Paris Review Vol. IV

Finished ‘The Paris Review Interviews Vol. IV’. Have to say that throughout the entire series I found the interviews with novelists and short story writers much more compelling than those with poets but I suppose that is understandable. Nor was I impressed by the late...

Made In Dagenham

On Sunday we went to see an excellent film, ‘Made In Dagenham’ about the Ford factory women’s strike in 1968. The dramatization was very evocative of the period, was funny and at times very moving: a little gem. The strike was initially called by the women sewing...

G. K. Chesterton

Finished G.K. Chesterton’s ‘Autobiography’. Mostly boring but with some notable things, some of which were quite funny. I always remember my friend Terry Devlin quoting Chesterton’s hyperbolic saying about the Irish: For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God...

Esperanza, Spanish for ‘Hope’

Wrote a feature for yesterday’s Andersonstown News on the Chilean miners who are still trapped below ground. I called the piece, ‘Esperanza, Spanish for “Hope”’. Here it is: The weather on Thursday, August 5th, wasn’t bad. You might have been getting ready for work or...

The Wee Waif With The Biro Marks

Finished ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ which I found tedious and long-winded. Derivative ‘Silence Of The Lambs’. Cannot understand the sensation around Stieg Larrson’s trilogy; and although my brother-in-law bought me all three as a present in August I doubt if I...