RomaTime, wrote the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, is a river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away. In Roma, Bernard Saint follows the shade of Marcus Aurelius through the elastic time zones of the Eternal City. There they encounter Gregory Corso, Chet Baker, Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg; they walk down the Catwalk, watch

Rachel Coventry

mortuary assistants and undertakers – who must escort us towards oblivion

Sigurður Pálsson was born in 1948 in Skinnastadur

She compiled and edited Forgotten Light: An Anthology of Memory Poems (2003)

From the Ninth Star on the Left (Snapshot Press) was published in 2000 and is now in its third impression

occasionally funny

John Heath-Stubbs

To mark the 40th anniversary of their astonishing achievement in South Africa

These are perfectly framed still-life images

when an electrical storm required me to log off

The Observer

Peter King’s book ranks among the great jazz autobiographies