Anthony Holden
Elegant Pensées
In conversation at a recent literary do with two eminent Oxbridge professors of Eng Lit, past and present, I felt moved for some reason to drop the name of Frank Kermode. ‘Ah,’ said one of the profs, ‘writing a memoir, I gather.’ ‘Really?’ mused the other. ‘A memoir?’ The word was held in the air between thumbnail and index finger, then dropped on the passing canapé tray like a used cocktail-stick.
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