Let us not compare riots - Haiti is currently facing tragedy as it collapses into cholera-induced anarchy - and the international cyber-rioting against major online retailers continues - so that some paint and such thrown at the future King of England and his wife might seem small beer. Except, let us catch our breath, and reflect: when was the last time that Royalty in England was in such immediate peril? We now have a face for this upsurge of rage against these pitiless penny-pinching prunings. Students of the world unite! Meanwhile, China has shown itself to be Philistine Numero Uno for its bald and bold retorts to the Nobel prize. What a week. Just wait until Burma gets nukes...
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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Charles and Camilla encountering the (non stage-managed) general public on their way to the London Paladium gave us all a vicarious whiff of what life might have been like during the French and Russian revolutions.
Best wishes from Simon