Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer principally known for her novels and short stories while her TED talks on ‘The Danger of a Single Story’ [1] and ‘We Should All Be Feminists' [2] are widely viewed. Her most well-known novel is ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ [3] which deals with Biafran independence and the ensuing… Continue reading The Thing Around Your Neck
Category: Books
General heading for books
Orwell, Klemperer and language
I was talking with a friend about what counts as good writing and mentioned George Orwell’s much celebrated essay on ‘Politics of the English language’. In it Orwell argues writers should think carefully about the language they use as doing so not only produces clear, concise articles for others to read but also enables writers… Continue reading Orwell, Klemperer and language
Question 7
One of the most praised books, at least by reviewers, in 2023 was ‘Question 7’ by Richard Flanagan [1]. A year later, well two years later if I am strict about this, I got round to reading it. It is a difficult book to describe [2]. It is in the main a memoir and family… Continue reading Question 7
Book of the year
I spend so much time picking apart books and articles that it is a release to look back and think about what I had enjoyed reading this year, not necessarily something published in 2019 but just something I happened to read. In respect to big ideas I went back again to Michael Polanyi’s ‘Personal knowledge’… Continue reading Book of the year
Hirsch and Education
In looking at intolerance in public debate I found several people recommending that we went out and took time to engage with ideas that we know, or think we know, we will disagree with. In this spirit I wanted to look at conservatives on education and I turned first to Hirsch. It was easy to… Continue reading Hirsch and Education
It does not make the job very appealing
Although my work focuses on education and technology, rather than party politics, the book I enjoyed reading the most last year was Harriet Harman’s biography [1], or more accurately her reflection on a career as a leading Labour politician in UK. The book is largely about being a woman in a man’s world. Harman was… Continue reading It does not make the job very appealing
In praise of Kazuo Ishiguro
Last week the Nobel prize for literature was awarded to the writer Kazuo Ishiguro - Ishiguro was born in Japan but grew up, and continued to live, in England, and took UK nationality. The news of his award was covered widely in the papers and on television and Ishuguro himself appeared well regarded by his… Continue reading In praise of Kazuo Ishiguro
Post-truth and a good argument
The term post-truth was, according to Oxford Dictionaries, the Word of the Year 2016. It was defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2016 In USA of course the term became widely used in the context of… Continue reading Post-truth and a good argument
Summer Reading
This being the summer period in UK, there is much in the review sections of the newspapers about what to take as holiday reading. My own suggestion is a short story by Julio Cortázar. Cortázar (1914 – 1984) was an Argentinian writer, who was born in Europe and spent a lot of time in France.… Continue reading Summer Reading
In praise of Dewey
One way to look at Dewey [1] is as a radical liberal and a social reformer who identified the importance of a common humanity to personal and social growth [2]. He was an academic and the prototype of the public intellectual, contributing to political debate, active in teacher unions, supporting the settlement movement and setting… Continue reading In praise of Dewey
Michael Hammond 
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