Posh – “Port out, starboard home” – or not

It was Grandpa Potts in the film version of Ian Fleming’s Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang who was just off to India in his levitating hut. Played by the wonderful Lionel Jeffries, Potts cavorts to the song “Posh”, reinforcing the myth of “Port out, starboard home”.

Trees Need Not Walk the Earth

The great novelist Hermann Hesse once wrote, “Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.” A poem and an etching echo that sentiment.

Les Misérables on the silver screen

In 1985 Les Misérables revolutionised music theatre in the same way that Jerome Kern’s Show Boat did in 1927. Usually film versions of musicals cannot compete, but there are exceptions that prove the rule.

José Saramago – Portugal’s voice of conscience

Astonishingly, the English-speaking world has waited 32 years for a translation of Raised from the Ground by the Portuguese writer José Saramago. It is an extraordinary novel that echoes contemporary debates about the need for a new economic order.

Mahabalipuram and the Yonghy-Bonghy Bo

South India is known for its wonderful vegetarian cuisine, but it has other cultural attractions too. Contemporary with the classical period of the Maya civilization in Central America, the temple complex at Mahabalipuram reflects the aspirations of the late Pallava dynasty.

Omar Khayyám: Ancient master of the universe

The Persian mathematician, astronomer and philosopher Omar Khayyám was born in Nishapur situated on a fertile plain at the foot of Mount Binalud in north-eastern Iran. Today his tomb in the same city is a site of pilgrimage.