[UPDATED OCTOBER 31, NOVEMBER 1]. George Orwell’s Spanish Civil War book, Homage to Catalonia, first appeared in print in the spring of 1938. Not quite 80 years later, some updated version of its sad story about Spanish and Catalan politics – and the harsh light they cast on the wider world of the 1930s – […]

What is the most sensible (and democratic?) reaction to Quebec’s Bill 62, “requiring Quebecers to uncover their faces to get or receive government services”? (In effect Bill 62 partially bans face-covering burqa and niqab headgear worn by some – a quite small number it seems – Muslim women in Canada’s francophone-majority province.) (1) Our first […]

[UPDATED OCTOBER 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21]. Just when I start to conclude that the younger generation running things these days has lost all interest in the literary graces that disciplined my own heyday, I come across a headline like : “Fall features fail to fully unfurl” – in the free metro news tabloid […]