Like Vladimir Nabokov, I think the word ‘genius’ should be used incredibly sparingly and not be casually bandied about. In certain fields of human endeavour the appellation seems relatively easy to understand and identify – I’m thinking of science, philosophy, mathematics and music, in particular. We appear able to recognise genius in composers almost instinctively. […]
By William Boyd Let us begin at a notional beginning. I have an image in my head of a band of Neanderthals (or some similar troupe of humanoids) hunkered round the fire at the cave-mouth as the night is drawing in and one of them says, spontaneously: ‘You’ll never believe what happened to me today.’ […]
I want to begin with two quotations that will go some way to revealing my own position on matters of faith. ‘The Andaman islanders believe in a class of supernatural beings which are denoted by the term ‘spirits’… The spirits of the forest and the sea are believed to be generally invisible… [and] are believed […]
Readers develop unique histories with the books they read. It may not be immediately apparent at the time of reading but the person you were when you read the book, the place you were where you read the book, your state of mind while you read it, your personal situation (happy, frustrated, depressed, bored) and […]
Foreword by William Boyd “O homem nâo é um animalÉ uma carne inteligenteEmbora às vezes doente.” [Man is not an animalIs intelligent fleshAlthough sometimes ill.] Something of the baffling, beguiling, disturbing appeal of Fernando Pessoa is contained in these three lines of poetry taken from a short poem he wrote in 1935, the year of […]
By William Boyd April 20th 1945. On this day, almost sixty years ago, Adolf Hitler celebrated his 56th birthday, in the Fuhrerbunker deep below the Reich Chancellery in a Berlin virtually surrounded by the Russian army, devastated by artillery and heavy bombing. On previous birthdays the custom was that he would be greeted by his […]
By William Boyd There are many mysteries in the life of William Shakespeare and perhaps none is more intriguing than the one he initiated himself when he published, in 1609, a collection of his sonnets. When we start to consider the enduring enigmas and controversies that circle and shroud the sonnets it’s a good idea […]
By William Boyd North by Northwest was released in 1959 between two of the great masterworks of Hitchcock’s career,Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960). Looking at the film today and knowing its chronological context one is tempted to see it as a welcome moment of light relief between the darker, more complex forces that powered the other films. For North […]
By William Boyd It is Monday the 5th November 2007 and I have gone on strike. I’ve been a member of the Writers’ Guild of America (West) for twenty years now and this is the second time I’ve downed tools on their instructions. The last time was in 1988, a writers’ strike that lasted from […]
The Shipwreck, the Scandal, the MasterpieceBy Jonathan Miles334 pp. Jonathan Cape £17.99 On July 2nd 1816 the French frigate Medusa, en route for Senegal, ran aground on the dreaded Arguin sand bank off the west coast of Africa. Incompetent seamanship had landed the vessel there and attempts to refloat the Medusa over the next couple […]