Category: Literature

High Endeavours

About thirty yers ago I was shooting in Hampshire and met Miles Clark. Having established that we were both brought up in Ireland, albeit on different sides of the border, he told me rather diffidently about his passion for sailing and only later I discovered he had written High Endeavours. Miles Smeeton was his godfather… Continue reading High Endeavours

My Father’s House

I expected a tense thriller set in Rome in 1943 but I got something much better. You may know the story; I didn’t.

Macready’s Club

“The men-only Garrick Club has finally voted to allow women to become members, 193 years after the London institution first opened its doors. The vote was passed with 59.98% of votes in favour at the end of a private meeting where several hundred members spent two hours debating whether to permit women to join .… Continue reading Macready’s Club

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Clarissa

  Pamela (Samuel Richardson, 1740) was a best seller and an early English novel. I have not read it. Nor have I read Shamela, Henry Fielding’s satire on same; he rushed it out in 1741. Both authors have gone out of fashion, fortunately for Hugo Vickers, as a request for Clarissa today is more likely… Continue reading Clarissa

Tobermory

This morning in The Times I read an article “Can dogs really be taught to speak”? It reminded me of Saki’s story, Tobermory.

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Canary Tweets

Guess how many islands belong to Spain. Now check on Wikipedia – there are 179 – but some are tiny.

Overlap

I have almost finished the biography of Churchill by Roy Jenkins. In a way I wish it were shorter, in a way I find it engrossing and in another way I find it induces post-prandial somnolence.

Project Gutenberg

The oldest library in the world is thought to be the Library of Ashurbanipal in modern day Iraq. When it was founded in the 7th century BC it was in Assyria, a city-state in Mesopotamia. The oldest continuously working library may be the Al-Qarawiyyin library in Fez, Morocco, dating from 859 AD (a suspiciously precise… Continue reading Project Gutenberg

Reginald in Russia

Reginald sat in a corner of the Princess’s salon and tried to forgive the furniture, which started out with an obvious intention of being Louis Quinze, but relapsed at frequent intervals into Wilhelm II. He classified the Princess with that distinct type of woman that looks as if it habitually went out to feed hens… Continue reading Reginald in Russia

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Quare Fellows

I get muddled between Bowles and Burroughs. Both American writers who lived in Tangiers, were gay and of a similar vintage; Bowles 1910 – 1999, Burroughs 1914 – 1997.