Culture
Keeping Up With the Gardening
JS Adams imagines a dystopian future for Portsmouth and its iconic landmarks, which may not be as far off as we might have hoped… “…In a decaying society, art if it is truthful, Must also [… read more ]
portsmouth
Culture
Portsmouth: an English Venice?
Guy Walker imagines the future of Portsmouth if the city modelled itself on Venice. A flat, wide lagoon reflects dazzling light. The saline waters seem still, almost stagnant. A smudge on the distant skyline shimmers [… read more ]
Social Issues
Their Pea, Her Pod: Surrogate Parenting in Portsmouth
Local mother and writer Sue Roome investigates the issue of surrogacy in light of recent reforms that allow surrogate parents to take adoption leave and pay for up to 52 weeks, providing they obtain a [… read more ]
Fiction
The Blue Plaques Blue Army Gang
By Jon Crout 11 June 1974 ‘Do you think this film they’re making is named after me?’ asked Owen. He grinned. ‘Not likely, Tommy,’ said Holbrook, licking his ice cream. ‘I doubt architecture is really [… read more ]
History
Lately Remembered in Emsworth (Part I)
In the first of a vivid two-part memoir, local actor and playwright John Bartlett takes us on a journey around his grandparents’ home in Emsworth – a magical place of treasures, secrets and surprises. When I [… read more ]
Poetry
The Next Station Is
By Richard Williams Portsmouth and Southsea then Fratton and Hilsea, clattering over the creek to the points at Cosham west to Southampton, Salisbury and Cardiff, east to Brighton, north to Waterloo. And you [… read more ]
Culture
A Brief Walk Around God, Ignorance and Southsea
S&C’s culture correspondent sees signs of God in Southsea and gets pondering…. I am trying to find that in-between space, somewhere between Richard Dawkins and Isis; between Page 3 and the niqab. But all [… read more ]
Culture
Throwing Water at the Ocean
Journalist and editor Sam Ward ponders the meaning and purpose of writing in the internet age. Like a deep winter, which started with a light icing sugar frost on the leaves before becoming a blanket [… read more ]
Fiction
Spine Acher
By Jon Crout Details that are presented as historical fact are continually subject to interpretation and reinterpretation. Accounts of historic events are only as reliable as those making the record, and will inevitably be subject [… read more ]
History
Some Kind of Home
When travel writer and Southeast Europe scholar Tom Phillips had a chance meeting with a Bulgarian student in Portsmouth, he couldn’t have predicted all that would happen next… We sat on the grass and smoked [… read more ]