In 1914 over 80% of the world was or had been under the control of European powers (many territories had subsequently wrestled free) despite the fact that a thousand years earlier China, Japan, and the Middle East were streets ahead of Europe by any measure of development or civilization.

How come?  Well says Philip T Hoffman, although the Chinese invented gunpowder the Europeans developed and improved the weapons that it fed and practiced using them by fighting amongst themselves, paying for their wars by levying large taxes on their populations.  As a result he says they were well equipped to set out to conquer the world while those other civilizations remained inward looking and left the citizenry with more of their own money.  Tory regimes surely.

The Telegraph's reviewer is not wholly convinced but gives Hoffman's book, Why Did Europe Conquer the World, four stars.  I enjoyed his talk but I doubt I'll ever get round to reading his book.

The packed Playhouse gave a rapturous reception to Seven last night but I found it an unsatisfactory watch and listen.  My fault I'm sure.  I should perhaps, as recommended in this review , have let it all wash over me instead of trying to fathom what it might have been telling me.

My sympathies were with the lady I overheard at the Book Festival this morning telling her friend that she would rather have heard the RSNO playing Mahler in the Usher Hall and complaining about low lighting and black costumes on a black set.

It was all bright colours at the talk about translating children's books into English from Farsi and Arabic.  One of the contributors spoke mostly in Farsi and as seems often to be the case said rather more than the poor chap interpreting had managed to retain when she paused for breath.

But the languages were not very important really.  It was a discussion that could have applied to any language pair and they talked about dealing with cultural differences and maintaining the essence of a story while expressing it in words far removed from a literal translation.

The chat strayed from time to time into the realms of adult literature, Fitzgerald and the Rubaiyat being an obvious reference.  I could have piped up then about my Scots version but instead asked about the availability of western children's literature in Iran.

There is quite a lot of it apparently but it's all bootleg translations because Iran doesn't observe international rules on copyright.  So thing haven't improved since I picked up a pirate cassette of Glen Campbell in Tehran in 1978 just a year before the revolution.