TELLING STORIES

Saul Bellow, Arthur Miller, Philip Roth, John Updike – they’re all old and they’re all American. “But they have two further features in common. First, they are all prophetic; they map, analyse and judge the condition of their nation and they consider its future. Second, they are, in this, completely unlike any British writers. We simply do not have a single writer of stature who feels obliged to tell our national story. – Sunday Times (UK)