Showing 1-10 of 31 results
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As good as it gets
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 06/02/2012
» As reviewing everything that comes along is part of the territory, critics are steeped in mediocrity. We wonder why the publishers accept the manuscripts and turn them into books. Perhaps because they think critics are perverse enough to like them, the public following our advice. Whereupon money is paid for them.
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The scholar warrior
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 13/02/2012
» There are events and people in the history we are taught about in school that would fade from memory in the space age were it not for historical novels and cinema blockbusters. Even so, our minds are cloudy. Achilles? Oh, you mean Brad Pitt. Cleopatra? Elizabeth Taylor. Moses? Charlton Heston.
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The Dragon Lady?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 07/05/2012
» First ladies _ wives of presidents and prime ministers _ have generally been innocuous. On display during election time, they then faded into the background. Few made a name for themselves afterwards, most notably Hillary Rodham Clinton, appointed secretary of state when her husband was no longer in the White House.
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Scholar turned warrior
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 29/10/2012
» Wars of succession harken back to earliest recorded history. Turning wives against husbands, sisters against brothers, aunts against nephews. The temptation to wear the crown and wield the power of the throne is greater than the blood ties that supposedly hold families together. If driven away by the monarchy becoming a republic, the royalists wait in exile to be summoned home by the acclamation of the populace.
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Terrorist or informer?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 19/11/2012
» I first heard the term as a child when my parents took me to see the John Ford movie, The Informer. Victor McLaglen played Gypo Nolan who, for 50, betrays his fugitive friend to the British. McLaglen and hangers on soon drink down the reward and he regrets his act, but it's too late.
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The Black Prince
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/01/2013
» Titling a novel with the year in which it is set presumes that the reader is aware of the historical event _ 476, the fall of the Roman Empire; 1215, Magna Carta; 1588, the defeat of the Spanish Armada; 1775, the American Revolution; 1789, the French Revolution; 1814, Waterloo; 1939, Hitler's invasion of Poland; 1941, Pearl Harbour. But 1356... with how many people does it ring a bell ?
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An expat's views
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 06/05/2013
» I don't know if it's true about other countries, but people who have been to Thailand for any length of time between two weeks and 20 years feel impelled to write a book about it. From what they have seen, heard and experienced they believe they understand the Kingdom and its denizens. And if they have learned Thai, they know that much more.
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Crime in the city
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 13/05/2013
» Born in the Big Apple during the Great Depression, I learned a lesson I never forgot: Have nothing to do with the stock market. (My father bought war bonds in WWII). The US _ the world _ economy tanked in 1929 for a dozen years. Frankly, I don't understand financial fluctuations. Obviously, stockbrokers don't either.
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Will it bring a fatwa?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 08/07/2013
» The major religions of the world base their legitimacy on the approval of God, gods, goddesses and angels. Their holy books, as well. Their founders are venerated by churches, temples and mosques. And public celebrations. Doctrines are laid out, heresies punished. Followers go to heaven, disbelievers to the other place.
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Europe in chaos
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 29/07/2013
» Born and bred in the Big Apple, my first memory of war was of a photo of a near naked native standing with a spear on the front page of a newspaper. Upon enquiry I was told that he was a soldier of Ethiopia, of which I had never heard. It was at war with Italy, of which I had.
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