Milton Sword

The Bullfighter Draws Her Sword

Geoffrey Gray | Alta | 27th March 2023

On the bullfighting career of a young, disaffected American. There was no history of fighting in her family so she learned the craft on the road in Mexico. Once a ban on women bullfighters was overturned in 1974, she headed to Spain. In one fight in Móstoles in 1977, she was awarded a rare honour: the hoof of the bull she felled. It was so unusual a prize that a bigger knife had to be found in a hurry (4,620 words)

Why Read John Milton?

Ed Simon | Millions | 3rd August 2023

For his language, "those gorgeous, labyrinthine, serpentine sentences which unspool across dozens of enjambed lines". Milton's plotting is impeccable; Paradise Lost "begins in media res with the angels who rebelled against God cast into the pits of Hell". And his politics is an attraction: "He was arguably far more radical, revolutionary, and rebellious than might be supposed" (1,380 words)