In so many ancient civilisations across the globe, love is in the guardianship of a particular deity; usually, although not always, this is a goddess. You might be familiar with Venus and Aphrodite, goddesses of love to the Romans and Greeks. In Western Africa, the...
Noughts & Crosses, the first in a series of best-selling novels by Malorie Blackman, is one of the most memorable books from my teen years. The story turns history on its head and is set in a world where Africans had enslaved Europeans rather than the other way...
Wang Mu Niang Niang, Queen Mother of the West, is the Chinese Tao goddess of life, fertility and immortality. Originally presented with the teeth of a tiger and as a goddess who brought plague and natural disaster she later reformed and for centuries has been known as...
The Help, a story of civil rights in the 1960s, by American novelist Kathryn Stockett is one of my all-time favourite books. As a relatively new novel–it was first published in 2009–I guess not many people will have it listed as...
The recently unveiled design for the new United Kingdom passport aims to celebrate the nation’s art and culture over the past 500 years. It features a host of famous artists, inventors, architects, mathematicians and writers. So far the new design sounds great,...
