On the tellie

The story of my return to Germany, my ‘reclamation’ of citizenship here, and my grandfather’s life is told in this ARTE documentary. (Diese Sendung kann auch hier auf deutsch gesehen werden). The programme examines why some British Jews have chosen to take up their German citizenship, and how this issue raises complex emotions and differences […]

A cup of kindness

Last week I visited the Jewish part of the old cemetery in Offenbach. I’d been offered a tour of it by Herr Beseler, who had emailed me after an interview with me had appeared in the local newspaper. Herr Beseler wrote to say that he had constructed a partial family tree of the Goldschmidts and […]

Alba ad Astra

 Scotland is a space-faring nation – true or false? Spaceports have been proposed for various Scottish sites from Prestwick airport in the south-west to Shetland. But perhaps there has already been a mission launched from these heather-covered mountains, perhaps the history of Scotland in space is a secret hiding in plain sight. Is Chancelot Mill […]

Tamarind

Gosh, I’ve been lax about posting updates. Perhaps I’ve been too busy writing, or enjoying our limited post-lockdown freedoms. Anyway, here is a nice new (ish) thing: Tamarind is an interdisciplinary sci-art magazine recently launched by students at Imperial College (where I used to work, a geological age ago). The editors and I had a […]

The Need for Better Regulation of Outer Space

There’s been a lot about space junk in the news lately, mainly because of the Chinese rocket debris that re-entered the atmosphere in an out-of-control fashion before falling into the Indian Ocean. But this isn’t a one-off, there are thousands of tons of space debris orbiting our planet, and with the regular launch of satellites […]

Recent publications

Here’s a round-up of some recent pubs: My short story ‘Latent Image’ about obsolete technologies and mental illness was published in issue 23 of Gutter Magazine My essay ‘Thirty-six views of the Berlin Wall’ about wandering through Berlin on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall is published by The Real Story My […]

Hearing German voices

I’ve been studying German for some time now and progress is painfully slow, each tiny step forward requiring much effort and concentration. So when I watch German TV I tell myself this counts as homework. Actually it does help my comprehension, somewhat, especially when I watch documentaries about German culture or history or wildlife. It’s […]

The compressed version

I’m walking down the road from our flat to the tram stop. A residential road lined on either side with apartment blocks separated from the pavement by fat strips of grass. The apartment blocks have balconies displaying tubs of geraniums, clothes being aired, plastic chairs. Every balcony is the same, every one different. The balconies […]

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