I just found out that while working for Eyre and Spottiswoode— surely my favourite British publisher, just for the name alone— Graham Greene edited the first novel of a man better known as a fantasy illustrator:“Greene scrupulously hammers Mervyn Peake for the facetiousness, prolixity, and overwriting in the original manuscript of Titus Groan. Peake, after […]

A musical jam from New Orleans to Congo to Moscow. A melodic tribute to the power of the internet.I’m not sure how they cope with the time delay as signals are bounced to HEO and back, but they seem to do it well.There are jam sites, or so I’m told. My Inner Rock Star is […]

Here are pictures of the tombs I promised you. The bottom picture was taken from our hotel room balcony in Dalyan. These are referred to as “Lycian temple tombs,” though as it happens these particular tombs are in Caria, and are part of the necropolis of Kaunos, a once-great city whose ruins are now accessible […]

The other night the three of us went to the hamam, or Turkish bath. The order can vary, but generally this involves a long relaxing stretch on a slab of hot marble, a tub of hot water being splashed all over you, a scrub with a scratchy mitten, a sudsy massage, followed by a cleanoff, […]