Sumer is icumen in – or not
A new book celebrates the seasons. But tell me again, how many of them are there?
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Adventures in Egypt
An episode from the early 1880s shows a young Augusta Gregory sympathising with an oppressed people and its revolutionary leaders – far from Ireland.
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Penguin relaunches Pelican
A hugely successful experiment in popular intellectual publishing, established in the 1930s and abandoned at the end of the Thatcherite 1980s, is being relaunched.
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The Peasant Poet
John Clare, the Northamptonshire peasant poet who died 150 years ago, is not getting the commemoration he deserves in Britain.
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The Inspector Returns
Penguin books has embarked on a programme to republish all 75 of George Simenon’s Maigret novels. Will the phlegmatic Parisian policeman captivate a new generation?
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Ten years since the big bang
In May 2004 ten new members, including eight from central and eastern Europe, joined the European Union. Have the effects of this major expansion on the union’s capacity to define what it is been entirely positive?
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The Friar in Hell
Some people think you can say anything you like about priests. While others don’t. In the fourteenth century, if Chaucer was anything to go by, there wasn’t much you couldn’t say.
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In love with Europe
Those condemned to spend their lives under grey northern skies can understandably harbour deep longings for the Mediterranean. But there is little reason to think Europe’s current headaches will be cured just by knocking back a few beakers full of the warm south.
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Eat the frail
New Labour and others enthusiastically embraced a model of society which relegated many people to the margins while embracing and celebrating the buccaneer virtues. We have seen where that got us. Is it too late for the left to think again?
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Not yet heaven, not quite hell
First of all you knew you were going to one place or the other. Then along came purgatory. Why it was required is a complex matter, but for heavy work under ground they knew they were going to need the Irish.