Category: Articles
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Becoming our father
[Photo by Javier Beraluce] (Written for and inspired by Matt) Yes, I am now attracted to the mute certainty Of arms as oars The sunstroke back too and the smell of Bruts When you stammered for the right words you found (when every little nail starts to grow inwards and every little injustice is anticipated)…
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The Cellist of Sarajevo/ A Fly in the Ointment
[An edited version of this article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, April 2013.] Conflict, both external and internal, is a major theme in the two titles this month. In Galloway’s international bestseller, to cross the street is to risk being shot by a sniper and in Fine’s lies and double-dealing becomes…
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The Girl on the Landing/Solar
[An edited version of this article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, May 2013.] Two books on from the commercial success of his first, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” Paul Torday has, with “The Girl on the Landing,” written a more conventional tale about a man who experiences a new mental and emotional…
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Singular
fold tomorrows rain and under the loose world night play blind on young ground ………… one earth full of single stars blown here by unrelenting years those seas of sorrows know written in liars lines saying come and become the past full like her darkest pity to show such thought is mine ………. might I…
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The day that keeps giving
[Photo: Jasar – Granollers] A man slices a dragon’s head off (saving a princess) and he then gives her a rose that is made from the dragon’s blood. The End? No, just the beginning really. The human desire for legends of this sort is legendary but there is a lot more to every…
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Outside
The medieval bells sound The church light angles in Across our lowly bed But come what sorrow can This confounded appetite Will count its own worth And feed from troughs of minutes
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The science of successs in Barcelona
[This short article was first published in the new Monocle Guide to Barcelona.] Reimund Fickert, project director at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), points to a plethora of businesses and projects that make Barcelona a European hotspot for biotechnology. “Almost 50 new firms have set up here in the past decade and we now…
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The belief business in Barcelona
First published in Barcelona Metropolitan magazine 17/06/08 [PDF version: userfiles/file/Cults In Barcelona.pdf] [Photo: Barcelona Metropolitan archives]
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The Finding of History
[For Jessie Starkey] As a child There was no such thing as history Nothing in our town had patina, texture, age Nothing showed evidence of time long ago The lines were straight The streets were new The houses breathed fresh air only And their bricks were made recently All this was obvious…
