I am so at home in Dublin, more than any other city, that I feel it has always been familiar to me. It took me years to see through its soft charm to its bitter prickly kernel - which I quite like too.

World Art / Culture

As Fresh as a Cliché

We strive for originality, but perhaps old phrases should, like Mae West’s discarded lovers, be given a new chance with someone else.

HEADS STUCK IN A BOOK

A woman reading is in a world of her own, not in the world of others managing or nurturing, where some think she belongs.

The Sea of Anecdotes

While this merriment was afoot, I lay on my bunk straining to understand, and to be admitted to some small share of the pleasure which the rest of the company evidently derived from the recitals. At first the rapid flow of speech and varying voices and styles proved impenetrable. The joy of Russian jokes.