Tim Parks

Aug 7, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Joseph O’Neill |Tim Parks

Life,​ for the narrators of Joseph O’Neill’s five novels, is experienced as a series of reversals as unexpected as they are humiliating. James Jones, the protagonist of This Is the Life (1991), once served as a pupil barrister to celebrity QC Michael Donovan. He had thought he was in line for a position at the chambers, but was overlooked at the end of the pupillage. Donovan didn’t put his name forward and years later fails even to recognise him at a cocktail party.

Jul 30, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Daisy Dunn |Jack Weatherford |Roberto Calasso |Tim Parks

“The Mongols swept across the globe as conquerors,” writes the appreciative pop anthropologist-historian Weatherford (The History of Money, 1997, etc.), “but also as civilization’s unrivaled cultural carriers.” No business-secrets fluffery here, though Weatherford does credit Genghis Khan and company for seeking “not merely to conquer the world but to impose a global order based on free trade, a single international law, and a universal alphabet with which to write all the languages of the...

Jul 29, 2024 | laweekly.com | Tim Parks

If Brahma is a more endearing creator than Jehovah, it is because he wasn't pleased with what he had made. He found the world dull and dusty. Death was the answer, suggested Shiva. Living forever, people were bored. A time limit would galvanize, give dignity. But in that case some way of replacing the population would have to be found. Brahma brought together a few trusted fellows and explained what was required. The pleasure took them by surprise. What was that for?

Apr 17, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Hisham Matar |Tim Parks

Hisham Matar​ doesn’t need to look far for his subject matter. In his remarkable memoir The Return (2016) he explained that a privileged childhood in a wealthy Libyan family turned to nightmare when his father, leader of an anti-Gaddafi insurrection, was kidnapped in Cairo in 1990 and imprisoned in Tripoli. He eventually disappeared, never to re-emerge. As a result Matar’s education in the UK – first at boarding school, then at university in London – turned into permanent exile.

Nov 2, 2023 | locusmap.app | Tim Parks

Michal, Locus teamby Tim ParksI came to Locus Map to solve a problem. How to walk 400 miles through Italy, crossing many areas that are hardly popular for tourism or trekking. Italy is not famous for its detailed walking maps. Why did we want to do this?