Last week I received a publicity shot from a company selling top-of-the-range reading lamps. Printed on the back of the envelope were the words: The person who does not read books has no advantage over the one who cannot read them – Mark Twain. A little naff for reading lamps perhaps, but an important truth … More Of Reading-lamps and Literacy

It has been raining in Morocco, as most of us have noticed. Our cleaning lady said with tears in her eyes to my wife last week, “Now we shall be able to eat.” The drought appears to be over. But what made it happen? I was impressed by the way the rain followed on the … More Interfaith Rain

I was in Kalila wa Dimna a few days ago, buying a French novel that my wife wanted, and I caught sight of a table of tiny books in the window, published by Khbar Bladna of Tangier. (Actually I caught sight of one or two other interesting things too, but that’s the danger of going … More The Monster That Refuses to Die

I’ve happened on a nice blog in the last few days, called Arabic Literature (in English), which is well worth a look. My eye was caught by a splendid, very short, piece about a man – Elliott Colla – who started life as  an American Republican Christian Zionist, learned Arabic for his work and found … More Deprovincialisation

“It’s rather like being shown round the Pitt Rivers Museum by General Pitt Rivers,” said my daughter, as we left the Belghazi Museum at Bouknabel, on the Old Kenitra Road from Rabat. We had just had an extraordinary hour-and-a-half being shown round the Belghazi collection by M Mohammed Abdelillah Belghazi, its patron and presiding genius, … More Prospero’s Cell