Author Archives: leslie

The Last Serious Poet?

Posted on September 20, 2014 by leslie

The Last Serious Poet? Incorrigible obfuscator or doyen – Henry Hopwood-Phillips assesses a poet on whom the jury is still out Geoffrey Hill, Broken Hierarchies: Poems 1952-2012, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, hb, £35 Examples of writer’s block don’t come … Continue reading →

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Leave ISIS to the Homies

Posted on September 15, 2014 by leslie

Leave ISIS to the Homies Ilana Mercer discerns confusion in America’s Middle Eastern policy There was a great cry throughout the land. Non-stop propaganda from a monolithic media-military-congressional complex had convinced a petrified people of the need for a military … Continue reading →

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A burial to die for?

Posted on September 14, 2014 by leslie

                 A burial to die for? Bill Hartley attends a green interment Any listener to BBC Radio Four’s The Archers will be aware that the village of Ambridge has a Green Burial Ground. It gets frequent mentions as characters ranging from … Continue reading →

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Killing English, with Bill O’Reilly

Posted on September 5, 2014 by leslie

Killing English, with Bill O’Reilly Ilana Mercer Educates her Masters  Richard Burton exulted in his love of English. “I am as thrilled by the English language as I am by a lovely woman,” exclaimed the great actor. Bill O’Reilly, however, … Continue reading →

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Rand Paul Opportunistic – and Wrong – on Race

Posted on September 1, 2014 by leslie

  Rand Paul Opportunistic—and Wrong—on Race The Ferguson Riots – Ilana Mercer distinguishes between divergent discourses Police brutality? Yes! Militarization of the police force? You bet! “A Government of Wolves”? Yes again! “The Rise of the Warrior Cop”? No doubt! … Continue reading →

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Manifesto for Sad People

Posted on August 28, 2014 by leslie

Manifesto for Sad People Edward Dutton Enjoys the Definitive Application of Absurdism Adventures in Stationery: A Journey through Your Pencil Case, James Ward, 2014, Profile Books, Hardback, 280pp. The philosophical school known as Absurdism developed from the belief that life … Continue reading →

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Mission to Kabul, a Footnote in Weltpolitik STODDARD MARTIN

Posted on August 27, 2014 by leslie

  Mission to Kabul: a Footnote in Weltpolitik Stoddard Martin discerns a curious continuity in German foreign policy The Kaiser’s Mission to Kabul: A Secret Expedition to Afghanistan in World War 1, Jules Stewart, I. B. Tauris, London, 2014, HB, … Continue reading →

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Endnotes STUART MILLSON

Posted on August 24, 2014 by leslie

ENDNOTES, September 2014 In this edition: a report from the Proms: William Mathias and Elgar, and composers of the Great War  * Coronation music from Somm Records  * Classic Sibelius from Iceland. For conductor Mark Wigglesworth, Sir Edward Elgar’s First … Continue reading →

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Arthur Seaton Approaches Eighty BILL HARTLEY

Posted on August 21, 2014 by leslie

Arthur Seaton Approaches Eighty Bill Hartley contemplates the decline of a once fractious class Arthur Seaton would be close to eighty by now, that is if he’d survived so long. The Angry Young Man of Alan Sillitoe’s 1958 novel Saturday … Continue reading →

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Religion as Elementary Error, by LESLIE JONES

Posted on July 29, 2014 by leslie

Religion as Elementary Error   by Leslie Jones In a persuasive passage in Religion and Intelligence, anthropologist Dr Edward Dutton considers the category question[i]. He cites T. Rees’s definition of science, to wit, “thoughtful, sincere research”. As Dutton points out, this … Continue reading →

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