The druidical claims for Stonehenge seem to belong to that bonkers-but-persistent strand of Englishness that believes there is something particularly mystical about the English themselves, who were clearly a chosen people. – Justin Cartwright
It is uncomfortable to be reminded that the Catholic church only removed the reference to ‘perfidious Jews’ from the Good Friday liturgy in 1960. – Justin Cartwright
Tom Fort, a BBC radio journalist, starts from the assumption that ‘many of us have a road that reaches back into our past’. For him, this is the 92 miles of the A303 – as he subtitles his book, the ‘Highway to the Sun’. – Justin Cartwright
In his later years, Ramakrishna took up residence at the Dakshineswar Kali Temple, from where his radiance extended far, even beyond his death in 1886. – Justin Cartwright
This is the strange thing about South Africa – for all its corruption and crime, it seems to offer a stimulating sense that anything is possible. – Justin Cartwright
The book that meant most to me was ‘The Wind in the Willows.’ It sounds ridiculous, but that was my vision of England. – Justin Cartwright
As Eric Weitz argues, the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) was not responsible for the Reich; it was a democratic, socially aware and progressive government, way ahead of many other European governments in its introduction of workers’ rights, public housing, unemployment benefit and suffrage for women. – Justin Cartwright
Nicola Barker is both prodigiously talented and admirably fearless. I have loved her books. But for some time, I had little or no idea what the point of the story of Sri Ramakrishna was. In fact, he was one of the outstanding men of 19th-century India. – Justin Cartwright
I love John Updike immoderately. I am profoundly shocked that he has gone because he was, for me, the greatest American writer of the second half of the 20th century. He was also a gracious, charming, and witty man. – Justin Cartwright
It is a commonplace to say that novelists should be judged by their work rather than their private lives or their publicly expressed views. And writers, of course, subscribe enthusiastically to this idea. – Justin Cartwright
Someone once pointed out that there are quite a lot of animals in my books, and I’m sure that is something to do with ‘The Wind in the Willows.’ I must have picked up a rather anthropomorphic view of them. – Justin Cartwright
Franschhoek – French Corner – is a place which serves South Africans as a kind of sophisticated fantasy, an alternative version of what life could be. The small town is enclosed by wild mountains, at this time of year blue and dusty green. – Justin Cartwright
It is surprising how many people who don’t read believe they have a book in them. Why? Nobody would imagine that Alfred Brendel took up the piano on a whim at 25 when he found accountancy unpleasant. – Justin Cartwright
My own interest in Kafka’s letter came about when I was writing an article on Peter Ginz, the boy novelist held in Terezin, not far from Prague, and exterminated in Auschwitz by the Nazis. The Ginz family were from more or less the same milieu as the Kafkas. – Justin Cartwright
The plane approaches Cape Town and, as always, I am astonished by the view of Table Mountain and the surrounding sea. It is so overwhelmingly beautiful that I feel the urge to belong – not necessarily to the people, but to the landscape. – Justin Cartwright
Historians and journalists always have agendas, but if I want to find out what’s going on in South Africa, I read Nadine Gordimer or John Coetzee because they offer novelistic truth. – Justin Cartwright
I grew up reading Updike. I remember being alarmed to find that he had published short stories by the time he was 22. I think ‘Pigeon Feathers’ was the first collection of stories I read. Only much later did I discover his non-fiction reviewing and art criticism. – Justin Cartwright
