A slightly different approach today. One of my favourite publishers is Eland Books - they specialise in bringing classics of travel writing back into print as well as publishing new travel writing. They have quite the catalogue now, and I've…
Everything is still so weird. So we need to let our hair down a bit. We need to have a few laughs. So here is the one and only Wendy Cope. She's a witty one. I love so many of…
Sacred Treasure Comparing COVID-19 and the Chernobyl disaster? Here is a literature academic living in Turkey who grew up in Kyiv at the time of the disaster. You might not accept all he says - but he has an important…
If you find yourself talking about nature in poetry, it is inevitable before too long that Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) is going to crop up. He was a master: prolific and powerful poet, Nobel Literature Prize laureate, Oxford Professor of Poetry,…
I got rather carried away after I saw the latest Sam Mendes film (in the cinema with friends in the States last October... who'd have believed it possible in these strange lockdown days??). 1917 worked its way into the recesses…
It's almost as if there's a contradiction in terms between the glories of the early English spring and this season of Covid19 horror and fear. UK stats are looking horrendous. And yet, and yet... The natural world is breathing deeply…
Most don't associate Lewis with his poetry. My understanding is, however, he would have far preferred to be known as a poet than almost anything else he wrote (and which brought him countless loyal readers). These three have stood out…
William Blake by Thomas Phillips, 1807 William Blake (1757-1827) was one of a kind. A printer, an illustrator, a painter, a poet, a visionary, a provocateur. And that's just the start of it. But to read some of his verse,…
John Donne as a young man (1595) - National Portrait Gallery, London John Donne's poetry is often difficult, sometimes perplexing and troubling, but always rewarding if closely attended to. He completely loses me quite often. But I keep returning to…
No vlog today instead there's THIS...! Χριστός άνεστη! Αληθώς Ανέστη! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBw99xQUSqk If this video doesn't display, click here Was fun to be part of this great project from the Rabbit Room folks. 40 countries25 languagesI identified: English (American, Canadian and…
This is Holy Saturday. It's an in-between day, a limbo. It is deeply unsettling, especially if you need your world to be categorisable, identifiable, graspable. This day is anything but. Full of mystery, full of pain and fears. If that…
It is Good Friday so the subject matter for the day's reading presented itself easily enough. Choosing what to read, however, was a very different matter. There is so much. In the end, I plumped for a profound and moving…