The great chain of books – #6Degrees. There’s an explanation of how all this works here. Everyone is welcome to join in. This is my contribution for March 2025 The starting point is Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song (2023) the Booker Prize-winning dystopian novel set in a near-future Ireland collapsing into authoritarianism. It follows Eilish Stack as she struggles to keep…
A murder in a locked room. Whodunit? And more importantly, howdunit? Who would want to kill philanthropist, union organizer, and general do-gooder Arthur Constant? And why? Arthur Constant rents rooms from Mrs. Drabdump in Bow, in London’s East End. Zangwill sets the scene with that essential ingredient of a London mystery—fog: On a memorable morning of early December London opened…
I kept coming across paintings of London by Yoshio Markino – gauzy portraits of a mysteriously colorful, old-world city often shrouded in gray mist or yellowy brown fog but always dreamily evocative of another era that was both familiar and yet eerily distant. Time to find out more. Yoshio Markino: The Japanese Artist Who Painted London’s Fog Yoshio Markino (1869–1956)…
There’s something irresistible about a crime story set in a school or college. Like the classic snowbound country house setting, it offers the intrigue of a closed, insular community rife with underlying tensions, repressed emotions, and intellectual rivalries. There may be illicit liaisons, secret societies, cultist rituals, unrequited lust, and simmering passions. Academia promises a cast of eccentric characters full…
The two-forty-five express — Paddington to Market Blandings, first stop Oxford—stood at its piatform with that air of well-bred reserve which is characteristic of Paddington trains, and Pongo Twistleton and Lord Ickenham stood beside it, waiting for Polly Pott. The clock over the bookstall pointed to thirty-eight minutes after the hour. Some train engines are simply superior. But it’s not…
“We were young and we were keen; Europe was in flames, and we were ready for whatever came.” “I used to think that war would make one braver, harder—but instead, it only makes one tired. The glamour of it wears off quickly when you’re pulling bodies from the wreckage.” Train to Nowhere by Anita Leslie Anita Leslie’s Train to Nowhere…
Thanks to the #1970 Club, I’ve spent the spare moments of the past week immersed in The Female Eunuch and all things Germaine (rock groupie, celebrity, author, Shakespearian scholar, wrecking ball, rainforest protector, fearless truth-teller) Greer. I borrowed the book from the library, got stuck in, and then started on the videos of talks, interviews, appearances via YouTube. Not being…
Thanks to the #1970 Club, I have a new mog in my life and a new literary best friend in Mog the Forgetful Cat. “Once there was a cat called Mog. She lived with a family called Thomas. Mog was nice but not very clever. She didn’t understand a lot of things. A lot of other things she forgot. She…
The #1970 Club is starting tomorrow (October 14th) and I’m prepared with some reading and re-reading. 1970 offers a rich literary landscape, from Germaine Greer and Graham Greene to children’s classics like Mr. Gumpy. It ranges from Sexual Politics and Mog, the Forgetful Cat, to works by Susan Hill, Shel Silverstein, Iris Murdoch, and Toni Morrison, alongside Ruth Rendell, Robertson…
We’ve been lucky with the weather in NYC this September. Many bright, warm days The aftermath of the powerful hurricane that has devastated areas of the South East is now giving us a little rain. Not so lucky there where hurricane Helene was deadly across five states after making landfall on Thursday. Some of the worst flooding the South has…
In Meaning Loss, Sanje Ratnavale has written a practical and timely contribution to an important debate that all schools should be having. It’s about curriculum and reimagining the sense of purpose that has too often become mired and muddled by ideological squabbles and all-out hot button culture wars. But first – a digression: Consider the now familiar tale of a…
Half a century ago I received an anonymous telephone call from a woman who said she had found my name and number in a message on a wall in the ladies’ lavs in Victoria Station where, she said, I offered some (unmentionable) services free to all and sundry. Initially taken aback, this incident soon became a cause for much household…
As always, one thing leads to another. This time it’s the post from Gert Loveday’s Fun With Books that highlights Elizabeth Bishop’s tribute to her friend Robert Lowell – her poem North Haven .You can read it here Elizabeth Bishop Islands are Beautiful In an interview, Bishop spoke of North Haven – an island in Penobscot Bay, Maine: I sometimes…
One thing leads to another. How do you get from the Daily Poem in the Paris Review to a re-read of The Loved One and an exploding portable toilet courtesy of Evelyn Waugh? Here’s the Annmarie Drury poem that caught my attention: Walking in Hills of Which One Has Seen Many Paintings Your task differs: to leave the world to…
I received a book in the mail this week. Nothing unusual about that even though I do try to buy my books from my local shop. What is unusual is that this book lists my name in the back. I am among the scores of people who help crowd-source the costs. The book’s subject appealed to me and I was…