Category: Literature

SS-GB

I meant to tell you about Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer, the current exhibition at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. It is a remarkably good show. I’m not writing about it because afterwards on my way to lunch. I took this picture on The Mall.

Books about Books

There is a literary genre of which I am particularly fond; books about books. Two examples I have were both presents to me from Andrew Ritchie. 

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Categorised as Literature

A Column about Wellington

I am not done with Trim. Besides the cathedral with its Trollopian politics (see I’m a Believer?) two famous people lived just outside, on the road to Summerhill. Indeed my sister and brother-in-law live on that road too.

How To Be One-Up

If you are unaware that Shakespeare died on 23rd April 1616, that state of innocence will not last long. The Bard will be impossible to escape this year, like a virulent influenza. I propose to inoculate you with a small dose that may protect you against getting the willies.

School Stories

It is striking how many successful authors started off by writing school stories: P G Wodehouse, The Pothunters; Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall; Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim, though it is set at university.

More Chronicles of War

On the evening of Sunday 29th December 1940, seventy-five years ago, there was low cloud over the English Channel and low tide on the Thames. Being a Sunday evening the buildings in the City were mostly locked up and empty. The Luftwaffe had waited for these conditions to launch a devastating firestorm on the City… Continue reading More Chronicles of War

Stocking Fillers

These are two inexpensive things I have come across this year that proved to be transforming.