Tag Archives | george lamming

“In the Castle of My Skin” by George Lamming

1 June 2010 · Reading · Comments { 0 }

Reading this book made me realise how much has changed, both in literature and society, in the half century since it was written. First of all, the writing struck me as extremely old-fashioned. For the first few pages, we learn nothing except that it’s the narrator’s ninth birthday and it’s raining. There are long, detailed [...]

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“Commonwealth Short Stories”, part 1

25 February 2010 · Reading · Comments { 5 }

There are some excellent stories in here, from big names like V.S. Naipaul, Patrick White,  George Lamming, Chinua Achebe and Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (although this book is so old he is credited as James Ngugi, his birth name which he rejected as a sign of colonial influence). Also some good ones from writers I didn’t [...]

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Reading 8 or 9 hours a day

13 February 2010 · Literary events · Comments { 3 }

George Lamming also said something quite amazing in his speech, and I forgot to mention it in my last post. He mentioned that he reads for 8 or 9 hours a day, and has done throughout his life. If he doesn’t read that much, he feels – I forget the word he used, but basically [...]

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George Lamming on “The politics of reading”

9 February 2010 · Reading · Comments { 3 }

While I was in Barbados over Christmas and New Year, I went to a literary event – the 12th annual award ceremony for the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment, on Saturday 9 January 2010. The keynote speaker was George Lamming, probably Barbados’s best-known writer. He gave a fascinating speech on the politics of reading, which I [...]

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