Literature & Geopolitics Podcast

Discover why English novelist Anthony Powell deserves to be remembered as one of Britain’s great 20th-century novelists. He wrote the 12-volume masterpiece “A Dance to the Music of Time” that explores the lives of a group of British characters from the 1920s, through World War II, and deep into middle age.I talk with Harry Mount, who is the great nephew of Anthony Powell, and the editor of The Oldie Magazine. He is also a distinguished writer in his own right, having written 10 non-fiction books, including a popular guide to learning Latin, called “Carpe Diem: Put a Little Latin in Your Life”.In the interview, we talk about why Powell matters, if he should be considered, “the English Proust,” and whether it is fair to criticize Powell for focusing too much on the upper classes.

In the first episode of the Literature & Geopolitics podcast, Indian Ambassador and poet Abhay K. discusses diplomacy, poetry, Octavio Paz, Buddhist thought, Nalanda University, and why he chose to write about Africa. We also discuss the long and rich writer-diplomat tradition and why so many writers, including Dante, Chaucer, Pablo Neruda, Sergio Pitol, and many others, have been both writers and diplomats.