Albania
Why I wanted to be called C.H. Moore
There are, one must admit, things to be said against Boris Johnson, but his leading critics do not understand that…
How to get builders to do what you want
The Albanian builders have started a turf war in my kitchen. The hostilities broke out suddenly. One minute the builders…
Ismail Kadare satirises the artful Hoxha
Blood, they say, is quick on the knife in Albania, where Balkan-style revenge killings, known as giakmarrje (‘blood-takings’), settle ancient…
What’s a travelling oenophile to do?
Nothing beats drinking Château d’Yquem in a tropical paradise
A Girl in Exile: Ismail Kadare’s novel is full of absence
My last review for The Spectator was of Julian Barnes’s biographical novel about Shostakovitch. A Girl in Exile also depicts…
Sorry, but I can’t join in the China panic (especially not while I’m on a cruise)
MS Queen Victoria, 38°N 19°E I’ll do my best, but I’ve got to be honest: being surrounded by shining Ionian…
I don’t think it’s over in the Balkans
I returned last week from a short break in the Balkans; travelling by train in Serbia, walking from village to…
The witch in the machine
If one asks Albanians who is their greatest living writer, the immediate answer is Ismail Kadare, winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize in 2005.
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