Featured in this issue:FictionNew short stories, ‘Vermillion’ by Alison Joseph and ‘Chest of Drawers’ by Harriet Kline, the winning story from The London Magazine’s 2013 Short Story Competition, announced in January at our prestigious and official annual reception at the House of Commons. Poetry From Peggy Aleander, Maggie Butt, Will Eaves, Desmond Graham, Michael O’Neill, Jeff Phelps, Peter Robinson, Bernard Saint and George Tardios. EssaysPeter Abbs, the Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at Sussex University gives us an overview on the Poetics of Romanticism.Edward Lucie-Smith argues that there is trouble in the Avant-Garde, whilst referring to last years Frieze London Art Fair. Stoddard Martin on Beryl Bainbridge’s major phase in the ‘Duckworth Cenacle’ along with her contemporaries including Caroline Moorehead, Penelope Fitzgerald and The Haycrafts.Jeffrey Meyers on the struggle and triumph of Publishing Remembering Iris MurdochElisabeth Russell Taylor on the greatest Italian poet since Dante – Leopardi and his ancestral city Recanati. ReviewsDavid Cooke reviews the latest poetry collections from William Bedford, Jean Sprackland and Helen Mort.Mark Hutchings reviews James Evan’s book Merchant Adventurers; a story of England’s exploration and maritime history.Terry Kelly critiques two new books: Robert Colls study on George Orwell English Rebel and Richard Burton’s A Strong Song Tows Us: The Life of Basil BuntingPaul Williamson on Catherine Pickstock’s literary and philosophical book Repetition and Identity