Doctor Who

A while back I compared Michael Morpugo’s mawkish (but highly successful) children’s book Private Peaceful unfavourably with the ethically alert television series Doctor Who.
That judgement was confirmed by tonight’s episode of the series. It was set in New York of 1930. In the Hooverville shanty town built by the unemployed, one character reflected ruefully that [...]

April 21st

John Gardner’s recent note sent me looking through Gilbert Frankau’s Poetical Works, and I found this grim reminder of an anniversary. It’s the sort of war poem that doesn’t usually get into the anthologies, so I thought I’d make it available here.

Poison
(21st April 1919)
(At Ypres, on April the 21st, 1915, the [...]