Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton publishersweekly.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from publishersweekly.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
IndieBound In this bold and humorous debut, Wassef reflects on founding a modern bookstore, âthe first of its kind in Cairo,â at a critical time in the early aughts when Egyptâs illiteracy rate was at an all-time high and revolution was on the horizon. With her sister, Hind, and friend, Nihal, Wassef made her passion for books into a profession and together the three women opened their bookstore, Diwan, in 2002, in the face of a patriarchal society and âbureaucratic despots.â Wassef details the businessâs evolution, over her 14 years running it, from an audacious dream to the national success and household name it continues to be today, with several locations operating across Egypt. In chapters cleverly named after sections of the bookstoreâfrom âPregnancy and Parentingâ to âEgypt Essentialsââshe braids personal anecdotes, historical context, and day-to-day interactions with regulars (including the occasional disgrunt
Rory MacPherson, ITN diplomatic correspondent and newsreader in the 1970s – obituary
He cut an authoritative figure on screen, having come from a career as a diplomat that included service during the Cuban missile crisis
Rory MacPherson
Rory MacPherson, who has died aged 85, was diplomatic correspondent and a newscaster for ITN during its heyday in the 1970s.
Before the arrival of Anna Ford in 1978, Richard Ingrams lamented in The Spectator: “Like the member of some agreeable old club which has decided finally to let women in, I have been savouring the last days of the all-male ITN … There may be only a few days left in which to enjoy the last news bulletins not to be read out by high-pitched women, but by nice quietly-spoken, soothing gentlemen with the right sort of accents like Reggie Bosanquet, Sandy Gall and Rory MacPherson.”