Memories of Hiroshima
Images and thoughts from a visit to Hiroshima on a rainy day
Leave it to Psmith — P.G. Wodehouse
As Punch once wrote, criticising P.G. Wodehouse ‘is like taking a spade to souffle’. In Leave it to Psmith Wodehouse creates an England unsullied by war, with quaint towns unchanged with the centuries, and delightfully absent-minded earls live in grand country estates whose sweeping vistas hide secretaries to be feared and where domestic staff are hatching plots and could be detectives in disguise.
Cuttings
Poetry by Anne Harrison - from her collection Songs of a Sad Summer, available on her website anne-harrison.com or via kindle.
Riding A Chair-lift in Kashmir
I never expected to catch a ski lift in Kashmir - or to share my ride with a soldier with a sub machine gun.
e.e Cummings: The Enormous Room
e. e. cummings' The Enormous Room is an autographical novel written as prose but which reads as poetry. While volunteering for the French in WWI, cummings was arrested and interned for four months without trial - he recounts the experience with the detached air of an ironic intellectual facing the absurd.
In Search of a Japanese Curry
Japan has a long history of curries, with each region having its own speciality. Despite having been to Japan, it wasn't until reading Kafka on the Shore that I got the urge to sample one.
Mist
A poem from Anne Harrison's collection Songs of a Sad Summer
The Other Spanish Steps
The stairs outside the Church of St Ignatius in Dubrovnik are a replica of Rome's Spanish Steps - without the crowds.
A Gondola U-Turn
Two gondolas trying to pass, as one does a u-turn in a narrow canal; only in Venice!
The Quiet American
The Quiet American by Graham Greene is in many was a love song to Saigon, where Green once stayed. He expresses a love of the Vietnamese people and their gentle ways, although it is at such odds with the violence slowly descending as the Vietnam War looms.
Exploring the Île St Louis
The Île St Louis, an island in the Seine, Paris, is easily overlooked when visiting the neighbouring Notre Dame. It’s one of the oldest parts of Paris, said to be haunted, and boasts the (reputedly) best sorbet in Europe.
The Poltergeist on my Roof
Thoughts as I hear footsteps on my roof..
Angkor’s Forgotten Temples
Besides Angkor Wat, there are some 70 other temples in the jungles of Cambodia. After the fall of the Angkor kingdom, many were lost to memory, consumed by the jungle until they were rediscovered. Some are still waiting to be found.
Fire in the Rain
Using two pieces of wood to light a fire is hard at the best of times. Add a tropical downpour, and it becomes nigh impossible - but somehow these guts managed the impossible.