Richard FarrMar 27The Pied Piper of Pennsylvania AvenueWe received this frightening little postcard yesterday. The contrast between the front and the back says so much. On the back there is important information ...
Richard FarrMar 27The uselessness of Eric AmblerIn the years leading up to the Second World War, Eric Ambler wrote some of the most influential thrillers ever published - more or less invented the genre, i...
Richard FarrMar 17A storey on or about dinasuors in Teh GrauniadI love The Guardian: it's one of the best news sources in the world. I feel guilty about The Guardian: I use it every day and ought to send lots of money to ...
Richard FarrFeb 27Nasty viruses and a question about precisionListening to NPR yesterday, I was informed (is that the right word?): "There are only 60 confirmed cases of infection by the Covid-19 virus in the US, but ex...
Richard FarrFeb 18Kafka's progressToday's quote of the day from The Browser - which I recommend to everyone - struck a cord for me. It's a commonplace in our culture to talk of "advanced civi...
Richard FarrJan 31American politics: the mistake of the ModeratistsMy old friend Aristotle is well known for the claim that moderation is a virtue - indeed, that we can locate virtue at the point of moderation. The latitude ...
Richard FarrJan 3It was a peach while it lastedFor three years now, an oily moral poison has been leaking from the wrecked hull of that stately grand dame of the democratic oceans, the USS White House. Th...
Richard FarrNov 25, 2019Italo Calvino on how to be an efficient writer“Every morning I tell myself, Today has to be productive—and then something happens that prevents me from writing. Today . . . what is there that I have to d...
Richard FarrNov 23, 2019Happy birthday George Eliot!One of the most luminous, most humane intelligences in history was born two hundred years ago today: But the effect of her being on those around her was inca...
Richard FarrNov 20, 2019Al-chemieReading all the depressing news about plastic, which has now found its way to the bottom of the Marianas Trench – I’m reminded again of a gorgeous paragraph ...
Richard FarrNov 18, 2019English and its HistorieWhy is English so much simpler in grammar and richer in vocabulary than so many other languages? (Why does the OED need twenty volumes?) I’ve been reading Ro...
Richard FarrOct 26, 2019Rammed with tourists?Today the Guardian – or Grauniad, as we lovers of its many typos call it – recommends the lovely Devon village of Tavistock as “not rammed with tourists.” I...
Richard FarrJun 3, 2019Trump v Mueller in Plato’s footnotesTwo pictures tell a thousand words. In his recent public appearance, Robert Mueller thought he’d been clear, or as clear as the peculiar legal and constituti...
Richard FarrJun 2, 2019Nasty journalismWhat with global warming to worry about, and Syria, and the Sixth Extinction, we really shouldn’t be spending any of our attention on what Donnie Darko said ...
Richard FarrMay 1, 2019RIP Les Murray 1938-2019The brilliant old curmudgeon, Australia’s great Bard of Bunyah, is dead. I found his political, social and religious outlook by turns offensive or barely int...
Richard FarrFeb 28, 2019The brutal irony of brutalised BrutalistsIn this article in the Guardian on the subject of famous “Brutalist” buildings under threat from demolition, I note with interest and satisfaction the immine...
Richard FarrFeb 15, 2019Scheming BritsI’ve been reading about a debate over the UK national pension scheme for teachers. This expression rolls off the British ear unnoticed, but after 35 years i...
Richard FarrJan 11, 2019Well anyway, all ends wellThe characters’ motivations make so little sense that theories abound about missing or garbled text. And some of its faults would be easy to understand in a ...
Richard FarrDec 18, 2018Ralph and CleopatraAntony and Cleopatra in the Olivier at the National Theatre; a bracingly modern techno-thriller with executive suites, machine guns, and a cleverly-done mode...
Richard FarrDec 17, 2018Brilliant idiomOver dinner in London, a fascinating discussion is launched by my American friend John A., who has been in-country for months but is struggling still with th...