You don’t need an excuse to talk to David Pryce-Jones — the simple fact of life will do — but there is one, and a very good one: Fault Lines, his new book. It’s an autobiography, but more than that, I would say, it’s a book about his family. And a very unusual family it is.
I have recorded a Q&A with him, here.
P-J, let me remind you, is an NR senior editor. A Briton — and a Continental? — he’s a journalist, historian, and novelist. He has written about 25 books, some of them famous, the others ought-to-be-famous.
I talk with him about his family, of course. And his wartime flight through France, down into Morocco. It was there that P-J encountered the Arab world and began his interest in it. Also, the fate of the Jews is tied to the Arabs. For better or worse (emphasis on worse?).
David went to Eton and Oxford, and has plenty of experiences to relate, as you can imagine. He collaborated on a theatrical work with Dudley Moore (among others). He met Shostakovich and Poulenc. Garbo came to visit him. In a later year, David played tennis with her. She was topless.
Beat that, as WFB would say.
P-J and I also talk about C. S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley, Evelyn Waugh, V. S. Naipaul, and not a few others. We then talk about today: the Middle East, which may descend into regional war, which may lead to wider war. Putin: Is he a mischief-maker or a greater menace? Then there’s the question of global power.
During the London Olympics (2012), Howard Fineman wrote that the Brits “show us how to lose global power gracefully.” Well, one way to do it gracefully is to hand off power to the Americans. And to whom will we Americans hand off? China? ISIS? The mullahs?
Wanna think this through?
The podcast ends with a meditation on the United States, about which P-J remains hopeful. A visit with him is both edifying and gratifying. You’ll love it, I feel sure. Again, the ’cast is here.