I saw a tweet – I don’t remember from whom – last week with a photo of Matthew Francis’ The Mabinogi. As a part-time Druid and neopaganism enthusiast the word MABINOGI was enough to seal my split-second decision to buy it, along with the unmistakable Faber & Faber-style cover. Within a minute of seeing it I …
Author: Ian
Camden days and a 50’s nightmare
I have this general difficulty with writing about my own life, because I’m often convinced that it’s the dullest thing in the world, and that nothing is really happening. Then and again, I’m not really sure what I’d expect from a weekend where I’d decided I needed to stay in and read (admittedly, I really …
‘A land as ferocious as its people’: ‘Under Another Sky’ — Charlotte Higgins, review
Title: Under Another Sky Author: Charlotte Higgins Publisher: Vintage (2014) My Rating: Troubling questions crowded in. How do we relate to Roman Britain now? How did this great span of time – the equivalent of the interval between Shakespeare’s lifetime and our own – affect Britain’s later history? … Is ‘Roman Britain’ …
Travelogue: Athens, Greece (Part 4)
My attempts to write about my four-day trip to Athens in the middle of last month have been disrupted by a pretty bad bout of flu that left me mostly stuck in my room (apart from some very desperate and difficult trips to the local pharmacy and supermarket), weak and suffering from nasty migraines, for about …
Travelogue: Athens, Greece (Part 3)
TUESDAY, 12 MAY 2015 This travelogue’s turning out to be longer than I imagined it would be. Well, there’s a lot more to be said when you’ve had a few days to reflect on what you’ve seen and what you’ve learnt. Yep, I’m boring that way. Welcome to Part 3 of my Athens travelogue. And …
Travelogue: Athens, Greece (Part 2)
MONDAY, 11 MAY 2015 (continued) Athens can be a very strange city. There is a sense of chaos and decrepitude that suggests certain places like Bangkok; the clash between polished buildings and slightly seedy side lanes reminded me of Hong Kong; and yet, unmistakably, there is definitely something very Mediterranean about the whole place. Greece …
Travelogue: Athens, Greece (Part 1)
TUESDAY, 5 MAY 2015 We’re seated in the café on the fifth floor of Foyles, the massive warehouse-chic bookshop along Charing Cross Road. S is clicking through the tabs she’s kept open, all of them possible options for accommodation in Rome. We’re having trouble finding anything cheap, and it doesn’t help that we haven’t booked …