This weekend, I had the opportunity to read Rebecca Solnit’s ‘The Beginning comes after the End’ . Its subtitle is ‘Notes on a World of Change’.
From the back cover:
‘While the white nationalist and authoritarian backlash drives individualism and isolation, this new world embraces anti-racism, feminism, a more expansive understanding of gender, environmental thinking, scientific breakthroughs and Indigenous and non-Western ideas, pointing towards a more interconnected, relational world’.
I have enjoyed her writing over the years, going back to Orwell’s Roses (see Orwell’s Roses and Orwell’s Roses Part 2).
This morning, I returned two books to the Middleton Library; Walter Isaacson’s book on Elon Musk and the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins (see It’s a Small World and A Celebration at Meier Point).
At the post office, I found my weekly edition of The Guardian. It includes ‘All at Sea. Why are Europe’s leaders so unpopular’.
Likely, in comparison to the United States.
Solnit’s book is remarkably optimistic; providing evidence that there will be an end (some day) to the world of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
References
Rebecca Solnit, 2026, The Beginning Comes After the End, Haymarket Press.
The Guardian Weekly 22 May 2026, Vol 214, No 21, All at Sea. Why Europe’s leaders are so unpopular?
Ernest Blair Experiment 