Poem, dedicated to all those who held Waterloo Bridge for Extinction Rebellion in April last year, published in this year’s May-June issue of the PN Review.
Multiplying the Light
My essay about the Czech philosopher of education, Jan Amos Comenius, and the book he wrote in London in 1641/2, The Way of Light, is in the April/May issue of The London Magazine.
Letter from Lyme Bay
For The Ecologist I witness the emergence in Charmouth of a new community initiative, Ban the Beads. It aims to hold South West Water to account for the millions of plastic bio-beads that have been washing up on beaches all around the West Country. Also: Adam Rees’ new report on the impact of commercial potting […]
Multiplying the Light
During this 30th anniversary of the collapse of Communist rule in Eastern Europe, I will be speaking at Bridport’s LSI about the continuing relevance of this event. The talk will focus on its implications for Britain’s relationship with the Czech Republic specifically, but also with Europe more widely. November 23rd (doors open 7.30, talk begins […]
A Deed of Quixote
My portrait of J.M. Cohen, translator from French and Spanish, crucial link between the London publishing world and Latin American literature in the 1950s and 1960s, is in the current issue of PN Review (Nov.-Dec. 2019).
Ninon & Saint-Evremond: Paris, London & Friendship
Molière Reading Tartuffe at Ninon de Lenclos, painted by Nicolas Monciau, hangs in the library of the Comédie-Française, France’s national theatre. Tartuffe scandalised the pious on its first appearance, prompting the religious authorities to threaten with excommunication anyone who publicly performed it. The picture shows the author declaiming his play at the Rue des Tournelles, […]
Weak Regulation Jeopardises Marine Life
This look at how the laws governing Marine Protected Areas work out in practise should interest anyone who is wondering how our marine habitats are likely to fare should the UK leave the European Union.
On Belonging: George Orwell and the Wretched Little Place in Devonshire
At Seaton Junction, in the East Devon countryside, stands a range of half-derelict buildings. They and the trees which have grown up around them mark the spot where a schoolboy set out, one night almost a century ago, on an adventure that would change his society and ours, forever. This story was run off as […]
It Never Was in France or Spain
The current issue (Sept – Oct 2018) of the PN Review includes an essay of mine about the poet Sean Rafferty.