Autobiography
Trivial moaning
There is much to be said for Schadenfreude. (If it was edible, it would be a meal in a very…
Bertie Wooster in the commentary box
There can be a strong strain of self-parody in even the greatest commentators. When Henry Blofeld describes the progress of…
The courage of her convictions
In 2012 a Taleban gunman, infuriated by Malala Yousafzai’s frequent television appearances insisting that girls had a right to education,…
An elegant command
Alan Bennett once overheard an old lady say, ‘I think a knighthood was wasted on Derek Jacobi,’ and I know…
A unique capacity for personal egotism
It is peculiarly apt that the author of this autobiography should be the man who coined that now fashionable term…
The Pepys de nos jours
Frederic Raphael is forensic in his description of the failures of successful people. He is enviously superior and he is…
Escape through the locks
The title, the subtitle, the author’s plain name, even the jacket’s photograph of a laughing old lady in sunglasses: none…
When the picturesque turns ugly
Under his real name, Charles James Stranks, the author of this little masterpiece wrote on a number of ecclesiastical subjects:…
Good timing
‘Value and worth in any of the arts has always been about timing,’ writes British director Nicolas Roeg at the…
