Andrew Lycett
The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief
The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief
By V S Naipaul
Picador 325pp £20
Sir Vidia Naipaul likes cats, so he cannot be all bad. There is a charming photograph which this magazine used four years ago to illustrate an interview with him. It shows the 2001 Nobel Laureate in Literature, relaxed and smiling as he holds his cat Augustus (mentioned in the piece), who meets the camera with feline nonchalance, legs askew, supremely trusting of his master.
An appealing feature of Naipaul’s latest book, a probing trundle round some of Africa’s less prominent countries in search of the roots of their religious beliefs, is the way he is often stopped in his tracks by cats. He himself works hard not to intrude on the action,
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It wasn’t until 1825 that Pepys’s diary became available for the first time. How it was eventually decrypted and published is a story of subterfuge and duplicity.
Kate Loveman tells the tale.
Kate Loveman - Publishing Pepys
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Was he really the finer artist, asks Tanya Harrod, or is it time Gwen emerged from her brother’s shadow?
Tanya Harrod - Cut from the Same Canvas
Tanya Harrod: Cut from the Same Canvas - Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John by Judith Mackrell
literaryreview.co.uk