Feb 2025 · Bishnoi

The Bishnoi Temple at Jangloo, Rajasthan

An online addition to My Head for a Tree Journeys between the main Bishnoi temples wind through narrow Rajasthani lanes and head off-road across desert. Heading from Lalasar to the village of Jangloo, a…

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May 2023 · Blog

Writing ‘The Cellist of Dachau’

Martin Goodman This was the 21st century, and Helen Bamber was in her eighties. We met in the London offices of her Foundation, where they cared for trafficked women, and when Helen spoke she…

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May 2023 · Blog

Piano

A home has a piano. If my mother’s childhood supplied her with a rule she didn’t break, that was it. Her two up two down house made room for an upright. Her mother could…

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Apr 2020 · Blog

Kittiwakes come to shore

Out on the beach, I threw handfuls of bread and expected gulls to swoop. The gulls weren’t interested. This is Britain’s eastern tip, in Lowestoft, and the gulls are the fifteen inch long kittiwakes.…

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Feb 2019 · Blog

The View from my Window

My window faces north. On winter mornings, the house’s shadow draws close as the low sun lights up the neighbours’ gardens. On the fence close by a wood pigeon has been keeping me company…

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Jul 2018 · Blog

Christine Milne- An Activist Life

In Hobart in August, Winter was just pushing into Spring. An imported daffodil bloomed in the park. A forest raven cawed a spectacularly mournful song from the eucalyptus trees beside Seven Mile Beach. Mount…

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Jul 2018 · Blog

Goethe and the ‘other’

Telling a friend about my upcoming novel J SS Bach, he suggested I read Daniel Barenboim and Edward W.Said’s Parallels and Paradoxes: Exploration in Music and Society. These are deep, intelligent conversations. I’m learning about…

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