objected to her candidacy, the problem was not that she had once… Continue reading Look out, the locals are revolting
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