Vasily Grossman is one of Russia’s greatest twentieth-century writers, possibly the very best. A new biography tells the story of the life of an author who should be better known and recognised for his achievements. Sean Sheehan Grossman knew only too well the twin horrors of the twentieth […]
In Focus
In Focus
Hidden, military power stalks and feeds the right
Sufficient evidence leads to thinking that the arrival in Uruguay of a right-wing coalition government is encouraging a habitat for the shadows of the military authoritarianism supported by the last dictatorship to resurface and spread. Hugo Rius Since the previous election, the foundation and quick growth of the […]
Fidel and his history in Ecuador
“History will absolve me”, the title of Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s self-defence in 1953, is now available to thousands of Ecuadorians. It was Casa Eguez Cultural Centre, in the centre of Quito, that promoted the publication of the text, written by the Cuban fighter during the trial in which […]
The disappearing world of the Penans
A brief encounter with a Penan is burned into my memory. I was following a pathway, a mere stroll before darkness fell in the Kelabit Highlands in Sarawak where I was on a two-day trek. Sean Sheehan He stepped out of the trees on one side, about to […]
City Time, or ‘spending time in the city’
Thinking more about the nature of urban time, following from my two previous columns, I realise there is an expression of simultaneity in the city’s plurality. Steve Latham There are so many time-lines, happening at the same ‘time’; no single mapping of meaning onto the diversity, but a […]















