Granta 75

'I was approached by a courteous young man who handed me a visiting card engraved with his name, Joseph, and his profession: Senior Officers' Pimp.'Norman Lewis embarks on his career as a British spy in Arabia'Why yes, what a pleasure to meet you.' He shook my hand. 'Refresh my memory. Do I owe you something?' Michael Mewshaw at last runs into his hero: Anthony Burgess'Conversation was daunting. He seemed to have made up his brilliant mind about every possible topic, and condensed his conclusions into unanswerable aphorisms.'Richard Murphy meets W. H. Auden - and also Theodore Roethke and J. R. AckerleyPLUSNew fiction from Anne Enright, Jackie Kay, Adam Mars-Jones, John McGahern and Paul Therous; in the operating theatre, Paul Broks explores the uncertain life of the brain; and the hidden world of seaports in photographs by Alex Majoli and words by James Hamilton-Paterson.