Another year, same story: of a range of intellectual and cultural
pursuits, albeit on a gradually diminishing scale but still worth
noting. Although this blog has not been
updated since the last entry of 23 July, I have done a fair amount of writing
elsewhere – reviews, papers, articles and other stuff – but for now let me
start with
Books
1) `Little Black Lies` by Sharon Bolton – ISBN 9780552166393 – Corgi
Books p/b – © SB 2015 – 485pp – a long-winded thriller, only attraction for me
was because it is set in The Falklands which we had visited during our South American cruise in January 2015. But I found the book to be a time-waster –
perhaps I should have taken note of the blurb on the back cover which contained
an endorsement by Paula Hawkins, author of `The Girl on the Train`, which also
I had not enjoyed much last year.
2) `The Streets` by Anthony Quinn – ISBN9780224096911 - J Cape h/b – © AQ 2012 – 260 pp – an
imaginative novel about Victorian England – poverty, deprivation, lawlessness,
slum-dogs and millionaires – a fascinating tale, narrator`s nightmares and
adventures expressed in graphic detail – the nineteenth century is my favourite
period for historical literature and this fitted the bill perfectly.
3) `And Home Was Kariakoo: A Memoir of East Africa` by M G Vassanji
–ISBN 978-0-385-67145-3 – Anchor Canada p/b – © MGV 2014 – 384pp – long awaited
memoir (because of Amazon`s long delay to deliver it) by a much admired author
– engrossing and enjoyable - his reflections on and recollections of people,
places and a life-time of engagement with his roots, all of which feature in so
much of his writings, kind of act as a literary travelogue and complete his
self-portrayal as one who came out of there to what he is now – a master wordsmith. I have toyed with the idea of countering the
damning review of the book in AwaaZ (Issue
1 of 2016) by Karim F Hirji but inevitably other pressures have prevailed.
4) `Exposure` by Helen Dunmore – ISBN 9780091953942 (Hutchinson h/b) –
© HD 2016 – 391 pp – an absolutely brilliant and gripping spy novel a la John le Carré – set in 1960/61 – in a part of London that was familiar to me (Muswell Hill, where I
lived in student digs for a while then) – the intrigues and the interactions
between middle-class Cambridge young men recruited into working for the secret
service – graphic details of social and domestic life and of the period
generally by an accomplished author.
5) `The
Other Hand` by Chris Cleave – ISBN – UK – 978 0 340 96342 5 (Sceptre p/b 2009)
– © CC 2008 – 378 pp – a superb mini-saga of the travails of an asylum seeker as
a metaphor for the intricate dynamics of the process in the present day –
the Nigerian proverb quoted by the
author as the end-piece serves as a perfect epigram: `If you face is swollen
from the severe beatings of life, smile
and pretend to be a fat man`! This is a
highly imaginative and intricately detailed fictional narrative of the central
characters, British and Nigerian, whose lives get entangled in fortuitous
circumstances as a metaphor really for the late 20th/early 21st
century phenomenon of Third World migration to the West. The plaudits the book received from a
cross-section of literary critics and reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic
were well deserved.
6) `Go
Set A Watchman` by Harper Lee – ISBN 9781785150289 (Heinemann h/b) – © HL 2015
– 278 pp – best described as a sequel to `To Kill A Mockingbird` (tkamb); it
had remained hidden for over 50 years since the publication of tkamb and its
iconic screen version; now Jean Louise Finch aka Scout returns to her home town
as a 26 year old to visit her ageing father and all hell breaks loose as she
relives the past and tries to fit it into the grim realities of the beginning
of a consciousness of civil rights and against the painful discovery of her own
family and father`s complacent and collusive condoning of the inequity and
injustice of the system and indeed resistance to any changes to the status quo,
with her own inner moral conflicts reflecting the prevailing mood of dark
forebodings – so the reader as much as the narrator is left to reappraise the
character of Atticus Finch and the message of tkamb! It was difficult to get into and to identify
the principal characters and plot-line but persistence paid off in the end.
7) `Swahili For The
Broken-Hearted` by Peter Moore - ISBN: 9780553814521 (p/b)
– other details missing because I left the book on the plane back to Gatwick
from our holiday in Sicily in early May after finishing reading it … an
enjoyable light weight travelogue of the Australian author`s journey from Cape
to Cairo towards the end of the 1990s (around 1999) by public transport (dodgy
buses, dodgy hotels/hostels, dodgy encounters with dodgy people) everything
imaginable that happens to a white backpacker travelling on their own; not quite in the same class as Paul Theroux
but with enough wit to engage the reader.
8) `The Man Who Forgot His Wife`
by John O`Farrell – (no ISBN) – a Black Swan p/b – 393 pp – a light-hearted
satirical look at a modern man`s journey through life and marriage as it
gradually unfolds after he has lost his memory … most amusing and acutely
observed take on our contemporary concerns.
9) `Shakespeare in Swahililand -
Adventures With The Ever-Living Poet` by Edward Wilson-Lee – ISBN: 978
0-00-814619-1 – William Collins h/b- © EW-L 2016 – 288 pp – a truly fascinating
and gripping account of the Bard`s impact on East African history and culture
through the Victorian era of British explorers and adventurers and the whole
colonial period to the post-colonial present, interspersed with selected
references to the author`s own personal life story – an extremely well
researched and documented work of erudition and expertise – the author is a
Cambridge academic steeped in the subject – see my separate review posted on
this site on 23 July and a later, shorter, version in AwaaZ Issue 2/2016 at http://www.awaazmagazine.com/volume-13-issue-2/book-reviews/item/817-shakespeare-in-swahililand-adventures-with-the-ever-living-poet - and I
also had the pleasure of meeting Edward at his presentation and discussion of
the book at the Tara Arts Centre in October.
Post Script: And as it
happens, I have this week been listening to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown`s masterly
evocation of five Shakespearean plays in a series of programmes on BBC Radio 4
past the midnight hour, the last of them last night, in which she explored the
theme of `Love Across the Racial Divide` with measured contributions from a
range of theatre producers, actors, critics and academic experts. The plays under scrutiny included Othello,
The Merchant of Venice and Anthony and Cleopatra. This seemed to be a fitting end to this
year`s 400th anniversary of Shakespeare!
10)
`Naked Diplomacy: Power and Statecraft
in the Digital Age` by Tom Fletcher – isbn: 978-0-00-812756-5 – © T F 2016
- 310 pp – from an insider, a practitioner of the craft, some useful advice
tracing the history and present day practice of diplomacy and statecraft with a
look to the immediate future, interspersed with personal and secondary
anecdotes – not much by way of original sources cited; more a journalistic
piece than an academic critique.
11) `A Quiet Life` by Natasha Walter – isbn: 978-0-00-811375-9 – © N W
2016 – The Borough Press h/b – 442 pp – loosely based on the notorious
real-life spy scandal of Maclean and Burgess, focusing on the wife`s character
in this fictional tale – her Anglo-American background and voyage to Britain
just before the outbreak of WWII and how she found herself drawn into the
gilded circle of the metropolitan upper middle-class while secretly hobnobbing
with a coterie of communist activists and how she married and lived the life of
the wife of a soviet spy, his eventual defection and exposure of his network
and all that followed – the social detail of the period is astonishing.
12) `Charles Dickens : a life` by Claire Tomalin – isbn: 9780670917679 - © C T 2011 – Viking h/b – 527 pp – an
authoritative and tremendously 12absorbing and powerful biography of the great
literary figure, second only to Shakespeare in English history – this was my principal
choice of book reading during our 14 day
Baltic cruise and I managed to finish it just in time. The 19th
century spanned before me day after day, charting the course of his hugely
eventful life from birth to death. Tomalin`s narrative superbly captures
Dickens`s multi-talented genius as a creative writer and critic, theatrical
producer and actor, public performer and political commentator and activist, through his
immensely complicated personal, family and social life – with warts and
all. This kept me thoroughly absorbed
and fitted in well with my daily cruise routine – a very satisfying and
fulfilling read indeed.
Note: The near juxtaposition of Shakespeare and Dickens in this list leads me to quote from Tomalin`s book. In Chapter 9 `Conquering America 1842`, at page 128, she mentions that Dickens`s friend `Forster presented him with a pocket Shakespeare for his travels`, as he was embarking on his momentous first trip to America. This was of course de rigueur for 19th century English travellers abroad, as noted in relation to the Shakespeare book. And as Dickens later wrote to Forster, he constantly carried it with him: `an unspeakable source of delight that book is to me` (p 135). Indeed, we are told (at p 129), in the context of the enormously enthusiastic reception that Dickens got from the American literati on his tour, that Cornelius Felton, Professor of Greek, was firmly of the opinion that Dickens rivalled Shakespeare in his powers of invention and invited the Dickenses to dinner at once and became a friend for life.
Note: The near juxtaposition of Shakespeare and Dickens in this list leads me to quote from Tomalin`s book. In Chapter 9 `Conquering America 1842`, at page 128, she mentions that Dickens`s friend `Forster presented him with a pocket Shakespeare for his travels`, as he was embarking on his momentous first trip to America. This was of course de rigueur for 19th century English travellers abroad, as noted in relation to the Shakespeare book. And as Dickens later wrote to Forster, he constantly carried it with him: `an unspeakable source of delight that book is to me` (p 135). Indeed, we are told (at p 129), in the context of the enormously enthusiastic reception that Dickens got from the American literati on his tour, that Cornelius Felton, Professor of Greek, was firmly of the opinion that Dickens rivalled Shakespeare in his powers of invention and invited the Dickenses to dinner at once and became a friend for life.
13) `The Wicked Boy – The Mystery of a
Victorian Child Murderer` by Kate Summerscale – © K S 2016 - Bloomsbury
h/b - 377 pp (isbn: 978-1-4088-5114-2) – and this was my companion piece for
lighter reading (!) during the cruise – the story of a real life murder and its
aftermath that began in the last two decades of the 19th century and
therefore with Dickensian echoes as far as the social setting of the tale was
concerned – meticulously and extensively researched, as indeed the Claire
Tomalin book was – both authors being renowned for the brilliance of their writing. I had
on a previous holiday trip read and been thoroughly engrossed in Kate
Summerscale`s `The Suspicions of Mr Whicher` (see my review of 2009) and
subsequently had read her Mrs Robinson`s Disgrace also and so knew what to
expect, though this one turned out to be not so thrilling! Even so her detailed
description of prison life in the late 19th century had resonances
with those of Charles Dickens in so many of his works, and of Oscar Wilde`s De Profundis!
14) `The Couple Next Door` by Shari Lapena – isbn 9780593077382-cased-
Bantam Press – © 1742145 Ontario Ltd 2016 – 302p – overly praised by reviewers probably in their
40s; not literary fiction by any means – a so-called thriller but badly patched
up and with an improbable underlying scenario – reminiscent of `The Girl on the
Train` (again!) because of the physical proximity of the principal characters
and their interactions. This is the kind
of book that has a fashionable appeal but has no long-lasting merit for me.
15) `Heroes of the Frontier` by Dave Eggers – isbn 978-0-24128993-8
(h/b) Hamish Hamilton – © DE 2016 – 385 pp – this was a better read than the
previous one – an actual as well as a metaphorical road trip through the
Alaskan wilderness of a single mother with two small children fleeing her
abusive relationship with a husband and litigation following her failed dental
practice in a battered old RV – the landscape and the inevitable hazards and
mishaps of the trip are well depicted – the end of the journey might or might
not be a wish fulfillment – at any rate a good piece of entertainment.
16) `The Sultan`s Spymaster: Peera Dewjee of Zanzibar` by Judy Aldrick –
isbn 978-9966-7572-0-3 (p/b) Old Africa Books – © JA 2015 – 291 pp – a
fascinating biography of the eponymous subject – a 19th century
super aide to successive Sultans of Zanzibar – a jack of all trades and
confidant of the rulers of this island empire – see my separate review at http://opinionmagazine.co.uk/details/2272/the-sultan-s-spymaster--peera-dewjee-of-zanzibar
17) `Before The Fall` by Noah Hawley – isbn: 978 1 444 77975 2 (h/b) –
Hodder Stoughton – © N H 2016 – 390 pp – a much hyped thriller about current socio/political dynamics among the
rich American NY/Boston elite, cleverly constructed plot but the climax is
poorly handled with a disappointing ending.
18) `Paris Spring` by James Naughtie - isbn: 9781784080198 –
h/b – Head Zeus – © JN 2016 – 378 pp
(dedicated to everyone on the Today programme, his broadcasting alma mater) –
nice to be ending the year on this spy thriller in the John le Carré mode set
in the eponymous Paris of 1968 when a revolution was in the air – his
characterisation of the principal players in the extended East-West spy
network, through complex relationships, is superb but the problem is with the
narrative and the plotline – which are buried in the dialogue between the different
characters and descriptions of their conversations often full of pointless
chatter, recalled in retrospect and with oblique allusions to sex and sexuality
– and so the reader is compelled to pay
close attention to their exchanges and interactions, some of which lead to
blind alleys – the world of espionage depicted however has a contemporary feel with
the volatile politics of East and West today.
Note:
How would I rank the
books? Certainly `Shakespeare in
Swahiliand`, `Charles Dickens: a life`, The Sultan`s Spymaster, and `And Home
Was Kariakoo` were at the top, followed closely by `A Wicked Boy` and `Go Set A
Watchman` but with an eclectic collection like this it is not always easy to
place one above another. Not counted in my reading list above are
books and professional papers for review or research, The Observer New Review and other
magazine articles plus the huge and increasingly pervasive amount of online
stuff in terms of critiques, blogs and op-ed pieces, nor my bedside reading of
the paper edition of the twice-monthly London Review of Books. Reading in short is a daily occupation!
Films, Plays, Concerts etc
1)
Tue 02 Feb @ NFT Studio – `Innocence of Memories” – dir: Grant Gee – filmic
representation of Orhan Pamuk`s 2008 novel `The Museum of Innocence` -
(Turkish/English) - 7/10
2)
Tue 08 Mar @ The Regent Street Cinema – London Asian Film Festival presentation
of the film-documentary `Continuous Journey` about the (in)famous 1914
`Komagata Maru` episode in Canadian immigration history –Director/Producer/Writer: Ali Kazimi – 2004, Canada – 8/10
3)
Sun 13 Mar @ Cineworld, Wandsworth - `Feast of Varanasi` - London Asian Film Festival – Dir: Rajan
Kumar Patel, with a cast of well-known Indian and British actors – set in
Varanasi – a serial killer on the loose and the police chase to catch him, with
an underlying theme of both Hindu philosophical and social interactions + dark
psychological profiles of the two English characters – 7/10
3)
Sun 10 Apr @ Odeon KT1 - `The Man Who Knew Infinity` - Dir: Matthew Brown,
based on the 1991 book of the name by Robert Kanigel about the life of the
mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan
– starring Dev Patel as Ramanujan, Jeremy Irons as his mentor and collaborator
G H Hardy, with a host of other Cambridge luminaries, among them Bertrand Russell, played by Jeremy Northam – the Empire backdrop as
well as the period setting (eve of WWI) of the drama is well captured and more
importantly its mathematical underpinning is put across in a non-academic
language that is easy to understand, though to the experts and the critics this
was overdone in a simplistic way, but very well acted by all nevertheless - 8/10
4)
Fri 20 May @ RFH – Zakir Hussain concert (including performance of his table
concerto Peshkar with the BBC
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zain Dalal) absolutely superb - 9/10
Note: After the concert, I wrote to
Zain Dalal via his website, drawing a parallel with the special concert inaugurating the
Festival of India that took place also at the RFH on 22 March 1982, conducted by Zubin
Mehta and in the presence of Prince Charles and the British and Indian Prime
Ministers, Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi.
We were actually sitting just below their box! That concert had also featured a
specially composed piece by Ravi Shankar (Raag-Mala: a Concerto for Sitar and
Orchestra) which was having its European premiere. He was pleased to read that and replied that any
concert with Zakir Hussain was always a momentous occasion.
5)
Tue 31 May @ RFH – RPO Concert (Beethoven`s Overture Prometheus; Mendelsohn`s
Violin Concerto; Orff`s Carmina Burana) – conductor: Charles Dutoit; Chloe
Hanslip violinist - 9/10
6)
Sun 31 July @ Odeon Epsom - `Jason Bourne`: the one in which he (Matt Damon)
says very little – Dir: Paul Greengrass
– 6/10
7)
Thu 01 Sep @ RFH - `Mandela Trilogy with Cape Town Opera & Chorus` and Cape
Town Philharmonic, cond: Tim Murray – exciting - 9/10
8)
Sun 04 Sep @ RFH – Chineke! Orchestra (con: Kevin John Edusei; cellist:
Sheku Kanneh-Mason) (Sibelius` Finlandia; Saint-Georges` Suite from L`Amant anonyme; Hayden`s Cello
Concerto in C & Dvorak`s Symphony No. 9) absolutely brilliant - 9/10 - Chineke is Europe`s first black and minority ethnic orchestra
9)
Thu 08 Sep @ NFT - `Julieta` (dir: Pedro Almodóvar - Emma Suárez Adriana Ugarte):
gripping, superb – 9/10
10)
Fri 16 Sep @ RFH – Darbar Festival opening concert: `Universal Notes` - Rakesh
Chaurasia/Nildari Kumar - 9/10
11)
Sun 18 Sep @ RFH – Darbar Festival; Shubha Mudgal /Ustad Amjad Ali Khan+Pandit Anindo
Chatterjee/Pandt Kumar Bose – 8/10
12)
Thu 05 Oct – LFF @ Embankment - `Mirzya` (dir: Rakeysh Mehra +* Harshvardhan
Kapoor/Saiyami Kher/Art Malik – scr: Gulzar) – spectacular … familiar theme
(Romeo/Juliet) dressed up in Bollywood style extravaganza – plot dependent on a
morally dubious foundation and characterisation – but fine archery and battle
scenes - 6/10
13)
Fri 06 Oct - LFF @ Embankment – `The Handmaiden` (dir: Park Chan-wook – South Korea 2016) –
inspired by Sarah Waters` Fingersmith relocates
the setting to 1930s Korea under Japanese rule – a fascinating tale of lust and
power with most explicit lesbian sex scenes which seemed pretty authentic – echoes of Stanley
Kubrick`s `Eyes Wide Shut` – a surreal experience - 8/10
14)
Mon 10 Oct – LFF @ NFT Studio - `Junoon` (dir: Shyam Benegal + Shashi Kapoor,
Jennifer Kendal, Naseeruddin Shah -
India 1979 - digitally restored) – absolutely brilliant – in terms of
period detail of landscape, battle scenes, history and characterisation – superb acting – a gripping
tale that drew the viewer into its fold with no holds barred - 9/10
15)
Fri 14 Oct – LFF @ Embankment - `Brimstone` (dir: Martin Koolhoven – NL – 2016
+ Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning etc) –stark and unrelentingly grim – basically an
anti-biblical tale about the close-knit Dutch Christian fundamentalist migrant
community in an unspecified pioneering location in the American west, where the
head of the family (Guy Pearce) rules with an iron fist both as a dour preacher
and a violent husband and father – not since `The Color Purple`, some 30 years
ago, where Oprah Winfrey played the part of the downtrodden and abused wife,
had I felt desperately wanting both his
wife and daughter (Dakota Fanning) to rise up and either break away or fight
the devil that he was, but this is a complex plot with lots of tragic twists
and turns – the end was a release - 9/10
16)
Sat 15 Oct – LFF @ Embankment - `Neruda` (dir:
Pablo Larrain - Luis Gnecco as Pablo Neruda; Gael Garcia Bernal as his
pursuer Oscar Peluchoneau - about when Neruda went on the run circa 1948 after
the President of Chile ordered his arrest; a bio-pic of the man that exposes
his character, warts and all – he comes across as a vain and arrogant man who
is conscious of his fame and name as a national poet – before the chase is on
we get a fair glimpse of the political background of the period and then with
flashbacks into his personal life – the physical and period settings are well
captured – the policeman`s introspective musings and conflicts are a running
thread – the whole movie is done in a semi-documentary style and stays focused
on the subject – recognised the fleeting shots of the presidential palace in
Santiago (which we have visited twice) - 8/10
Note: LFF = London Film Festival.
Note: LFF = London Film Festival.
17)
Sun 16 Oct – Odeon KT1 - `The Girl on The Train` (dir: Tate Taylor+Emily Blunt
as Rachel) based on the highly acclaimed book of the same title (see my Review
of 2015) – stayed true to the text – at the beginning difficult to make out who
was who (but that was also with the book) - 7/10
18)
Sun 27 Oct – Odeon KT19 - `A United Kingdom` (dir: Amma Asante + David Oyelowo;
Rosamund Pike) an absolutely brilliant production based on the true story of
Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams and of their romance and marriage that had so
shaken the British establishment with dire repercussions in South Africa –
superbly acted by David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, who actually shines as the
newly wedded wife starting out on a new life so fraught with political
overtones – her gradual `naturalisation` into a respected and beloved queen of
Khama`s Botswana people is touching but not oversentimentalised – a film
deserving of the highest plaudits – let`s see what awards it will get – 9/10
19) Tue 29 Oct – RFH – Mahler Chamber Orchestra
(conductor & piano soloist: Mitsuko Uchida) : Mozart PCs No. 17 & 25
with Barok`s Divertimento in between – all well played to an enthusiastic audience - 7/10
Note: Going through the above list, I am rather pleased
that almost all the films that I saw merited high praise. In addition, of course there were several others viewed on tv and DVDs - Hitchcock`s `Rear Window`, seen umpteen times and a favourite, springs to mind – but these I
have not noted specifically in my diary and therefore remain unlisted. And a great deal of my daily routine is
devoted to listening to many excellent literary, cultural and historical programmes on radio or watching them on tv, but there is no time to go into details here.
2016 Diary - Lectures, Talks, Events etc
1)
Wed 20 Jan – KCL Chapel - `In Different Skies: Music and Writing of the First
World War` (an evening of songs, music
and writings inspired by WWI, performed by among others James Gilchrist,
Matthew Cammelle, Reeta Chakrabarti etc) - 7/10
2)
Thu 11 Feb – SOAS – book launch: `Indian Doctors in Kenya, 1895-1940: The
Forgotten History` - Anne Greenwood & Harshad Topiwala – Q&A – 8/10
3)
Wed 17 Feb – RFH - `Among Giants and Ghosts` (Kazuo Ishiguro & David
Mitchell in conversation) – 7/10
4)
Wed 11 May – Lancaster Hall Hotel, W2 3EL – Book launch of `The Sultan`s
Spymaster: Peera Dewji of Zanzibar` by Judy Aldrick – intro by Jatinder Verma
of Tara Arts – Q&A
Note: It was a pleasure to meet both Judy Aldrick and
Jatinder Verma again after many years. Later,
I much enjoyed reading the book and did a review of it – as noted under `Books`
above – and see also below, entry for 12 Nov.
5)
Sat 21 May – RFH – Jaipur Literary Festival – attended 3 sessions – stimulating - 8/10 - https://jaipurliteraturefestival.org/southbank/jlf-southbank-program-2016/
6)
Thu 02 Jun – Wellcome Collection event: `Travels Through Indian Medicine`:
Aarathi Prasad in conversation with William Dalrymple about her new book `In
The Bonesetter`s Waiting Room` (serialised on Radio 4`s Book of the Week
programme from 23 to 27 May) - 7/10
7)
Wed 12 Oct – IofCS @ UCL - Cultural Rights and Constitutional Change in
Kenya: Progress and Challenges – a colloquium with papers presented by Lotte
Hughes, Harriet Deacon, Nicola Stylianou, Steve Ouma Akoth, Mark Lamont & John
Harrington and participation by attendees including Victor Lall, Edward Clay
and self - 9/10
8) Wed 19 Oct – Tara Arts Centre - `Shakespeare in
Swahililand : An illustrated Talk` by Edward Wilson-Lee – excellent, enjoyable -
9/10
9) Mon 24 Oct - RFH – The Booker Prize Readings (all
six short-listed authors, boringly chaired by Sara Pascoe) - 5/10
10) Sat 12 Nov – Willesden Green Library – Judy
Aldrick`s talk about The Sultan`s Spymaster – GLA – chaired by Bhadra Vadgama -
8/10 –so again had opportunity to interact with Judy
11) Thu 15 Dec – RSA – 1pm – Review of 2016 (panel:
Peter Frankopan, Sarah Churchwell, Matthew Goodwin – ch M Taylor) –
disappointing- 3/10
Miscellany
Once
again, I can truly repeat what I wrote in the concluding paragraph of my review of 2015. The pattern of life described there has not
changed much. But to that I would add a
sad reflection on the passing of at least two dear old friends, Tilak Johar, my
fellow lawyer in Leicester, and Stanley Meisler, ex-Los Angeles Times journalist, writer and critic, in Washington DC, a most kind and generous soul. This past year is also when many people one
has known for long are dying one after another – a sign of old age taking its toll. But that is another story.
What else? We spent a week in Sicily in May and were truly enchanted by the place - there is so much history buried there! Then in August we did a most wondeful 14 day Baltic cruise that took us to, among other places, Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki, and Copenhagen, the climax of which was a two-day stay at St Petersburg. There just wasn`t enough time to visit all the fabulous museums, palaces and other historic buildings and sites in that great city, but we came away thoroughly satisfied.
Anyway, this annual review is a useful exercise to go over all that one did during the year. To say that on the broader political and global front, we are indeed poised on the threshold of a new world order and an uncertain future is an understatement. The immediate future looks gloomy and so what 2017 will bring is an unknown gamble. There is nothing to do but wait and ride it out. With best wishes.
What else? We spent a week in Sicily in May and were truly enchanted by the place - there is so much history buried there! Then in August we did a most wondeful 14 day Baltic cruise that took us to, among other places, Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki, and Copenhagen, the climax of which was a two-day stay at St Petersburg. There just wasn`t enough time to visit all the fabulous museums, palaces and other historic buildings and sites in that great city, but we came away thoroughly satisfied.
Anyway, this annual review is a useful exercise to go over all that one did during the year. To say that on the broader political and global front, we are indeed poised on the threshold of a new world order and an uncertain future is an understatement. The immediate future looks gloomy and so what 2017 will bring is an unknown gamble. There is nothing to do but wait and ride it out. With best wishes.
RAMNIK
SHAH
(c) 2016
(c) 2016
Surrey,
England
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