Elizabeth Bishop: Art From Life and Life Itself
Happiness is not a word readily associated with Elizabeth Bishop. Despite the voluminous accolades and honours showered upon her…
On Robert Louis Stevenson’s Journey
Robert Louis Stevenson was in his late twenties and not yet widely known as a writer. He had been…
Myths of the MacArthur Suite
When the tour guide throws open the doors to the Douglas MacArthur Suite, I’m fairly sure what to expect.…
An Unlikely Friendship
From his room in West London he could hear the approach of footsteps on the street below. The birds were…
Son Of A Firecracker
She’d leave me in a motel room, toy tipper truck and a dream of the ocean for company as…
The Women and King Harold
Ubi Harold interfectus est … – Bayeux Tapestry Along the margins of embroidery when the women grew bored with…
How the Ghosts Get Out and About
It’s easy to assume the ghosts travel through London on the tube – they seldom do, preferring to avoid…
The Man Who Disliked Crocuses
My neighbour had a dislike of crocuses, though he loved gardening. The leaves were a mess; hung about too…
The Windows
The windows’ crispy cataracts conceal a small garden where the tickled chemistry of frost has electrified the few shrubs…
Easy Rider
Translated into English by Rimas Uzgiris i will ride the blazing bus in the dark through the station of…
Solomon’s Stables
Caressing mare’s ribs, the master coaxes the foal into odd environs as sibling colts munch fresh hay, sifting after…
King of Iceland
‘He was ambitious, diversely talented and appreciably amoral; a measure of self-discipline came later, with reluctance’ Australian Dictionary of…
The Impossible Exile
The Impossible Exile – Stefan Zweig at the End of the World, George Prochnik, Other Press, New York, 2014,…
Katherine Mansfield’s Russian Healers
During the last two years of her life, Katherine Mansfield, ailing with tuber-culosis, was attracted to her Russian ‘healers’ in…
The Journey
i.m. Charlotte Annie Bodsworth Grantham: 1944 The long road from the farm was longer then, the chickens fed, breakfast…
The Girl of the Atomic Bomb
Opera Holland Park, May-August 2014 Giacomo Puccini, La Fanciulla del West Gioachino Rossini, Il Barbiere di Siviglia Francesco Cilea,…
The Rhyme of the Reddleman’s Daughter Part III
For mile on mile, and mile on mile, echoing around,
shrunk spine rattling coughs,
and a moaning helpless sound.
In the Shadow of War The Balkan Century
Sarajevo, on the 28th of June in the year ‘14, was en fête. A unique foreign delegation was coming, and the hotels were booked up; the pavements along the river were filling, the crowd’s diversity appropriate to this historically so cosmopolitan city. Could any have said exactly why they were there, or what they were looking at? Put face-to-face with History, it’s difficult to know quite where we stand.
A Basic Mistake
William S. Burroughs: A Life, Barry Miles, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014, 740pp, £30 (hardback) Considering the profligate varieties and…
Unequivocal Gent?
The Setting Sun: A Memoir of Empire and Family Secrets, Bart Moore-Gilbert, Verso Books, 2014, 288pp, £14.99 (hardback) Bart…
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