National Service in Egypt was an odd sort of prelude to an Oxford degree. Show more

John Carey on how reviewing television programmes meant having to acquire one. Show more

Family fortunes had dwindled into a genteel memory of former wealth, by the time the young Carey was born in pre-war south London. Show more

John Carey tells how rummaging in the study produced not just books but bullets too. Show more

John Carey on how the perils of being outspoken in the national press sometimes led to unhappy fractures. Show more