I was thinking of a reference for Guy Debord in Paris in, I think 1957. It runs along the lines of ‘he tried to organise a walk, it rained, no-one turned up, he left, and didn’t try to do this again for perhaps a decade’. Where had I read this? I was thinking of itContinue reading “The Progressive Office Tower”
Category Archives: War
Buying Books, Strikes, Anti-War
The train comes up from the tunnel under the Thames. The Dartford Bridge, a couple of car carrier ships at Purfleet. A Norman church in the distance. An untidy pile of colour clashing blue and green containers. Abandoned here in the Thames estuary, last years trinkets, food that cannot be sold, shoes that the shoelessContinue reading “Buying Books, Strikes, Anti-War”
Nevzdáváme se – We Don’t Give in
I first met K – in the street. We would say hello as we passed each other with bags of shopping. She walks with a stick and often wears a red hat. And for about a year she always got my name wrong. ‘Are you Steve?’, she would say. I would laugh and explain thatContinue reading “Nevzdáváme se – We Don’t Give in”
The train from Dresden to Berlin, Monday 9th May
The German railway system is resting on a reputation which was tarnished long ago. It is a terrible service. Long delays, cancellations, unexplained stops in the middle of nowhere. It has been like this for years. One never looks forward to travelling by train in this country. There is always a sense of gloom andContinue reading “The train from Dresden to Berlin, Monday 9th May”
Notes for a War Diary
The word ‘agate’ had to be looked up because I realised I only had a vague notion of what ‘agate’ might be. It seemed a small, trifling thing, referenced in Franz Hessel’s lovely book Walking in Berlin. As he describes, ‘In the evening of that overfilled day, I was welcomed into the home of anContinue reading “Notes for a War Diary”
Cornucopia City 