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Tag Archives: cricket

Zooming windows

Interview with members of the George Formby Society, as they attempt to break an online ukulele-playing record. — For The Critic

NEWS AT A GLANCE

. Forty Popes have lived less than a year after their election. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Friday, January 18 1907 . Ethiopia has exported its first avocados by train. The Communist Party banned photocopiers. More geese than swans now live. In Brazil there is a butterfly that uses its legs for running. All Pakistani […]

‘Cheese sandwich optional’

Review of Lev Parikian’s cheerful and entertaining Into the Tangled Bank: In which our author ventures outside to consider the British in nature. — For Geographical

Hat trick ball

My mate Howard has found a cricket ball in his aunt’s attic… — For The Critic

The One That Got Away – Thusith Wijedoru

The Sri Lankan sports photographer talks about the greatest shot he never got… and one he did. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times

State of the nation

Review of Andrew Fidel Fernando’s debut book Upon a Sleepless Isle, which has just won Sri Lanka’s Gratiaen Prize (2019) for English-language literature. — For The Critic

May Day, May Day…

A lockdown letter from Colombo. — For The Critic

‘It is the living we should fear’

DISCLAIMER: Ten years ago, I reviewed Shehan Karunatilaka’s debut novel, Chinaman, for this newspaper. It was brilliant, I said, and everyone should buy it. I noted, though, for form’s sake, that I’d done some light proofreading of the manuscript, and hoped that this would not be taken either as cause or symptom of inoperable bias. […]

NEWS AT A GLANCE

. During one year a high police official in New York was offered £120,000 in bribes to “look the other way.” — The Nelson Evening Mail, Tuesday, June 22 1909 . The night is chilly to a man without clothes. You get a free tote bag if you subscribe to almost anything. Sussex folk have few superstitions. There […]

Master class

An evening with Kumar Sangakkara. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times