International History of Magazines 4: China and Japan

JAPAN AND CHINA As one of the most literate countries in the world, Japan has a rich magazine history even if relatively short. That the newspaper and magazine are Western formats is well known, and yet as in other, mainly non-Anglophone, countries the distinction between the two is not always clear. Just two years after…More

International History of Magazines 3: Spain and Portugal

IBERIAN PENINSULA: SPAIN AND PORTUGAL There is no volume-length general history of Spanish of magazines beyond Sánchez Vigil (q.v.), most studies of the press focussing on newpapers. In the Spanish case, however, the instability between newspaper and magazine is especially notable: José Maria Carnereo’s Revista española (1831-1836), for instance, underwent not only several different changes…More

International History of Magazines 2: Italy

ITALY As in other European countries, magazine publication in Italy was begun in order to disseminate the ideas of elite groups, in the Italian case a process closely allied to the Catholic Church, at least initially. Unlike in France and Britain, there was no single capital city as, like Germany, Italy was divided up into…More

International Bibliography for the Study of Magazines 1: France

Recently I’ve been thinking about how hard it is to do transnational comparative research on periodicals, so I’ve started to compile a series of guides to the study of magazines in various countries. Since they’ll all be in one place, it should be easier the follow up lines of enquiry across countries. I have to say…More

Matrimonial Ads in the Victorian Press: Fantasy, Imagination, Story, Life

“Honest, Thick-Skinned Advertisements for Goods”? W.D. a tall, dark, young man, with £200 per annum, derived from an investment in the funds, would like to have a fair-complexioned young wife; he has just returned from Italy, but does not admire the dark beauties of that land of poetry and song. MARIA C., of Wavertree, who…More

From the Greek Anthology

 Concert programme 4 June 1988, Club Voltaire, Catania Yesterday I came across an old cassette tape of a concert I gave at the Club Voltaire in Catania, Sicily on the 4th of June 1988. What a shock to hear this after amost 40 years! The first half comprised a selection of pieces by Scriabin,…More

The Army Surgeon – some comments

“The Army Surgeon” Sydney Dobell Over that breathing[1] waste of friends and foes,[2] The wounded and the dying, hour by hour,- In will a thousand, yet but one in power [3] ,- He [3] labours thro’ the red and groaning day. The fearful moorland where the myriads lay Moved as a moving field of mangled worms.…More