Occasional Rants

Yet again, I find myself quoting from other people’s material, but I like to share the things that inspire me. This time Stephen Fry has come to the rescue. Interviewed for the Radio Times by a 14-year-old boy called Eden, he was asked if there were any ambitions he had left. He quoted Oscar Wilde who…
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I read yesterday of the sad loss of Hilary (Hilly) Kilmarnock, mother of Martin Amis and wife of the late Kingsley Amis. I knew nothing of Hilly’s story, but was moved to learn how, years after she Kingsley and divorced, Kingsley, unsuited to life on his own, was welcomed into the home of Hilly and her husband, Lord Kilmarnock. The…
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This week, attending a book club meeting, I was asked the question, ‘Where are tomorrow’s writers going to come from?’ It was spoken with frustration by a primary school teacher who told me that parents don’t read to their children any more, that children don’t grow up seeing their parents reading at home, that living rooms are no longer lined…
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So, my local Lib Dem MP, Tom Brake, has emailed me to ask for my views on the proposal to repeal the ban on fox-hunting. And I want to reply with the word CRUEL to show my complete horror at the suggestion – but something is preventing me. It is the foxes who use my garden on…
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