There is so much good stuff in Eco's collection that I couldn't resist another outing after the last one (click the link for all the relevant info). Apologies if you're keen to get back to the verse. That will come…
I meant to post a fortnight ago, but it kept slipping my mind. Ironic really because this project completely commandeered my headspace for 10 whole days - which was literally the total time from commissioning to final submission. I was…
We can't travel because of the virus. But one day we will... hopefully! So it's worth gearing ourselves up with practical tips and advice. But you might be surprised, at first sight, that we turn now to the great Italian…
It feels relentless. We are in the 8th week of our family's experience of Lockdown/Quarantine and while there are hints of change, there is nothing firm. Just hopes and aspirations. Because the truth is, nobody really knows what is going…
It seemed a good plan to turn to another of Eland's Poetry of Place anthologies. This time, it's England's turn, compiled by A. N. Wilson. He gets the balance just right: he provides a perfect selection of the idyllic and…
The 2020 VE day is the 75th. We can't witness great spectacles and commemoration events because of the virus. Everything is much more low-key, necessarily. But it is an astonishing moment and is one that demands reflection and pause. Nearly…
This will probably seem a very odd inclusion into the Echoes series. After all, journalism is as ephemeral as it gets. Most of it is instantly forgettable, read one day, fish-and-chips wrapping the next. There's nothing eternal about it. That…
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…