Bewitching Araby
Browsing in the library I struck upon Heart-Beguiling Araby: The English Romance with Arabia (I.B. Tauris, 1989) by Kathryn Tidrick. …
Category Archives: Bookwormery
For the Love of Thackeray
A quick post before bed, to share the love of my current literary paramour, William Makepeace Thackeray: And this I …
The Sweetest Insult
Courtesy of Oscar Wilde, Lord of the Put-downs: He is some brainless beautiful creature who should be always here in …
Faqir. Golding. Beckett.
To be inspired is to be in the presence of the above names, whether it is in the form of …
Bella’s Kiss of Death to Kick-Assery
Earlier this week I experienced what could be termed an ‘anti-epiphany’. By its very virtue, an epiphany is exhilarating, promising and smacking …
Hobbit Lore
Tonight I must party. Monday I must move house. Between the two, even the most devastating dress and pompously red …
Ornaments for Summer Days
Struck down by a particularly virulent effect of a dodgy chicken panini, I have consoled myself through that which is …
On Fanon
Frantz Fanon has always captured my attention: his passion, his naked vehemence and most of all the burning veracity of …
Supping with Tolstoy and Chekhov
There is an oft-used question – usually to determine one’s degree of culture and taste – that runs along the …
Poetry Corner: Diary of a Palestinian Wound
Read each verse. Mull it. Savor it. And the sheer poetic beauty shall unfurl and irrepressibly astound. For Fadwa Tuqan …
