To all those countless readers confronted with a blank page when trying to access the blog over the past few days, I offer apologies with all the sincerity of an Irish Rail station announcer. “Server issues” is the catch-all excuse this time. Posting will resume as normal this week.Meanwhile, to cheer up Irish-based readers this […]
When it comes to the field of history, what engages the “common reader” can be radically different from academics’ fare. Take the Roman Empire. Anyone who has read Tom Holland’s rollicking tale of the fall of the Roman Republic, Rubicon, will have been regaled with juicy tales of captured Roman governors having molten gold poured […]
Serves four – as long as they’re not greedy! Have you ever gone out and bought ingredients and not really known what youare going to do with them but wanted to try something out. Well, I startedwith a tin of Coconut Milk in the cupboard and came up with this: Ingredients:1lb of Sirloin (cheaper option […]
On May 5th, Floyd Mayweather Jnr (37-0, 24 KO’s) challenges Oscar De La Hoya (38-4, 30 KO’s) for the WBC world light-middleweight title at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas. Not only is Mayweather’s 100% professional record still intact, but he has won world titles in four divisions, from junior-lightweight to welterweight. De La […]
Now we’ll see how hard line Michel Platini really is. At the Stade Felix-Bollaert in Lens on Tuesday, Lille effortlessly undermined their sprightly, hard working performance against Manchester United with a display of petulance which could easily have enflamed a tense situation on the terraces. Football is always greater than the sum of its parts, […]
Banking, something we take for granted, was a relatively new industry in the 15th Century when the Medici family made their fortune from it. Relatively new, and perilously close to the mortal sin of usury. Tim Parks, the noted english novelist, commentator, and literary critic, in Medici Money. Banking, Metaphysics and Art in Fifteenth Century […]
For a while you think he’s mellowed. You think the sober air and unspoilthalls of the National Gallery are trying to tell you something. The placecan’t speak but it resonates to the clatter of heels on ceramic floors.Upper-class accents utter niceties as middle-aged women, refined from yearsof comfort, ease their way through the crowded caf� […]
Mary Midgley has arguably achieved for philosophy what several science writers have achieved for their own field in recent years: namely a very large audience. And whilst her scientific colleagues have benefited from the prestige of their subject, her own achievement has been in the face of nation-wide department closures and a general public not […]
I have met , on different occasions, Dacia Maraini and, each time, I’ve been struck by her incredible ability to tell a story. She’s a genuine storyteller who involves and transmits emotions, exactly like it happens when you read her books, each unforgettable, from the first La Vacanza [translated as The Holiday – a novel] […]