John Baker’s Blog

Amis at the ICA:

Society does not question or interrogate Islamist values openly out of fear of becoming the target. (Martin) Amis, however, is the Dirty Harry of the literary world. Come on, mad mullah, make my day. ‘I want to be a target. There are no Switzerland positions here’, he said.

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From The Guardian’s world of euphemisms:

The Yorkshire seaside resort of Filey is the only place in the world where dying is referred to as “going to the North Riding”. This stems from the traditional local government boundary which divides the town, with most people living in the East Riding but the cemetery just across the old county border.

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Ronan Bennett interview in Guardian Unlimited:

(I) “couldn’t justify to myself writing a novel unless it had a political relevance. My fiction has to be about more than aesthetics, more than character, and more even than the ‘human condition’.”

and

“I squatted,” he recalls. “I worked in a bookies … I went to Paris and hung around with Chilean refugees … I demonstrated, talked a lot of bollocks and wrote articles I would never want to re-read now.”

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