THE JFK ASSASSINATION: STILL HAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

I wrote this essay on the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s murder, in 2013, for the London Library magazine. On the 57th anniversary, it remains relevant.

If you are of a certain age, you will remember. It was 50 years ago, 22 November 1963 and, with respect to Philip Larkin, a moment more influential than the Beatles’ first hit. We were sent home from school that Friday afternoon; President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been killed in Dallas. We watched Sunday’s live television news coverage as Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin, was…