D J Taylor
The American Delusion
ONE OF THE incidental diversions of judging the Man Booker Prize - a task that occupied me, on and off, from early June to mid-October - is the chance to inspect what gets written about the prize. Little of this torrent of material, alas, was calculated to enhance one's self-esteem. One was a hopeless elitist. One was a closet middlebrow. One was shamelessly biased against anything emanating from the worthy margins of our literary culture. One was using the worthy margins of our literary culture as a stick with which to beat the established talents, of whom one was pathologically envious. One felt, in fact, rather as Iain Duncan Smith must feel whenever he reads a leading article in The Independent: whatever you do will be found fault with, so there is no real need to alarm yourself about it.
As for what got written, leaving aside the knockabout effusions of journalists not generally known for their interventions in the world of polite literature, what might be called the Broadsheet Newspaper Booker articles ad two main angles. There his the usual bleating about making the prize more 'popular', or as some character in the Evening Standard put it, plumping for 'the books
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
It is a triumph @arthistorynews and my review @Lit_Review is here!
In just thirteen years, George Villiers rose from plain squire to become the only duke in England and the most powerful politician in the land. Does a new biography finally unravel the secrets of his success?
John Adamson investigates.
John Adamson - Love Island with Ruffs
John Adamson: Love Island with Ruffs - The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
literaryreview.co.uk
During the 1930s, Winston Churchill retired to Chartwell, his Tudor-style country house in Kent, where he plotted a return to power.
Richard Vinen asks whether it’s time to rename the decade long regarded as Churchill’s ‘wilderness years’.
Richard Vinen - Croquet & Conspiracy
Richard Vinen: Croquet & Conspiracy - Churchill’s Citadel: Chartwell and the Gatherings Before the Storm by Katherine Carter
literaryreview.co.uk