Hamburg
Philosophy’s greatest pessimist wasn’t so miserable after all
Arthur Schopenhauer’s luminous prose, savage wit and commitment to thinking for oneself make reading him an exhilarating, even life-affirming experience
High life
I was going through my paces in Hyde Park, sweating out the booze, raising the heartbeat with short wind sprints,…
Shock and awe in Coventry, 14 November 1940
On 14 November 1940, at seven in the evening, the Luftwaffe began to bomb Coventry. The skyline turned red like…
Hamburg
‘What was it like growing up in Liverpool?’ a journalist asked John Lennon. ‘I didn’t grow up in Liverpool,’ he…
In search of the Fatherland
As I grew up half German in England in the 1970s, my German heritage was confined to the few curios…
Ashes to ashes
‘I cannot describe to you what a curious note of brutality a bomb has,’ said one woman who lived through…
