A Hitch in Time: Writings from the London Review of Books

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Yes, he (& Bobby) were out to get rid of Castro. But JFK seemed to be in two minds about this, for he also sent secret emissaries to Castro seeking a modus vivendi. With consummate irony, there’s been a “major” outbreak of Covid in Stanley (50+ cases, currently; none requiring the hospital) the week before all remaining travel/quarantine regulations were scheduled to be finally lifted. Hey ho. Apart from this elbowy historical resonance — unknown to Hitchens, by the look of it — Hitch-22 mentions the Falklands, overtly, no fewer than three times (not bad in an extremely well-lived and well-travelled life!). It is about a professor with a time machine known as OSKA and is discovered by two children in a cave. The Professor, Wagstaff then sends the children through time and encounter several villains. Combining memoir, travel writing, and a wealth of unbelievably hilarious anecdotes, this autobiographical extravaganza chronicles the amazing early life of entertainer Andy Smart. Whether it’s running with the bulls in Pamplona, juggling with pig’s kidneys, drinking beer on the roof of a fast-moving train or living on the beach in Biarritz, Andy’s early life comprised a series of jaw-dropping feats and bizarre situations from which, amazingly, he emerged unscathed to hitchhike to another location and fight another day.

A Hitch in Time · LRB 22 November 2021 Sam Kinchin-Smith | A Hitch in Time · LRB 22 November 2021

That fact that Hitch has only recently absented himself from his homeland may be more of a factor here, patriotically-speaking, than he is letting on (one’s accent grows stronger, etc. — see below). Meanwhile, I’m inclined to suspect the concern Commander H was raising might actually have been that the under-tested and economically-hampered Royal Navy of 1982 (and by extension, the wider nation) might not encounter a catastrophic humiliation in the rough seas of the South Atlantic winter. Still, who can say, at this distance? It was written by the legendary TEB Clarke who wrote some of the Ealing classic comedies including an Oscar for The Lavender Hill Mob.While all eyes are on Gaza – where the death toll, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, has passed eight thousand – the ethnic cleansing in... I always mightily enjoyed Hitchens speaking bile to power, but thought his defense of the Iraq invasion curious, wrong-headed and ultimately reprehensible.

Hitch in Time, A (1978) BFI Screenonline: Hitch in Time, A (1978)

Following on directly from this, Hitchens was then invited to a Falkland Islands Committee garden party at Lincoln’s Inn. He “asked if I might bring my father, who had himself briefly been stationed on this desolate archipelago”. Kennedy made a Lot of enemies. And those enemies eventually did away with him. Here is JFK more or less signing his own death warrant. He was assassinated less than half a year later.I wandered into a coffee shop with the memoir in my hand, and was promptly accosted by a lady I’d never met before (nor think I’ve seen since). She asked me what I thought of it. It seemed pretty good so far, I said, though I’d not made much progress with it. The bay of Elefsina, the modern name for ancient Eleusis, is a graveyard for ships named after gods and nymphs...