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Italo Calvino on how to be an efficient writer
Richard Farr
  • Nov 25, 2019

Italo 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...
Happy birthday George Eliot!
Richard Farr
  • Nov 23, 2019

Happy 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...
Al-chemie
Richard Farr
  • Nov 20, 2019

Al-chemie

Reading 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...
English and its Historie
Richard Farr
  • Nov 18, 2019

English and its Historie

Why is English so much simpler in grammar and richer in vocabulary than so many other languages? (Why does the OED need twenty volumes?)...
Richard Farr
  • Oct 26, 2019

Rammed 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...
Trump v Mueller in Plato’s footnotes
Richard Farr
  • Jun 3, 2019

Trump v Mueller in Plato’s footnotes

Two pictures tell a thousand words. In his recent public appearance, Robert Mueller thought he’d been clear, or as clear as the peculiar...
Nasty journalism
Richard Farr
  • Jun 2, 2019

Nasty journalism

What with global warming to worry about, and Syria, and the Sixth Extinction, we really shouldn’t be spending any of our attention on...
RIP Les Murray 1938-2019
Richard Farr
  • May 1, 2019

RIP Les Murray 1938-2019

The brilliant old curmudgeon, Australia’s great Bard of Bunyah, is dead. I found his political, social and religious outlook by turns...
The brutal irony of brutalised Brutalists
Richard Farr
  • Feb 28, 2019

The brutal irony of brutalised Brutalists

In this article in the Guardian on the subject of famous “Brutalist” buildings under threat from demolition, I note with interest and...
Richard Farr
  • Feb 15, 2019

Scheming Brits

I’ve been reading about a debate over the UK national pension scheme for teachers.  This expression rolls off the British ear unnoticed,...
Well anyway, all ends well
Richard Farr
  • Jan 11, 2019

Well anyway, all ends well

The characters’ motivations make so little sense that theories abound about missing or garbled text. And some of its faults would be easy...
Richard Farr
  • Dec 18, 2018

Ralph and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra in the Olivier at the National Theatre; a bracingly modern techno-thriller with executive suites, machine guns, and...
Richard Farr
  • Dec 17, 2018

Brilliant idiom

Over dinner in London, a fascinating discussion is launched by my American friend John A., who has been in-country for months but is...
Richard Farr
  • Nov 27, 2018

Lynching the language too

No surprise that the President has rushed to the aid of Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, whose campaign in Mississippi has been threatened by a...
R.I.P Mary Midgley, 1919-2018
Richard Farr
  • Oct 18, 2018

R.I.P Mary Midgley, 1919-2018

The excellent and hugely underrated philosopher Mary Midgley has died at the age of 99, shortly after completing yet another book. (She...
Richard Farr
  • Oct 16, 2018

Suffering from an impacted adjective

This morning’s Seattle Times sports section has an entire page devoted to Seahawks owner Paul Allen, who died yesterday. The ghastly...
Pry social media from your own trembling hands?
Richard Farr
  • Oct 11, 2018

Pry social media from your own trembling hands?

Should you place a hood over the evil Facebook, blast Twitter out of its tree, and rip up all your Instagrams? You really should,...
Authoritarianism and its antidote
Richard Farr
  • Oct 8, 2018

Authoritarianism and its antidote

After so many headlines about the men who  want to turn the world into kindling and warm their hands over the flames (in just this...
Richard Farr
  • Oct 1, 2018

Oh … poo(p).

As a British writer who has lived in the US for 35 years, I constantly face the problem that I cannot remember which of my Englishes is...
Richard Farr
  • Aug 16, 2018

On Tyranny

Here are seven favorite quotations from historian Timothy Snyder’s superb short book of the same name: When the men with guns who have...
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