Harriet Waugh
God Sits on His Crane
Recently there has been much discussion in the papers about the demise of the plot in modern novels. In its place, it is suggested, we are now given style, and a sort of clever knowingness. If there is any truth to this contention, then Muriel Spark's Reality and Dreams is as fashionable as novels come. There is precious little plot, but the novel nevertheless grips, pleases and enthrals.
This is the situation: Tom is a film director. He is
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'There are at least two dozen members of the House of Commons today whose names I cannot read without laughing because I know what poseurs and place-seekers they are.'
From the archive, Christopher Hitchens on the Oxford Union.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/mother-of-unions
Chuffed to be on the Curiosity Pill 2020 round-up for my @Lit_Review piece on swimming, which I cannot wait to get back to after 10+ months away https://literaryreview.co.uk/different-strokes https://twitter.com/RNGCrit/status/1351922254687383553
'The authors do not shrink from spelling out the scale of the killings when the Rhodesians made long-distance raids on guerrilla camps in Mozambique and Zambia.'
Xan Smiley on how Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/what-the-secret-agent-saw