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…

Les Branson. Screenshot from the prizewinning documentary Guerrilla Filmmaker Les Branson’s interview with Paul Halas, with additional questions from Phil Hall and James McGuire. Les Branson is a filmmaker, poet, playwright, novelist, newspaper columnist and erstwhile business person, one of those people who’s annoyingly talented in multiple areas, and breathes fresh air into everything…

In the light of Sudeep Sen’s forthcoming participation in the International Colloquium of Poetry and Philosophy organised by Ulises Paniagua Olivares, Ars Notoria (The Art of the Noteworthy) is republishing Sudeep Sen’s essay Rabindranath Tagore as the Intimate Other. In this essay, “Tagore as the Intimate Other,” Sudeep Sen (labelled by the BBC Radio as one of…

Hugo Giovanetti Viola. Photograph Guillermo Wood. Hugo Giovanetti Viola (Uruguay, 1948) is a multifaceted artist who has worked in poetry, narrative, popular song, essays, theater, film, journalism, and cultural production. A guitar teacher since 1967 and director of the Taller Literario Universo since 1990, he co-founded the magazine Universo in 1970. During Uruguay’s de…

Credit, Lego ANIMASI, Screen Capture, Public Domain It is close to Easter 2026 and I learn that Pete Hegseth, the current Secretary of War for the United States, opened the Pentagon Chapel for Good Friday services. Oddly, his note inviting 3,500 employees indicated services were for Protestants only. While Catholics do not celebrate Good…

                       1819 was a miraculous year for English poetry. John Keats wrote six odes, the first five were written in the Spring, the sixth, in the Autumn. These six poems (On a Grecian Urn, On Indolence, On Melancholy, to a Nightingale, to Pscyhe and To Autumn) have become a foundation stone of English Literature.…

Photograph Inge Colijn by Inge Colijn Geneva Camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is an old urban refugee camp. With the 1947 partition of India many Urdu speaking Biharis moved to then East-Pakistan. Those who supported the West Pakistan army during the 1971 Liberation War remained stranded here as stateless communities when East-Pakistan became Bangladesh. Between…

Courage. Prompted by Phil Hall X by Phil Hall I have always loved the Tarot since the age of 17, when I bought a pack in a Brighton New Age shop in 1977, and I can throw a pretty good set of cards. After use comes understanding. The set I used to scry the…

Darryl F. Zanuck. J. (1943) Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, Public Domain Darryl Zanuck and Fox by Norman B. Schwartz Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931) was not only the Wizard of Menlo Park, the inventor supreme of the incandescent light bulb and the phonograph. He was also the quintessential capitalist. Not only could he…

Spam has a reputation so durable it can survive a frying pan, a joke, a war and a supermarket aisle without so much as loosening its tie. Photograph Kent Ng Pexels Sweet and savoury hallucinations people mock, fear, hide, inherit, sneer at and eat anyway by Arun Kapil Some foods never enter the kitchen…

My Hat. Photograph Phil Hall by Phil Hall We’re talking about religion and the imagination. Some of the wildest thoughts human beings have ever had have been religious thoughts. Some of the most extravagant love stories, like the Song of Solomon—are religious. Some of the most apocalyptic science fiction ever written came from religious…

Oil wealth in the Gulf represents hope for the developing world. Photograph Tom Fisk. Destroying and killing nationalist, sovereign opposition to imperialism is the métier of capitalism by Phil Hall The destruction of alternative sources of energy, and of infrastructure in Central Asia, the Gulf and the Middle East represents the logical conclusion of…

Photograph Dmitryshein and Bristol Greens, Wikimedia Commons Polanski and Mamdani are no counterbalance to a monstrous system of global wealth extraction by Richard Steinhardt Zohran Mamdani and Zack Polanski are trying to get into your knickers. In the 1980s, something called “The New Man” emerged as a cultural phenomenon. Born partly in response to…

“The word Chechnya alone was enough to provoke despair.” By Richard Steinhardt Parallels are often drawn between Napoleon’s invasion of Tsarist Russia and Hitler’s invasion of the USSR when the point is made that the results of invading Russia through the Ukraine, directly or through proxies, are disastrous. However, the correct analogy to be…

Photograph Francesco Ungaro by Phil Hall The Enochian tradition is based on the 16th-century works of Dr. John Dee (1527–1608) and his Irish scryer, Edward Kelley. It is named after the biblical patriarch Enoch, who “walked with God.” Dee and Kelley claimed to have been given a language and an outlook by angels. Dr.…

The legalisation of euthanasia under capitalism is not an act of compassion. It is a logical extension of a system that values profit over human life, death instead of care. Image X A Humane Socialist View I do not like thee, Doctor Fell, The reason why, I cannot tell; But this I know, and…

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,…