Dowsing
‘A dowser is a poet’ you thought, leaning on the farm gate to find the way. But maps have never…
The Late Train to Santa Fe
On my twelfth birthday my father came to my bed in the quiet of night. It was July and…
A Postcard from Ireland
‘Picture-poem’, 1966 oil and collage on board 8’ x 4’ ‘Picture-poem’, 1966 oil and collage on board 8’ x…
Chromotherapy in Cokaigne
Perhaps the most ideal complement to the forest and the former royal residence at Saint-Germain-en-Laye is the nearby Maurice…
Hammerhead Revisited
The Little Magazines: A Study of Six Editors, Ian Hamilton, Faber and Faber, 152pp, £13 (paperback) Gazza Agonistes, Ian…
Thinkers Alike
When I Was a Child I Read Books, Marilynne Robinson, Virago, 224pp, £16.99 (hardback) Diaries 1963-1981: As Consciousness is…
Different Voices
The Salt Harvest, Eoghan Walls, Seren, 64pp, £8.99 (paperback) Wondering About Many Women, Derwent May, Greenwich Exchange, 46pp, £7.99…
What Happened Next?
The Atheist’s Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life without Illusions, Alex Rosenberg, W. W. Norton & Co., 352pp, £17.99 (hardback)…
All in the Mind
The Science Delusion, Rupert Sheldrake, Coronet, 400pp, £19.99 (hardback) The ultimate achievement of reason … is to recognise that…
Boswell’s Grand Tour
Come summer, Europe buckles under the annual migration of students now roosting at their universities. According to the Institute…
Happiness Paints White
You can paint the spaces around it, that is to say, but not it. For centuries happiness has been…
The Fall and Rise of a Familiar Curtain
One February evening in 1982, leaving London’s Adelphi Theatre by the stage door, I am keenly aware of huddled,…
England’s Crimea
There are references to the Crimean War all over London: Sebastopol Road, Inkerman Terrace, The Alma public house, and…
Thomas Mann and von Sternberg’s, The Blue Angel
Josef von Sternberg’s film The Blue Angel (1930) was supposedly based on Heinrich Mann’s novel Professor Unrat (literally: Professor…
Bringing Back Buchan
The works of John Buchan have returned to the bookshops to a remarkable degree in recent years – a…
Frank Lloyd Wright: An Architect who Believed in Personal Freedom
I came to appreciate Frank Lloyd Wright by a rather roundabout route. Most people take architecture for granted, especially…
The Nine Muses: Where Writers Get their Ideas
Current theories of creativity do not mention divine inspiration. It is not politically correct to suggest that the best…
Edmund Waller and Andrew Marvell: Two Poems Contrasted
Apart from the attention of specialists, Edmund Waller (1606-1687) is one of the lost voices of English poetry –…
Landscapes of Transformation: The Art of Harold Mockford
The surroundings are familiar – as all the landscapes are to me – and yet this difference forces me…
Ronan
Do not compare me to him For I live in his glowing shadow The now mist of his sway…
In Sant Joan Baptista
For Fernandito Our early morning chat on your cool terrace explained the little grunting noise you often make, as…
Formentera
For Anna Roy Among the island’s first visitors after the war, you landed, innocently, with two volumes of Lorca…
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