Of golden taps and super-men
An interesting insight by the writer Louis Golding when he visited the Achilleion in Corfu in the early 1950s. The...
Time in two dimensions
A striking metaphor for time hovering or collapsing, in two versions of a bird, alive and flying, or keeling and...
Gasping for freedom
The departure of the one kind person in the orphanage where she has spent more than half her young life,...
Yours to win, not lose
These racing monosyllables have the pace and certainty of one who runs, and lives, as if he can only win. I...
Gladness and despair
A finely phrased evocation of the twin elements of human experience of time, every new morning or moment heralding good...
Civilization, seriously
What really holds civilization together? Women, according to someone Lawrence Durrell once tussled with. But is this as glorious a...
Reading as grand occasion
This is Machiavelli and I like the way he treats reading as a majestic occasion, leaving aside his working clothes...
Getting to know your guest
One of several exchanges in which Rory Stewart finds himself being presented as anything but what he is. These introductions...
A rotting bog of security
In Kazantzakis' lively version of Christ's life, Jesus' mother wishes only that his spiritual struggles don't get in the way...
Civilization, one scoop or two?
‘What is civilization?’ A deep and vital question we need to keep asking. I liked this pithy response, particularly one...
Sickle and circular
What a beautifully fresh alliteration for the usual 'wax and wane' of the moon.
'He saw the moon sickle and...
The age of rumours
Why let facts get in the way of a good prejudice? When John Steinbeck and Robert Capa let people know...
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