Listen! Once there was a priest named John. Once and not so long ago. He was a most holy man who like many such wanted to make everyone else as holy as him. His family had much honour in the land of Jaryar, and so they...
Each week the Guardian Review asks an author a similar set of questions, collectively called “The Books That Made Me.” Some of the authors I’ve even heard of. Two of the categories are: The book I think is most overrated, and The book I think is...
So - I was planning to give you a lengthy rant in the form of an anecdote. Yesterday was the Day. The day when some person or algorithm decided it was my turn to be told that my National Insurance number was about to be frozen...
How do you organise your appointments? Recently I was on the phone trying to arrange when to meet someone (isn’t this a nice new custom? Meeting people?) and I said something like “I’ll check the diary… or the calendar…” In other words, I might need to...
Dear readers I am afraid this has been a busy week, so no post. Instead I shall copy and paste this poem, which I have more or less decided to learn. What do you think? The Daniel Jazz By Vachel Lindsay Inscribed to Isadora Bennett LET the singer train the audience to...
I think it’s in “That Hideous Strength” that CS Lewis introduces a couple who share a liking for “weather” – not “good” weather, but weather in general. What sensible people, and of course they’re British. In similar vein, Jacob Rees-Mogg’s book “The Victorians” comments on...