Sunday, 31 May 2020

More royal courtiers died from drowning than through fighting for the crown

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The relatively rudimentary nature of medieval ship and sail design also meant that seafarers routinely found themselves at the mercy of the...
Wednesday, 27 May 2020

Modern hymns are awful. I don't know why they bothered.

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As with the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, you do not have to be a Christian, or even a believer, to appreciate and be uplifted by he...
Tuesday, 26 May 2020

That is what time does to literature

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It is seventy plus years since those days through which we live in the two war [Balkan and Levant] trilogies. Olivia Manning died in 1980. I...
Monday, 25 May 2020

Literature was born when a boy came crying wolf, wolf and there was no wolf behind him

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He [Nabokov] has a point, and the point makes me think, but it does not give me the lightening flash of illumination that this does, a page ...
Saturday, 16 May 2020

A system that either physically eliminated the brightest and most dedicated or forced them to lay waste to the best in themselves

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Farideh and Mina were polar opposites when it came to politics - one was a dedicated Marxist and the other a determined monarchist. What th...
Tuesday, 12 May 2020

Their messiness disappears and they gain a certain logic and clarity that one never feels at the time

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In retrospect, when historical events are gathered up, analyzed and categorized into articles and books, their messiness disappears and the...
Friday, 8 May 2020

Say what you like about civilization, it comes in dashed handy in a crisis like this

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Fortunately, the thing did not go beyond looks. Say what you like about civilization, it comes in dashed handy in a crisis like this. It ma...