Went to an awards ceremony presented by the European Centre for Common Ground last night, largely out of respect for President Trajkovski of Macedonia, who was killied in a plane crash in February, and whose wife was collecting a posthumous award on his behalf. I got to talk to her afterwards, which was nice; we managed to stay off Macedonian politics, which was a relief since I’ve spent most of the last two weeks immersed in it.
The evening was mainly devoted to awards for Middle East journalism, one of which was presented by John Hume, of all people. He made a speech about how if we could get peace in the Middle East there would be no more war anywhere (sentiment good, logic less so). There was a Brussels-based Mediterranean band which finished off the evening with a chorus of “Bella Ciao”. Then just as we were about to go to the buffet reception, John Hume grabbed the microphone and treated us to an unaccompanied chorus of “Danny Boy”. He was surprisingly good.
Beware the 2 Dorothy Dunnetts. They are the start into a down the rabbit’s hole tumble into the one of the most fascinating historical sagas. There are 8 in this series. I own them all and regularly reread all of them. The earlier written – later in time series about Francis Crawford of Lymond is only 6! – books and I reread all of those regularly as well.
Per me: the D.H. Lawrence’s are turgid and as heavy as a left-over Polish pirogi. I only read the Faulkner’s at uni ’cause I had to.