…. said Dostoevsky, according to the reviewer of a recent book about him.* There was a “sentimental and reactionary” self-image of the Slavophile Russian and a rather ambivalent, but definitely idealising, vision of a “modern” and rational European. These two visions stood in dramatic confrontation with each other, but both were held with equal if … Read more
It is not often the case that I use this blog in order to share thoughts relating to my former profession as an academic specialist on south-eastern Europe. As I was pottering in the garden this morning, however, a thought came to me that is worth sharing more widely. In the decades before the Great … Read more
Let’s call a spade a spade!
I suppose that any artist is familiar with that idea. On this occasion, however, I have in mind the context of contemporary British politics. I am aware that people in other countries must be mystified by the impasse our politicians have got us into in relation to the proposal to leave the European Union. The … Read more