Hobbies
In the Fens
It takes a week to cycle from Penzance to Berwick. It took me 40 years. Because on the way, I wanted to include every town in England, in what amounted to some two years of [more…]
Joe Slater
Hobbies
Rossendale
It takes a week to cycle from Penzance to Berwick. It took me 40 years. Because on the way, I wanted to include every town in England, in what amounted to some two years of [more…]
Literature
Zainichi, Part Two
Okubo is Tokyo’s main Koreatown and one of the very few large immigrant enclaves in the entire country. It’s a downtown area around two very busy railway stations, a little world to itself where people [more…]
Literature
Zainichi, Part One
Imagine an England where race matters. Where natives come first in hiring and housing. Where foreigners are barred from certain locales, by signs in the windows. Where people openly judge you by your skin colour [more…]
Literature
Postcard from Taiwan
The Alishan Forest Railway runs from the coastal plain into the heart of Taiwan’s empty highlands. It was built in 1912 by the Japanese for the purpose of transporting timber from the mountains for the [more…]
17th Century
The good ship Fredericus Quartus, Part One
Transatlantic slavery was ended in 1833 by Britain after a campaign by William Wilberforce. It is one of the key dates in British history, and Wilberforce is a name known to everyone. Britain may have [more…]
Literature
Along the Saxon Shore
When I lived in London in the early 2000s, I explored all the surrounding counties by bike. Of them, Essex was perhaps the most interesting. It suffers from more negative stereotyping than any other county [more…]
Economics
Meiyouren Yuedu Pinglun, Part Two
没有人阅读评论 Meiyouren Yuedu Pinglun (Nobody Reads the Comments) So what do Chinese people think about their country? Below are translations of three comments appended in Chinese (and hence not intended for foreigners) to a video [more…]
Economics
Meiyouren Yuedu Pinglun, Part One
没有人阅读评论 Meiyouren Yuedu Pinglun (Nobody Reads the Comments) “SINCE 1978 China has liberated more people from poverty than any other country in history, partly because China before 1978 consigned more people to poverty than anywhere [more…]