Blake Morrison

4 weeks ago | lrb.co.uk | Abdulrazak Gurnah |Blake Morrison

The theft​ in Theft isn’t a theft at all. Badar, working as a servant boy in a house in Dar es Salaam in the 1990s, is accused of adding groceries to the household’s weekly bill and selling them to accomplices. Nothing about Badar suggests he’d be capable of such a crime, and Haji and Raya, his affable master and mistress (terms they reject: ‘What is this Bwana business? Call me Haji’), think the grocer must be cheating them.

Oct 30, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Charlotte Wood |Blake Morrison

The mouse plague​ in Queensland and New South Wales in 2020-21 was overshadowed by Covid-19. But the plague within the plague was no small matter. Heavy rain after a long drought meant bumper grain crops, which colonies of mice devastated. The use of poison (zinc phosphide coated on wheat and scattered around pastures) had little effect: there were always more mice.

Aug 6, 2024 | jp.reuters.com | Blake Morrison |Blake Brittain

８月６日、米ハーバード大学は、韓国サムスン電子が半導体の生産に関連する技術を巡る同大学の特許権を侵害したとして、同社をテキサス州の連邦地裁に提訴した。写真は韓国の水原（スウォン）で２０２３年６月撮影（２０２４年　ロイター／Kim Hong-Ji）［６日　ロイター］ - 米ハーバード大学は６日、韓国サムスン電子(005930.KS), opens new tabが半導体の生産に関連する技術を巡る同大学の特許権を侵害したとして、同社をテキサス州の連邦地裁に提訴した。訴状によると、サムスン電子のマイクロプロセッサーとメモリー製品を製造する方法は、ハーバード大学のロイ・ゴードン教授の発明に基づく２件の特許権を侵害している。サムスンはスマートフォンのマイクロプロセッサーとメモリーチップを生産するため、特許権が登録されたプロセスを使っているという。サムスン電子の広報はコメント要請に返答していない。ハーバード大学の広報はコメントしなかった。ハーバード大学は訴訟で損害賠償と特許権侵害の差し止めを求めている。私たちの行動規範：トムソン・ロイター「信頼の原則」, opens new tab

Jul 10, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Chigozie Obioma |Blake Morrison

Kunle​ is a law student in Lagos with little grasp of what’s happening in the country. When his uncle asks, ‘You have heard that there is war in Eastern Region, abi?’ he shakes his head. He’s a lonely, ‘hermitic’ sort of boy. Since his transistor radio ran out of batteries, he hasn’t kept up with current events. Now term is over there’s no excuse for him not to visit his parents, who live a five-hour bus ride away.

May 29, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Colm Toibin |Blake Morrison

Novelists​ don’t usually care for screen adaptations of their work. But the film versions of Atonement, The Remains of the Day and The English Patient do no great disservice to the books. And Colm Tóibín wasn’t unhappy with Nick Hornby’s screenplay for Brooklyn, despite two big changes to the ending.