Anglomania

I'll pick up your cudgel tomorrow, Robert, but I wanted to immediately clarify one point: I didn't call them minor writers; I called these "minor works," by which I meant to suggest that they have written non-minor works in the past. I'm familiar with some of Buruma and a fair bit of Barnes, and while I'm a bit less ecstatic than you are as to their brilliance, I agree that they are, in their respective fields, significant talents who deserve to be taken seriously. And, unless I've truly lost it, I thought I was defending Buruma against your criticisms. But then again, writing from 3,000 miles away, I may be imperiling my application to the Groucho Club without even knowing it.

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Michael Hirschorn can name every member of Arsenal Football Club's starting 11. Robert McCrum is literary editor of Britain's Observer and his most recent book is My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke. This week they discuss Julian Barnes' England, England and Ian Buruma's Anglomania.

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