Items

• Tracts for the times: Art, Dialogue and Outrage by Wole Soyinka

  Andrew St. George reviews Wole Soyinka's essay collection, suggesting, "Soyinka sparkles and delights. He carries his credentials lightly but likes the sound they make when they drop...But criticism for Soyinka travels both ways down a broad street; these essays foster a taste for the inordinate and mischievous which works with and against Nigerian culture."
• A farewell to Provence

  "A man has only one virginity to lose and there his heart will ever be," wrote Hemingway to Berenson, adding that he was "an old Veneto boy."
• The slow march of left and right

  "Hope left South Africa for Britain when he was 31, since then he has established a reputation as a poet, children's author and novelist."
• Critics' choice

  "Bookmark: The Poet, The President, and Travelling Players. (BB2 7:30pm)...and met the dissident poet, Jack Mapanje."
• Taking an African safari

  "The great Zimbabwean novelist Dambudzo Marechera, tells of an altogether different world."
• Monday 31 August

  "10.00 FILM. Stars Georgina Ackerman, Roger Griffiths, Thomas Baptiste and Pitika Ntuli. African voyage of rediscovery about an irrepressible 12-year-old girl Ama, and her family's struggle to reconcile their ancestral history with life in 20th century London. (1990)"
• Diary

  "Unlike most scribblers Okri will not be making his Atlantic crossing on an economy-class aeroplane ticket but on the QE2, where he has secured himself a first class berth."
• My Hols

  "A fortress in France, a train through the Rockies, the vigour of Lagos and the inner heartbeat of England--they've all inspired Ben Okri."
• Stirrings of Genius

  "On the right track: Town Owen Edmond's photograph of a Syrian train guard from More Great Railway journeys, with contributions from such intrepid travellers, as Chris Bonington, Ben Okri, Alexei Sayle, and Victoria Wood."
• Critics' choice

  "Ben Okri, always good value on television, takes several trains and a boat to reach Peloponesse, after departing Waterloo aboard the Eurostar."
• Content

  "Author's Holidays John Banville, Ben Okri, Ali Smith, AL Kennedy, and Kate Mosse on their favourite destinations."
• Hotel Spot Check

  "The cabinet is the small down stairs sitting room, for example, is full of signed first editions, by contemporary authors, including a couple of copies of The Famished Road."