Close up of Hari, Solaris. Screen capture Mosfilm, Fair Use It leaves you almost speechless. Certainly readers have been bombarded. Every article, interview, story, every exhibition of paintings is worthy of being examined with close attention. In particular, we had wonderful contributions from the Art Editor, Paul Halas; the Food Editor, Arun Kapil; the…

Photograph by Pixabay The New Malden Writers’ Group was set up in 2023. If you want to join, come along to Wesley’s Café at the Methodist Church in New Malden on Fridays at 11am. The group meets for two hours. We take it in turns to read things to each other and share our thoughts.…

Óscar de la Borbolla. Courtesy of Óscar de la Borbolla Óscar de la Borbolla, writer and philosopher, was born in Mexico City in 1949, although, as the poet Fargue said: he has dreamed so much! He has dreamed so much that he no longer belongs here. Among his notable books are: Las vocales malditas (The Accursed…

Beatriz Escalante. Photograph courtesy of Beatriz Escalante We are delighted to present two captivating short stories by the acclaimed Mexican writer, Beatriz Escalante. A prolific author of over thirty books, Escalante’s work has been recognised and celebrated internationally. Noteworthy books include: Fábula de la inmortalidad and Cómo ser mujer y no vivir en el infierno. They have been…

The Jevons Paradox from Gaia, Sixth Extinction Series by Gordon Lidl The Jevons Paradox, Marx, the Modern Left, Deep Greens, AI and Collapse. by Gordon Lidl I want to tell you a story about a painting, a large painting I finished two years ago as part of a series of works called Gaia, Sixth…

by David Yip At home, my younger sister, Diane, is working in Leeds and spends a lot of time there, staying in hotels. She tells me that she will be moving there as it makes more sense, but she needs to sell her houses. She asks if I will buy the one I live…

Ananya Vajpeyi. Original photograph Gautam Menon From Place: Intimate Encounters with Cities Ananya Vajpeyi is a Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi. An intellectual historian, political theorist and writer, she was educated in Delhi, Oxford, and Chicago. Her book, Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India, won…

Bulgarian poet Geo Milev (1895-1925). Photographer unknown Introduced & Translated from the Bulgarian into English by Tom Phillips Geo Milev (1895-1925) was a poet, translator, critic, editor and activist who introduced a radical modernist strain into Bulgarian literature. Equally radical in his politics, he was extra-judicially executed during a round-up of communist and anarchist revolutionaries that…

Beena Kamlani. Photograph Beena Kalmani Beena Kamlani’s debut novel, The English Problem, was published in January 2025 in the U.S. by Penguin Random House and launched in India at the Jaipur Literary Festival in January 2026. The Indian edition has just come out from The Bombay Circle Press. Her short stories have appeared in…

Đorđe Andrejević Kun – Pasionaria speaks to the fighters before going to the front. Wikimedia Commons A response to a friend’s remark that ‘Lots of people have an aversion to politics.’ By Phil Hall First, we need to define the word politics. It is a set of activities associated with making decisions in groups, realised…

Illustration ©Sebastian Kudas Ewa Lipska (b. 1945) is one of Poland’s most eminent poets, a defining voice of the Polish New Wave (Generation of ’68) since her debut in 1967. Her work, translated into over a dozen languages including English, has earned her international stature and numerous awards, among them the Silesius Poetry Prize…

President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, 1964. Photograph Cecil Stoughton, White House Press Office. Public Domain As wicked dew as e’er my mother brush’dWith raven’s feather from unwholesome fenDrop on you both! a south-west blow on yeAnd blister you all o’er! Caliban, The Tempest by Dustin Pickering Speaking to far-right…

Gustavo and Priscilla Gac-Artigas. Credit Priscilla Gac-Artigas Born in Santiago de Chile in 1944, Gustavo Gac-Artigas is a Chilean poet, novelist, playwright, and former political prisoner whose writing has long engaged with questions of memory, exile, testimony, and the ethical responsibilities involved in using language. Following the 1973 military coup, Gac-Artigas was imprisoned and…

Hari leans over to kiss Kris Kelvin. Screen Capture Mosfilm Fair Use by Phil Hall After Jules Verne, H. P. Lovecraft, Jack London, and H. G. Wells came huge advances in science and two horrifying world wars that exceeded all imagination in technology, horror, and human beastliness. In the post-war crop of speculative science…

Noam Chomsky. Photograph April 1961 The Technology Review, MIT, Wikimedia Commons In both areas, linguistics and politics, Chomsky’s foundational hypotheses were inadequate. by Phil Hall My perspective on Noam Chomsky is informed by my background: a life lived across multiple countries and languages, an academic grounding in Russian and Spanish politics, economics, and literature,…

Publicity photo of Fairuz, circa 1971. Publicity photo, photographer unknown by Phil Hall Israel has long suffered from a severe case of Lebanon envy, a condition that explains its relentless pattern of invasion and attempts at occupation. The Israelis, predominantly Ashkenazi Jews with little original genetic connection to the Levant, have spent decades appropriating…

Demis Hassabis of the United Kingdom, 2024 Nobel Prize Laureate. Photograph John Sears, Wikimedia Commons The CaMeL Framework is Defense Research with Offensive Implications by Richard Steinhardt The bombing of an Iranian primary school, which resulted in the deaths of 175 innocent civilians—mainly young girls, along with some of their parents and teachers—has focused…