Muriel Spark
So bad I wanted to escape: An Octoroon reviewed
Intriguing word, ‘octoroon’. Does it mean an eight-sided almond-flavoured cakelet? No, it’s a person whose ancestry is one eighth black.…
Cultured — and combative — criticism from America
Four years after his death, it is still faintly surprising to recall that Christopher Hitchens is no longer resident on…
Iain Sinclair and me — Michael Moorcock meets his semi-mythical version
In the late 1980s Peter Ackroyd invited me to meet Iain Sinclair, whose first novel, White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings, I…
Dear Mary: Dealing with your old friends now you’re a big success
Q. Success has come to me in later life with an unfortunate side effect. Since my career has taken off,…
Lose weight the Muriel Spark way
Those of you dieting your way to a svelte physique amid the flesh-exposing terrors of summer should take courage from…
