Richard Gwyn

Cities Unvisited

Although he never lived in Alexandria, he had read all the books. As a young man, he visited enough of the Levant to think he knew what to expect, and concocted the rest from Cavafy, Forster, Durrell and Pynchon…. Read More

The Kindly Ones

Well, I finished The Kindly Ones on the way here, actually at a little eatery called One Flew South in Atlanta airport, the only place that wasn’t a McDonalds or a Dunkin’ Donuts. The ending was a bit… Read More

Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Shane MacGowan, Charles Bukowski and all

Can you do a music review before listening to the music? Let’s see. Yesterday I received through the post the new CD by Tom Waits, though I have not had the nerve to play it yet. I am… Read More

Borges: 25 years on

In Britain we tend to celebrate the anniversary of the births of famous people: in Argentina it is their deaths that are commemorated. Last month I was asked to contribute a piece for the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarín‘s… Read More