Thursday 3 December 2009

Credit Crunch

Just back from another informative and, "to some extent" (to use one of John Calder's verbal quirks), enlightening evening at the Calder Bookshop. David Nokes was supposed to talk about Dr Johnson tonight – his absence was sorely felt, but he was warmly remembered by everyone present, including John in his introductory speech.

Tonight's talk was about John Maynard Keynes. I knew very little about him – only passing references in footnotes and diaries from members of the Bloomsbury group. His economic ideas were amazingly ahead of his time. The portrait that emerged of him was that of an incredibly smart, intelligent, altruistic and – above all – decent man.

I left with the resolution to look up his books, especially "The Economic Consequences of the Peace". And I also want to get hold of Robert Skidelsky's recently published Keynes: The Return of the Master.

Apart from the wonderful talk, it was good to see John in full form, as well as a lot of friends who attended the event. Some of them asked: "Why have you stopped writing your blog? Have you been busy? Have you got a blog block?" To which I replied: "No, I've just been trying to finish Martin Amis's Money".

AG

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