"Poets Exploding Like Bombs"

Young men love to fight. They particularly love to fight in a good cause. In the 1930s lthousands  of young British men- not street thugs, but scholars, poets, trades unionists, students-  went off to fight in the Spanish Civil War, in a cause that only tangentially touched them-  "for Communism and for liberty".  They included George Orwell, the poet Laurie Lee and -fleetingly- W.H. Auden. 

So what's so surprising about young British Muslims going off to seek martyrdom in Iraq?

Auden, who became tiresomely conservative in middle age, later disowned his poem "Spain". It's one long adrenaline rush. Strip out the specific cultural references and the overwhelming intelligence, and isn't this what jihadis feel?

The Dark

The Welsh underworld of Annwyn will trade you a life for a life- but beware of asking for a loved one back; because they come back changed...

That's the thesis underlying the really very good British chiller The Dark. I don't remember it getting much publicity- but it's at least as scary as those Japanese spook movies- like the Ring and the Grudge- that we hear so much about. 

It's intelligent, it features Welsh mythology, creepy little girls and Sean Bean speaking in his native Yorkshire accent. 

Highly recommended.