In the dappled late May sunshine of South Lanarkshire, it may just be possible to detect the live murmur of a summer’s day. Your day will not be out of the ordinary. In the background the servants are busy with their morning tasks, and the clatter of pots and pans drifts over the policies to […]
The Penguin Book of the British Short Story, edited by Philip Hensher Read More »
On 23rd June 2016 the British electorate voted for the country to leave the European Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_European_Union_membership_referendum,_2016. Votes for ‘Brexit’ were concentrated in certain regions and in certain social classes. Scotland largely voted to remain. The day was the culmination of about 12 weeks of saturation debate, claim, counter claim, lies, distortion, exaggeration, scaremongering, passionate
Sovereignty by Francis Hinsley Read More »
Graham Swift is an English novelist who has been influenced by the magic realism of Borges, Marquez and Grass. His successful fiction Last Orders and Waterland have both been filmed. He has been the winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, The James Tait Black Memorial Prize and The Booker Prize. In Mothering Sunday, Swift takes
For my money, June is the finest month. The promise of summer flames out, like shining from shook foil (thank you Gerard Manley Hopkins, (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44395) . Before 9.00 am, heat can stack up into a lazy stillness so that one can happily take morning coffee in the back garden. What mostly makes the month such a ravishing
Six Facets of Light by Ann Wroe Read More »
Novelist Mark Billingham (https://www.markbillingham.com/) writes crime thrillers. He also works as a television screenwriter and has become a familiar face as an actor and stand up comedian. Billingham created Detective Inspector Tom Thorne for his 2001 debut novel Sleepyhead, where a case of locked-in syndrome reveals the dark depths of a twisted mind, as adept at toying
The idea of some kind of representative democracy has taken root in these damp islands of ours many centuries ago. Arguably, the long struggle against absolute tryranny began with Magna Carta in 1215. Anyone with the faintest understanding of that history is enraged by the complacency of individuals who can’t be bothered to vote. It is
The Romanovs: 1613-1918 Read More »
Artists, writers and musicians have often spoken about being inspired by a ‘muse’. Sometimes this is another human being who brings out something special in their creativity. Sometimes it feels like an invisible force which takes over them and creates through them. In Greek mythology, The Muses were goddesses of poetry, song, music and dance: what
The Naked Muse by Kelley Swain Read More »
Have you ever been in a relationship, or even upgraded the bond into the social institution called marriage? How is it going? Every relationship has a history as it meets inevitable stresses, external and internal. Alain de Botton’s (http://alaindebotton.com/) new novel charts the marriage of Rabih and Kirsten from the first flowering of attraction and the
The Course of Love Read More »
Many philosophers believe that free will is an illusion. It is an extraordinarily powerful illusion, which accounts for the fact that hardly anyone can bear to give it up. Even after being convinced by a series of cogent philosophical arguments, it will seem to a conscious agent that he is making genuine choices at points
Free Will and Consciousness by Gregg Caruso Read More »
