Will Self's Blog, page 42

On George Orwell

From the Paris Review, audio of Will Self talking about George Orwell at the Edinburgh book festival.

The Drowned World introduction

“London has been flooded many times. Until the late 19th century, and the construction of the Thames embankments as part of Joseph Bazalgette’s grand sewerage works, the high-water mark of the tidal river was an arbitrary dividing line between liquid and solid. All along the river’s banks there was a fretwork of jetties and inlets, and when the waters rose too high they would inundate the streets.

“Even after the embanking, in 1928, a flood breached the parapets in Westminster and surged into...

The Sins of Literature: Plagiarism

Listen to the third and final part of The Sins of Literature on Radio 4, which Will has contributed to.

Real meals: Borchardt, Berlin

I ran into the crime writer Philip Kerr at Gatwick – he and his family were happily on their way to Corfu, while I was gloomily en route to Berlin to do some work with my German translator. Kerr was ebullient and ridiculously fit-looking – full head of dark and luxuriant hair, tanned and solid. I was wraithlike and skulking about in the duty-free shop, wondering if I could slit my wrists with a Swarovski crystal gewgaw. When I told him my destination, a faint shadow seemed to cross his handso...

An ugly blot on the landscape

Disturbing report by Will in the Mail on Sunday about the treatment he and his youngest son, 11, received at the hands of a security guard at Bishop Burton College nearing the end of their long trek from London to Whitby, North Yorkshire.

The madness of crowds: The iconisation of Nelson Mandela

“Free Nelson Mandela with every large public building,” my wife wryly observed one evening as we trudged up the stairs to the Royal Festival Hall, passing a particularly dreadful outsize bronze head of the world’s most famous former prisoner. For some readers it might seem a little de trop to be taking a tilt at the almost wholly bogus iconisation of the former leader of the African National Congress, even as he lies dying in a Johannesburg hospital (and indeed, by the time you read this, he...

On the Lake District

Will’s Esquire piece about the Lake District can be found here.

Thou Shalt Not Hide

Part two of The Sins of Literature, which Will Self has contributed to (available to listen to until 19 August).

Psychiatrists: the drug pushers

Big piece by Will Self in Guardian Review at the weekend on the efficacy of psychiatry and the role of pharmaceutical companies in treating psychopathologies, which prompted this response in the Guardian letters page.

Moral Maze: Richard Wagner

Will Self is one of the witnesses on this episode of the Moral Maze about Richard Wagner, which considers the idea that his music is morally tainted by his anti-semitism.