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,…

The Father Jan Twardowski Monument in Warsaw, Poland. Photograph Mateusz Opasiński Here is a small selection from three Polish poets, as promised. Two are presented in a historical context: early poems by Miłosz that resonate to the conflagration of war. The first is the last of twenty poems in the ‘World’ cycle, which needs to be seen…

David Yip at the Queens Head with one of the locals. Photo credit, David Yip by David Yip In 2017, after leaving my previous employer, I was once again looking for work. Having no savings, my younger sister paid for everything until I could find a job. At home, I kept up my house…

Raghu Rai with Sudeep Sen March 5th 2024. Photographs Sudeep Sen I was privileged to know Raghu Rai. He was a very kind, generous and spiritual human being. In his memory, here is an ekphrastic poem I wrote in 2013 responding to one of haunting signature photographs. The poem was published in my book, Fractals: New…

Protesting about Henry Ford’s links with the Nazis in the 1930s Capitalism is first and foremost a mindfuck! by Richard Steinhardt Through the historical lens, the core argument is that the fundamental causes of the current war in Central Asia, the Gulf, the war conducted against the Russian Federation, and the potential war over…

She sat in the sand of the Sinai desert, her back against the cool stone wall of the Al Huda Mosque. Photograph Tina Bexson by Tina Bexson It was two weeks since she ran away from England. It was 4 am and hot. She sat in the sand of the Sinai desert, her back…