Poison Diaries

from the Browser eight years ago: My Grandma The Poisoner

John Reed | Vice | 27th October 2014

Grandma is 94 now, and barely knows who or where she is. Clearing out her old house, and finding the chemicals in her shed, I start to understand why, when she was younger, people were always dying around her — her children, her husbands, her boyfriend. "I don’t wonder whether Grandma got what she deserved as a mother; I wonder whether she got what she deserved as a murderer" (4,025 words)

The Diaries Of Ned Rorem

Ted Gioia | Honest Broker | 23rd October 2022

The American composer Ned Rorem, who turned 99 this week, has been keeping one of the world's great diaries throughout his amazing life, and publishing it in tantalising fragments. His Paris Diaries came out in 1951: "Picasso shows up on page 2. On page 4 Rorem meets Jean Cocteau, and is painted by the Vicomtesse de Noailles, with whom he starts a love affair before we get to page 5" (2,980 words)