Category: Literature

Pure Gold

  “Is this a book that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?” (Mervyn Griffith-Jones, prosecuting Penguin under the Obscene Publications Act, 1959). I have seldom looked forward to a book so much. Further details when I have read it. Meanwhile, on another note, I spent an hour before lunch yesterday… Continue reading Pure Gold

The Coincidence of Novembers

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.

Yevgeny Zamyatin

The Alliance of Literary Societies has more than a hundred members, from Austen to Zamyatin.

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Categorised as Literature

The Empress of Ireland

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.

Var-Siklod

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.

Hungarian Rhapsody

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.

You Can’t Get The Staff

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.

Blistering Barnacles

Richard Russ (1914-2000) and Georges Remi (1907-2000) changed their names; Richard Russ by Deed Poll, Georges Remi as a nom de plume.

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Categorised as Literature

Uneasy Money

“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)