I like to think I’m pretty good contestant at Conspiracy Theories. But any fellow conspirators, I guess, imagine the same thing. A general rule of thumb, whatever the 45 th American President believed, I believe the opposite. The great thing about fiction is you can—literally—put words into people’s mouths. In Ugly Puggly , for example, this is exactly what I think, but not so exactly that anyone would believe a real person would think this way...

I’d heard of Oskar Schindler— the clichéd read the book and seen the film—but I hadn’t heard of Resko Kasztner the Hungarian born Jew. Anna Porter tells us who he was and what he did. There are historical echoes of many of the lessons here that we’ve already forgotten. Chapter 32, begins with a quote from [United States] : ‘Rowell McClelland, Report on the Activities of the War Refugee Board from March 1944 to July 1945. ‘Dr Israel Kasztner...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00162yr ceteris paribus adverb With all other factors or things remaining the same. other things being equal ; with all other things or factors remaining the same. all other things being equal Anyone that has done O-grade economics knows what ceteris paribus means. It means nothing in the real world, because all things are not equal. Since the late nineteen-seventies, year on year, decade on decade things have...

The Trees by Percival Everett was shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2022. I take it Percival Everett is a black man. Critical Theory suggests you should shut the fuck up and just read the book. It doesn’t matter if the writer is pink or orange or gay or transgender. What matters is the text. It inhabits a world free-floating above the artist where great works of art exist. A bit like heaven, but without The Booker Prize. Percival Everett, like me...

A young man once asked Buddha to explain the essence of the Teaching. “If you cling, you are bound. If you do not cling, you are free,” Buddha replied. + L ast night was New Year's Eve, it was raining and very dark as my good friend Mark drove me home through the streets of our town near Gloucester. He is an excellent and very careful driver and as a company representative covers many miles every month. He was familiar with all the streets and...

Damon Galgut’s novel, The Promise , won the Booker Prize in 2021. In a Strange Room was shortlisted for the Man Booker almost ten years ago. This is a short book, split into three parts: ‘The Follower,’ ‘The Lover’ and ‘The Guardian’. I liked the ‘The Guardian’ best and ‘The Follower’ least. I doubt I’d have continued with the book if it hadn’t had the tag: Booker Prize-Winning Author on the cover. I’m not immune to hype. Like the moral...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0dgrqhx/mayflies-series-1-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0dgrryf/mayflies-series-1-episode-2?seriesId=p0dgrpz0 My partner said I’d like this. We don’t have the same tastes. She watches fuckin Emmerdale and Coronation Street. But she knows I’m a sucker for anything Scottish, with actors playing working-class characters. I’ve not read Andrew O’Hagan’s book, yet. So I’m doing it in the wrong...

People have done very well indeed, when one considers that most of the week has been Twixt-mas - or as the Scots have it "The Daft Days". Story of the Week Maddan's final monthly ghost story rounds the year off with a belter, "The Glitch". Poem of the Week I've chosen Onemorething's December Ravens as poem of the week, it's good to see the word 'bister' being used. Reading this kind of poetry is like watching the pastoral linking shots in '...

‘Death begins when no one can remember you any longer.’ Reading is what I do. That’s a quote from a Fresh Water for Flowers , a book I recently read in which the main character is a cemetery keeper. I got a Facebook message from Biggins telling me Debbie was dead. I replied, I didn’t know any Debbies. Then I thought about it some more and sent another message, ‘Debbie Gilmour’? Her daughters Jasmine’s and Victoria’s Uncle Joe did the talking at...

This is my non-fiction book of the year 2022. Ideally, it should be read before or after my film documentary of the year: Big Oil v The World. (A transcript of the third part of the series has been attached in Notes). When people talk about disinformation or misinformation that’s a polite way of saying you’ve been lied to. Again and again you’ve been lied to. Your children are going to die. Your children’s children are going to die in such vast...