Manarah is an old Arabic word for ‘lighthouse’, a place of light to help those on a voyage find their way. Later the word developed into ‘minaret’ – which is the tower of a mosque. I found out about this a few years ago whilst doing research on this topic. The Swiss populace had just voted not to allow the …

Rainer Maria Rilke was  born in Prague in 1875. He traveled a  lot throughout Europe and settled in Switzerland, where he died in 1926 of Leukemia. He’s been writing in German both novels and poems. His language is powerful and he is perceived as mystical. He met Leo Tolstoi, Paula Modersohn-Becker and was married to the sculptor Clara Westhoff. I printed …