Tag: writing

• September 24, 2026

  Zanzibar Stream of Consciousness (22 July 1998)

  Africa, Quintessential: Top of Form Bottom of Form So many people lining the road, cycling the road, wandering the road, but always looking. Here women old young, children, men with burdens, loads of sticks, bundles of leaves, them all registering every kind of human expression on their faces: inquisitive inquiring, can’t be bothered just too…
• August 19, 2026

  Antonio Muñoz Molina and the Meaning of a Chickpea

  “An extract from Brett Hetherington’s ‘Slow Travels in Unsung Spain’ exploring the childhood home of Antonio Muñoz Molina.“ From the Madrid Review: “Today, a free to read extract from the acclaimed travel memoir, ‘Slow Travels in Unsung Spain’ by @Brett Hetherington. Travelling to the Andalusian town of Úbeda, Brett sets out to discover whether the…
• June 7, 2026

  TIMES PAST

  Our translation of Gabriel Ferrater’s penetrating Catalan poem TIMES PAST Gabriel FerraterTranslation from Catalan of “Temps enrera” by Brett Hetherington and Antoni Cardona.Let me escape from here and go back to your timeLet’s meet again in the same place as alwaysI look up to the white sky, the thin black iron footbridge,the humble herb in…
• October 27, 2025

  “I never saw my mother”

  In surely one of the most moving passages ever written in the English language, former US slave Frederick Douglass penned words that remind me of something vitally important. ‘I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life, and each of these times was in very short duration,…
• September 20, 2025

  Where have all the Sad and Angry songs gone?

  How mainstream music no longer reflects the temper of our time I heard a French song on the radio the other day. It sounded like one of those lovely ballads from around the time of the Second World War, and it had a melody and lyrics that were sung with just enough melancholy to somehow…
• August 18, 2025

  “The Snowflake Effect: How the Self-Esteem Movement Ruined a Generation”

  Just reading the contents page, I had the feeling this could be a good read and I wasn’t disappointed. In this punchy little book, Trey Willis makes logical, well-researched and largely convincing arguments for why his own Generation Y is essentially selfish, especially when compared to previous generations of North Americans. He looks at popular…
• July 30, 2025

  Memory: the sincerest of witnesses

  And how it serves… (Listen to my reading of this article here: https://bretthetherington.substack.com/p/memory-the-sincerest-of-witnesses) One of the strangest things about our memories is how they come to the brain from seemingly nowhere at all. First thought is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I…
• April 14, 2025

  “Teachers”

  Leonard Cohen’s song lyrics translated into Catalan by Antoni Cardona and Brett Hetherington (2025) TEACHERSby Leonard CohenI met a woman long agoher hair the black that black can go,Are you a teacher of the heart?Soft she answered no.I met a girl across the sea,her hair the gold that gold can be,Are you a teacher of…
• November 10, 2024

  Post PowerPoint Trauma Syndrome

  [This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, July, 2010] Have you ever sat through and silently suffered during a PowerPoint presentation? Most likely, you have more than a few times. Together with ten other teachers, I have been asked (or is it told?) to do a PowerPoint presentation about my History elective subject for…
• October 20, 2024

  Our translation of “Ombra fosca i enganxosa:” A poem by Antoni Cardona

  (English version: “Dark and sticky shadow” – Brett Hetherington and Antoni Cardona, translators) Slippery and heavy,it runs tired of the rejection that it provokes,without a ceasefire the shadow looks for someone to hang onto.It tries convincing pederasts,parent-killers, robbers, assassins of royalty,rapists, genocidal-maniacs, pyromaniacs,among other sinister characters.So laudable and beneficial, the task,and only a few with…