“Maybe she doesn’t speak English,” said a short, chubby, middle-aged woman. “Or maybe she’s deaf,” her friend observed. “Hello? Hello? Can you understand me?” shouted the first woman. I was just coming to the statue of Charles James Fox at the north end of Bloomsbury Square, when I stopped and turned my head to the … Continue reading A Time and a Place
England
The True Protest
Years ago, my experience as the senior designer at a theme-party production company led to a contract with an architectural firm that was developing a multimillion dollar resort for a client in Japan. It was up to me to direct a team in planning the function and decor of the interior common spaces, including everything … Continue reading The True Protest
The Essence of Liberty and Love
Sifting through source materials in my quest to find meaning and cohesion in someone’s long-forgotten life is one of my favorite pursuits. I have traveled thousands of miles to sit in the quiet rooms of faraway libraries and archives, poring through antiquated books or binders filled with thick parchment pages. But there is nothing like … Continue reading The Essence of Liberty and Love
Men and Myths
If you get your news online from the BBC or Sky News, you wouldn’t know that there was a massive demonstration in Central London on Saturday, February 1, 2025. Tens of thousands of people turned out in support of the independent journalist and anti-rape-gang crusader known as Tommy Robinson. Some estimates put the number as … Continue reading Men and Myths
Memories and Montmartre
Last Saturday, a photo service emailed me a “memory.” It was a picture I took of tombstones in a Paris cemetery. The caption, “Bring your memories to life,” made me laugh. Six years ago, I had finished writing the draft of A Moon Garden and was becoming frustrated at my lack of success in finding … Continue reading Memories and Montmartre
A Pathway to Perdition
There is a writers conference coming soon to a city near me. Wouldn’t you know it? The first literary agent listed among the panelists is the New Yorker I wrote about in November (see Flying Blind), who proudly announced on X-Twitter that she categorizes people by race and prioritizes manuscripts submitted by People of Color … Continue reading A Pathway to Perdition
The Approach of Winter
In late autumn, my garden requires a lot of care. Grape vines, roses, and pomegranates need drastic pruning, and the dense mat of fallen fig leaves cannot be ignored. Yet amidst all of these signs of degradation, there is a sparse crop of guavas and a bounty of lemons. The kumquats are still ripening on … Continue reading The Approach of Winter
The Shattered Mirror
Considering how many times Donald Trump has pointed to the representatives of the press and declared, “Fake news,” there is still a lot of handwringing in some quarters. In the pre-internet world of my childhood, I started reading newspapers regularly when I was about 12-years old. Walter Cronkite, the anchorman on the CBS Evening News, … Continue reading The Shattered Mirror
An Obvious Choice
Back in the days when I worked at the coffee store in Berkeley (see Flying Blind), I met a German nurse. She confided that, some years earlier, her brother-in-law had been in the painful end-stage of terminal cancer and, at his request, she injected him with a lethal dose of morphine. I wasn’t sure why … Continue reading An Obvious Choice
Wishlists and Woke Roulette
Big Hollywood and Big Beer have taken heat for pushing wokeness over common sense, but the literary world seems to be flying happily under the radar. Since most publishing houses don’t accept submissions directly from fiction writers, it is necessary to go through an agent. For many good reasons, a screening process is required. During … Continue reading Wishlists and Woke Roulette
Roxane Gilbert 