In which I stumble on the story of how certain grownups in our circles were inventing the personal computer while dropping acid.

My winding path to Explanation must take us out of California briefly, to retrace the steps taken by my friend Cynthia who, years later when I came to know her, told me how in 1967 or 1968 – she would...

Dear reader,

Another short one, a chapterette, continuing on from Little Boxes and, the week before that, Ventotene. Enjoy!

YouTube video by National Post

Kenny’s death was my first encounter with mortality, because I and most of my friends had grown up in a world without grandparents, without extended family: my parents’ generation had moved to Califor...

Kids, by Greyhound and by thumb, down the coast.

To quibble again with Patrick White, from whom I’ve borrowed a memorable image, those souls might make a raftful if they were all in one place, but the point is rather that they aren’t, they can’t be ...

Somewhere around the world floats a raftful of memorable souls fate has forced me to abandon.

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One summer day Sarah calls on WhatsApp.

Wonderful and terrifying article by James Marriott on the decline of reading and - really, this is not hyperbole - the end of civilization. (For my own somewhat more personal musings on the subject, s...

As Trump considered striking Iran, some advisers adjusted public arguments to suggest quick bombing run

Rachel Reeves calls Britain’s biggest road-building project a ‘turning point for our national infrastructure’