Absolootely

Posted on by David Gelber

The Sloane Ranger Handbook, yawn, has been a rairly fun topic of conversation this Christmas. But it has been jolly yawnful. I can testify to this, having thumbed my way through endless cuttings that have a mesmerising quality of sameness about them. The reviewers are rairly nervous about looking a teeny bit chippy (chip on […]

Gender Principles

Posted on by David Gelber

Reviewing the reviewers is a pretty second-hand business, rather like eating chips with gloves on or listening to a George Shearing version of a Beatles hit. It is to writing what Marks and Spencer is to fashion; full of good intention but never quite the real thing. But just occasionally, even at this distance from […]

Good As Golding

Posted on by Frank Brinkley

It’s tough at the top. William Golding, Britain’s first Nobel laureate in fiction since Galsworthy, must know that by now, having read the reviews of The Paper Men. This, Golding’s most recent novel, presents the (fairly well worn) story of an elderly distinguished writer, Barclay, pursued by a voracious academic dunderhead who wants to scoop […]

Make Lunch Not War

Posted on by Jonathan Beckman

We all know how hung up the Victorians were about food. Eating was confined to the dining room and had to happen at certain times of day. There were repressive dietary rules which led to frustration and unhappiness. No eating between meals. Don’t eat banana before going to bed. Spinach is good for you. Luckily […]

The Death of Foucault

Posted on by David Gelber

When Michel Foucault the French post-structural philosopher, died in Paris on 25th June of an alleged septicaemia – a deadly form of body poisoning caused by lethal organisms and eventual infection of the blood – it was said in Le Monde that the Anglo-Saxon world had lost one of its most stimulating minds. The assertion […]

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