Ever since I stumbled on Sonnet Mondal’s poems, I have been captivated by their stunning simplicity and words evoking a magical experience. That he achieves this consistently is breath-taking. In this occasional series, our aim is to connect you with some of these exceptional beauties I come across. These are rare, as they don’t…

by J.W. Wood They came up with the technology at the end of the last century: right after they’d perfected WiFi and 3D optics. Like so many inventions, Frusick was just waiting for some bright spark to pluck it out of the ether – and that’s exactly what some bright spark did. Via cute…

Forest in Gauteng. Painting Mike Hall There is only around half an acre of land per person in the UK. But this is more than enough to live on, be happy, and allow life to flourish by Anandi Sharan Political economy in developed countries has as its aim some version or the other of…

The Légion d’ honneur was awarded to Uncle. Photograph Alexei Nikolay Evichromanov During my very infrequent visits to Paris, passing Drancy Station on the RER suburban line between Orly Airport and Paris is always a poignant experience. My uncle spent some time there during World War Two. In 1966, as a seventeen year old,…

by Bryan Greetham I wanted to examine the claim that fascism was a last-ditch response to a failing capitalism – an attempt to rescue it. One powerful incentive to embrace a radical right party, like the National Socialists, was self-interest. The radical right appealed more to all those social groups (teachers, civil servants, army…

Does Phobos look as if it is a pile of rubble, or does it look like a battered 500 million year old metallic hulk? Photograph NASA Will 3I/ATLAS, bide its time in the Oort cloud before swinging in again for the kill? by Phil Hall John E. Brandenburg is a plasma physicist with a…

Carol Rumens RIP (10 December 1944 – 25 April 2026, aged 81) was born in Forest Hill, South London, and died from a brain tumour. She studied Philosophy at the University of London and earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Writing for the Stage from City College Manchester. She served as poetry editor for Quarto and the Literary Review,…

New Malden Writers in the Kitchen at Wesleys. Photograph Karl Rutlidge Karl Rutlidge is one of the reasons why the New Malden Methodist Church is currently the social and cultural hub of the high street. With his team, Karl, Lee and others have transformed what was once quite a quiet place, in previous years,…

Photograph Phil Hall When you come out of New Malden station, turn left and walk along the pavement. Then cross the road at the central reservation carefully. Just beyond the Bingsu Cafe, you’ll see Methodist Church, and there’s a beautiful mosaic outside with a cross in different colours. Inside, it’s humming. The walkers are…

The well known anti-war campaigner Brian Haw. Photograph Andy hall EDITORIAL: THE HORROR OF WAR The most important thing at this point in time is to say that the mask of the global corporate capitalist empire centred in the United States has slipped. And we all see them nakedly for what they are: a…

Photo credit Carmen Nozal Carmen Nozal (Spain, 1964) is a Spanish-Mexican poet whose life and work bridge the Atlantic. A graduate in Hispanic Language and Literature from UNAM and a former student at the SOGEM Writers’ School, she has lived in Mexico since 1986. Her distinguished career includes the publication of twenty books of poetry,…