JOHN DREW

No door

His five sons/ Were killed and the books...

How to write a love song

500 years ago, Edmund Spenser wrote a poem to celebrate a wedding taking place beside the River Thames. Each stanza ends with the refrain: “Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song”.

Eyeball to eyeball at Lords: A Bangladeshi occasion in a very English setting

35000 spectators turned out amid the colourful shamianas and flags to watch the one (and only) unofficial Test in Dhaka in January, 1977.

In some corner of a foreign field: Rahmat Ali & the once and future Cambridge Majlis

The map is part of an exhibition arranged to mark the revival of the Cambridge Majlis, a society (dating from 1891) designed for students from all over the Subcontinent to meet socially to enjoy their commonalities and discuss and debate in a civil way their political differences.

‘Plants of the Quran’ explores flora dating back 1400 years

Dr Shahina Ghazanfar, the author of a series of books on the flora of the Middle East who compiled this compendium, explains: “This is not a religious book but about history and culture. It promotes the pleasure of research and learning, I hope as much for my readers as for myself”. 

The once and future bedes & ‘Gypsies?

Szilvia Reif, a student of mine from the (indicatively named) Gandhi School in Pècs, Hungary, wrote a poem that tells what it feels like to be a ‘Gypsy (properly Roma).

In Ireland once: A story of ghosts

Are ghosts real? This was the question Mollie, a little 8-year-old girl who lives at the end of our street asked me in a–real–letter she wrote me recently. I had apparently included a book of ghost stories in a bag of books I had given her.

The Christmas the Kolis took to cricket

The year is 1721. There are Indians, many no doubt Bengali, visible on the streets of London, some settled down there, others at a loss, mostly sea-farers off the East India Company ships bringing the Indian fabrics that have become all the fashion, silks worn by the rich, cottons by the poor.

January 13, 2024
January 13, 2024

No door

His five sons/ Were killed and the books...

November 11, 2023
November 11, 2023

How to write a love song

500 years ago, Edmund Spenser wrote a poem to celebrate a wedding taking place beside the River Thames. Each stanza ends with the refrain: “Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song”.

October 7, 2023
October 7, 2023

Eyeball to eyeball at Lords: A Bangladeshi occasion in a very English setting

35000 spectators turned out amid the colourful shamianas and flags to watch the one (and only) unofficial Test in Dhaka in January, 1977.

August 15, 2023
August 15, 2023

In some corner of a foreign field: Rahmat Ali & the once and future Cambridge Majlis

The map is part of an exhibition arranged to mark the revival of the Cambridge Majlis, a society (dating from 1891) designed for students from all over the Subcontinent to meet socially to enjoy their commonalities and discuss and debate in a civil way their political differences.

July 6, 2023
July 6, 2023

‘Plants of the Quran’ explores flora dating back 1400 years

Dr Shahina Ghazanfar, the author of a series of books on the flora of the Middle East who compiled this compendium, explains: “This is not a religious book but about history and culture. It promotes the pleasure of research and learning, I hope as much for my readers as for myself”. 

June 10, 2023
June 10, 2023

The once and future bedes & ‘Gypsies?

Szilvia Reif, a student of mine from the (indicatively named) Gandhi School in Pècs, Hungary, wrote a poem that tells what it feels like to be a ‘Gypsy (properly Roma).

February 4, 2023
February 4, 2023

In Ireland once: A story of ghosts

Are ghosts real? This was the question Mollie, a little 8-year-old girl who lives at the end of our street asked me in a–real–letter she wrote me recently. I had apparently included a book of ghost stories in a bag of books I had given her.

December 6, 2021
December 6, 2021

The Christmas the Kolis took to cricket

The year is 1721. There are Indians, many no doubt Bengali, visible on the streets of London, some settled down there, others at a loss, mostly sea-farers off the East India Company ships bringing the Indian fabrics that have become all the fashion, silks worn by the rich, cottons by the poor.

July 24, 2021
July 24, 2021

On Shelley, Shoes and the Shifting of Statues

Where do you stand on this matter of pulling down statues, a hot topic during the ongoing Black and Indigenous Lives Matter campaigns? Do you favour putting up statues at all? Who, if anyone, would you put one up to?

April 10, 2021
April 10, 2021

A Tribute to Allen Ginsberg on his 24th Death Anniversary

Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, as much at home on the Kali Ghat as in Greenwich Village, is best remembered in Bangladesh on account of his poem, September on the Jessore Road. Year One.

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