Anachronisms past and future
Perhaps one day the telephone, the wristwatch and haste will seem old-fashioned anachronisms, whereas here, in a library created before...
The poetic dragon
One of the most imaginative tales in Kenneth Grahame’s Dream Days concerns a reluctant dragon. He has no interest in dragonly archetypes:...
Television as Antichrist
Again, one of the articulate, adorable and utterly opinionated characters in which Ruiz Zafón's book abounds. The doom-laden consequences of...
Dogs of war
How clever these creatures, able to distinguish between the sound of planes that unleash havoc and so should be hidden...
Of art and Ithaca
This poetic summary resonates deeply - the search for green eternity as opposed to 'mere astonishments'. I've always been baffled...
Of wine and poetry
Here we have a poet and a vintner who connects the magic between wine and poetry. Wine can be poetic...
News then, and now?
John Steinbeck's analysis of the nature of news at the height of the Cold War resonates still, drawing attention to...
First showing
The blogophyte bulletin, of course, isn't just about blogging. It's about starting with an idea and then making it manifest. ...
Fortune’s favour
This reminds me of an anonymous Elizabethan verse which I cite from memory:
'Lift up thy heart and courage...
Breakfast before a journey
Thorin the chief dwarf places his breakfast order having invited himself to stay at Bilbo Baggins’ house.
See also the...
The mission of those who love mankind
This great humanistic cry was for me the most striking thing about Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose. Although he...
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