My Commonplace Blog

I did not want to find her aged and broken; I really dreaded it. In the course of twenty crowded years one parts with many illusions. I did ...

what unprotected faces they were; their very roughness and violence made them defenceless. Those boys had no practised manner behind which t...

Jerusalem had no natural industries except holiness S Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem (2011), 138

A man in his position has to exercise considerable care in his choice of secretaries, ruling out anything that might have done well in the l...

We exchanged significant glances. At least, I gave him a significant glance and he looked like a stuffed frog, his habit when being discreet...

Greco-Roman we are, and, as the years of crisis deepen, the heritage of imperial Rome becomes more than ever  a millstone round our necks an...

Oh, strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch! And some men eased themselves like settin...