Ed West

4 days ago | open.substack.com | Ed West

Good morning, and welcome to the era of Leo XIV - the first Anglophone pope since Adrian IV, and that was so long ago that the English he spoke was Middle English (in fact, Nicholas Breakspear grew up in an England where Old English could still be heard). Remarkable to think that, God willing, the United States will celebrate its 250th birthday with an American pope in Rome and an American Caesar in Washington.

4 days ago | edwest.co.uk | Ed West

Good morning, and welcome to the era of Leo XIV - the first Anglophone pope since Adrian IV, and that was so long ago that the English he spoke was Middle English (in fact, Nicholas Breakspear grew up in an England where Old English could still be heard). Remarkable to think that, God willing, the United States will celebrate its 250th birthday with an American pope in Rome and an American Caesar in Washington.

6 days ago | edwest.co.uk | Ed West

On a train journey earlier this year between Cologne and Berlin, I began to read Harald Jähner’s Aftermath, a fascinating account of the years when Germany emerged from the destruction and shame of the Third Reich. The war ended 80 years ago today, and in the defeated nation the scenes were primeval and apocalyptic.

6 days ago | open.substack.com | Ed West

On a train journey earlier this year between Cologne and Berlin, I began to read Harald Jähner’s Aftermath, a fascinating account of the years when Germany emerged from the destruction and shame of the Third Reich. The war ended 80 years ago today, and in the defeated nation the scenes were primeval and apocalyptic.

1 week ago | edwest.co.uk | Ed West

A theme of Greek myth is that those condemned by the gods to face disaster do everything possible to avoid their fate – and their very actions only ensure that it happens. Oedipus, warned that he will kill his father and marry his mother, escapes from Corinth for Thebes where he kills a man about 20 years older than him and weds a middle-aged woman. Which must have seemed rather foolish in retrospect - how he must have kicked himself.