The Prisma News

Book reviews Comments In Focus

Alone but not lonely

Rejections beset the British novelist Barbara Pym but reading two of her later novels confirms a talent that was not appreciated at the time.   Sean Sheehan   Pym wrote six novels in the 1950s and early ‘60s until her publisher unexpectedly rejected her seventh and she consequentially disappeared from […]

Comments In Focus

Death as a mirror of human everyday life

Facing our mortality allows us to recognise the importance of small daily actions and how our deeds can impact the wellbeing of future generations. Do you know the names of your eight great grandparents? Where were they from? What did they do? In three generations or less it is very […]

Comments In Focus Needle's Eye

Labelling and prejudice: effects on society and the mind

Ticking boxes or labelling someone by race, gender, or age can affect their performance, self-esteem, and health. Negative stereotypes limit opportunities, while positive ones multiply benefits in education, social life, and physical and mental wellbeing. By ‘stereotyping’, we refer to labelling a person or culture with particular characteristics, whether ‘good’ or […]