Reviews of Cultural Amnesia
Nicholas Lezard in "The Guardian".
This book, says James in his introduction, has been 40 years in the making - that is, from when he became well-off enough not to have to sell books in order to eat, and could make notes in the margins instead. (Hence the subtitle.) As he reminds us, this is how Montaigne's essays started. And Montaigne's essays themselves, we may recall, can enter areas not immediately suggested by their titles. "This might well be", asserts James in his "Note on the Text", "the only serious book to explore the relationship between Hitler's campaign on the eastern front and Richard Burton's pageboy hairstyle in Where Eagles Dare." Well, none other springs to mind, but then maybe I just haven't read enough.Articles by James
James laments the decision to allow the use of mobile phones on planes. I can only agree.
And he also writes about change for change's sake.
And he tackles dilemmas, moral and otherwise.
Poems
Jane, on the "What the Thunder Said" blog, provides the full text of James's poem "After the Storm". Best read it before it gets taken down.
