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SubscriptionsCategory: Reflection and Memory
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Lessons from Fire: What Hiroshima, Tariffs and Japan’s Rising Far Right Have in Common
On the 80th Anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and as Japan’s far-right surges, author Iain MacGregor reflects on what Japan must never forget
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The Sound of Silence: My Joey Doesn’t Need to Speak to be Heard
Stephen Unwin explores non-verbalism and how societal debates around disability are still too binary
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The Long 1980s
Writer and illustrator Joanna Walsh reflects on coming of age in the 1980s, the uneven distribution of progress, and the lasting impact of section 28, AIDs, queer iconography and silencing
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Saving Lives – Max Mosley: 13 April 1940 – 23 May 2021
Brian Cathcart pays tribute to the Formula One boss who faced up to the sound and fury of Britain’s feral tabloid press
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A Day in the Life of Prisoner ‘Socrates’, Cell Number 607
Iain Overton recounts the story of Oleh Galzyuk, who was imprisoned in the Donbas region of Ukraine for more than two years for writing about the conflict raging in the region
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A Smokescreen for Tragedy: The Human Cost of Populism
The ultimate cost of corruption, incompetence, division and myth is always there, waiting to be brought home – as it has been for too many people in India and around the world during the Coronavirus pandemic, writes Hardeep Matharu
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Boris Johnson is a Boarding School Survivor – That Should Concern Us All
Iain Overton draws on his personal experience to explore why the Prime Minister’s background may explain his mendacious approach to politics – and life
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Recovery and Renewal: Emerging From the COVID Cocoon
Neha Maqsood considers the individual and collective experiences of the past year, which she argues should inform our post-pandemic existence
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Who the Hell are the Disabled?
The impact of COVID-19 has made it starkly clear to those who live disability that it’s the imposed barriers of social organisation that makes them disabled, explains Penny Pepper
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We Should Never Forget COVID’s Many Victims – Or Why they Died
In our individual acts of remembrance we can honour the memories of all those lost – something Boris Johnson has no moral authority to offer any leadership on, says Otto English
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The Idea of Europe: Peter and Markie’s Loon-Clad 70s Euro-Rampage
Hi-jacked while hitchhiking, knife fights with Germans, camping on French rubbish tips… now Britain’s divorce from the EU is finalised, Peter Jukes reflects on his teenage dreams of an ever-deeper union
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Beyond the Lure of Empire: The Door of No Return
Bonnie Greer, a former British Museum trustee, observes the role of African Empires in her own roots and looks beyond possession and subjugation for true post-imperial thinking
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‘You See What People Can Do to Other People, People they Lived Side-By-Side With’: Ending the Silence on Partition and Empire
As discussions of Empire and Britain’s imperial history have come to the forefront in 2020, Hardeep Matharu speaks to BBC journalist and author Kavita Puri to explore what she learnt from those who lived through the end of the colonial project in India about divisions tearing societies apart for her book ‘Partition Voices’
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The Year of Living Distantly: The Comfort of Strangers
Peter Jukes explores the melancholy emptiness of city centres during the COVID-19 lockdowns and wonders whether the invisible cities of social media will ever become civilised or inhabitable
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Pregnant and on the COVID Frontline
Frontline NHS doctor Meenal Viz reflects on a momentous year – in which she gave birth to her first child and took on the Government over its lack of protection for healthcare workers during the Coronavirus pandemic
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The Powerful Lure of the Soft Fascism Within
Hardeep Matharu with a personal account from the psychological frontline of the culture wars exploring the inner appeal of hate, division and xenophobia
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The Journey to Confront My Whiteness
Hannah Charlton reflects on her personal exploration of understanding racism today and the individual and collective legacy of our Empire past
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Male Suicide: Exploring a Lost Identity
Reverend Joe Haward explores the shocking rate of male suicide in the UK and its relationship to masculinity
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A Rake’s Progress: How Men Have to Face Up to their Eating Disorders
As Freddie Flintoff speaks publicly about having bulimia, Nathan O’Hagan explains how lockdown has made him finally confront his own condition
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Sir Harold Evans: 28 June, 1928 – 23 September, 2020
Peter Jukes with his personal tribute to Harry Evans, an advisor to Byline, who died last night at the age of 92
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‘When Suicide Becomes Logical’: Inside A Separatist-Run Prison In Ukraine’s Donetsk
Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Asyev explains why choosing life over death was so important during his horrific 962 days imprisoned by the Kremlin-backed statelet
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COVID Memorial Day: It Is Time to Give Our Sorrow Words
A day of remembrance is being held to mourn all those we have lost to COVID-19, six months after the UK’s first Coronavirus death
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OUR LIVES MATTER: When Parents Need Parenting
As part of Byline Times’ series dedicating to giving a platform to new voices of colour, Neha Maqsood shares her experience of being in lockdown with her Mum and Dad during the Coronavirus crisis in Pakistan
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Cost of Coronavirus: The Gap Year Friend Who Changed My Life
As ‘excess death’ during the Coronavirus pandemic becomes normalised, Otto English counts the cost of a dearly lost friend who made him see the world in a different way
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Touching but Untouched: Visiting Joey
Stephen Unwin’s first reunion in months with his severely disabled son under strict conditions of isolation reveals what we all should hold dear
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Living in My Black Skin is for a Lifetime Not a ‘Moment’
Musa Okwonga reflects on the Black Lives Matter movement and explains why Keir Starmer’s actions have been so revealing of entrenched structural white supremacy
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In the Search for Truth, We Have to Take Off Our Masks
Reverend Joe Haward considers what the pursuit of truth really involves and how knowledge of this is being manipulated by our politicians
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To Alabama and Back: The Memorial that Holds Up a Mirror to Racism
Hannah Charlton takes a journey into America’s dark history of segregation and subjugation of black communities and wonders how Britain could do the same
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OUR LIVES MATTER: I Have Died Many Times – A Black Woman’s Experience
Chantel K Watts shares her thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement and asks: who is standing up for black women?
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Building on the Rubble — The Memorials of Stuttgart
Mike Stuchbery explains how, rather than mute statues, Germany has a much more dynamic dialogue with its traumatic imperial past
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Rehumanising the Dehumanised: Violence, Peace and Racism
Reverend Joe Haward charts the history of non-violent resistance and explains how it is a philosophy that aims to free the oppressor as well as the oppressed
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The Year of Living Distantly: Lockdown Shadows of the Mind
Confined to a small urban apartment during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bonnie Greer reflects on her time in the Actors Studio, and how shaming memory brings self-knowledge.
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From Sunderland to the Bullingdon Club: Englishness Unravelled
Unsatisfied with George Orwell’s description of patriotism, John Mitchinson digs deep into his own personal history to untangle the complex roots of his Englishness.
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This is My England, and Yours: Reclaiming Englishness
Now that English Nationalism has been unleashed, Peter Jukes argues that we must all try to restore England’s buried civic tolerance and historic diversity.
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War and Amnesia: Tales My Grandfather Never Told Me
A personal story from Otto English about how the past is far too often sanitised to make people who were never there feel better about their family, our collective past and our country.
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How We Came to Forget: Imperial Amnesia Helped Propel Brexit – It’s Time to Set the Historical Record Straight
Hardeep Matharu explores a new National Trust project designed to shed light on the colonial roots of country houses and the need for a more honest, less mythical discussion of Britain’s past.
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Nick and Me: The Great Brexit Storm Uprooting Old Friendships
Otto English on the tragic story of how the social media civil war of the last few years has cost him dearly.
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The Story of Brexit is the Story of Empire: Why Did Asian Immigrants Vote to Leave the EU?
The complicated love-hate relationship of immigrants from former colonies with the British Empire cannot be ignored if lessons are to be learned in post-Brexit Britain, says Hardeep Matharu
