Marion James's Blog – August 2007 Archive (4)

200 years ago, if you wanted to hear a story, you wouldn't switch on the TV, and probably wouldn't even curl up with a book. You would sit at the feet of those older than you, and listen to the stories they tell. In the old days, wisdom was passed on by word of mouth: stories, tales and legends from one generation to another.

This oral tradition is dying out, with the advent of books, newspapers and the internet.

I think it is one of the responsibilities of those of us who are…

In researching for this Sunday's book review - Stamboul Train by Graham Greene, I discovered that his second and third books were a flop. So much so, that in later life he disowned them.

Now, I know that writing a book means it almost becomes a part of you like your child, but disowning it ...?

Well, he never disowned Stamboul Train, a book he called "an entertainment", something written to amuse author and reader alike.

Click here for my full review:…

How about a coffee shop as a place to get your inspiration? Poet Richard McKane often chases his muse in a coffee shop. Anywhere in the world ... Istanbul, London ... the atmosphere is the same.

For Richard McKane, the coffeehouse holds a special magic. In the coffeehouse, he says, the poet and the reader need not be alone. A good conversation in a coffeehouse, for him, lays itself in the memory like a good poem. He sees a coffeehouse as a place to feel safe and warm…

I loved reviewing this book as Macaulay's drawings are EXQUISITE, and I have often wondered how on earth people centuries past could have created such architectural masterpieces as the mosques that adorn the Istanbul skyline.

Not a dry and dusty architectural text book, but a storyline that breathes life into these old stones ... next time I visit the Blue Mosque I swear I will be able to hear the ghost of the architect giving orders to the chief foreman, as the artisans' hammers and…