The royalty at the front

It’s always useful to be reminded of the essential stuffiness of the British establishment, as I was this week watching …

Fado: singing the blues

The Portuguese word that’s associated with fado is saudade, one of those more-or-less untranslatable words that means – inexactly – something like “longing,” an emotion that resonates through cultures where people have migrated through choice or through necessity.

“He maintains”

“There is no first person, and no direct speech. You realise as a reader, slowly, that the sort of person who uses the phrase “Pereira maintains” may not be completely believing of Pereira’s account of events.”