General Blog About Everything

Trickster Travels: The search for Leo Africanus, By Natalie Zemon Davis

Independent.co.uk - Frontpage RSS Feed — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:52 +0000

Van Dyck, Sir Anthony: Venetia Stanley, Lady Digby, on her Death-bed (1633)

Independent.co.uk - Frontpage RSS Feed — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:00:47 +0000

This is how Sylvia Plath put it, hard and clear, in her last poem, "Edge": "The woman is perfected./ Her dead/ Body wears the smile of accomplishment,/ The illusion of a Greek necessity/ Flows in the scrolls of her toga,/ Her bare/ Feet seem to be saying:/ We have come so far, it is over.." Dead indeed. The bare feet suggest the slab, which makes "toga" only a fine word for a morgue shroud. And knowing what we do, about what the poet herself was about to do, we can't help reading these lines as an imaginary, anticipatory self-portrait, post mortem. The cause of death and of "the smile of accomplishment" is suicide.

Yorkshire 395 all out (124.4 overs) v Lancashire 0-1 (3 overs)

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Sat, 31 May 2008 12:27:16 +0000

Luke Sutton could be forgiven for accepting the applause a little sheepishly after his seventh catch of the innings set a new wicketkeeping record for Roses matches here this morning.

Sutton's feat, which also equals the Lancashire record for all first-class matches, denied Yorkshire a batting bonus point as Oliver Newby found the edge of 19-year-old Ben Sanderson's bat. But given that the home side had already pocketed four, it was something of a hollow victory.

Two arrests after children stabbed to death

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Sat, 31 May 2008 08:20:13 +0000

A five-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl have died from suspected stab wounds, police said today.

Eurozone inflation at 16 year high

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:37:54 +0000

Inflation in the European single currency area jumped to 3.6 per cent during May, up from 3.3 per cent in April. The figure matches the 16-year high seen in March and was slightly above market expectations.

Carlyle targets Filtronic

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:36:37 +0000

The private equity giant Carlyle Group yesterday revealed it is working on a bid for Filtronic, sending the shares in the UK electronics group soaring. One analyst predicted that the potential deal could be worth about £66m

BHP Biliton puts case for Rio Tinto bid before Brussels

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:36:01 +0000

BHP Billiton has submitted its first round of documents to the European Commission in an effort to convince the antitrust watchdog that its £75bn hostile bid for Rio Tinto will not hurt competition.

Sales fall again for John Lewis

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:35:31 +0000

John Lewis has posted falling sales for the third week running. The department store said that sales fell by 2.8 per cent to £44.3m for the week to 24 May.

Tesco staff receive £92m share bonus

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:34:47 +0000

Tesco is to reward its UK employees with nearly £100m worth of free shares. The world’s third largest retailer is to award £92m worth of shares – a record amount - to 193,000 of its employees who have worked at Tesco for more than one year.

David Prosser’s Outlook: A reason to buy, but not to sell

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:32:30 +0000

If a company's directors don't have sufficient confidence to hold on to its shares, why should investors? Directors' dealings are widely followed both in the City and amongst private investors for good reason – it seems perfectly logical that directors with the inside track on their companies' performance are likely to make sensible decisions about share sales and purchases.

Construction crane collapses in New York City

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:41:21 +0000

A crane has collapsed at a Manhattan construction site.

More women face breast cancer risk

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:25:14 +0000

One in seven women will develop breast cancer if present health trends continue, experts warned today.

Lunch Report: Yorkshire 90-2 (28 overs) v Lancashire

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:23:56 +0000

Having dismissed Lancashire for 89 in the rain-ruined Friends Provident Trophy match here on Wednesday, Yorkshire might have been tempted, on a damp, misty morning, to have another bowl in spite of their long injury list, had they won the toss.

Lunch Report: Surrey 98-2 (31 overs) v Somerset

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:21:51 +0000

This season for Mark Ramprakash is turning rapidly into his own Groundhog Day. The Surrey batsman has now failed with five attempts to nail down the hundredth hundred of his first class career.

Thompson fired with new hope

The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:00:42 +0000

Heading west on a voyage of hope and discovery, Brian Thompson, one of Britain's senior offshore sailors, hopes to put six months of frustration behind him on Sunday as he leaves Portsmouth Harbour.