Mascha Kaléko died 40 years ago this week. Her poems are full of longing, memory and regret, even for things that haven’t happened yet, by someone who always had to move on. She has a gloriously Central European knot of…
Wake up! Wrocław is the new European capital of culture, and a year of celebrations kicks off this weekend. It is a gorgeous city with a complex cultural history – go if you haven’t yet – which has produced some world-class…
It’s that time of year when people vow to get fit, lose their bad habits and slough off all the holiday indulgence. And I’ve finally found the kind of personal trainer I’m looking for. How about a personal reading…
Cold is the man who can’t love, The old mountains of dear Wales, To him and his warmest friend, A cheerful holiday next year. Cold is the snow on Mount Snowdon, Even though it has a flannel blanket on it,…
Finnish Christmas carols are often seen as extraordinarily depressing. That isn’t quite fair. In fact, we have a Finn (Jaakko Suomalainen, Jacobus Finno) to thank for some of the best loved carols worldwide. He was a priest and head of the…
Every teenager in Sweden should get a translation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We should all be Feminists in time for Christmas. What would I give every teenager in translation into English? Something from a teenage perspective: Their peers are more likely…
Finland is 98 today. You can celebrate all the way to Christmas by learning the language. Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as you think. You can learn a new word every day with the Finland emoji Advent calendar. Catch…
It’s advent. It’s still getting darker. The earth is drained of colour, finally covered in snow, waiting for spring. People are on the move, looking for a place to rest safely. It’s a waiting time. Waiting for the wilderness to…
It’s time to give thanks. What for, exactly? This Thanksgiving, give thanks for the 130 endangered native languages in the USA, and the people keeping them alive. Give thanks for Marie Wilcox. Born on Thanksgiving Day 1933, Marie is the last fluent…