One Thousand Shades of Grey

Humanity: 1. All human beings collectively; the human race; humankind. 2. The quality or condition of being human; human nature. 3. The quality of being humane; kindness; benevolence. Humane: 1. Characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, esp. for the suffering or distressed A friend commented recently that the word “Humane” was possibly the most absurdly ironic word in the English language and is in desperate need of review. Who defined the quality of being humane as pertaining to kindness and benevolence or compassion for the suffering and distressed? Was it a particularly good year? I had a quick scan through the Times concise history of the world and have failed completely to find the year that we (humanity) collectively spent some time being kind and benevolent to each other. However I did find countless years of senseless brutality, intolerance, xenophobia and general all round unpleasantness. It comes to me suddenly that we hum...

This is without doubt the best novel I have read so far this year, the book is beautifully written and slowly builds up in pressure and tension until at points I had to actually put it down in disbelieve take a deep breath then re-read the last paragraph, just to be sure of what I had read. The book is set in the back drop of a steadily unraveling Afghanistan and charts the friendship and later betrayal, guilt, loyalty and love shared between the two main characters. I won’t go into to many details of the plot in case I let slip some spoilers, but I will say if you are looking to buy a book this week buy this one. Hosseini is a master of manipulation and storytelling; I will be interested to read his second offering, A thousand splendid suns.

A contender for the most appalling badly scripted pile of cak on British TV, we are only on the third episode and already we have discovered and then burnt the true cross (i.e. the one Jesus was crucified on) saved A black American senator’s reputation apparently ushering him one step closer to becoming the next president of the United States and found the secret love chamber of Boudica including her perfectly crystallized body. I never realised archeology was so exciting, in three episodes these guys have racked up more death threats then Salman Rushdie, George Bush and Kathy Sierra put together, excavated in a tidal estuary and a collapsing cave full of sulphurus gases. The dialogue is so poor that I can only assume that the writers are either deliberately taking the piss or freshly flown in from the Hollywood school of (crap) writing. I was particularly impressed by the scene in tonight’s episode when they had to negotiate a mine field made of buried Roman hand grenades! I can on...

Babchenko went to Chechnya twice, his book one soldiers war in Chechnya is a memoir of his time there. Written in a style that is unflinchingly direct and desperately cathartic, Babchenko’s memoir is distant as if he has no feeling about his own experiences except the urge to lay them bare for the world to digest. The book deals with his perspective as cannon fodder on the front line and rarely mentions or address's the historical and political context of the conflict, but rather focuses on his day to day personal experiences from seeing captured comrades beheaded to the barrack room bullying( dedovshchina ) that is apparently standard in day to day life of a Russian soldier. “At the edge of the square they’ve dug an improvised torture rack into the ground, a thick water pipe that has been bent into the shape of a gibbet. At the kombat’s orders, the platoon made it during the night by placing the pipe against two concrete piles and using an armored car to bend it in the middle. Two...

If you saw personal services required on channel 4 last night then you caught a small glimpse of the life of an au pair in the UK. Ridiculously long hours a job that doesn’t match the description, employers that want to pay you below minimum wage to work seventy+ hours a week, lack of decent food, no privacy and limited access to the bathroom. My wife did some time as an au pair as an opportunity to improve her English, the idea being (like most au pairs that come here) that she would work 30-40 hours a week cleaning and babysitting etc, then spend her free time studying and communicating with native English speakers. The guidelines are as follows: Works 5 hours per day, 5 days per week Baby sits 2-3 evenings per week Receives 2 free days and evenings off Weekly salary ranges from 52 - 65 She worked for a few different families and the reality was that she worked six days a week, she was always up when the young poorly disciplined children were up even on her day off, she rarely had ti...