Culture

Sep 18, 2009

Saved by a wandering mind

Published by Level Playing Field, August 2009. A collection of poems written over the past twelve years. Here are two poems from Saved by a wandering mind: Privatising the underground Riding the thronged tube at dusk he sought above the heads of passengers an emptiness in which he could think simple, impersonal thoughts. This grasping… Read more

Oct 24, 2008

Book review: A Freewheelin’ Time

Review of A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Vilage in the Sixties by Suze Rotolo The Independent 24 October, 2008 Suze Rotolo has waited a long time to tell her side of the Bob Dylan story. “My instinct was to protect my privacy, and consequently his.” Despite her reticence, over the decades she’s become… Read more

Jun 15, 2008

Munch’s Scream goes back on display

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 15 June 2008 Four years after it was stolen by masked gunmen in broad daylight, and two years after it was recovered in still undisclosed circumstances, The Scream has gone back on display at the Munch Museum in Oslo. The Scream is one of the world’s most well known and… Read more

Mar 23, 2008

Matchless feast

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 23 March Is there anywhere like Florence? Or any period of human creativity comparable to that which Florence hosted from the end of the 13th to the beginning of the 16th centuries? These 200 years left behind a material residue – paintings, sculpture, buildings, civic vistas – that never ceases… Read more

Feb 24, 2008

Anticipations of horror

Published in The Guardian and The Hindu What can the masterpieces of Christian art mean to the non-Christian? Can those of us without a Christian background or Christian convictions actually commune with the spirit of an artist whose faith and ideology we do not share? As an art-loving Jewish atheist I’ve often asked myself these… Read more

Nov 4, 2007

Dissent and rock n roll on the far side of fifty

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 4 November Two remarkable works of contemporary American art have lightened my load in recent weeks. Both are the products of dissident white men in their fifties, deeply versed in their song-writing craft, steeped in American musical traditions and at the same time driven by opposition to current American policies,… Read more

Sep 30, 2007

London’s Olympic reverie

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 30 September Four miles from my doorstep lies one of Europe’s largest construction sites: 500 acres to be transformed into an Olympic Park and Village in time for the 2012 Games. At the moment, it’s a wasteland. A few hundred tenants have been evicted from a council estate. Nineteenth century… Read more

Sep 8, 2007

Dylan’s rightful place

A slightly edited version of the piece below was published in The Guardian, 8 September 2007 For readers’ comments see Comment is Free He used to tease critics by claiming he was only “a song and dance man”, but whether he likes it or not, Bob Dylan has entered the canon. To mark next month’s National Poetry… Read more

Aug 26, 2007

As long as you’ve got your health

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 26 August St. Bartholomew’s Hospital – known to Londoners for generations simply as Barts – has a claim to being the world’s longest-established provider of free medical care to the poor. It was founded by a penitent Norman courtier in 1123 as a priory hospital on the edge of the… Read more

Jul 28, 2007

History vs. heritage

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 28 July That the teaching of history is politically disputed terrain will come as no news to Indian readers. Efforts by the Hindu right at the centre and in the states have amply illustrated how the study of the past can acquire an all-too-potent present-day ideological and communal force. In… Read more