An odd, apparently light-hearted conversation from the weekend has been bothering me. At a dinner, a bright, opinionated woman from London, on a weekend in the country, had been amused to see roadside signs objecting to a wind turbine development...
Read moreTwo of the great playwrights of their generation meet for dinner. A renowned biographer, married to one of them, records the event in her diary. "Dinner with Tom and Miriam Stoppard. Harold: 'I don't plan my characters' lives.' Then to...
Read moreA small moment of shame has occurred. I have earned a mention in the Independent’s Errors and Omissions column. As the name of the column implies, no appearance in Errors and Omissions is likely to be good news, and this...
Read moreOne of the easiest ways for a British writer to gain cheap credibility with readers is to sneer at his fellow-countrymen. Foreigners like these acts of literary self-abuse because they make them feel smug. The English love them even more...
Read moreIn a conveniently neat Old Year/New Year package, the government has provided evidence as to why, on the big questions of policy, it is not to be trusted. Old year. Three days before Christmas, an excellent time to bury bad...
Read moreThis time 10 years ago the internet was a bubble that was about to burst. Mobile phones were simply telephones that one could carry around. A blog sounded like a monster from Dr Who. Social networking involved meeting people. Defriending...
Read moreImagine, for a moment, a Christmas TV special produced by someone who has courageously decided to break with tradition. Jeremy Paxman is in the chair and among the guests gathered for yuletide are Sir Mick Jagger, Tracey Emin, Andy Murray,...
Read moreLiterary 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...
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...
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...
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