Mustn't Grumble We mustn’t grumble We have wireless and cable And there’s food in the shops. Beyoncé had a birthday and…
George Orwell had an interesting chance encounter with a blasé conspiracy theorist at the Café Royal in 1940. (See left). The young…
Friends in the UK who usually come to visit in August were prevented by an illness this year. Big disappointment,…
When I first became a head of school I had this daft idea that I would make personalized cut-and-paste greetings…
Two quite different wartime farewells at Charing Cross Station: The first is from Vera Brittain on the eve of 1915:…
Two Sundays, two documentaries and two very satisfactory movie experiences. The first was Maiden at The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY.…
In 1975 the poet Allen Ginsberg was in hospital. At a later poetry reading he explained the causes in an…
And New York is the most beautiful city in the world? It is not far from it. No urban nights…
It was pleasant to wake up in Florence, to open the eyes upon a bright bare room, with a floor…
I began this post in 2017. The original focus was Louis MacNeice's's poem "Brother Fire". MacNeice was a fire-watcher during…