The royal visitors, arriving on Monday, were already facing a diplomatic challenge with political tensions between the US and the UK. The shooting incident in Washington DC at the weekend added another layer of security concerns.
Dario Fo's genius lay in his ability to merge political and popular theatre, bringing satire to the masses through his multifaceted roles in the arts. His works, particularly Accidental Death of an Anarchist, achieved global acclaim and earned him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1997.
There are few things that MPs take more seriously than themselves. Their desire to put themselves front and centre of world events. Their need to imagine that everything they do makes a difference. No greater self-love hath any person than this. If they were to have a therapist, I am sure they would be having a field day. The triumph of ego over ever-diminishing quantities of self-worth.
Mohamed Dib (1920-2003) was one of Algeria's most celebrated novelists who wrote in French to reclaim his people's literary voice. His novels exposed poverty and injustice under French colonial rule and embraced people's aspirations for freedom. He was exiled from Algeria by the French authorities in 1959, and though he spent the rest of his life in Paris, Dib always carried his homeland in his heart and his work.