Banking, something we take for granted, was a relatively new industry in the 15th Century when the Medici family made their fortune from it. Relatively new, and perilously close to the mortal sin of usury. Tim Parks, the noted english novelist, commentator, and literary critic, in Medici Money. Banking, Metaphysics and Art in Fifteenth Century […]
Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and the Seven Deadly Sins. These have been staple literary themes since, at least, Dante wrote the Divine Comedy in the fourteenth century. The American road trip is slightly more youthful, but perhaps no less worn as a conceit. It’s a brave writer then who overtly chooses all of the above as […]
When Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt first decided to study and write about the phenomenon of Holocaust denial, in the late 1980s, many of her colleagues counselled her against her decision. Holocaust denial was, in their eyes a fringe movement of no-importance, akin to the Flat Earth Society. She was, in short, warned against taking ‘these […]
“It’s all based on this fuckin’ crap idea that everything turned amazing in ’76 when a bunch of cunts who couldn’t play started twatting around in New York. That means nothing to me. I don’t care”, Christian Madden of Anglo-American band The Earlies declares, in what could well be a musical manifesto. “I’m not worried […]
There are few transgressions less forgivable than that of supporting a second football team. If football is a ritual replication of warfare, then adopting a second squad is rightly seen as nothing short of mercenary. Peruse the fan forums on the sites of any of the Irish Eircom league teams’ websites and you’ll see a […]
Lydia Davis is a rare talent. A writer whose work is challenging, stimulating, innovative, and, taken at face value, short. Very short – some stories in her collections span no more than two lines. Literature, though, (thankfully) is not judged on word counts, and the depth achieved so compactly by Davis is, no doubt, envied […]
Censorship is not limited to totalitarian States. It can be a subtle thing, when disconcerting ideas are not banned, but, through various means, marginalised. Dr. Mary Condren’s groundbreaking work The Serpent and the Goddess, a study on women, religion and power in Celtic Ireland, was never placed on an index of banned books, and yet […]
Album #6 from Oasis, not counting live albums and b-side compilations.
Debut album from Scunthorpe singer-songwriter Stephen Fretwell. It’s a smile free zone, but with classic tunes.
Oh my God, I can’t believe itI’ve never been this far away from home (Oh My God – Kaiser Chiefs) Could there be a better place than Rome to meet Peanut (Nick Baines), keyboardist and frequently designated spokesman of the Kaiser Chiefs? Though it may not seem it at once, it’s a city that could […]
It’s the dead end of the year, the last days of October when the summer feels like a distant memory. It’s the sort of dull, neutral day that neither entices you outside, nor menaces you to stay inside. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are inside a cold, damp, cavernous club booming through their soundcheck. Rifles, one […]
“It’s Rock n’ Roll,” says Jim Eno, drummer with American band Spoon, determinedly, when asked what sort of music the four-piece play. One man’s rock n’ roll, though, is another man’s indie pop, so it’s worth pausing for a moment to refine the definition. “If I was going to characterise it a certain way”, he […]
Dr. Samantha Riches talks to TMO about the cult of St. George and the Dragon, and why there’s a significant collection of art works where the legendary dragon is depicted, very clearly, as female.
It’s virtually impossible to pigeonhole author Michel Faber, as his new collection of short stories The Fahrenheit Twins ably demonstrates. A collection of seventeen wildly different stories that change genre almost as often as location. From the Scottish highlights through to humid Jakarta; from biting social satire through to science fiction. It should come as […]
James Meek‘s third novel, The People’s Act of Love is set in a small town in Siberia in 1919, during the Russian civil war. The characters and drama, though, are far removed from the stock literary gallery of reds and whites. Amongst his drammatis personae are Christian castrates, cannibals and a division of the Czech […]
