John Baker’s Blog

We were at the Friends of Fairfax House Concert last night, which is where my attention was drawn to this little ditty, from Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes, 1982. Try reading it aloud:
 
The animal I really dig,
Above all others is the pig.
Pigs are noble. Pigs are clever,
Pigs are courteous. However,
Now and then, to break this rule,
One [...]

 
Every crime has something of the dream about it. Crimes determined to take place engender all they need: victims, circumstances, pretexts, opportunities. Paul Valéry
The Page Turner - (La Tourneuse de Pages) - is a French film (2006) written and directed by Denis Dercourt.
This is a revenge and psychological thriller of the kind that has been [...]

The Australian novelist, Patrick White, left behind a box full of papers which have been stored in the Australian National Library.
Out of the boxes came extraordinary treasures: photographs of the young swell at Cambridge in the 1930s; precious letters saved from the thousands he’d received in a long lifetime; the old man’s beret and [...]

We were at The Lowry, Salford Quays, to see Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. This was one of the last performances on the road before the company settle into London’s Wyndham’s Theatre until the middle of April 2007.
The school gives them an education. I give them the wherewithal to resist it. Examine a boy and [...]