As it’s Sunday let’s start with an extract from a Sermon given by Patrick Nairne at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, on 30th October 1983.
You can judge this book by its cover; the cover is orange, the endpapers green. Brian Desmond Hurst was born a Protestant in Belfast but converted to Catholicism so an apt reflection of his life.
Curious how houses often take centre stage in novels: Blandings, Brideshead, Howards End, Lorienburg, Manderley, White Ladies. I hope I can add Var-Siklod to the list.
Imprint, noun 1. a mark or outline made by pressing something on to a softer substance. “he made imprints of the keys in bars of soap” 2. a printer’s or publisher’s name, address, and other details in a book or other publication.
The explorer, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, was on the front page of The Times yesterday. He caught Covid-19 on a skiing holiday and nearly lost his life. Thanks be to God, he is at home with his wife in Devon and will celebrate his 84th birthday tomorrow.
“I know what I want,” said Basil. “I want to be one of those people one heard about in 1919; the hard-faced men who did well out of the war.” (Put Out More Flags, Evelyn Waugh)
Patrick O’Brian wrote sustained passages conveying the tedium of life at sea, naval engagements and storms. Here HMS Surprise encounters a storm in the Antarctic Ocean.