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,…

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 go. At Christmas, swap…

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 guards (there’s twelve of…

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 everyone in the Arab…

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 dwellthe chronicles, the crossings-out,…

Photograph Luis Aguiar Keynote Lecture Delivered at the “Third International Colloquium on Poetry and Philosophy: Sensibility is Thought,” coordinated by the Mexican writer Ulises Paniagua, with the support of various universities, cultural centers, publishing houses, and the Economic Culture Fund. “The philosopher thinks better than they write, and the writer writes better than they…

Photo by Nikhil Singh Rajput on Pexels.com Quite a few Rooi Baba flew towards Dabbo now and then, as she swung on the tyre, looking at the Madar plants growing along the side of her house, releasing cotton-like flowers into the air. She stretched her hands trying to catch them while swinging on the…

Photograph by Emmanuel Newton Part of you knew you’d end up here with Alec, with his tongue inside your mouth but part of you’d held out hope that you wouldn’t. You know this kind of thinking is naïve. That the dreams spooling from your head are snakes, and he’s in control of the ladders,…

Zorhan Anchevski. Photograph courtesy of the author ZORAN ANCHEVSKI (b. 1954) — poet, translator, essayist, and scholar — has published ten books of poems. His awards include: Studentski Zbor, for best first book of poems (1984); the international poetry award Giacomo Leopardi in Italy (2004), The Miladinov Brothers, the most prestigious national poetry award…

SUGANDHA DAS is a young poet who founded ‘Mildly Offensive Content’, in 2013, among India’s earliest performance-poetry collectives. With poets from around the world, they staged over 300 shows across the country and helped shape India’s spoken-word landscape. She has lived in far-flung areas of India, finding elegance and beauty in the remotest corners…

Senator Joseph McCarthy. Photo Credit, United Press – Library of Congress, Public Domain Bogie Versus the Committee by Norman B. Schwartz There is a common misconception that it was the malevolent Senator Joseph McCarthy who was responsible for destroying the careers and lives of many an actor, writer and director during the inglorious days of Hollywood…