Please read the PS, but in the meantime: Some of you may remember that my favourite Diana Wynne Jones quote is: "All power corrupts, but we need electricity." It's very true. Some months ago, I wrote the following, intending to use it in a blog: Recently our central...
I promised to come back to the theme of servants in literature. (The patchiness of my reading will doubtless be very obvious.) This is my investigation on whether a servant can be a hero. Let’s make a list of types. Traditional servants. These, going back (I believe)...
None of us likes the fact that many of the world’s poor live without education, clean water, etc, while some of the rich have private jets. But what would a more equal world mean? Would it mean that everyone had what I (middle-class British) take for...
(Warning: spoilers below) “What’s the best love story you’ve ever read?” This was the question interestingly posed on Facebook’s Woman Alive Book Club page. There were a lot of suggestions – Ross and Demelza from Poldark, “Pride and Prejudice” and “Jane Eyre” were obviously high on the...
There is a time to be born, and a time to die. There is a time to fall into despair about the state of the nation. But let’s take a break from that. Let’s KEEP CALM AND READ JANE AUSTEN. Jane Austen is a unique author. Consider: She wrote six novels (Pride and...
Last Friday, the meeting of the Anglican leaders called by the Archbishop of Canterbury broke up without a formal split in the Communion, and issued a statement. I am intending to post a blog about this, but am still gathering thoughts and information. In the meantime,...