From 70s pop stars to Lib Dem MPs to celebrity feminists, the modern public figure seems to be vulnerable to private temptation by the figure of the young man. Everyone knew Germaine Greer’s battiness had set in properly when she wrote that book about beautiful boys, though the female circumcision thing had already given the […]
Read MoreWriter (and prolific Harry’s Place commenter) SeanT, aka Toffee Womble, is also displeased with the lack of fact-checking in contemporary publishing that led to the success of the largely made-up James Frey memoir A Million Little Pieces: The second reason I am personally pissed off with James ‘I spent eight minutes in prison’ Frey is […]
Read MoreApparently it costs too much money for publishers to fact-check the non-fiction they produce: Last Thursday, publishing-industry veteran Nan Talese was excoriated on television by Oprah Winfrey for publishing James Frey’s 2003 “A Million Little Pieces,” a bestselling memoir about the author’s struggle to overcome drug dependency that he has since admitted is partly fictitious. […]
Read MoreHave you ever had that experience when you’re quietly browsing a public library and you (foolishly) strike up a conversation about one of the books on display with one of the other regulars—a slightly intense-looking middle-aged man in a sweater—and you gradually realise you are engaging with someone from the other side of the reality/fantasy […]
Read MoreElectronic paper is here at last: I want this and I want that.
Read MoreClean-cut “youf” operatic quartet G4‘s cover of Radiohead’s Creep is either a crime against music or a post-modern deflation of passive-aggressive indie rock whining. I’m not sure which, but either way I am worried that my sister likes it and that I can’t think of a good reason why she shouldn’t. “Is It Just Me […]
Read MoreEh! Eh! Calm down! Yes, I parenthetically threatened to kick Harold Pinter’s hospital bed for his drivelling on about the US foreign policy, but I have a lot to do right now. If I do put the boot in it won’t be before the weekend because I need a nice unbroken slot of time to […]
Read MoreThis story appeared on the BBC News Website yesterday: “Pakistan’s government is to remove a poem from a school textbook after it emerged the first letters of each line spelt out “President George W Bush”. “The anonymous poem, called The Leader, appeared in a recent English-language course book for 16 year-olds. “ The Pakistani authorities […]
Read MoreOne of the extracts from novelist John Fowles’ diaries in the Guardian today neatly sums up the attitude of a certain kind of educated observer to the War On Terror: Rushdie fuss. Eliz in a paranoiac state, that I might support him. This is a clear moral choice. From what I have heard of him, […]
Read MoreI’ve put all my bedroom furniture together now, and my bedtime reading over the past few days has been Philip K. Dick’s The Man In The High Castle. [Typically, Penguin publishes the book inside two different tarted-up covers, but with the same nasty old typesetting inside.] As “what if the Axis won the War?” novels […]
Read MoreI could have chosen one of hundreds of quotes from various Whedon interviews over the years to set this brief (and somewhat random) rant off, but this is particularly apt: “I love genre. I love fantasy. I love science fiction. I love horror. I love musicals. I love finding a different way to express what […]
Read MoreMichael Brooke takes Enid Blyton’s testimony.
Read MoreThis quote from Zadie Smith, is cited by Celia Walden in The Daily Telegraph as further evidence of the young (and annoyingly successful) author’s being “cantankerous”: “In a lot of chick lit, depicting women slightly older than me, the sexual maturity is that of a nine-year-old. The sex is just this giggly and ridiculous activity […]
Read MoreThis lunchtime, Borders bookshop/café/newsagents: having picked up a couple of special offer items, I’m on my way out into the street when I notice the two Georges—“Gorgeous” Galloway and “Moonbat” Monbiot that is—at 20 percent off. As always I have my long-suffering Minolta with me, so I get it out of my rucksack and uncap […]
Read MoreMy mother always taught me that reading books would help me to get on in life*. You only have to look at my dazzling career to see how right she was. (Funnily enough, people in my old job looked at me like I was stupid because I refused to cite a source without actually plodding […]
Read MoreReading the extract from the Evening Standard article that Norm quoted today, I was distracted by the phrase “a self-help guide for would-be terrorists”. Huh? What’s it called? Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway? I’m OK, You’re Kuffar? Who Moved My Caliph?
Read MoreSince I last mentioned her work Gloria Salt has moved to a new home at her own domain. Thanks to the alphabet she goes almost to the top of the PooterGeek ‘Blogroll. The new banner for her ‘Blog “Apropos Of Nothing” carries a nice big photo of her face too, which could quite reasonably be […]
Read MoreI’m not just writing this because she was so nice about me yesterday in her Normblog profile, but Pashmina really is on a roll at The Grammatical Puss. Her Austen-pastiche preview of the latest adaptation of Pride And Prejudice is quite the most pleasing thing I have read all week. [Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet? […]
Read MoreThank you for your superb contributions to the Bad Poetry Celebrity Deathmatch, both here and at Harry’s Place. Backword Dave suggested that we were questioning the artistry of the inspirational work of Harold Pinter and Michael Rosen because we disagreed with the poets’ politics. I don’t read his ‘Blog much any more, and when I […]
Read MoreCurrently these are the top five most popular stories on Florida’s Local6 news Website: Giant ‘Blue Bird’ On Roof Upsets Neighborhood Killer Bees Found In Louisiana Cops: Man Fabricated Hitchhiker’s Death To Make Wife Leave Giant ‘Bra Fence’ Sparks Controversy Woman Allegedly Sells Sexual Favors To Elderly For $4 [LUNCHTIME UPDATE:] Noteworthy headlines in the […]
Read MoreYou thought Harry “Haystacks” Pinter was unbeatable, but now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Michael “The Bomber” Rosen. [via Voslunga] UPDATE: I thought I’d have a go myself. (Anyone is welcome to join in in the comments.) War is bad When Americans do it. Blowing up civilians is understandable As long as you’re really, […]
Read MoreIf, like me, you have found that reading Harry Potter leaves you unmoved, but you feel the need to keep up with the plots so you can discuss the phenomenon with the Pottd People around you, you’ll be pleased to know that Leasey has been reading the latest volume on behalf of PooterGeekers. Apparently, the […]
Read More“I will follow you to the ends of the earth,” replied Susan passionately. “It will not be necessary,” said George. “I am only going down to the coal-cellar. I shall spend the next half-hour or so there.” P.G. Wodehouse, quoted by R.W. Burchfield
Read MoreYesterday afternoon a man walked past me in my own street wearing a surgical mask. He wasn’t a med student collecting in the street for rag week. He wasn’t on his way to respray a car. I don’t live next to a hospital. He was a smartly dressed academic-looking type with his mouth covered. Also […]
Read MoreThe Web is full of ordinary people from all over the planet whittering on about whatever they want to. Other people all over the planet can read their whitterings for next to nothing. Add a bit of peer review and you have a wonderful meritocracy of whittering. This account of West Bromwich Albion escaping relegation, […]
Read MoreGeorge Szirtes has commented at PooterGeek a couple of times, not always to agree with me. I was going to write an enthusiastic review of his collection An English Apocalypse here, but I’ve lost the copy of it I got from Amazon only a fortnight ago. Just order a copy. What I’d read of it […]
Read MoreHere’s a couple from booklover Judith. Firstly, the first line of Amazon’s first editorial review of Robert Crais’s thriller Hostage: “Robert Crais is the real thing: a writer who keeps topping himself…” Secondly, she’s found a celebrity chef who just might displace Nigella in my dreams.
Read MoreTwo other ‘Blogs (so far) have passed that Fahrenheit 451 questionnaire thing on to me to answer. Bugger.
Read MoreThese remixed romance novel covers are painfully funny. Admittedly the raw material was probably hilarious already—just not on purpose. [I don’t read Instapundit any more, so I refuse to be embarrassed that he picked this up a week ago.]
Read MoreCardinal declares, “The book is everywhere. There is a very real risk that many people who read it will believe that the fables it contains are true”, says, “It astonishes and worries me that so many people believe these lies”. Scientist comments, “It amuses and disappoints me that the cardinal is talking about The Da […]
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