Any New Financial Order For

One Of The Admirable Features Of British Novelists Is That They Have No Scruple About Setting Their Stories In Foreign Settings With Wholly Foreign Personnel.

Financial Crises Are Like Fireworks: They Illuminate The Sky Even As They Go Pop.

My Belief, For What It Is Worth, Is That City Dwellers Cannot Understand The World. Insulated From Reality By Complex And Expert Systems Of Provision And Police, Baffled By Fashion And Spectacle, City Dwellers Can Distinguish Neither The Sources Of Their Existence Nor The Consequences.

Governments Of Rich Countries Spend Some $6bn Of Tax Money A Year On Disaster Relief And Development Aid Overseas, While Each New Earthquake, Famine Or Tidal Wave Can Attract 1,000 Aid Organisations, From The United Nations Children's Fund And Oxfam To The 'jesus Brigades' Of The American South And Other Charitable Adventurers.

One Of The Consequences Of The Iranian Revolution Has Been An Explosion Of History. A Country Once Known Only From British Consular Reports And Intrepid Travelogues Is Now Awash With Historical Documents, Letters, Diaries, Grainy Video, Weblogs And Secret Police Files Of Questionable Authenticity.