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Bonn, November 23—We are still walking in sleep here. I keep thinking of this old poem:
Quhen Alexandre our kynge was dede
That Scotland lede in lauch and le,
Away was sons of alle and brede,
Of wyne and wax, of gamyn and gle.
Our golde was changit into lede.
Crist, borne into virgynitie,
Succoure Scotlande and ramede
That is stade in perplexite.
This Issue
December 26, 1963
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Best of The New York Review, plus books, events, and other items of interest
More by Neal Ascherson
Timothy Garton Ash’s Homelands traces the development of his passionate identification with Europe and the continent’s unsteady experiments with unity.
December 21, 2023 issue
A new book recounts the history of the Circle of Writing Chekists, a group of officials in the East German Ministry of State Security who wrote poetry as a weapon in the class struggle.
February 9, 2023 issue
Colin Thubron’s latest travelogue takes him down the Amur River and through the borderlands between Russia and China.
October 20, 2022 issue
More by Neal Ascherson
Timothy Garton Ash’s Homelands traces the development of his passionate identification with Europe and the continent’s unsteady experiments with unity.
December 21, 2023 issue
A new book recounts the history of the Circle of Writing Chekists, a group of officials in the East German Ministry of State Security who wrote poetry as a weapon in the class struggle.
February 9, 2023 issue
Colin Thubron’s latest travelogue takes him down the Amur River and through the borderlands between Russia and China.
October 20, 2022 issue
Neal Ascherson is the author of Stone Voices: The Search for Scotland, Black Sea, and the novel The Death of the Fronsac, among other books. He is an Honorary Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. (December 2023)
This Issue
December 26, 1963
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