close
The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20101217043731/http://www.independent.co.uk:80/opinion/columnists/thomas-sutcliffe/

Thomas Sutcliffe

Tom Sutcliffe: Suicide bombers and a novel twist

I'd like to propose an axiom. You cannot be both a good novelist and a good suicide bomber. Other combinations are possible I would have thought, even if unlikely. You could be a good novelist and a really lousy suicide bomber, so stricken by doubt and empathy for your victims that you botch the operation for reasons of troubled conscience rather than fumbling incompetence. Or you might be a terrible novelist, all sloganeering certainty and manipulation, and a really fine suicide bomber. But if we're talking about notable achievement in either field then one set of qualities effectively precludes the other.

Recently by Thomas Sutcliffe

Tom Sutcliffe: Why we change the crime to fit the story

Tuesday, 14 December 2010

Social Studies: We want life to have significance – and so we're eager for details that make sense of the senseless

On the ball: 'In the Beginning' by Tom Lubbock, whose collages are essays for the eyes

Tom Sutcliffe: A critic who sees the whole picture

Friday, 10 December 2010

The week in culture

Tom Sutcliffe: An awkward truth about tax avoiders

Tuesday, 7 December 2010

Social Studies: There's a perspective from which we're all fat cats, not just Sir Philip Green

Tom Sutcliffe: Dramatic pause that says so much

Friday, 3 December 2010

The week in culture

Tom Sutcliffe: Death comes to us all – and very useful it is too

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Social Studies: Our deaths in the abstract have a social utility. They make space for those behind us

Use your allusion: Peter Blake's 'Homage to Henri Matisse: Spiral 1' falls short of the work it pays tribute to

Tom Sutcliffe: The originals are still the best

Friday, 26 November 2010

The week in culture

Tom Sutcliffe: What hatred for NPR tells us about America

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Social Studies: From a British perspective it's quite hard to see NPR as a hotbed of dogmatic socialism

Romantic gesture: 'Powerful' is an appropriate but clichéd description of Jane Austen's 'Pride & Prejudice'

Tom Sutcliffe: When words lose their power

Friday, 19 November 2010

The week in culture

Thomas Sutcliffe: Like salmon, some things are better wild

Tuesday, 16 November 2010

Social Studies: The British Government would be wise to resist the temptation to get our intangibles on the list

Mummy returns: the Book of the Dead exhibition at the British Museum

Tom Sutcliffe: Ancient discovery raises the spirits

Friday, 12 November 2010

The week in culture

More thomas sutcliffe:


Columnist Comments

johann_hari

Johann Hari: Your right to protest is under threat

Friends have started to say something they have never said before: I'm too frightened to protest

thomas_sutcliffe

Tom Sutcliffe: Suicide bombers and a novel twist

I'd like to propose an axiom. You cannot be both a good novelist and a good suicide bomber


Image

Article Archive

Day In a Page

Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat

Select date
Image
 

Partners

  • Compare Finance
    Compare hundreds of deals on top finance offers
  • Independent Dating
    Register for free to find your perfect partner with Independent Singles
  • Business Courses
    Find and compare 1000’s of business & professional Training Courses
  • Holiday Offers
    Holidays for the discerning traveller from the Independent Holiday directory
Sponsored Links