Jane Austen’s Birthday Party Is BYOB (Bring Your Own Bonnet)

Bath, England, is preparing for Georgian costume balls, the showiest and merriest of the celebrations of the writer’s 250th. Thousands are flocked in bonnets and top haps this month for the Jane Austin Festival. Several adaptations and reimaginings are on cards, as Netflix is producing a new Pride and Prejudice series written by Dolly Alderton, focus Features announced an adaptation of Sense and Sensibility with Daisy Edgar-Jones. Austen who was funny and satirical in her writing, lived in Bath between 1801 and 1806, which reflected concerns about economic anxiety happening with somebody: the obsession with money and standing in the … Continue reading Jane Austen’s Birthday Party Is BYOB (Bring Your Own Bonnet)

Desperate Stowaway survival

Faisal, a 13-year-old Afghan boy made a desperate and dangerous journey from Kabul to Delhi quite by accident, by stowing away in the landing gear compartment of a KAM Air passenger plane RQ4401, surviving a 94-minute flight which landed on Sunday at 11:10 (05:40GMT). He was immediately deported back to Afghanistan with the plane declare safe after thorough checks. Faisal from Kunduz city, was found wondering near the aircraft shortly after its arrival. During interrogation, Faisal admitted that he had sneaked into Kabul airport undetected and managed to climb into the rear central landing gear compartment of the plane. “I … Continue reading Desperate Stowaway survival

Insight into the formation and evolution of a politician

Leo Varadkar reveals his fascinating experience as Irish prime minister at a time of much change and turbulence. Leo Varadkar was an unlikely Taoiseach- the youngest on taking office in 2017, the first Taoiseach to be gay and the first person of colour to be Taoiseach. Equally unlikely was his decision to bow out of politics in his mid-forties. Now, liberated from the constraints of office, he tells his fascinating story with characteristic courage and candour, and provides a unique insight into the formation and evolution of a senior politician. In Speaking My Mind, Leo Varadkar shares his pride in … Continue reading Insight into the formation and evolution of a politician

SattarBuksh wins trademark case against Starbucks

Sattar Buksh, a Karachi-based café owner famous for his humorous menu items like the “Besharam Burger”, LOC Pizza, got into trademark branding dispute with Starbucks. The multinational claimed that the resemblance in logo and name could confuse customers, dilute its brand and potentially infringe on trademark laws. When you think Starbucks, the multinational, you picture the iconic green siren. In Karachi two Pakistani entrepreneurs Rizwan Ahmad and Adnan Yousuf, opened a café called Sattarbuksh,  (buksh, meaning servant). They think it is parody not piracy. Although at first glance their logo resembled like a cheeky twin of Starbucks, except instead of mermaid, … Continue reading SattarBuksh wins trademark case against Starbucks

Who Knows What: The Paradoxes of human behaviour

Harvard psychologist, one of the world’s greatest thinkers, and cognitive scientist, Steven Pinker, in When Everyone Knows that Everyone Knows, explores common knowledge- a concept deriving from game theory that describes the state in which not only does everyone knows something, but everyone knows that everyone knows that everyone knows. This idea according to Pinker “illuminates many enigmas of our public affairs and personal lives” and constitutes “a keystone in understanding the social world”. Pinker shows us how we think about each other’s thoughts, ad infinitum, it sounds impossible, but we do it all the same. This awareness which we … Continue reading Who Knows What: The Paradoxes of human behaviour

Old spies are more dangerous

The 9th book in the series behind slow horses, an Apple original series now streaming on Apple TV+. Jackson Lamb and the bad spies of Slough House are caught in a deadly battle between MI5’s secret past and its murky future in this gripping heart breaking and hilarious thriller by Mick Herron, with a degree in English from Balliol College, Oxford. The Slow Horses are MI5 officers who have been put out to grass at Slough House, a drab office building in central London. Foremost among the team of boozers, good for nothing, and walking wounded is their boss, Jackson Lamb, … Continue reading Old spies are more dangerous

Sex worker who makes a Faustian pact with the tycoon

A woman meets a man on a train in Copenhagen and agrees to visit him in London, While she sits out a two-week Covid quarantine in his apartment, she begins to tell her story. Years ago and desperate for money, she sold herself to a stranger called T. She becomes his captive, holed up in a swanky apartment for total control of her body and severed from the outside world, in exchange for any material possession she desires. In the bed between them lay a large kitchen knife and the promise of an iconic death. She aborted the treacherous game … Continue reading Sex worker who makes a Faustian pact with the tycoon

Sentimental history

Ferdinand Mount in Soft, delves from Middle Ages to now, the ebb and flow of sentimentality in literature, art, politics, law and society through three “revolutions”. The first sentimental revolution was all about troubadours and courtly love, medieval piety and its love of saints and ritual. The monasteries provided hospitals for the poor and hospitality for the pilgrim stranger. This was all demolished by harsh Protestantism. Mount likens Calvin’s chilling austerity to “the diatribes of right-wing Tory MPs against slackers and freeloaders’. The 19th century brought a swing against sentimentality towards manliness, emphasising not only reason, but also courage in battle, … Continue reading Sentimental history

Vanishing skills and traditions

Craft Land Britain was once a craft land and for generations what we made with our hands shaped our identities, built our communities and defined our regions. Historian and fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, James Fox travels the length of Britain to seek out the country’s last great craftspeople in Craftland and chronicles the vanishing skills and traditions that used to govern every aspect of life on these shores. Stepping inside the workshops of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, cutlers and Coopers, thatchers, bellfounders and watchmakers, we glimpse not only our past but another way of life, one that is not yet … Continue reading Vanishing skills and traditions

Robert Redford dies aged 89

16.9.25 Award winning actor Robert Redford dies at home aged 89.Acclaimed and universally loved actor Robert Redford started his career in artand travelled round Europe as a very young man, sleeping rough, meeting andfraternising with people and doing lots of drawings. When he returned to theUSA he began doing set painting only to be told he was on the wrong side ofthe camera and swiftly moved into acting. He was so popular and talented, hemade a very successful movie career and married twice spawning fourchildren. At least one of them is deceased but he leaves the other children andfour grandchildren. … Continue reading Robert Redford dies aged 89