A Former Judge Flogs the Booker Prize [clickit]
The trouble with the English is that they are so English. They think that the works of native sons Chaucer and Shakespeare demonstrated for all eternity their racial superiority at the writing game. (And who knows? Maybe they're right.) Coincident with this is the so English notion that prestige is sufficient reward for good writing, for, after all, the best writers write for love of their craft, to hell with money.
Photo: Oliver Cromwell's Head. Read about who did this to him and why in Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, this year's Booker Prize winner. Help Hilary, buy the book.
Be that as it may, anyone interested in reading a novel set in 16th century England about statesman-rabble-rouser Oliver Cromwell should rush immediately to the nearest bookstore and buy this year's Booker choice, Wolf Hall.
