Hello all. I've been away for a while, living in a parallel universe in which I'm known only as a humble IT consultant, specialising in Business Process Modelling and Systems Integration; subjects sublimely simple in comparison with the convolutions of contemporary poetry and its angst-ridden practitioners. Still, this latter dimension has its consolations: I had a stall at the Independent Press Day at Leicester's De Monfort University - a fantastic event which I'll talk about later. In the meantime I'll mention a curiosity I found on a stall there: a book of World Leaders' Favourite Poems. Here I learned that Tony Blair's favourite is 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke:

IF I should die, think only this of me;
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England...

Strange, as Mr. Blair has never been a soldier. I guess he liked the poem's potential for Globalization, as it can be easily adapted by substituting for 'England' the country of your choice (Iraq, Serbia, Israel, Mesopatamia...). An unaccountable queasiness prevented from getting round to the other leaders, including our own Glorious Successor.