We have faith in human perception and intelligence rather than in mechanisms, no matter how sophisticated. We write under the banner of Humane Socialism. We are respectful of dialogue and community and believe in a generous spirit of co-operation and collaboration: build it and they will come. We aim for constant improvement, experimentation, and ever-greater freedom and social responsibility. We are open, but not to subversion or misuse. We are no-one’s Trojan Horse.
Ars Notoria Sodality
philosophy & POETRY
HOMERO CARVALHO OLIVA: Philosophy and Poetry
Nota de Fabula
Fiction
Poetry
Memoir
Satire
POETRY & POLITICS
SAÚL IBARGOYEN: The Scribe Once More
POETRY & TRANSLATION
RICHARD J. REISNER: Poet & Translator
SHORT STORY
SALLY BREEN: Reef Fish
Nota de Via
Food
Travel
Fashion
Architecture
POLITICS
GERONIMO! The Coming Break up of the USA
by Phil Hall
FILM & POLITICS
THE LIBERALS RETREAT
by Norman B. Schwartz
Nota de Specula
Philosophy
Religion
Utopianism
Resistance
FICTION
RAYMOND
by Arjun Chaterjee
GEOPOLITICS
Don’t Go to War with Iran, USA
by Richard Steinhardt
Nota de Manu
Painting
Drawing
Sculpture
Design
MEMOIR & FOOD
BACK IN BLIGHTY
by David Yip
FICTION
A PROPHET’S TEARS
AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT THE NEW THRILLER
Nota de Agora
Politics
Economics
Society
Current affairs
POETRY
SUGANDHA DAS
FICTION
THE CHOSEN ONES
by Tina Bexson
Nota de Oculo et Aure
Film
Photography
Music
Animation
POETRY
DUSTIN PICKERING
POETRY
ZORAN ANCHEVSKI
COMMENT
FROM THE UNCARVED BLOCK
by Pete Field
Nota de Statera
Editorials
Reviews
Comment
Cartoons
FOOD & CULTURE
IRELAND, COOKED FROM THE INSIDE
by Arun Kapil
FICTION & SCIENCE
ARJUN RAINA: extracts from The Eye of Childhood
Nota de Horizonte
Science
Technology
Engineering
Ecology
FICTION
READING THE PAPERS
by Roger Murphy
CREATIVE WRITING
NEW MALDEN WRITERS
Nota de Auctoribus
Contributors
Editors
Supporters
Contact
NISHANT AWASTHI: Stolen Feathers of a Peacock Fan
POETRY
RENEE GOOD R.I.P. | 1988-2026
by Sudeep Sen
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BEYOND ZIONISM AND PAN-ISLAMISM
Reagan sitting with people from the Afghanistan Pakistan region in February 1983. Photograph Michael Evans, Public Domain by Phil Hall Because of the actions of Israel, which is a settler state founded in May 1948, in the same month, in fact, when Apartheid was formally instituted in South Africa, nearly…
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GOODWILL AND THE RUSSIAN STATE
Photograph Phil Hall (1984) Putin should stop kissing icons and start jailing more oligarchs by Richard Steinhardt To the extent that Vladimir Putin seeks to restore legitimacy to the current Russian state, he must confront its foundational crimes and confiscate the assets stolen by the criminal oligarchic class. President Vladimir…
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Stories of Football and Madness / Cuentos de Fútbol y Locura
In the Maracana Photo by Andre Dantas on Pexels.com by Ulises Paniagua Down the Right Wing The poor child (…) finds in football the possibility of social ascent, having no toy but the ball: the ball is the only magic wand he can believe in.Eduardo Galeano He received the ball…
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Diesel, Chai & the Oyster Wind
Briny oysters, shrimp curled like punctuation marks, langoustines, hunks of crab meat and claws piled high with effortless French design. Photograph by Gvantsa Gongadze A punk-masaalchi essay on time, place and the flavours we carry. By Arun Kapil Some moments arrive so clean and sharp you can still taste the…
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Con Rider on Shakespeare’s Play, Measure for Measure
Isabella and Angelo (Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 2). Illustration James Fittler, engraving William Hamilton 1994, Public Domain This is perhaps the closest Shakespeare comes to presenting a dogma: “He who the sword of heaven would bear… should be as holy as severe.” Interviewed by Phil Hall Con…
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13. Lone Wolverine
Parker, with Algonquin Round Table members and guests Art Samuels (editor of Harper’s and, briefly, The New Yorker), Charles MacArthur, Harpo Marx, and Alexander Woollcott, c. 1919. Photograph Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain Dorothy Parker and Politics by Norman B. Schwartz Of all the New York wags and wits…
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The Marx Memorial Library: A Precious Universal Resource
A banner featuring Karl Marx, with the Marx Memorial Library building behind him. Photograph Paul Halas An Archive of Ideas to Change the World by Paul Halas Housed in an elegant eighteenth century building in Clerkenwell, the Marx Memorial Library & Workers’ School contains a comprehensive collection of books, pamphlets,…
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Editorial: Rumours of the Death of Europe have been Greatly Exaggerated
Harold Wilson was willing to defy the U.S. and refused to take us to war in Vietnam. Photograph by Allen Warren, Creative Commons License From an anti-hegemonic, class-conscious perspective in favour of UK sovereignty and European wide solidarity and cooperation, we should have concluded that Europe’s problems are more political…
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The Gnostic Blueprint
Detail from Gustave Moreau, The Apparition (1876) From Desert Scrolls to Modern Cults by Phil Hall Religions often begin with a core, a simple idea that becomes complicated as it unfolds through history. The art historian Kenneth Clark once observed that Islam was the simplest of the great religions invented…
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MEETING BING SHI
Portrait of Bing Shi by Andy Hall by Paul Halas For all its many faults social media sometimes provides us with gems, and the paintings of artist Bing Shi have for us been one of the highlights on Facebook this year. Working in oils, with bold, sweeping brushstrokes that fail…
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WAKE UP WOMEN OF INDIA!
We must become self-reliant by Tasneem Sheikh Wake up! Wake up! I hear my aunt wake my sisters, cousins and me early in the morning. We were teenage girls on a vacation, staying at a distant relative’s house. The host thought it was a great time to throw a huge…
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A SHORT HISTORY OF THE PILGRIM’S WAY
Approaching Kit’s Coty, photo Phil Hall, 2021 The Origins of the Old Road from Winchester to Canterbury by Derek Bright Over a century ago the writer Hillaire Belloc penned the term the ‘Old Road’ for an ancient trackway that ran between Winchester and Canterbury. Belloc’s work, entitled the ‘Old Road’…
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DOORWAYS TO MALI
The doors of the Dogon are great works of the imagination By Leigh Voigt Mali is in the middle of the bulge of Africa. In the middle of Mali, is Timbuktu; inaccessible, intriguing, fabled. The very word conjures up images of men in blue robes on camels in the desert….
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MUSENGWA: BAREKNUCLE BOXING IN VENDA
“Tell us brother, what colour was Jesus?” by Andy Hall In the Remote Venda area of Northern South Africa local champions from the village of Gabo meet their counterparts from the neighbouring village of Chifudzi on the other side of a river, to partake in an annual bareknuckle boxing tournament…
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PICCADILLY STYLE
The Edwardian look saw male fashion at its most elegant by Stephen Hoare Algy, the Piccadilly Johnny with the little glass eye, the subject of a popular music hall song by Vesta Tilley presents an enduring image of the male peacock. Miss Tilley, a small but feisty female whose cross-dressing…
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IF I RAN MONSANTO
by Thomas W. Gilbert and Deborah Glaefke Gilbert In this realm of destruction, This hellhole called Earth, There’s a Darth Vader business That’s so full of its worth. It’s consistent; it’s fascist, And it’s blessed with a vision. It has great friends in Congress Who vote each decision Over those…
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ALEXEI NAVLNY & THE REVIVAL OF THE COLD WAR
Reproduced by kind permission of the author, from Global Research The case of the poisoned underpants by John Ryan I think we are all curious about the political trajectory of Alexey Navalny. Clearly there is a big power play being made around him. He is a pawn in a great…
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A Conscientious Objector’s view of the War against Vietnam
Thomas Gilbert, Quaker, mystic and educator working in the field of literacy by Thomas Gilbert First things first: I was never in Vietnam. I was a conscientious objector (CO). When I turned 18, just after graduating from high school, I received a letter from the draft board indicating that I…
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Kathryn’s Windfall
Episode 1: The Transsexual Stumbles By James R. McGuire Fall, 2004 BRANDON (to AUDIENCE. Beat. SFX phone ringing) The phone rings and it’s my transsexual father. I allow the voicemail to pick up as always. Then, two minutes later, I retrieve the message… KATHRYN (on voicemail) Brandon, I’ve…
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J. L. Borges: Berkeleianism versus Buckleianism
By Peter Cowlam Berkeley, who was Bishop of Cloyne in 1734, denied the existence of matter in a reply to Locke (1632–1704), whose conception of the universe was Newtonian and mechanistic, a place where material bodies conformed to a clockwork modus operandi – that is to say, a universe exhibiting…
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The Striking Colours of Indonesian Markets
My father was excited by the possibility of going to Indonesia, but to his chagrin, his battalion was the one kept behind in the Netherlands. He tried to join the troops who were sailing off to ‘Nederlands Indie” as it was called, but needed the approval of his father. He wasn’t 21. His father,…
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Gill Rippingale’s Forest of Dreams
I utterly need Green around me! I am experiencing a kind of lack of it at the moment, as I moved to the seaside. The sea is wonderful, but I am hankering after Forest… I’ve never been really drawn to deserts, although my eldest son really wants to experience a desert, but he wants…
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A Critique of Noam Chomsky’s Work
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…
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Don’t go to war with Iran, USA
The beautifully pedestrianised centre of Abingdon in 1969. Thank you town planners. Photograph Tony Hall This horrific geopolitical act would plunge us back in time to Abingdon in the late 1960s By Richard Steinhardt If the USA attacks Iran, Iran will destroy the oil installations in the Arabian Gulf and…
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Geronimo!
An Amexican Quilt. Generated by WordPress The Coming Break up of the USA by Phil Hall Mexico, not the UK, not Canada, not Germany, not China, is the USA’s most important partner: its most important trading partner to the fertile south with a border thousands of kilometres long. And 50%…
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DUSTIN PICKERING
Dustin Pickering. Photograph by permission of the author Sheaf of Weeping Be still my raven with beating wingslest the ashes of solitude value the clustersof unbecoming.I am taken by lackluster jewelsunder the sands of rumor.Your eyes will hide the livid saint. * The leaves broken in the nightwith ink-ridden hands,trusted…
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ARJUN RAINA: extracts from The Eye of Childhood
Not all brains work perfectly and survive life’s turbulent journey. Photograph by Amel Uzunovic The Brain Dear Reader Have you ever thought about your own brain, this mysterious organ, controlling all your actions, intentions, emotions, memories and feelings? Sitting up there in your skull, working to make your legs walk,…
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READING THE PAPERS
by Roger Murphy He watched the story unfold in the papers. The first report appeared the day after he arrived, the last just as he left. The whole tragedy spanned the two weeks he spent in Cork, sorting through his mother’s effects and tying up the loose ends of her…
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1. NEW MALDEN WRITERS: Rising Stars
As you get on the bus, there is no fuss. A seat with priority is there. Photograph Phil Hall Poems by John Grant I Do Like a Ham Sandwich I do like a ham sandwich with slices of tomato, But a sandwich of roast chicken, no stuffing.That’s the way to…
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THE NATIONAL ELF
by John Grant I’m a little gnomeSitting on a stoneWaiting for the national elf to phone.“I am the most important national elf!There is no one more important than myself.But I have a little problem that is quite upsetting my life.Someone broke into the palace;Stole off with my fairy wife.“My elfin…
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SAÚL IBARGOYEN: The Scribe Once More
Tophet Salambo Carthage Tunisie. Photograph Patrick Giraud Wikimedia Commons The scribe once more I am once again the standing scribewith a heart beginning to rustby decision of unreachable gods.I write like this and here simply, stubbornly,to breathe in the memory of some others,for in this brush or reed or pencil…
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