As writers and readers pay tribute to the poet, here are three works reflecting his deep care and concern for refugees, for justice and for our need to feel we belong• Benjamin Zephaniah dies aged 65I come from a musical place Where they shoot me for m…
As writers and readers pay tribute to the poet, here are three works reflecting his deep care and concern for refugees, for justice and for our need to feel we belong
• Benjamin Zephaniah dies aged 65
I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.
We would like to hear your memories of Benjamin Zephaniah – whether you met him, worked with him, or enjoyed his workBenjamin Zephaniah, the poet and author of collections including Talking Turkeys, has died aged 65.His work often addressed political i…
We would like to hear your memories of Benjamin Zephaniah – whether you met him, worked with him, or enjoyed his work
Benjamin Zephaniah, the poet and author of collections including Talking Turkeys, has died aged 65.
His work often addressed political injustice and spanned poetry, literature, television, music, radio and film.
Continue reading...The last word, our series about emotions and states of mind in books, focuses on depictions of happiness this month, from Austen’s Persuasion to a 21st-century sonnetWordsworth was surprised by it. For Anaïs Nin, it was ever out of reach. As she wrote …
The last word, our series about emotions and states of mind in books, focuses on depictions of happiness this month, from Austen’s Persuasion to a 21st-century sonnet
Wordsworth was surprised by it. For Anaïs Nin, it was ever out of reach. As she wrote in a 1939 diary entry:
Over and over again I sail towards joy, which is never in the room with me, but always near me, across the way, like those rooms full of gayety one sees from the street, or the gayety in the street one sees from a window.
And what he saw then he never saw again. He was particularly moved by the sight of children going to school, blue-grey pigeons swooping down to the pavement from a roof, and rolls dusted with flour being put out by an unseen hand. These rolls, the pigeons, and the two boys were ethereal creatures. All of this happened at the same time: a boy ran towards a pigeon and glanced up at Levin with a smile; the pigeon beat its wings, and flew off, sparkling in the sun, amidst particles of snow shimmering in the air, while from a window came the smell of freshly baked bread, and rolls were put out… Levin started laughing and crying with happiness.
I think we will not open the door or follow him. I think that just now we are not wanted there. I think it will be best for us to go quickly and quietly away. At the end of the field, among the thin gold spikes of grass and the harebells and Gipsy roses and St John’s Wort, we may just take one last look, over our shoulders, at the white house where neither we nor anyone else is wanted now.
If you ever woke in your dress at 4am ever
closed your legs to someone you loved opened
them for someone you didn’t moved against
a pillow in the dark stood miserably on a beach
seaweed clinging to your ankles paid
good money for a bad haircut backed away
from a mirror that wanted to kill you bled
into the back seat for lack of a tampon
if you swam across a river under rain sang
using a dildo for a microphone stayed up
to watch the moon eat the sun entire
ripped out the stitches in your heart
because why not if you think nothing &
no one can / listen I love you joy is coming
The dub poet and author of collections including Talking Turkeys has died of a brain tumour• Benjamin Zephaniah – a life in pictures• Share your tributes and memories of Benjamin ZephaniahBenjamin Zephaniah, the British poet whose work often addressed …
The dub poet and author of collections including Talking Turkeys has died of a brain tumour
• Benjamin Zephaniah – a life in pictures
• Share your tributes and memories of Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Zephaniah, the British poet whose work often addressed political injustice, has died aged 65.
Zephaniah died in the early hours of Thursday morning after being diagnosed with a brain tumour eight weeks ago, a post on his Instagram page stated.
Continue reading...Dream-seeking bears, a pancake-making lion, an ingenious guide to rewilding and moreThis year’s best books for children address sadness and fear while celebrating love, resilience, hope and joy. In The Big Dreaming by Michael Rosen and Daniel Egnéus (B…
Dream-seeking bears, a pancake-making lion, an ingenious guide to rewilding and more
This year’s best books for children address sadness and fear while celebrating love, resilience, hope and joy. In The Big Dreaming by Michael Rosen and Daniel Egnéus (Bloomsbury), two bears are preparing for the Big Sleep, but Little Bear worries they won’t have enough dreams to last the winter. He sets out on a dangerous journey, from which he returns with stored visions of happiness, homecoming and hope. Egnéus’s light-dappled illustrations pair seamlessly with Rosen’s simple, moving text to create a picture book of sublime warmth and comfort.
Lighthearted and rambunctious, The Ogre Who Wasn’t by Michael Morpurgo and Emily Gravett (Two Hoots) is a fairytale with a difference. While Princess Clara’s father is away, the horrible palace staff insist on decorous silence and uncomfortable clothes. When Clara finds a little “ogre” in her shoe, however, she manages to scare off the nannies and butlers – and when her father returns with a new love, there’s a blissfully muddy happy-ever-after. This sweet, spirited picture book has some of the anarchic energy of Tony Ross’s Little Princess, and an acutely observed sense of how small people see the world.
Continue reading...NoViolet Bulawayo among authors paying tribute to independent publishing house that shook up the country’s literary sceneWhen the Zimbabwean editor Irene Staunton and her husband Murray McCartney set up their publishing business in 1998, it seemed natu…
NoViolet Bulawayo among authors paying tribute to independent publishing house that shook up the country’s literary scene
When the Zimbabwean editor Irene Staunton and her husband Murray McCartney set up their publishing business in 1998, it seemed natural to call it Weaver Press. Their modest HQ, in the back garden of their home in Emerald Hill, a northern suburb of Harare, looked out on the many intricate nests of the weaver bird that peppered the landscape.
This week, the company is celebrating its 25th birthday. The location has not changed and the team has rarely exceeded the staff of two. But in the words of one distinguished Zimbabwean scholar at the University of Oxford, Weaver Press has “quietly shaped post-independence Zimbabwean literature”.
Continue reading...Photographer Jason Gardner travelled for more than 15 years documenting carnival traditions across the world, capturing the costumes and traditions that link participants to ancestral folklore Continue reading…
Photographer Jason Gardner travelled for more than 15 years documenting carnival traditions across the world, capturing the costumes and traditions that link participants to ancestral folklore
Continue reading...Official records show that the English poet’s landlady alerted Rome’s authorities to the 25-year-old’s illness months before he died from tuberculosisRoman police investigated John Keats shortly before his death, newly discovered 19th-century archive d…
Official records show that the English poet’s landlady alerted Rome’s authorities to the 25-year-old’s illness months before he died from tuberculosis
Roman police investigated John Keats shortly before his death, newly discovered 19th-century archive documents reveal.
Keats scholar Alessandro Gallenzi discovered an entry in Roman police registers about the poet, under the misspelt name “John Xeats”. He was recorded as being under investigation, after his landlady asked for him to be removed from her house because he had not disclosed to her that he had tuberculosis. At the time, tuberculosis was considered to be contagious in Rome, so it would have been difficult and expensive for Keats to find accommodation had he been honest about his illness.
Continue reading...Elton John scores, Ronnie O’Sullivan delivers on cue, and ‘Bazball’ takes off in the year’s finest sportswritingWatford ForeverJohn Preston and Elton John, VikingThe year is 1977. Elton John is one of the most flamboyant and wealthy pop stars in the wo…
Elton John scores, Ronnie O’Sullivan delivers on cue, and ‘Bazball’ takes off in the year’s finest sportswriting
Watford Forever
John Preston and Elton John, Viking
The year is 1977. Elton John is one of the most flamboyant and wealthy pop stars in the world. Graham Taylor is a disciplinarian football manager who would, later in life, be immortalised by the Sun as a turnip. They are perhaps the least likely sporting duo of all time. Yet, under their stewardship, Watford Football Club climbed from the bottom of the fourth division to become the second-best club in the country. John Preston – author of The Dig, Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell and A Very English Scandal – weaves a warm account of a beautiful friendship. Candid contributions from Elton himself reveal that Taylor didn’t just turn around a team, but a lonely and dangerously addicted musician too. Expect a big screen treatment soon.
How to Save the Amazon: Ask the People Who Know will be completed by writers and environmentalists thanks to a grant from the Whiting foundationA book begun by Dom Phillips, a foreign correspondent and Guardian contributor who was killed in the Amazon …
How to Save the Amazon: Ask the People Who Know will be completed by writers and environmentalists thanks to a grant from the Whiting foundation
A book begun by Dom Phillips, a foreign correspondent and Guardian contributor who was killed in the Amazon in June last year while researching the project, will be published in April 2025.
The book, titled How to Save the Amazon: Ask the People Who Know, is being completed by writers and environmentalists. On Wednesday, the authors were awarded a Whiting creative nonfiction grant, marking the first time the $40,000 (£32,000) award has been given to a collaborative project.
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