For a heart-stopping moment it seems we are heading, really fast, for a barely visible sandbank on which an elegant white heron stands, an imperious lone beacon. Then, with a perfectly timed flick of his wrist, our helmsman quells the engine on the large, motorised canoe and it slews into…
IT’S not yet properly daytime, the reds and yellows of dawn are still colouring the 
dark sky, but already there is activity on the narrow, cobbled street in Bogota’s historic La Candelaria area. At one end there is a roadblock. Armed men in military and police uniforms are waving away traffic seeking access to the vast Plaza de Bolivar. Only pedestrians, mostly locals already on their way to work, get through.
As the morning proper arrives, from our window in the historic Hotel de la Opera we watch a stream of official black cars with heavily tinted windows squeeze up the narrow street and park outside the elegant San Carlos Palace, famous as the site of an assassination attempt on Simon Bolivar and now a government building. The smartly dressed drivers are attentively standing by their vehicles. Now, we can hear, in the distance the sound of military bands and a cavalcade of mounted soldiers clatters along a nearby street. Something is definitely going on.
But venturing out we have a quick conversation with one of the cheery soldiers on point duty who reveals nothing alarming in the sudden show of force. Instead, it’s a formal event in honour of the out-going police chief. Medals are being handed out. Crowds are enjoying the spectacle. It’s a new day. The events of the past still cast long shadows over modern-day Colombia; but they are fading fast. Today, the spotlight is
A new chapter in the on-going stoush between on-line retailing giant Amazon and the French publishing house Hachette, opened this week with Hachette boss Michael Pietsch (left) hitting back at accusations that the company is pushing up prices for e-books. “Hachette sets prices for our books entirely on our own, not…
How influenced are you by reviews that say you’d pretty much be wasting your time by reading a book? Grateful? Take this opening paragraph from a review by Judith Flanders of Isabelle Allende’s new book, Ripper, which appeared in The Sunday Times recently: Some literary writers have patronising attitudes to genre fiction.…
In this world of e-books and e-readers bookshops have become endangered species across the world. Many have already been forced to close but others are taking the battle back to the buying public with events like National Bookshop Day being celebrated right across Australia this Saturday. Many bookshops have planned…
E-book prices are likely to fall after the US federal court approved a settlement between the US Department of Justice and three of the world’s biggest publishers charged with price collusion.
But inevitably many see the settlement as a double-edged sword fearing that it will endanger smaller booksellers.