I think I met him first on a 24 bus coming through the West End. ‘Look, look,’ he said, ‘all those marvellous bookshops, doesn’t it make your heart glad?’ I nodded and made a long erm sound. But the truth was I couldn’t care a toss about books. I’d just…
Two new poems by A.F. Moritz
When I Was a Child When I was a child it was clear the stones are alive. Plunging in tall grasses, almost lost to each other, we always were meeting them in the new trails each of us crushed, invisible to one another but near, calling out, smelling the faint…
A new poem by Richard Skinner
. The Passion of Joan of Arc Rouen, France, 30th May 1431 . You may think so but I am not inspired by visions. Neither am I obsessed with religious voices. But I am concerned with the progress of my soul. Your spiteful stares seek to penetrate me. You wish…
Toilet Hell in the Northern Wastes
by Jeremy Howe Jeremy Howe worked for major mining companies for thirty years and now lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. Below he tells a tale of waste disposal, unwilling drillers, and an explosive end. Do not read this piece while eating. Back in the…
AI James
Ars Notoria introduces its new literary chatbot Perhaps “proud” is not the right word, but we at Ars Notoria might be proud (we think) to announce the introduction of an AI-generated Avatar designed to make us more money than the billionaires we despise. We’ve given it the title of “Satire and…
Oscar: the Second Coming
Dan Pearce’s amazing tale of Oscar Wilde in the 21st century ‘It’s delightful! Very, very funny … Anyone with a true sense of him should find it wholly engaging!’ —Stephen Fry Buy Oscar: The Second Coming What would Oscar Wilde make of modern day Britain? And what would modern day…
King Charles III’s Sacred Task: dissolve the institution of Monarchy
Bring the powerful to heel, don’t glorify monarchs and privilege by Philip Hall The idea that Charles III is divinely appointed to rule over us is ridiculous! Yet, ultimately, it is the metaphysical idea of the divine right of kings that gives King Charles III his legitimacy as the head…
Coarse Art
By Paul Halas The democratisation of the image Art is everywhere, whether it’s highbrow gallery art, pulp, throwaway art, or the vast array of moving images available to us. Perhaps because my parents excelled in the production of animated films – possessing talents I sadly didn’t inherit – I was…
Alexei Navalny and the Revival of the Cold War
Reproduced by kind permission of the author, from Global Research The case of the poisoned underpants 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 game most of…
Westminster must fully recognise the Cornish identity.
Onen hag Oll, oll adro (One and all, all around) By Phili Mills Phili Mills argues that the Cornish ethnic identity matters. Westminster must explicitly recognize Cornish identity to show that the Cornish people are respected and included. However, the UK government has disallowed a full Cornish identity and, in…
Wake up in Uruapan
By Felipe Elvira Imagine waking up in Uruapan. Many thousands of Uruapenses who have crossed the border over into the USA dream of doing just that. They make films about it. Uruapan, with its orchards and breathtakingly beautiful national park built along river banks. Uruapan’s park has hundreds of fountains…
So you want to be a comic strip writer
Story-writing for comics By Paul Halas It’s surprising how often I’ve been asked how one becomes a comic strip story-writer. My first reaction is usually to try to figure out if the person asking me is a, just being polite, b, gobsmacked that anyone should ever dream of entering such…
Two new poems by Julian Stannard
Tobleronia Looking out of the windowlooking at the snowmade you feel drowsy.The train trundled along.You dozed off.You were asleep for too long.You missed that little villageon the hillwith its glühwein and chocolate fruit.You missed the Toblerone factoryand the ornate clock.You missed the Kunst Halleand the Rathouse.The train crossed the Rhine,crossed…
4. The Yip Family: Boxing Day
Margaret Yip in the 1970s by Margaret Yip It is 1974. Debts caught up with Martin up once again. We left Cardiff and returned to Barrow-in-Furness, where Martin found a job in a new paper factory. We rented one room in the centre of Barrow from the lady who owned…
Memories of Old Babylon
by Betty Hossaini Al-Hilla,ٱلْحِلَّة is only fifteen minutes away from Old Babylon. It is the capital of Babylon Province. When I was a child I remember when they took me to Babylon. It was not like it looks like now, in modern times. Not at all! Babylon was a set…
Curing the Pig, by Eliza Granville
Episode 12 The Quixotesque misadventures of unreconstructed Marcher Morgan Jones-Jones, who has probably not heard of the suffragettes let alone second- and third-wave feminists. I hadn’t anticipated that publication here at AN of the final episode of Eliza’s Curing the Pig would coincide with her obituary. I learned of her…
What is the way forward for democracy in Bangladesh?
Inauguration plaque of Dhaka Metro Rail photo by Mehdi Abedin, Wikicommons The 2024 elections are over in Bangladesh. What now? by Afri Aysha Bangladesh held parliamentary elections on 7th January 2024. The current Sangsad (parliament) was scheduled to expire on 29 January 2024. In order to guarantee that the election…
THE CONSERVATIVE’S COOKBOOK
Culinary Guidance for the Indigent Classes by Lady Alexandra Chastity Ventris-Wolff Contents Author’s Preface Snacks and light meals Soups Vegetable Dishes Pantry Staples Main Meals Puddings Food Bank Medley Beverages Urban Gleaning The Importance of Diet Moral Considerations Afterword Author’s Preface The time has come for a compendium of recipes…
Ramblin’ Pete on Edukashun
by Pete Field I. In which I grumble about the Americans’ use of English in the education system – lack of trust at work Interesting factoid: apparently the USA has, overall, the same level of educational achievement as Mongolia, so why do we keep copying them? Does one Harvard or…
From the Lamb and Flag to the Red Lion
Pub crawls with Anthony Ormson by Phil Hall This is the story of a pub crawl Anthony and I went on in 2008. The trip began at a bus stop by the A3. You can see the bus approaching. Perhaps it is the 265. At New Malden, I stepped off the bus…
Saudi Arabia: from western satrapy to nation state and regional economic dynamo?
by Phil Hall King Faisal is considered by Saudis – and by many others – to have been the greatest Saudi of the 20th century and a hero of the developing world. He paid for his heroism dearly with his life. The whole Arab world believes the USA had King…
The Rights of Man and Fish
An introduction to The Rights of Man and Fish by Paul Halas History is bunk, to quote Henry Ford – which, of course, ignores the wider context of what he said, but then he wanted to sell us motor cars and probably wasn’t all that interested in the truth of…
The Giddy Clowns
Criminal lunacy sans frontiers and the meaning of 9/11 by Tony Hall In 2001, just after the Twin Towers were hit, my brother-in-law, who was a minister in the Mexican government at the time, called me and asked me: ‘Phil, what do you think of what’s just happened?’ I thought…
Apples for the people of the bog
An old Rosemary Russet in Wisley Gardens , Phil Hall 2021 by Phil Hall Eating an apple is like drinking milk. Apples come from a living organism, a relative. The original apple was a fig. Our ancestors co-evolved with fig trees. We are a by-product of fig tree ecology –…
Green pepper salad and the end of civilisation
by Phil Hall My first taste memory is of ripe apricots. The apricots had fallen onto warm sand, so the fruit was lightly dusted. Its flesh was soft and loose under a fine felt skin and underneath that flesh was a sharp-edged, black pip. Though hungry, I only took one…
Has Saudi Arabia got the UK’s number?
Saudi Aramco trainees, Phil Hall, 2014 Do Gulf Arabs understand the UK better than the UK understands Gulf Arabs? by Phil Hall When I gave my opinion on some issue relating to what was happening in one of the Gulf states a Jordanian colleague challenged me. He asked: Do you…
Against the Panglossian dream of Proportional Representation
John Singer Sargent | Joseph Jefferson as Dr. Pangloss | The Metropolitan Museum of Art PR is not a solution to the political impasse we face in the UK. by Phil Hall There is no gimcrack technical electoral fix to the problem of inequality. When I was a teenager at…
3. Margaret and Martin
Martin Yip by Margaret Yip I met Martin in Whitehaven, where I worked for him. He was only 21. Martin had lots of energy. His restaurant was on three floors. The kitchen was in the basement. He could carry five or six plates in his left hand and on his arm…
The Endangered Alphabets Project
Mandiac script, Carving by Tim Brookes, The Endangered Alphabets Project Writing Rights, Human Rights by Tim Brookes I had been researching, carving and speaking about endangered alphabets for a decade before it struck me that the few reference sources on the topic said nothing about why these Indigenous and minority…
Visions and Nightmares: The Visionaries by Wolfram Eilenberger
Reviewed by Jon Elsby The Visionaries bears the subtitle “Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil and the Salvation of Philosophy”, which suggests a possible kinship with other recent publications – for example, Metaphysical Animals by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman, Benjamin Lipscomb’s The Women Are Up To Something, and Nikhil Krishnan’s…
Catholic antecedents to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights*
by Phil Hall Karen Armstrong, the author who specialised in the Axial Age, when many of the religions of the world began, or at least, gathered speed, has come to the conclusion that all religions have compassion at their core and that they should all be looking for issues where…
Do we need Madame Guillotine again in 2024?
The execution of Louis XIV Get real, they cry – as they fill their maws and dirty their snouts. by Phil Hall The agents of the United States maneuver and push the public’s pointiest point of perception as their preferred tactic. They want to influence policy, action, and generate passivity…
The Philosophical Foundations of Property Rights
By Bry Willis There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;Sign was painted, it said private property;But on the back side it didn’t say nothing;This land was made for you and me. Woody Guthrie . “The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land,…
2. Isobal Alone
Photo of Isobal with her son, Joseph By Margaret Yip I left school in 1964 at the age of 15. It was a Friday. I needed a job. By Monday, I had an interview which took place in my home. The wife of a housemaster at a private boys’ school…
Anti-social
by J. W. Wood Before the contract came through, Ken McKenzie’s life was the same as it ever was: pretending to read Schopenhauer and Swedenborg, drinking tea, and wondering when his money would run out. Also, he loved scrolling through social media on his phone: lately, Ken’s self-image as a…
Curing the Pig, by Eliza Granville
Episode 11 The Quixotesque misadventures of unreconstructed Marcher Morgan Jones-Jones, who has probably not heard of the suffragettes let alone second- and third-wave feminists. He exploded upwards, gasping and choking. “Once,” crowed Kerridwins, her hand on the top of his head. “Want to stay?” “Wait, wait—” Morgan did a quick…
EXHIBITION: Amen
by Zeek Fharkha Zeek Fharkha is an artist, musician, punk, with 2 masters and an honours degree. Fine arts, digital arts and an MBA. He is reading for a PhD at wits business school in Design thinking.
2 New Malden Poets
Embroidered cloth on Karl Rutlidge’s pulpit Karl Rutlidge Karl is a Methodist Minster in charge of a heterodox and lively congregation at the Wesley Church in New Malden. He is also an m-Theory physicist. He is currently writing his doctorate in theology about the origins of the universe and its…
Stabbing the Oligarchy in the Back
The Black Hundreds march in Odessa in 1905 Without socialist reform, every capitalist country is primed for civil war – including Russia by Phil Hall Russians are good chess players, but life is not a game of chess. It is far more complicated. Putin and his confreres correctly identify the…
Photo essay: goats for the people of Pashtun Zarghun
By Inge Colijn During my 27 years of work for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, I lived in many countries and they all became special to me. But some places like Afghanistan mean more. I was told at our headquarters in Geneva that people from abroad working in Afghanistan…
Dancing to the beat of my art
Detail from Pure Bliss, Tasneem Shaikh Exhibiting at the World Art Fair in 2022 and 2023 by Tasneem Shaikh My heart races unusually fast. My joy has no bounds. For the first time, I am exhibiting my paintings at a major event, at World Art Dubai (WAD). It is March…
Four Poems by John Comninos
his was the dance crow had danced in youth in praise to god, for dance was his love and love the body’s hallelu— without chagrin or prevarication, this was joy joy until god fled and steps and flight movement he had not moved since his soul became still as god’s…
Chile after Aguirre Cerda, Frei Montalva and Allende
The terrifying hydra of global capitalism is still in charge by Juan Carlos Chirgwin Sadly, Chile is a good example where although people fight for new socio-political system, their struggle is thwarted time and time again. The most important advances in favour of the common people, during the 20th century,…
CIIIR
by Peter Cowlam CIIIR A reining in at the eco-centre. Dials in reverse for the lost trials of inspection. Ends but a stunted survey, fixated on crowds and venues. They are here, young obsessives of ‘belonging’, cropped in line, and blessed by the shades of the dead, each with plans…
Crunch Time for the Pheasant
by J. W. Wood Martin Hugginson was an ordinary man who dreamed of the extraordinary. Everything about him was average: his looks, his height, the condition of his hypothalamus – in fact, the size and condition of every organ. Including that one. Unusually for someone so ambitious, he was also…
Saint John of the Rabbits
Paricutín erupting, by Dr. Atl by Philip Hall I married into a large and regionally important Mexican family, and so got to know some parts of Mexico quite well. I lived there, first as a student at the university of Vera Cruz in the early eighties, later in Mexico City…
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