Half-shaven scrimshankers
Lovely word 'scrimshank', describing either something being a mess, at sixes and sevens, or referring to work-shirking,...
In mourning
In the 19th century, it was customary to use black-bordered paper and envelopes to inform someone of a death. Here...
All-seeing eyes
A fictitious dedication in the novel, imbuing its artist-narrator with an almost godly omnivision, although he doesn't portray himself as...
Jackal-haunted nights
Elsewhere, Ryder describes 'hag-ridden nights', the night being where dangers lurk, real or imagined. May you be...
A pool of embarrassment
Curious idea that the person causing the pool of uneasiness is oblivious to it and just floats as dumb and...
Snow-bound lama
This caught my eye as it feels a little surprising as a follow on to someone's being described as a...
Like the pigeons in St Mark’s
An unusual way to capture ever-present memories, likening them to pigeons underfoot in the Piazza San Marco, cooing and strutting...
The fermentation of fear
A great metaphor for the way fear can bubble and multiply, bringing to the surface appalling images. What's the antidote? ...
Glee between two leaves
Ryder's father seems to have a quiet, relentless sadism about him, positively enjoying any discomfiture he can inflict on his...
The power of a name
One of the finest devices of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited is the flashback from present war to past Arcadia. When...
Hag-ridden night
A sense of a wakeful, traumatic night, ridden by witches and haunted by demons.
'... explains the distress of that...
A bundle of letters
It is now so rare to receive a letter (not talking about bills or other officialese, but real letters) that...
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