The Guardian profile Kazuo Ishiguro today.

Kazuo Ishiguro’s early career set a modern benchmark for precocious literary success. Born in 1954, in 1982 he won the Winifred Holtby award for the best expression of a sense of place, for his debut novel A Pale View of Hills . In 1983, he was included in the seminal Granta best of young British writers list, alongside Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, Graham Swift, Rose Tremain and Pat Barker. Three years later his second novel, An Artist of the Floating World, picked up the Whitbread book of the year and in 1989 his third, The Remains of the Day, won the Booker. David Lodge, chair of the judges, praised the depiction of a between-the-wars country-house butler’s self-deception as a “cunningly structured and beautifully paced performance”, which succeeds in rendering with “humour and pathos a memorable character and explores the large, vexed theme of class, tradition and duty”. At 34, Ishiguro’s place in the literary firmament was already secure and he felt as if he’d only just begun.

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Profile: Kazuo Ishiguro

After The Wasp Factory, which shouldn’t last much longer than this evening, I am going to have a crack at this:

Some good Palimthoughts from the ever reliable Self here.

John O’Farrell on the dearth of English players in the Premiership, following Arsenal’s all-foreign efforts this week:

This week, another football landmark was reached when a Premiership team fielded an entire squad of foreign players. “What is Arsene Wenger doing?” said the pundits. “I mean, OK, so Arsenal are 4-1 up, but they completely lack the homegrown talent of their opponents … Oh, hang on, now they’re 5-1 up.” In fact, it should have been six but we’re stuck with these useless English referees. “Where oh where are the top British players?” asked a fan at half time, sensing that he vaguely recognised the bloke serving him a reheated hotdog.

From The Guardian:

The last time Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur met in the FA Cup, it was the 1991 final. Wembley was filled with Puffa jackets, videos were set for Saturday-night favourite Noel’s House Party, and Cher’s Shoop Shoop Song poured out of the stadium speakers. If that doesn’t date the scene, maybe this will: it was expected to be a close game – and it was. With Spurs losing Paul Gascoigne after 14 minutes, Forest were only undone by a fatal error from Des Walker, who headed beyond his own keeper in the 94th minute.

On Sunday they meet again, this time in the fifth round. And this time, it’s a different kind of fatality paling Forest cheeks. Even the most optimistic daren’t entertain the notion of a win at White Hart Lane. In fact, when Spurs met West Brom in the fourth-round replay to decide who would face Forest, John Motson said it all: “Whoever wins here will host Nottingham Forest in the next round, so there’s the prospect of a good cup run here.”