Arts
Postcard From November, Part 3
Happy Birthday to Me My birthday is November 4th and as a child my main memory of it was always of my parents laying on a party for my friends who all turned up bearing [more…]
France
Arts
Confessions of a campsite courier, Part 3
Il jouait du piano debout C’est peut-être un détail pour vous Mais pour moi, ça veut dire beaucoup Ça veut dire qu’il était libre Heureux d’être là malgré tout Il jouait du piano debout Il [more…]
19th Century
Every Picture Tells a Story
Puffins, Puffins, pay attention, please. Free time is over, so put away your things and we are going to have a nice story, so gather over here, make a circle on the floor all around [more…]
Arts
Confessions of a campsite courier, Part 2
Je vous parle d’un temps Que les moins de vingt ans Ne peuvent pas connaître ….. C’est là qu’on s’est connu Moi qui criait famine Et toi qui posais nue….. Charles Aznavour – La Bohème [more…]
Arts
Confessions of a campsite courier, Part 1
Background For some of you, the title of this piece has probably resurrected memories of certain quality films from the 1970’s. Here, however, I have used the word “confessions” mainly for alliterative purposes. Not that [more…]
Arts
The (Postwar) Fall of France, Part Four
A sure-fire way to spoil the mood at Paris dinner party is to airily remark, when the conversation turns to literature, that you have read and enjoyed Le Grand Remplacement (The Great Replacement), by Renaud [more…]
Arts
The (Postwar) Fall of France, Part Three
Note: This text is not a translation, but is largely based on Le Suicide Français by Éric Zemmour (2014), from which it quotes heavily, both directly and silently. The analysis is Zemmour’s, not mine, and [more…]
Arts
The (Postwar) Fall of France, Part Two
The black and beur (French-Arab) communities have always had complicated ties with France. The early waves of European immigrants — the Italians, the Spanish, the Poles — came from proud, independent peer cultures, and the [more…]
Arts
The (Postwar) Fall of France, Part One
Has there ever been a stranger accession to power in a western democracy recently than that of Emmanuel Macron? In 2014, he rose from nowhere to Minister of the Economy and then in 2017 was [more…]