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If they build it, you will come Dubai wants to be the ultimate sporting city. And, says Jason Cowley, it's not such a ridiculous idea. The Observer, May 4th 2008 A shot rang out ... Brutal and spare, Cormac McCarthy's work is also full of beauty and love. He is one of the greatest living novelists, argues Jason Cowley. The Guardian, January 12th 2008 When a son's thoughts turn to murder For years, Charles Hills was a figure in London literary circles. But what drove him to the brink of murder? His friend, Jason Cowley, traces the story of Hills's mental and spiritual decline, from gifted youth to Oxford student and finally to his cell in Belmarsh prison. The Observer, February 3rd 2008 Of Music and Silence Where to locate the music of David Sylvian? His journey from the centre of planet pop to the margins of the avant-garde is certainly one of the most unusual in contemporary music. The World is Everything Tour brochure, 2007 The politics of excitement The Blair decade began with an exuberant rush of energy and sense of possibility. How can politics recapture the ability to inspire us? Hard action and clear choices? New Statesman, May 14th 2007 Why we have fallen for Africa's lost boys Brutalised, war-ravaged and drugged-up, the child soldiers of Sierra Leone and Sudan have become a shocking symbol of today's violent world. The Observer, April 29th 2007 And the winner is? The culture of prize-giving has gone mad. We enjoy the glamour of a Booker or an Oscar night, but we lose something too in this orgy of awards, says Jason Cowley. The Observer, October 22nd 2006 What novelists reveal about the minds of murderers Authors are ideally placed to give us a true view of terrorism, says Jason Cowley. The Observer, August 13th 2006 In the east, the Cup does not overflow Dresden was not chosen to host a single World Cup game, even though the stated intention of the organising committee, at least when it was bidding for the World Cup, was to incorporate the east so that it became a tournament for the whole country. The Observer, June 25th 2006 The Cup that rules the world It unites continents, is watched by billions and its stars are treated as living gods. No contest can touch it for suspense or despair. Jason Cowley celebrates sport's premier competition. The Observer, June 11th 2006 Cecil Rhodes's dream ends where it began - in Bishop's Stortford We have just rented out our house in the quiet market town of Bishop's Stortford to a South African family. They arrived one morning in a friend's car, suitcases packed high on the back seat, resembling nothing so much as refugees fleeing a war zone. The Observer, April 16th 2006 A new life for the novel After 9/11, writers feared that the new age of terror would overwhelm their ability to reflect the world. But it has only heightened their powers. As the Booker panel prepares to announce its longlist, a former judge argues that this is the best year yet for British fiction since the prize began. The Observer, August 7th 2005 The astonishing history of Dangerous Liaisons Its publication caused a scandal and it has seduced generations. As Les Liaisons Dangereuses becomes a ballet, Jason Cowley looks at its many incarnations. The Guardian, July 16th 2005 Rebirth of a nation The Oscar-nominated Hotel Rwanda is one of several movies and novels about the genocide. But is it fair to reduce events of such magnitude to a single dramatic entertainment? Can telling a story ever be the same as telling the truth? The Observer, February 27th 2005 Property Scandal A few rich people, many of them aristocrats, own 69 per cent of the land in Britain. As a result, house prices are so high, millions can't afford to buy a home. New Statesman, September 20th 2004 We can be heroes George Orwell was troubled by the way in which boys' weeklies evaded the problems of contemporary society, seeing it as a form of covert political control. But we didn't read comics for realism, writes Jason Cowley. We read them to be inspired. New Statesman, August 23rd 2004 Where pink shirts mark out the killers Jason Cowley travels to Rwanda with Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, and finds that the perpetrators of genocide, though visible everywhere, are neither abused nor shunned. New Statesman, April 19th 2004 'This is not the country it was when Labour returned to power in 1997' What do we mean by multiculturalism? In Britain, it once meant embracing the diverse traditions of the old empire, but the wider migration of recent years has changed all that. Jason Cowley explores the implications and canvasses the views of leading thinkers New Statesman, March 29th 2004 The underground men Some find true freedom when they are confined; others, like Saddam Hussein, meet their nemesis. From Dickens through Dostoevsky to Beckett, the hole in literature has become a metaphor for isolation, a place of safety or danger, a sanctuary or a prison. New Statesman, January 12th 2004 The white writer in South Africa Despite a Booker nomination and a Nobel Prize, these writers, unheard in their own land, feel oppressed by emptiness. The white South African novelist profiled by Jason Cowley. New Statesman, October 13th 2003 The great game Throughout its 35-year history, the Booker Prize has never failed to generate controversy, gossip and scandal-and that is precisely its purpose. Jason Cowley on what remains the publishing event of the year. New Statesman, August 25th 2003 The time of fear Visions of apocalypse, once confined to science fiction, now dominate mainstream films and novels. New Statesman, July 21st 2003 This charming man It is 20 years since The Smiths' first hit transformed the British music scene. Jason Cowley on pop's antidote to early Thatcherism - intriguing front man Morrissey. New Statesman, June 2nd 2003 Why Iceland is hot Jason Cowley visits Europe's nearest approximation to a classless society, and asks what secrets lurk in the dark. New Statesman, December 16th 2002 The Search for Dr Bloch Dr Bloch had an interesting story to tell. He had known Hitler at first hand; nearly forty years before he had been the Hitler family's doctor. Granta, 79, October 1st 2002 Down town MPs say that Britain's new towns are failing after decades of neglect. So what went wrong? Jason Cowley returns to Harlow, where he was brought up, to find out. The Guardian, August 1st 2002 At home with Hitler The bomb in a nightclub in the Austrian town of Linz summons up the terrible ghosts of the past. The Guardian, July 30th 2002 France: into the void Those who voted for Le Pen belong to a generation which, in the words of one writer, "knows that pleasure is the opposite of happiness". Jason Cowley on a nation's cultural emptiness. New Statesman, May 6th 2002 Forgotten victims Much has been written about the suffering that the Nazis inflicted during world war two. But who remembers the two million Germans who died after hostilities ended? Jason Cowley reports on a country reassessing its past. The Guardian, March 27th 2002 Forward, to the union of humanity Interpreting the US terrorist attacks through Immanuel Kant, Francis Fukuyama and Tony Blair. New Statesman, October 15th 2001 Divine Roth No writer had been more adept at exploiting postmodern ideas of the instability of the self and the slippage between autobiography and fiction, but this time it seemed as though Roth had reached a terminus, the point at which his stylised self-obsession had become a poetics of despair. Atlantic Monthly; Prospect, Issue 65, July 2001 Cyprus: The view beyond the Green Line Perhaps only Trieste, the cosmopolitan port on the shadowy, disputed borderlands between Italy and the former Yugoslavia, and Lisbon, with its brooding sense of an empire lost, have quite the same atmosphere as Cyprus: the same sense of vivid ghostliness. The Independent, March 11th 2001 The beginning of the end In 1977, the forces of Conservatism and punk were agitating to transform Britain. New Statesman, October 30th 2000 Hatred fuels football clash of the Old Firm It used to be said that if you wanted to discover someone's religion in Glasgow, you simply asked which football team they supported. The Independent, August 27th 2000 Trieste: In the wake of James Joyce There is something mysterious and unaccountable about Trieste, a certain kind of vivid ghostliness that has struck many visitors to the cosmopolitan Adriatic port. The Independent, June 25th 2000 What's new? What's old, more like Many books deserve better than simply to fade out of print: but what's to be done in an industry obsessed with novelty? Jason Cowley discovers that he's not the only one who treasures lost literary gems. The Times, March 30th 2000 Bridge over troubled water The new bridge uniting Sweden and Denmark is a towering icon of science and modernity; it is also a powerful symbol of the onward march to a borderless Europe. New Statesman, January 31st 2000 Diary - narrative of a visit to Moscow, Russia In Moscow's Hungry Duck, everyone dances on the bar. Soon, you feel, there will be a cleansing, apocalyptic fire. New Statesman, January 1st 1999 Was the pity all in the poetry? The Great War lives on vividly in poems now the 80th anniversary of the armistice has triggered a new publishing boom. But do books bring us closer to the truth, asks Jason Cowley. The Sunday Times, November 8th 1998 When will Russia find a new Tolstoy? The Russian Booker Prize has galvanised writers to produce controversial winners. Jason Cowley reports. The Times, December 11th 1997 Journey to the end of the night Francis Stuart, one of Ireland's finest living writers, spent the last war in Berlin writing scripts for Lord Haw Haw. Jason Cowley visits the 94 year old writer in his Dublin bungalow and considers the relationship between great art and brutal politics in the lives of Stuart, Céline and Knut Hamsun. Prospect, Issue 16, February 1997 |
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