Nigel Jones
The Potato Peer Who Knew No Fear
IF BRITAIN WAS the global superpower of the nineteenth century, then Lord Palmerston was its Teddy Roosevelt – he spoke softly, carried a big stick, and if he needed to (he rarely did) was not afraid to use it. In our guilt-ridden, powerless, post-colonial days, Palmerston is, frankly, an embarrassment. The man most identified with the concept of gunboat diplomacy, who sent a fleet to blockade Greece’s ports just because Don Pacifico, a Gibraltar-born Portuguese Jew with British citizenship, had had his house torched in a riot and claimed inflated compensation, is hardly a role model – or is he?
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
'When the language starts functioning as a character in fiction, when it is there drawing attention to itself ... It’s not anything that anybody really takes seriously.'
Our interview with Anthony Burgess from 1983.
http://ow.ly/5u0y50yrjoO
'Sabotage became so prevalent that bankers even created their own terms – ‘asymmetric information’, ‘lack of financial literacy’, ‘the principal-agent dilemma’ – to describe how they might turn a dime from customers’ gullibility or ignorance.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/master-criminals-of-the-universe
'Unlike much that was extracted from India, these paintings were not plunder, and those who created them were properly remunerated and often received due credit.'
@PParkerWriting on 'Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/artists-for-hire