James Campbell

The heyday of Parisian erotica

Maurice Girodias was the most daring avant-garde publisher in English of the post-war era. His Paris-based Olympia Press took on Samuel Beckett at a time when no British publisher wanted him, Vladimir Nabokov when Lolita was considered unprintable, William Burroughs when The Naked Lunch was regarded as obscenely incomprehensible, The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy,

Blair the chameleon?

A new book on John Howard’s government, by the veteran Australian politcal journalist Paul Kelly, has a nice account of the Australian PM’s first encounter with Tony Blair: “At one point John Howard, trying to be clever, asked Tony Blair: ‘What are you going to do with the Thatcher legacy?’ Blair paused, he sat up

At least we know about it

Britons today may not be inclined accentuate the positive about the way their government goes about its business but there is one consolation to be had from the lost data debacle:  the government ‘fessed up to it. Think about that for a minute and then consider how this might have been handled in other countries.

Howard’s end nears

There’s just over a week to go until the Australian election and it’s very hard to see John Howard winning it from here. Though there has been a slight narrowing over the course of the campaign, all polls are still showing Labor with a landslide winning percentage of the vote, 54-55%. Thanks to favourable electoral

Howard’s end?

Nothing is going right for John Howard at the moment. Following a slight improvement in the polls last week came a poor showing against Kevin Rudd in the only debate of the Australian election campaign.  Now a devastating poll has Labor with a crushing lead of 58-42%.  Most worrying for the government must be the

John Howard stumbles in Australian election debate

John Howard and Kevin Rudd went head-to-head tonight in the only leader’s debate of the Australian election. Most commentators are giving it to Rudd. His opening was upbeat, talking about the future and the need for new leadership. Howard’s opening was strange: instead of outlining what he is going to do if he is re-elected

Can John Howard pull it out?

John Howard has been trailing in the polls for months and time finally seemed to be up for the Australian PM. But under the headline ‘Lazarus Stirs’ the Sydney Morning Herald has a poll showing a swing back to Howard at the end of the first week of the Australian election campaign. Although Labor is