The Herald

from June 15, 2002
Last Document: May 16, 2012

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The Herald, October 29, 2005

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Lyrical Lust and Loathing in Cape Code the Radio Week

HIS fellow writer and friend, Kurt Vonnegut once described John Updike as shy but not bashful. Others less interested in the intricacies of discernment preferred to call him the pornographer of marriage, a phrase much flaunted with the arrival of his seminal novel, Couples. Thirtyseven years later that book remains the most eloquent of Updike's carnal hymns.

Breaking the Sound Barrier Classical Music

THERE is absolutely no getting away from the new Perth Concert Hall. It's only six weeks since it opened, but it has already established itself as a dramatic new presence in Scotland's teeming musical society.

Cds

ROBBIE WILLIAMS Intensive Care Chrysalis, [GBP]12.99 OVER time, Robbie Williams has developed a smart turn of phrase that makes Intensive Care the least entertaining (by the Robbie fan definition of the word), but most listenable of his albums.

We Can Always Rely On Family On Cinema

CONSIDERING the movie industry's legendary dedication to the cult of youth, it's surprising to note how many of its most interesting performers don't hit their stride till long after the first appearance of fine lines. While every ageing actor might envy Orlando's youthful Bloom, few would envy him the long wait to discoverwhether he might be deemed worthy of a serious acting career.

Why Amazon's the Best Thing to Happen to Books First Word

JEFF Bezos could scarcely have known what a rumble in the rainforest he would cause when he founded Amazon 10 years ago. This week, the online bookseller that began life in a garage in Seattle reported a 27percent increase in sales to [dollars]1.8 bn. In any other firm, this would have occasioned backslaps all round. It is a measure of how successful Amazon has become, however, that the market was "disappointed" and sent the share price dropping. The owners of small bookshops were probably he...

Descartes: Body and Soul

Descartes: the Life of Rene Descartes and its Place in his Times A C Grayling Free Press, [GBP]20 RENE Descartes is not widely known outwith the philosophy community beyond his dictum "I think, therefore I am", yet his legacy permeates contemporary popular culture. Indeed, the self- help book industry may well be traceable to a bouffanted Frenchman sitting on an armchair by a fire in the early 1600s.

Putting John Peel On the Record

John Peel: Margrave of the Marshes John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft Bantam, [GBP]18.99 THE Saturday after John Peel suffered a massive heart attack while on holiday in Peru, the DJ at Firhill played the punk-pop classic Teenage Kicks before PartickThistle's home game.

A Better Burgess He's Been Portrayed As a Lazy Sod, a Racist and a Fake but, Learns Hugh Macdonald, Anthony Burgess Wasn't All Bad

THE life of Anthony Burgess has slowly, deliberately been obscured by a fog of acrimony, deceit and neglect. His first biographer, Roger Lewis, described the great writer as "a lazy sod" and "a pretentious prick". He also labelled Burgess racist, xenophobic and a fake. He evinced a similar disregard for detail as he did for his subject. Those in search of cold, hard facts fare little better on reading Burgess's two volumes of autobiography, Little Wilson and Big God and You've Had Your Time. ...

Love, Orkney

Blue-rinse Dreams and Banoffee Pie Ron Ferguson Famedram, [GBP]9.99 FOR some years now, Herald columnist Ron Ferguson and I have shared a home. Since that will come as much of a shock to Ron as to his wife, an explanation is required.

Go East, Old Man Cormac Mccarthy's Wild West Is No Place for the Elderly, or the Squeamish. By Rosemary Goring

CORMAC McCarthy is famously reclusive. Judging from his books, though, he lives in a place you would not want to visit, no matter how warm the welcome. His country is Texas and the southwest of America, a land so saturated with violence - in his novels at least - one wonders how anyone reaches adulthood with enough body parts to propagate the next generation. In a writing career that began in 1965 with The Orchard Keeper, and encompassing the Border trilogy that made his name - All the Pretty...