Spain
Spain (With Apologies to Auden)
New poetry by Fiona Pitt-Kethley
In the Steps of the Spanish
Book reviews of Love: A Secret History by Simon May and All About Love by Lisa Appignanesi
What Daddy Did in the War
Papa Spy by Jimmy Burns
A Macabre New Vision of Spain
The influence of religious sculpture on the Golden Age painters suddenly becomes clear
Deadly Possibilities
Your Face Tomorrow 3: Poison, Shadow and Farewell by Javier Marias
Valley of the Fallen
I’ve been in Spain for a few days speaking at a conference organised by Jose Maria Aznar and Gianfranco Fini. On Monday, my day off, an old friend, the former war correspondent Hermann Tertsch drove us to the Escorial and the Valle de los Caidos.
Will the green agenda be killed off by the pandemic?
‘Will the green agenda be killed off by the longer-term coronavirus recovery? Or might the closure of so much business, and the cleaner air that results from planes not flying and factories not working, give us extra years to gain control of our environment?’
Why T.S. Eliot still matters
His contemporaries’ reputations have diminished. But Eliot’s has grown: he is the poet who shows us what can be saved from the ruins
Music’s in the house
Rappers have found a role in lockdown: chronicling coronavirus with topical tunes. Most people, though, are rushing to the safety of the past