Publications
All The Wrong Places
James Fenton
Reportage resists easy definition and comes in many forms – travel essay, narrative history, autobiography – but at its finest it reveals hidden truths about people and events that have shaped the world we know. This new series, hailed as ‘a wonderful idea’ by Don DeLillo, both restores to print and introduces for the first time some of the greatest works of the genre. This is a visceral, on-the-spot, and unforgettable account of the fall of Saigon, war-ravaged Cambodia, and the Philippines in the midst of revolution from James Fenton, the right man in the wrong place in dangerous times.
James Fenton on Granta.com
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Issue 15
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Issue 15
The Fall of Saigon
James Fenton
‘I wanted to see a communist victory, which I presumed to be inevitable. I wanted to see the fall of a city.’
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Issue 15
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Issue 24
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Issue 24
Kwangju and After
James Fenton
‘Some people said they were not ‘with’ the students. They were not in favour of the use of arms. But they were of one voice in saying that the students were their sons, and that if the army came in the students would be put to death. That was why they kept saying: “Tell the truth about us.”’
James Fenton on the Gwanju massacre.
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Issue 24
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Issue 24
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Issue 24
The Snap Revolution (Part One: The Snap Election)
James Fenton
‘It was the Cuba of the future. It was going the way of Iran. It was another Nicaragua, another Cambodia, another Vietnam.’
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Issue 24
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Issue 24
The Snap Revolution (Part Two: The Narrow Road to the Solid North)
James Fenton
‘Most of his life has been spent under Marcos's rule, and his habit of thought was to doubt the story as presented in, say, the newspaper, and to try to guess the story behind the story.’
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Issue 24
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Issue 24
The Snap Revolution (Part Three: The Snap Revolution)
James Fenton
‘Late that night Marcos came on the television again, and whereas in the previous press conference he had maintained a gelid calm, now he was angry and almost out of control.’
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Issue 24
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Issue 24
Cambodia and Someth May
James Fenton
‘When I first saw the draft of the piece which follows, I realized that the book he was writing had reached an essential stage of articulacy.’
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Issue 24
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Issue 24
Road to Cambodia
James Fenton
‘The buildings were full of surprises. In one, surrounded by winking lights, the last abbot was lying in his coffin. He had died a year before, and it would be another two years before he was cremated.’
