Notebooks

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The secret life of hemp

What connects a cannabis plant with the French Revolution? The little Italian town of Carmagnola – where the manufacture of cannabis hemp became local myth and an international phe..

Tobias Jones June 8, 2021

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How to speak when speech isn’t free

Today's free thinkers, frustrated by censorship from above and below, would do well to remember the ways of Machiavelli.

Erica Benner June 5, 2021

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Nothing like a midsummer sacrifice

The summer solstice celebrations are not simply pagan fancies. They embody the centuries-old spirit of the season.

Francesca Peacock June 5, 2021

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Turin’s touch of the divine

Any trip to Turin would be incomplete without a visit to Palazzo Madama, a treasure trove of Renaissance art and mysterious relics.

Agnès Poirier June 1, 2021

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Star Wars — the mythos of our times

George Lucas' space epic is the morality tale for our age.

Harry Cluff May 27, 2021

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Will the real Lesbia please stand up?

Classicists have finally worked out an identity for Catullus's lover Lesbia we can all believe in - Clodia Pulchra, wife of Pompey Junior.

Armand D'Angour May 27, 2021

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Where Cambridge leads Britain should follow

The quaint university town is where ancient heritage meets the future.

Bruce Anderson May 26, 2021

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Babylon-upon-Thames

London's plaques are testament to its status as a city of exiles.

Fergus Butler-Gallie May 21, 2021

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Resisting the saccage of Paris

Mayor Anne Hidalgo's push to 'green' Paris is turning one of the world's most beautiful cities into an urban wasteland.

Agnès Poirier May 17, 2021