Look, Stranger! is the place you will find the writings of Philip Collins. The jobs of Chief Speech Writer to the Prime Minister Tony Blair, columnist and chief leader writer at The Times, columnist at the New Statesman and Evening Standard and chair of trustees at the think-tank Demos have all been mere apprenticeships for what he will be able to do here.
Apart from its imploring imperative, Look, Stranger! is an appropriate title three times over for what I hope to do with this newsletter.
Firstly, it is a poem about the still moment of contemplation which allows us clear sight of purposeful activity (“Stand stable here/ And silent be”). It is a poem in praise of looking, the better to comprehend.
Second, Look, Stranger! is also a poem about the relations between the past and the future, one of the reasons, perhaps the reason, we are compelled to reach for historical examples: “And the full view/ Indeed may enter/ And move in memory as now these clouds do”.
And then, third, this is a poem about taking time, about a necessary slowness without which understanding is impossible. That necessary slowness is harder to come by and there is already too much stuff to get through so what excuse can one offer for adding to it? Only that this newsletter will try to erect a chalk wall to “oppose the pluck/ And knock of the tide”. There are other writers who put you in the swim of events as they unfold.
I hope sometimes the clouds will part and that some of you will take the time to stand stable here. There should be the occasional burst of leaping light for your discovery.
Why Become a Paid Subscriber?
Look, Stranger! will be a mix of free and paid. No doubt I will continue to spend a financially ruinous amount of time on youtube and no doubt I will surface with some of it for you to share. But it would be nice to make it viable as well as enjoyable. It does have to be both but it also has to the former. The price is £75 a year and I hope to able to prove that you spend a lot more than that on work that is less valuable.
Every week the main item will remain free but the extras - the speech analysis, longer essays and so on - will have to be put up for sale. There will be essays, sometimes by guest contributors, which will be for paid subscribers. As well as the extra writing, subscribers will also get the chance to join in a conversation. Please do join in.
