On writing letters
The wryness of Kenneth Grahame’s Dream Days is captured here in describing the cultural activity of choice for his younger...
As helpless as …
The wonderful little girl Maggie, in a fit of pique and sorrow, hacks off her glorious dark curls and then...
Squashed-fly biscuit
A hard, flat, rectangular British biscuit formally called ‘Garibaldi’, we called them ‘squashed-fly biscuits’ because of the tiny dark currants that...
A waste of an island
Wonderful notion this, from one of the best of Ransome's enchanting children's books. Of course if you land on an...
War wounds
Listening time: 4 minutes.
Among the warm-hearted and even funny accounts of people they met in the Soviet...
Pigtail prejudice
A charming example of prejudice, demonstrating its capacity to target just about anything, and with bewildering precision and disregard for...
On hearing Beethoven for the first time
Carson McCullers' heroine, the boyish, quirky, imaginative Mick, comes from a rough and tumble poor background. Her only exposure to...
Mutton-headed galoots
Arthur Ransome's characters have some out of date but still appealing ways to describe their own, or others', stupidity. I...
How to read a book in a language you don’t know (I)
When Luiz went to Brazil recently, I gave him a copy of a Caroline story for his two great-nieces. Most...
The pitfalls of childhood
What a sad commentary on the wounds we inflict on children before they are equipped to comprehend what has happened...
Of love and kindness
Jane Eyre boils down to two powerful essential needs: to give and receive love amply, and to have the liberty...
Parenting, then and now
This crisp and even cavalier telegram has a distant father allowing his four children to sail to an island in...
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