Take a lucky dip in this refreshing pool of posts, randomly selected like literary Russian roulette (but more fun and much safer). Or filter by category to take a deeper dive into specific themes. Enjoy!
Like fighting polar bears
What a way to capture the roar of a powerful river in full flux.
'... back into the lower river...
Sun-bleached ribbons
Lopez’ book provides, among other things, a history of the exploration (and exploitation) of the Arctic, and what a ship...
Good strong tea
A novel way to signal strong tea, its being so solid that it can support a mouse's weight. The more...
Spencer-like jacket
A 19th century Hungarian wearing a jacket that originated in late 18th or early 19th century England. Named after the...
Marmaduke’s realm
The kitchen is the domain of Marmaduke Scarlet, together with the stone-vaulted larder where he stashes his culinary supplies. This...
Key Penmanship Indicators (KPIs) VI
This is a description by Anthony Burgess of the reader's reaction to Mervyn Peake's writing in the intricately imaginative Gormenghast...
Blank as a wall, wall as a blank
The identical twins Ladies Cora and Clarice aren't just lookalikes, but also one another's echo chambers. They live in their...
Wide-skied and many-belfried
A lovely description of Suffolk, which I have seen echoed in the wide-skied landscapes of Norfolk. This was one of...
Home sweet home
In Patrick Leigh Fermor's telling of it, the Mani region of Greece comprises two harsh elements: searing sunlight and endless...
On being scalped
Hodgson Burnett is best known for The Secret Garden, but she also wrote the well-known though misunderstood Little Lord Fauntleroy....
Intimate and familiar
A striking idea, that in being true, a book will feel intimate and familiar to all men. 'True' surely means...
The innovation of envelopes
They’re so ubiquitous that it’s a surprise to learn envelopes were a mid-nineteenth century invention. Somewhere in Gaskell I remember...
Purple-carpeted street
This is an Arcadian dream of Leigh Ferro's, drawing copiously on his outrageously learned grasp of Byzantine aristocratic titles and...
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