Two Shindigs for your diary

Babel and Morgan

Some beautiful writing from Isaac Babel:

The freedom round me has lain down in the fields, the grass rustles all over the world, the heavens swing about above me like a concertina with many keyboards, and the heavens in the province of Stavropol, my lads, are very blue.

Meanwhile there comes the news that Edwin Morgan has died – a poet whose work I know disgracefully little. Must read more. Always, must read more.

'something like a Tardis or magic purse'

Jon Stone reviews The Corner of Arundel Lane and Charles Street for Dr Fulminare, and says some very nice things about it too, like:

Just when the picture of Williams as terror-oracle of the windy towns seems almost complete, you start discovering precise, carefully managed descriptive pieces...

'Terror-oracle of the windy towns' – I like that; maybe I'll add it to my signature...

Thurston, Sheppard and Rowland read in Manchester

Yeichs

Another book to buy – Michael Hofmann's been translating the wonderful Gunther Eich.

Da

I've mentioned it before, but I've spent the last week or so rereading this book and it's absolutely superb: Robert Chandler's Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida. George Szirtes reviewed it here. It's a delight.