Michael Holman
Independence Days
There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra
By Chinua Achebe
Allen Lane/The Penguin Press 333pp £20 order from our bookshop
The author is one of Africa’s finest novelists, his subject is one of Africa’s greatest tragedies, the accusations he makes could not be more serious, and his prognosis for Nigeria is grim indeed. This combination should make for a compelling read. Instead the result is a quirky mix of opinion, autobiography, history and polemic, uneven in quality and partisan in perspective.
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With just a few days to go until the first issue of the new decade, does anyone recognise the stern figure on our February cover?
'Fiona Shaw, in Jonathan Miller’s production, is the best shrew I have seen. She starts off in a mustard yellow dress with a mustard sharp tongue.'
From the archive, Kate Kellaway on a 1988 production of 'The Taming of the Shrew'.
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'He was not a revolutionary at all of course. He was only marginally a socialist. His tradition was rooted in the Liberal aristocracy, and his politics were entirely bounded by Parliament.'
From the archive, Paul Foot on Tony Benn's diaries.
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