Cheap and dangerous

A while back I sang the praises of China’s manufacturing industry but I now have to rescind my claim because this week it was discovered that some toys made in China for American firms were using lead paints which are dangerous when licked by young children. Continue reading

We need to talk about “We need to talk about Kevin”

One of the most thought-provoking books that I have ever read is Lionel Shriver’s “We need to talk about Kevin”. I can’t imagine that fifty years ago it would have dared to be published, let alone win the Orange Prize for Literature.

So it’s a credit to today’s more candid society that Shriver could have written a book about a parent-child relationship that isn’t total bliss. Whilst the novel is described as taboo-breaking, gutsy and startling, which means that most people would have had some reservations about the theme of not really liking one’s child, the author has excused herself to some extent by making her child a sort of Damien Omen character and that is a kind of cop-out, in my opinion. Continue reading