![]() The Scottish-born writer, a journalist at The Observer for thirty years and the author of numerous books, possesses a polymathic breadth of interests and expertise. But, as ever with Ascherson, you never get mere history, and here he reflects deeply on the techniques of “coercive persuasion” in ways that illuminate our own “age of lies.” The most recent, in the December 2, 2021, issue, is “ Grand Illusion,” a review of The Confidence Men by Margalit Fox.Īt one level, this gives occasion for Ascherson to tell a ripping yarn about how two British POWs in World War I hoodwinked their Turkish captors into permitting their escape and for this attempt all they needed was not a wirecutter or a shovel, only a Ouija board. It was nearly three decades before there was a year in which he did not contribute at least one article, sometimes three or four. Since 1963, the inaugural year of the New York Review’s publication, Neal Ascherson has been one of its most prolific contributors. ![]()
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