The Albion Beatnik Bookstore website (or how to change a light bulb in a tight space on a ladder)

The web page of the Albion Beatnik Bookstore, based once in Oxford, then Sibiu, always neo-bankrupt, now closed for business: atavistic and very analogue, its musings and misspells on books and stuff.

Category Archives: Romania

Ion Sirbu & the Small, Bearded Priest

This last Friday was the centenary of the birth of the Romanian dramatist and novelist Ion D. Sirbu. His is a name not known to the English speaking world, in … Continue reading

30th June 2019 · Leave a comment

Romanian National Opera House, Cluj

I had a private viewing of the Romanian National Opera House at Cluj. I saw it first in greyscale silhouette, hints of magnificence; somebody then turned the lights on and … Continue reading

10th January 2018 · Leave a comment

Mad Dogs, Power Drills & Englishmen (*), or Fool Britannia

(*) who are allowed to identify as women, should they wish… In Romania it is a logistical problem only (witness the photograph): the plumb line inadvertently cuts through vegetation. If there isn’t … Continue reading

28th August 2017 · 1 Comment

Romanian Postcards

Not only has Romania moved tectonically since my childhood days (it never used to be next to the Ukraine in my school atlas), its spelling has changed: we used to … Continue reading

26th August 2017 · 1 Comment

Bernard O’Donoghue’s Connolly’s Bookshop

Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women