Year: 2026
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Three faces of Gwen John
I’m looking forward to seeing the big Gwen John exhibition at National Museum Wales in Cardiff. Few people now ask ‘Who is Gwen John?’, though it’s taken more than half a century for the world to catch up with Augustus John’s reported assessment of her work after she died in 1939: ‘in fifty years’ time…
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Who is Louis Mosley?
One answer is: the grandson of Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists. It’s no crime, of course, to be a descendant of a dangerous extremist, and doubtless Louis would deny all ideological connection with Oswald. It’s interesting to note, though, that when he stood as a Conservative candidate in a London council…
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Utopia 1516
I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to read Thomas More’s Utopia, first published in Latin in Leuven/Louvain in December 1516. It’s certainly one of those books you wish you’d discovered long ago. But 2026 isn’t a bad year to think about utopian worlds, at a time when we’re faced with so many…
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Gwynt Traed y Meirw
There’s a blustery, cruel wind from the south-east, whipping along the streets and making the eyes water. As T.H. Parry-Williams wrote in ‘Gwynt y Dwyrain’ (The east wind), it seems to carry a message: Gan lorio marwolion ar ei hyntI ddangos i ddynion beth yw gwynt Flooring mortals that way and thisTo show humanity what…
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Turner and Constable
At Tate Britain is an exhibition that’s received a great deal of critical praise. That’s surprising, in a way, because it features two of the stalwarts of British art, whose works are familiar enough to most art lovers: J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. What’s attracted attention about the show is its juxtaposition of the two…
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Tri aderyn gaeafol
1 Dryw Codi’n raddol y mae’r llwybr o’r traeth. A finnau yng nghanol fy negawd olaf o dringo’r llethr yn fy sgidiau rhedeg, bron ar unwaith bydda i’n ymladd am wynt, cyn bod y llwybr yn mynd yn fwy gwastad a rhoi digon o nerth imi allu wynebu’r grisiau serth tuag at ben Trwyn y…
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A zombie doctrine and a crisis in Venezuela
There’s been much talk, since Donald Trump kidnapped the President of Venezuela and declared that he would ‘run’ the country, of a reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine. This set me thinking about what exactly is or was the ‘Monro Doctrine’, and how it’s related to Trump’s actions. To begin with, there’s something odd about linking…
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Imaging Fanny Price
Mansfield Park isn’t, I suspect, the favourite novel of Jane Austen of those who value her for her cutting wit and comforting social outlook. Because, though not without its share of humour, it’s a far from comforting work. It asks questions about how people of strong convictions but introverted character and uncertain social status can…