I finished reading two great books: 'Shah of Shahs' and 'The Emperor', both by Ryszard Kapuscinski. Kapuscinski is one of my favourite writers, and I lament the fact that he never completed his trilogy on power - the third part was to be about Uganda's Idi Amin, who gave himself the title of 'His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular.'


Learn by heart this poem of mine,
Books only last a little time,
And this one will be borrowed,
scarred,
Burned by Hungarian border guards,
Lost by the library, broken-backed,
Its paper dried up, crisped and cracked,
Worm-eaten, crumbling into dust,
Or slowly brown and self-combust,
When climbing Fahrenheit has got
To 451, for that's how hot
it will be when your town burns down.
Learn by heart this poem of mine

Gyorgy Faludy, the voice of Hungarian Resistance, 1911-2006