Thursday, April 26, 2007

Having just received a query about it, this is just to say that my blog has moved to http://annewelsh.wordpress.com and my cuttings are at http://www.connotea.org/user/AnneWelsh

Thursday, October 19, 2006

'Darwin's entire works go online' by Ian Sample, The Guardian, 19 October 2006.
"Ted Hughes's wife, Sylvia Plath, famously killed herself. But what of his mistress, who four years later did the same?" 'Written out of history', The Guardian, 19 October 2006.

For the reading list: A Lover of Unreason: The Biography of Assia Wevill by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev. Published by Robson Books, price £20.00.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

"But the novelties come thick and fast, beginning (so far as I was concerned) with the suggestion on page 10 that Dante and other poets he associated with in Florence as a young man might have given their visionary and dreamlike imaginings a boost with the stimulus of love-potions. These herbal stimulants, cannabis perhaps, may, it turns out later, be what Dante is referring to in the comparison, near the start of Paradiso, between his own “trans-human” experience and what Glaucus felt “on tasting of the herb” (nel gustar dell’erba) which made him into a sea-god. As Reynolds explains at greater length when she comes to the final vision of the Godhead, mystics did often use drugs of one kind or another in conjunction with fasting and meditation in their pursuit of visionary illumination. There is no reason, she argues, why Dante should not have done so too."
'Dante on drugs' by Peter Hainsworth, reviewing Dante: the poet, the political thinker, the man, Shaw (ed.), Tauris, 2006. Times Literary Supplement, 18 October 2006.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

"Female crime writers should give thanks that [Agatha Christie] vanished, even if it's really no mystery at all" 'Agatha, we all owe you' by Frances Fyfield, The Guardian, 17 October 2006.

Monday, October 09, 2006

"Visitors to Tate Modern will be able to try out five giant slides that have been unveiled at the London gallery."
'Tate Modern unveils giant slides', BBC News, 9 October 2006.
"Poetry is perennially on the ropes, a pensive, esoteric artform in a world absorbed by novelty and new media. But Poet Laureate Andrew Motion says it can resonate with all ages and an unlikely ambassador for the young is a certain Pete Doherty."
'Chatter and verse' by Sean Coughlan, BBC News Magazine, 9 October 2006.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Sunday, September 24, 2006

"As the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union nears, an academic has fanned controversy by claiming the 'parcel of rogues' did not sell Scotland down the river." 'Betrayed? No, Scots wanted the Union' by Lorna Martin, The Observer, 24 September 2006.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

'How lust shaped the art of Rodin' by Richard Dorment, The Telegraph, 19 September 2006 - includes slideshow and podcast.
"None of Leonardo's inventions ever took off, but an exhibition of his scientific drawings reveals how his extraordinary mind worked"
'New light on a high-flying genius' by Richard Dorment, The Telegraph, 19 September 2006 - includes slideshow.
"Martyrs and lovers, kissers and thinkers, the good and the damned ... Rodin's exaggerated figures tell us what it is to be human."
'Your own flesh and blood' by Adrian Searle, The Guardian, 19 September 2006.

Monday, September 11, 2006

'A walk in the dark' by Jonathan Jones. The Guardian, 17 August, 2006
- Hogarth Trail.
'Ted Hughes, the domestic tyrant ' by David Smith. The Observer, 10 September 2006.
"The bestselling novelist Susan Hill yesterday accused senior managers of public libraries of abandoning their commitment to books and manoeuvring to turn library buildings into social centres." ('Writer rues library changes' by John Ezard. The Guardian, 11 September 2006).

Monday, August 28, 2006

'Paddington Bear: a case study of immigration and otherness' by Angela Smith. Children's Literature in Education, 37(1), March 2006.

"Paddington, as a series of books begun in the late 1950s, presents issues of anti-racism and ‘Otherness’ which can be revealed through a close textual analysis of the introductory chapters of the first book in series, A Bear Called Paddington (1958), whilst also showing how the dominant culture retains its superior status."

Full text free to download from the Springer site.

Friday, August 18, 2006

'We've had enough of Greek myths' by Bernadine Evaristo. The Independent, 13 August 2006.

"The poetry establishment needs black and Asian writers to invigorate a tired old scene."

Thursday, August 17, 2006

One life: Walt Whitman, a kosmos - new minisite from the Smithsonian.

Monday, August 07, 2006

"QUEEN guitarist Brian May has given thousands of pounds to save hedgehogs from slaughter in the Outer Hebrides, it emerged yesterday...

it is said to be enough to pay for the rescue of hundreds of hedgehogs from the Uists, where Scottish Natural Heritage has been culling the animals for the past four years.

The hedgehogs pose a threat to rare ground-nesting birds and their eggs.

So far more than 500 have been killed by lethal injection and more than 700 saved. There are believed to be about 3,000 left on the islands."


'Top rock guitarist helps save islands' hedgehogs' by Mike Merritt. The Scotsman, 7 August 2006.

Friday, August 04, 2006

The National Archives have made the Domesday Book available online. They've also provided some great accompanying material, including information on food and drink in the 'World of Domesday' feature.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Saturday, July 15, 2006