The War Room
A literary diarist on a short life, three posthumous books and a sourcing problem or two Toru Dutt, 1856 to 1877: The Calcutta Poet Who Translated French Verse in England and Died at 21, as the Wikipedia Page Tells It A literary diarist on a short life, three posthumous books and a sourcing problem or … Read more
A Greenwich reader of Victorian and Anglo-Indian fiction reads about deposits on the flying Tesla Roadster and turns to Trollope’s The Way We Live Now Saturday, 17 October 2026. Greenwich, South East London. A terraced house on Crooms Hill, the park gates opposite, a pot of Assam brewed too strong on purpose, a two-volume The … Read more
A Greenwich reader of Victorian nonsense reads about Piers Morgan demanding emergency action against a courteous chatbot and recognizes the crowd Lear called They Wednesday, 21 October 2026. Greenwich, South East London. The Painted Hall cafe at the Old Royal Naval College, a cheese scone, a battered Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear with my childhood … Read more
A Greenwich reader of Anglo-Indian writing reads about Harry and Meghan insisting they are private citizens and opens the letters of a Governor-General’s sister who was stared at across India Monday, 19 October 2026. Greenwich, South East London. The Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum, East India Company logbooks on a trolley beside me, … Read more
A Greenwich reader of Victorian fiction reads about British husbands attending dinner parties mainly to check the television package and opens Our Mutual Friend Saturday, 24 October 2026. Greenwich, South East London. My dining room the morning after a dinner party for eight, a stack of plates, a red wine stain shaped like the Isle … Read more
A Bengali poet who changed his name, his faith and his language to be English, failed, and then wrote the epic that changed his own He Wanted to Be Byron and Became Something Better: The Wild Life of Michael Madhusudan Dutt I have a paper due on Friday and I chose my subject three weeks … Read more
The wittiest letters to come out of British India, written by a governor-general’s sister who would much have preferred to be at home Twelve Thousand People and a Spaniel: Emily Eden Goes Up the Country I have a new favorite person and she has been dead since 1869. I stayed up until two last night … Read more
Tinsel on two writers of British India, a young poet from Calcutta and an Englishman who knew the country, and why a reading list should include voices that argue with each other Saturday 10 October, 1.15pm, a table in a library reading room under a lamp with a green shade, two pencils, a library slip … Read more
Tinsel on the speculation list in a consumer guide, what is a proposal and what is a decision, a first-time buyer scheme and why a rumour is the cheapest thing in Westminster Saturday 10 October, 3.45pm, a sofa with a blanket, a plate of toast that has become less a snack than a gesture and … Read more
Tinsel on a prize for international law, a diaspora story that crosses the Indian Ocean and the way a nineteenth-century migration can turn up in a twenty-first-century headline Saturday 10 October, 6.15pm, a kitchen with the radio on low, a pan of lentils that needs stirring and a notebook in which I have written the … Read more