Archive for May, 2007

7 Seconds with Youssou N’Dour

Saturday, May 26th, 2007

I went to Senegal partly to interview Youssou N’Dour on his home turf. He is probably Senegal’s most famous person (though football fans might disagree) and is certainly responsible for bringing African music to the West and creating ‘world music’ as a category in record stores. Youssou collaborated with Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel in [...]

Wireless internet in Senegal

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

I am in Dakar, Senegal. There’s a purpose to my visit - but I’ll write more on that when I get back to London. This is my fourth time in Africa, after Uganda, Tanzania and Tunisia last year, but my first time in West Africa. It’s quite different, in particular the women are much more [...]

Quintessentially England: Black-faced sheep and bluebell woods in the Cotswolds

Sunday, May 13th, 2007

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Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

Wide Sargasso Sea is set mostly in the West Indies and the writing feels as lush and vivid as its setting. A young girl marries a man she barely knows. He is attentive at first but then gossip poisons his mind against her, with devastating results.
The time is the mid-nineteenth century and it was [...]