Philip Spires commonplace book

I have kept a commonplace book for many years. It's a place where scraps of impressions are filed for future reflection. It's not a diary, it's just a mental scrapbook, concentrating on book reviews, concert reviews, visual arts and some occasional pieces on travel. It is also a place where I occasionally reflect on what I write. Details of my books can be found at http://www.philipspires.co.uk

Showing posts with label class. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen

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I was unaware of Veblen’s ideas until a recent edition of In Our Time on BBC Radio 4 devoted an hour of discussion to his life and work. So ...

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

The Children's Book by AS Byatt

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The Children's Book by AS Byatt is a vast, almost rambling novel about several families and multiple lives . It is the kind of novel wh...

Thursday, March 8, 2012

A Division of the Spoils by Paul Scott

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Start with two major religions, Islam and Hinduism. To a history of one ruling the other, add the complication of a determinedly, in part ev...

Friday, February 24, 2012

The Towers Of Silence by Paul Scott

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The Towers Of Silence, the third of Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet, is very much a novel about women. Set in India in the 1940s, the war impinges ...

Friday, February 17, 2012

The Day of The Scorpion by Paul Scott

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Just as history can’t be undone, innocence, once lost, can’t be retrieved. If history would allow, I would dearly love to read Paul Scott’s ...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The Jewel In The Crown by Paul Scott

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Paul Scott’s The Jewel In The Crown is the first of his tetralogy of novels on British India. These really were the last days of the Raj. An...

Monday, January 16, 2012

An evaluation framework - Economic Policy and Human Rights by Radhika Balakrishnan and Diane Elson

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Economic Policy and Human Rights by Radhika Balakrishnan and Diane Elson apparently declares an intention to compare and contrast fiscal and...

Friday, August 27, 2010

The Steps Of The Sun by Caroline Harvey, aka Joanna Trollope

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I approached The Steps Of The Sun not knowing what to expect. Its author was listed as Joanna Trollope writing as Caroline Harvey. I had pre...

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Before The Knife by Carolyn Slaughter

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In Before The Knife Carolyn Slaughter describes her childhood, a fraught, anxious prelude to an adulthood that continued to suffer from its ...

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

A Walk Up Fifth Avenue by Bernard Levin

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Bernard Levin begins A Walk Up Fifth Avenue with three quotations from descriptions of New York City. These date from 1916, 1929 and 1949 an...

Monday, August 27, 2007

A reflection on Saville by David Storey

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Saville won the Booker Prize in 1976. In such a vast novel it is inevitable that the pace will occasionally quicken and slacken, but a book ...

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About Me

philipspires: I was born in Wakefield and was brought up in Sharslton, a mining Village. I went to London University and then became a maths teacher, working initially as a volunteer teacher in Kenya. I spent sixteen years in London, in Balham and Islington. In 1992, I left Britain for Brunei and then Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. I currently live in La Nucia, near Benidorm in Spain. I am interested in the relationship between nature and nurture, birthright and experience. Themes of culture and identity and their relation to economic and social roles underpin my writing. What we are born into relates to what we become, but we are rarely in control. What others do, our interests and intellects and the way we choose to earn a living, all of these shape us into what we become. It may be that culture is the sum of all assumptions that others make on our behalf, whereas identity represents our reactions to them. I did a PhD on the effects of education in economic development in the Philippines. I was President of Alfas del Pi Music Society for twelve years.

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