Afdera Fonda knew everyone. She was the daughter of Baron Raimondo Franchetti, the explorer and ambassador to Abyssinia considered the one man who could unite the North African tribes behind the Axis Powers in the Second World War. The bomb that killed him in a plane flying from Cairo to Addis Ababa had been planted […]
Monthly Archives: June 2022
PUTIN’S WAR MUST GO ON
Putin’s war must go on if he is to achieve his long-term and widely misunderstood intentions. Had Russia set out solely to seize Ukraine, destroying its infrastructure would have been an absurd and reckless policy costing decades and billions in reconstruction. But the land battle is secondary to Putin’s goal to demoralise the west and […]
NOBODY TELLS THE TRUTH
Nobody tells the truth in politics because people only listen to what they want to hear. And politicians only say what advisers tell them the people want to hear. Lies corrode like rust. We – the voter, the optimist, the bloke with his elbow on the pub bar – hang on to illusions … Take […]
3 KEY ELEMENTS OF A GREAT SHORT STORY
The 3 elements of a great short story are character, plot and setting. Shorts are a puzzle the reader probably won’t work out until the last paragraph. They weave fine lines more than broad strokes. Short stories make use of suggestion, atmosphere, the subtly implied gesture. Every word is a soldier ant carrying twice its own […]
BOB DYLAN FOREVER YOUNG
When Bob Dylan inspires us to stay forever young, he is not pondering the ageing process. You can’t hold back the hands of the clock. A fresh ring appears every year on the tree. The map of our face is being redrawn constantly by life and its myriad experiences. On the surface, Forever Young is […]