About Rob Normey

I recently read Peter Brook’s book Flaubert in the Ruins of Paris: The Story of a Friendship, a Novel and a Terrible Year. The book provides a fascinating account of the composition and the literary and wider political history of Gustave Flaubert’s 1869 novel Sentimental Education. Brook’s book led me to return to Flaubert’s difficult […]

In 1977, Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac sang “Gold Dust Woman, … take your sliver spoon , dig your grave.” A mere two years later, Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister of Britain. She declared there is no such thing as society, and progressive politics based on democratic socialism must be defeated at every turn. […]

Albert Camus’ early masterpiece The Stranger, published in 1942, is an enigmatic fable that has entranced generations of readers. One such reader, the Algerian journalist Kamel Daoud, has expressed his admiration for Camus’ writings. Despite his appreciation, he also poses serious questions about a glaring omission in The Stranger. The central act in the novel […]

John MacLachlan Gray is a celebrated playwright who penned the immortal masterpiece Billy Bishop Goes to War. Having not seen any new plays from Gray for many years, I had wondered whatever had become of him. Not to worry. It turns out that in recent years he has reinvented himself as a mystery novelist. His […]