The local nasty extreme right wingers stuck a brochure through the door. I see that they are concerned that freedom of speech has disappeared. Under the liberal consensus no one can criticise Islam any more. Don’t worry they have a solution; send all those nasty people back where they came from. In the case of the very nice Muslim women who work in the boys’ creche, I think that would probably be Etterbeek.
NaBloPoMo – Are we there yet? P is for Parker, Parks and Pratchett
Parker, that’s Dorothy Parker, obviously. Do I need to say more? “If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised”
I have always liked the idea of Tim Parks rather more than the result. He is an English man who married an Italian woman and lives in Verona. I find his books about growing up in the midst of what is, essentially, an Italian family with a funny English father, insightful and sometimes amusing. His writing can be a bit convoluted for me. The best of his books is “A Season with Verona”. Although Verona is famous in the English speaking world for Romeo and Juliet, it is famous in Italy for being the most racist town in the country and having the roughest football fans. He spent a season bonding with the roughest of them. It is enlightening and surprisingly touching from time to time.
Terry Pratchett is great. He can be a little hit and miss but as my favourite aunt who reads everything says, why get something new from the library when you know you can rely on Terry Pratchett to deliver the goods. Mildly humourous fantasy set on a fictional planet called Discworld which resembles our own in many ways. I have them all.
