Nicholas Whyte 白怀珂

Got it.

Oops, good catch, thanks.

…with Barclay abandoning his humanity so he can recreate The Shape of Water’s ending? The answer appears to be all of the above, regardless of any contradictions that could arise between these disparate ideas.”

…about how governments and corporations will always conspire to eliminate any possibility of social change and maintain the status quo at the expense of billions? Or is this meant to be a simple Romeo-and-Juliet romance between star-crossed lovers from two different species in conflict…

…and keeping our rivers free of untreated sewage? Is it about the tragedy of colonialism, in which western civilisation makes contact with a new indigenous culture, makes plans to plunder their technology and knowledge, and subsequently wipes them out? Is it a geopolitical thriller…

“Perhaps the biggest problem with The War Between… is how it remains unclear what the main focus was supposed to be. Is it meant to be an environmental parable, in which Planet Earth’s vengeful ambassadors inflict karmic revenge upon us for not recycling our plastic…

Also: “having spent more than half my lifetime pretending to have read George Eliot’s Middlemarch, I have finally started reading Middlemarch. The good news is that it is every bit as good as I have been pretending I thought it was. If you haven’t read it, start today!”

2026 books 046: Stung With Love: Poems and Fragments, by Sappho, translated and edited by Aaron Poochigan

2026 books 045: The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi

2026 books 044: Elfland, by Freda Warrington

2026 books 043: The Doctor Who Yearbook 1995

He sat down, got out a pencil, and filled in the missing numbers on his own copy.

He was a remarkable man.

Second, when the much-missed Noel Whelan and I published a hastily written book about the 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election, Garret came to its Dublin launch, and immediately spotted that we had left one of the tables of election results blank.

I shook my head in bafflement. Garret chortled, in his characteristic way. “The camel!” he declared. (I have no idea if this is true, and suspect that it may not be.)

Around 1995, we were both at an Anglo-Irish political seminar, and I told him about my past medieval history research. He pondered for a moment, and then asked me a rather unexpected question: “Do you know what the main means of goods transport over land was in France in the eighth century?”

Today is the hundredth birthday of Garret Fitzgerald, Taoiseach from 1981 to 1987 with a gap in 1982. A lot of people of the right age will have personal memories of him. I met him a few times, and here are two of mine.

Great penultimate panel with Peter Davison, Fraser Hines, Matthew Waterhouse, Mark Strickson and Sarah Sutton
#gally1

Great penultimate panel with Peter Davison, Fraser Hines, Matthew Waterhouse, Mark Strickson and Sarah Sutton
#gally1

Don’t worry, it’s a minor detail! Otherwise much enjoyed.

I really liked this book.

Cambridge University returns legal ownership of 116 Benin artefacts to Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments The University of Cambridge today announces it has transferred legal ownership of 116 Benin artefacts in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) collections to Nigeria’s National Commission f...

Cambridge University returns legal ownership of 116 Benin artefacts to Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments

www.cam.ac.uk/stories/beni...

Fifty years ago, Terry Nation, creator of the Daleks and Blake’s Seven wrote a book for his daughter called Rebecca’s World. Not very long after that, I read it and enjoyed it; and today Rebecca signed a copy for me. #gally1

2026 books 042: The Dead Take the A Train, by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey (did not finish)

Sorry, mate, the king will not deny a request for a dissolution from the prime minister. I agree that the PM is unlikely to ask for it, but if he (or she) did, the king has no choice but to agree.

Millie Gibson: “You forty-year-olds are amazing!” … “I had to get a movement coach to teach me how to walk as if I was forty!” #gally1

Millie Gibson charming the crowd. #gally1