Chasing Steel

Ian Jack: Scotland’s Ferry Fiasco, 22 September 2022

... Glasgow, Greenock and Helensburgh in the summer of Napoleon’s advance on Moscow. In fact, Robert Fulton’s steamboat Clermont had started running on the Hudson in 1807, and in the five years before Bell got going on the Clyde half a dozen other steamers had begun to carry freight and passengers on the Delaware, the St Lawrence, the Mississippi and ...

Day 5, Day 9, Day 16

LRB Contributors: On Ukraine, 24 March 2022

... COP26 targets and increasing North Sea hydrocarbon production. In the US, while proponents of green energy are calling for an acceleration of investment in renewables, the electric car mogul Elon Musk and oil and gas lobbyists are all demanding swift and dramatic deregulation of drilling offshore and on federal lands. Meanwhile, South African and ...

The Satoshi Affair

Andrew O’Hagan, 30 June 2016

... trouble, he approached Matthews several times. By that time, Matthews had become friendly with Robert MacGregor, the founder and CEO of a Canada-based money-transfer firm called nTrust. Matthews encouraged MacGregor to come to Australia and assess Wright’s value as an investment opportunity. Wright had founded a number of businesses that were in trouble ...

The Uncommon Reader

Alan Bennett, 8 March 2007

... dashing blond boy he had been. ‘Was that Cecil Beaton?’ ‘No idea. Never liked the fellow. Green shoes.’ ‘Smelled delicious.’ ‘What’s that?’ ‘A book. I borrowed it.’ ‘Dead, I suppose.’ ‘Who?’ ‘The Beaton fellow.’ ‘Oh yes. Everybody’s dead.’ ‘Good show, though.’ And he went off to bed glumly singing ‘Oh, what a ...