Crossing the Lines that Divide Us by Nick Hayes 'The trespasser is the bogeyman of property, the personification of the threat to the cult of exclusion. By refusing to accept the rules of what Locke called “the foundation of all democracy”, the trespasser is the antithesis of natural order, a lunatic, left-wing opponent to common …
Category: Travel
A Song of the Sea
The Wager by David Grann A Review 'Yet the Pacific did not live up to its peaceful name. As the Wager headed north off the coast of Chile, all the previous storms seemed to have combined into one climatic fury...... Cheap relentlessly drove the men onward - drove them even as they dumped overboard a …
A Story for Boys
Thoughts on 'Treasure Island' by RL Stevenson 'His left leg was cut off close to the hip, and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird.' I would have been about eight years old, and developing my reading skills, when I read …
Tooth and Nail
by Ian Rankin A Review Like Witch Hunt, which I reviewed two days ago, Tooth and Nail is a Rankin novel from the early 1990s. This one features Inspector John Rebus, but in an unusual setting. Rebus is called to London by the Met to assist in catching the Wolfman, a serial killer responsible for …
Matoaka's Last Journey
'Tis enough that the child liveth.' Rebecca's Tale (Part Three) Wahunsenacawh did not attend his daughter’s wedding. Instead, he sent a brother-in-law and two nephews ‘to see the manner of the mariage and to doe in that behalfe what they were requested'. According to some accounts, he also sent Mataoka a pearl necklace as a …
It's 2017!
I would like to wish A Happy New Year to my followers and to all fellow bloggers worldwide! As some of you already know, I've been away with my wife in Australia for most of the past month, soaking up some much-needed sunshine. Now that I'm back - and cold - I have some catching …
Farewell to South Africa
[I wrote this piece a while ago, an imagining of my mother's experience on leaving her childhood home. I hope you enjoy it.] The taxi pulled up on the quayside. From my seat in the back, I looked up at the massive hull of the ship in the berth. Now that the time had come, …
Gosho, Geisha and Gion
Memories of Japan (Part Four) From the eleventh floor of the Isetan department store in Kyoto station, you can see the whole city. Its rectilinear boulevards of clean, modern buildings - shops, offices and hotels - stretch away into the haze of the hills that surround it on three sides. Criss-crossing them are neat, narrow …
Sashimi, Shoes and Suzuki (Part Three)
Further Memories of Japan In Kyoto, the sakura blossom will be opening, a sure sign that spring has begun. In the Nagano highlands it is still winter. The mountains that ring Matsumoto stand out, white-capped, in glorious vista-vision against the pale blue sky. In the crisp morning air, they seem closer and more three-dimensional than …
Sashimi, Shoes and Suzuki (Part Two)
More Memories of Japan The Japanese label their railway stations - and the destination boards - both in kanji and in romaji (western lettering). Thus, armed with a map of the system, you won’t miss your stop - in theory. However, buying a train ticket in Tokyo's Shinjuku-eki for the first time is an ordeal. …
Magda Green Books 