Alastair writes historical fiction set in 13th century Christendom. His first novel, ‘Festival of the Oppressed’, has been published by Ocean Reeve Publishing.He is currently working on the fifth novel in a series about the adventures of two itinerant musicians—jongleurs—Jehanne la Flèche and Guillem d’Avignon. Their travels have so far taken them to Champagne—where they met—Flanders, Genoa and Constantinople.He is also working on a re-imagining of the Russian Revolution, tel

A change of pace with a poem that is not political. It started life in a tutorial. We were given the first line then asked to write a sonnet. This is the result. I know it is not a sonnet as it only has 12 lines, not 14. The rhyming scheme is wrong too and it doesn't have a 'volta'; a turn in meaning between lines eight and nine. I incorporated the word 'forsooth' as a nod to Shakespearean sonnets. Time’s gentle hand shall turn the tide of youth T’ward other things at first u

This poem came out of the course in ‘Gender and Global Politics’ that I undertook at the University of Queensland in 2024. One of the themes that ran through the course is that Western feminism is unable to address the issues facing women in developing countries because the problems those women face there are very different to those that women face in the West. I can not write I sit at the table to write. How can I write about women when I am male? I can not. How can I write

With peace being imposed on Palestinians yet again, I thought I'd publish this piece of slam poetry that I wrote last year. They say the war started on October the Seventh It didn’t. It started in the 1930s They say that Israel is a democracy. It isn’t. Israel is an apartheid state. It is a colonial settler state. Palestinians have no rights. Israel has seized and is still seizing Palestinian land. Palestinians are driven from their homes. They are forced into refugee camps.