George Walden
Articles by George Walden
Results 21 to 30 of 35
Books
Anthropologist, study thyself. So the English are eccentric, self-deprecating and good at queueing - what's new? Forget such observations. That an Oxford social scientist can get away with producing witless, patronising pap tells us much more about contemporary England
- 10 May 2004
Watching the English: the hidden rules of English behaviour Kate Fox Hodder & Stoughton, 424pp, £20 ISBN 0340818859
World Affairs
The highway of despair. Oprah Winfrey and J K Rowling are the villains; Radiohead are the cultural revolutionaries. The latest howl of rage against capitalist culture and American mediocrity exemplifies the sentimental, self-indulgent non-thinking it sets out to attack
- 23 February 2004
The Middle Mind: why Americans don't think for themselves Curtis White Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 205pp, £12.99 ISBN 071399763X
Politics
After Hutton - Dyke and Campbell: spot the difference
- 09 February 2004
The BBC director general and his chief enemy in Downing Street were both part of the vulgarisation of our culture. We should be glad they're gone
Books
The human bind. John Updike is acclaimed as a chronicler of the contemporary, a thoroughly modern, relaxed and witty fellow who writes wonderfully about sex. Yet he is also a Christian and a patriot. Religion does more than colour his prose; it shapes it
- 19 January 2004
The Early Stories John UpdikeHamish Hamilton, 838pp, £25 ISBN 0241142644
Culture
Forgotten favourites - Painting with words. Walter Sickert wrote as he painted - from an intellectual distance. His essays are a perfect antidote to today's ponderous art criticism, argues George Walden
- 01 December 2003
A Free House! Or the Artist as Craftsman Edited by Osbert Sitwell Macmillan (out of print)
Culture
The last laugh
- 17 November 2003
The sitcom Coupling, hailed as the British Friends, has been axed by US TV bosses after just four episodes. Little wonder, writes George Walden. Compared with the best American shows, our comedy is too often outmoded, parochial and patronising
Books
Back to Blighty. Martin Amis's latest novel marks a return to form and familiar territory. While it might seem we've been here before, his manic humour is a welcome change from the prevailing literary pietism, writes George Walden
- 08 September 2003
Yellow Dog Martin Amis Jonathan Cape, 340pp, £16.99 ISBN 0224050613
Ideas
The wavering gaze.
- 11 August 2003
In her 1977 book On Photography, Susan Sontag suggested that our sympathy for suffering is diminished by a vulgar profusion of images. That is not her view today. George Walden on an intellectual at odds with her more sceptical self
Politics
Storming the Bastille, at any price
- 18 September 2000
Fuel protesters beware! The French way of direct action could ruin us
Books
Manic Magyar
- 31 January 2000
Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid Tibor Fischer Secker & Warburg, 224pp, £10 ISBN 0436220822
