Latest Blogs
Death in Zurich
After the fall of France in 1940, Joyce became increasingly uncomfortable. In December he went back to his former home of Zurich, but died there suddenly in January of the following year.
Harsent wins TS Eliot Prize
Britain’s most valuable poetry prize, funded by the estate of TS Eliot, has gone to David Harsent for his collection Fire Songs.
Tributes to Kent Haruf
The American novelist Kent Haruf, whose novels were set in small town Colorado, died late last year. ‘I don’t feel like death is right round the corner. But if it is, it’s a bigger corner than I thought it was.’”
Iconic Words to Curate Less Often
It being January and a new year and all that, perhaps there are some locutions that we should think of putting on the back burner going forward.
Lawrence of Judea
John Henry Patterson, born in Ballymahon, Co Longford, was a soldier, then a big-cat hunter in Africa and eventually a sponsor of Zionism and the creation of an Israeli fighting force. He died in California in 1947 and was reinterred in Israel last month.
The Silent Intellectuals
John Carey thought that Oxford academics were a privileged bunch who had a nerve telling other people what to think. Irish professors are not so rarefied a breed. Perhaps more of them should occasionally peek out and contribute to public debate.
Heading towards Nation
The names of the metro stops in Paris have a certain poetry, Richard Cobb thought, while its reassuring efficiency conveys a sense of security, a sense that one will certainly, at the end of the night, get home to bed.
Bob Purdie: 1940-2014
A tribute to the life and work of Bob Purdie, left-wing writer, activist and analyst, a Scottish trade unionist who identified with militant Irish republicanism, then changed his mind, and ended up campaigning for Scottish independence.
Owning Up
Made a mistake? A really bad one? The best thing to do is to own up. In full..
Expelled from the Word Hoard
Is it good news or bad news when ‘selfie’ is added to the dictionary? And what if ‘sepia’ is chucked out to make room for it?
Frances Burney, Facebook Friends: 0
Having no intimates, and no one to whom she could confide her feelings, Frances Burney addressed them confidently to Nobody.
Bascombe Is Back
Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe is back in a new novel, Let Me Be Frank with You. The only thing John Banville doesn’t like is the title.