Simon Barber

Storm rising.

  • Mary

    Here is Sura, or chapter, 19 of the Qu’ran, in the 1734 translation of George Sale, the version read by Thomas Jefferson, from a recording I was contracted to make in 2018. The Sura begins with echoes of the gospel of Luke — an angel tells Zacharias that he will have a son to be… (Read on)

  • The Dao of Gangstas

    One of the videos Hans-Georg Moeller asked me to voice after I narrated his book Daoism Explained. Watch the full series on the Philosophy in Motion Youtube channel. The animations are the work of Prof. Moeller’s students at the University of Macau. (Read on)

  • 4. Passage to Serbia

    “We all settled down comfortably to sea sickness and submarines. The rough weather provided us with the former but saved us from the latter. Submarines were supposed to be waiting for us off the Scilly Isles, and at first we were afraid that the Saidieh would be sunk; but later we were afraid she wouldn’t.” (Read on)

  • 3. A Surplus Woman

    “If Canada is to remain British and not be amalgamated with the United States, if South Africa is not to be merely a Dutch colony under the protection of our flag, if Australia and New Zealand are to be strong enough to resist invasion, British women must go and make British homes.” (Read on)

  • Waiting for the train

    A Hopper-ish tableau at the Duffields WV stop on the line from Martinsburg to Washington. (Read on)

  • 2. The blood in her veins

    “She had a noble, arresting and charming face and could have married anyone she chose,” her cousin Audrey thought. She was tall, lean and formidable whether chasing hares with a pack of beagles, marching up an Alp or wielding a hockey stick. (Read on)

  • Birth on the Nile

    Stephen Barber came into the world with a hole in his heart. On the eve of World War II, he was home in Egypt, not long out of Bembridge, an English boarding school on the Isle of Wight, eager to enlist. A doctor put a stethoscope to his chest and declared him unfit to serve.… (Read on)

  • Pigs in sheep’s clothing

    A friend farms these guys west of Winchester, VA. They’re Managalitsas. Or were. I took this a couple of years ago so I assume they have since been eaten. They make very good eating, but take a lot of husbandry. (Read on)

  • 1. Among the Khirghiz

    …Robert is her five-year-old.  She calls him Robert to family and friends from her former life. Here the boy goes by other names. She thought of calling him Karl Marx but settled on Kompro, short for Communist Proletariat. Robert he inherits from her late father, an Anglican vicar… (Read on)

  • A little light Belloc

    Herewith a few of my favorites from Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales and other salutary verse: Jim, Lord Finchley, John, Lord Hippo, Matilda, The Garden Party, Godolphin Horne, William Shand, Henry King, Lord Lucky, Rebecca and Lord Lundy. (Read on)