Oriana Fallaci

Racist?

She did sound like a bloody loon, the few things of hers I'm aware of. Eurabia my arse.

Ledeen was all teary over her, so I'm inclined to be suspicious.

Her interviews (admittedly a long, long time ago) with Gadaffi, Arafat et al are awesome. And there's a great, narky 1970s Q&A between her and Robert Scheer from Playboy (I think it was reprinted in "Talking Tuna Fish, Thinking Death"). They're probably all on the webs somewhere.

There was a very recent New Yorker profile too. If I find it, I'll post the link.

Lettera a un bambino mai nato is senstaional. She was politically off the chart but that book... That book with it's exploration of unwanted pregnancy and abortion helped me understand that termination isn't like cosmetic surgery. I know that sounds really moronic and I aplogise for all the offence in the last sentence but what I want to make clear was that it was the first time that I was aware of the relationship that exists between a mother and the foetus. It was meant to be an insight into the modern Italian as the novel was written around the time that abortion was legalised in Italy. Up until that point I had never really engaged with the concept of abortion and it's aftermath.

She was anti-muslim, she ended up being Berlusconi's political twin but I think for anyone to write so honestly and beautifully about their unborn child, it just makes me happy that I ever got the chance to even try to understand.

I'd love to sign off with something melodramatic but really, all I hope is that she met her kid and that they got on.

Bugger, that was meant to be sensational. Also I meant that it wasn't the referendum about abortion that led to me engaging with abortion, I read and tried to understand this book a lot later than that obviously.