Seventy years ago today the age of the atom bomb began with the Trinity Test and a gigantic mushroom cloud in the New Mexico desert. The man who led the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie Groves, was an 'abrasive and sarcastic S.O.B'. But, writes Seamus Sweeney, he also produced what may be one of the best guides ... Read More...
About Author Profile: Seamus Sweeney
Seamus Sweeney reads God’s Fifth Column: A Biography of the Age 1890-1940 - an unusual work by an author who at one time looked like becoming one of the greats... William Gerhardie has achieved an odd kind of fame; famous for not being famous. He is a writer whose champions specifically focus on ... Read More...
They simply wrote a lot of popular children's books about a family of bears. So how did the Berenstain's manage to enrage two quite different sets of modern moralists?... Usually the death of a prominent person is greeted with respectful appraisal. After a while it fades, but initially “don’t speak ill ... Read More...
The Lost Leonardo, which appears in the short story collection The Terminal Beach (available to buy for 1p) is Seamus Sweeney's favourite J G Ballard story, despite (or perhaps because of) its being the most unBallardian. Here he explains why... Clive James did not care much for Jean Paul Sartre, although ... Read More...
In the early 1960s two behavioural psychologists attempted to bring up a child in an environment devoid of pictures. But what, exactly, did they prove?... Imagine if, in infancy, your parents made every effort to ensure that you never saw a picture. This is what happened to the anonymous subject of ... Read More...
Contrary to popular opinion, Frank Sinatra made some of his most interesting records well into his 'September years', argues Seamus Sweeney... The conventional wisdom holds that Sinatra was, musically, most interesting in the mid-1950s; his collaborations with arranger Nelson Riddle and, to a slightly lesser extent, Billy May produced the classic albums which have ... Read More...
