Issues
← Back to all issuesGranta 24: Inside Intelligence
Summer 1988
In 1946, at the age of twenty, Anthony Cavendish infiltrated a ring of arms traders run by ex-Nazi immigrants in Palestine. In 194-, he was was made the ——– officer of —-, the British ——- —— —–. In 194-, he personally oversaw the illegal invasion of ——- that resulted in the deaths of ———– of ————–. In 19–, in ——, Cavendish was personally responsible for monitoring ——– ——–. What did Cavendish finally see that we are not allowed to know now – over forty years later? Plus: Philip Roth, Peter Carey, Tobias Wolff, Bruce Chatwin, E.L. Doctorow, and Jay McInerney.
From this Issue
|Granta 24
His Roth
Philip Roth
‘I naively believed as a child that I would always have a father present, and the truth seems to be that I always will.’
|Granta 24
The Albatross
Bruce Chatwin
‘On the south side of the Beagle Channel is the Chilean island of Navarino, with its naval base at Puerto Williams. I hoped to walk around the coast and get a glimpse of Hermit Island, which is the breeding colony of the black-browed Albatross.’
|Granta 24
Inside Intelligence
Anthony Cavendish
‘Good heavens, old boy! It isn't the Russians we worry about; it's the British public that we don't want to know about it.’
|Granta 24
Fortune
Tobias Wolff
‘We’d left Sarasota in the dead of summer, right after my tenth birthday, and headed west under low flickering skies that turned black and exploded and cleared just long enough to leave the air gauzy with steam.’
|Granta 24
A Letter to Our Son
Peter Carey
‘We talked about Alison’s blood. We asked her what she thought this mystery could be. Really what we wanted was to be told that everything was OK. There was a look on Alison's face when she asked. I cannot describe it, but it was not a face seeking medical “facts”.’
|Granta 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.
|Granta 24
Chiloé
Bruce Chatwin
‘The island of Chiloé is celebrated for its black storms and black soil, its thickets of fuchsia and bamboo, its Jesuit churches and the golden hands of its woodcarvers.’
|Granta 24
Immigrant
Nik Cohn
‘In every other respect – colour, country, creed – these people might have nothing in common. Some were convicted criminals, others sought political asylum, still others had overstayed their visas or were accused of Green Card frauds, and a few might even be mistakes, the victims of computer or human error. But this one bond was absolute.’
|Granta 24
The Apprentice
E. L. Doctorow
‘And there was no resistance, I saw a movement of black bulk, that was all, and all I heard was maybe the sound someone makes who is frightened and has a hand not his own over his mouth, the doors slammed and the car was humming and gone and the boat was already opening up water between itself and the slip before a thin minute had passed.’
|Granta 24
Victory Mills
Mona Simpson
‘I have driven a car on acid, carried my mother drunk upstairs and slept with numerous men and one woman to no consequence.’
|Granta 24
The Business
Jay McInerney
‘So I said to Dalton, “No, no, I meant–what's the secret of a great screenplay?” And he said, “It's very simple, Lex. Three acts–first act, get man up tree, second act, shake a stick at him, third act, get him down from the tree.”’
