Adolf, Eva and Tolkien: LOTR vs the banality of evil

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall [...]

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The past is a different country, not today in funny costumes

We all love a bit of history, don’t we? Lady Mary in Downton being terribly brave, the sexual intrigue of the Tudor court, the carnage of the Western Front, East-Enders having 15 kids in the 1950s, Gawd bless ‘em. It’s on the telly, innit? So it must be true. But why do we watch? Do [...]

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Boggarts and Witches

Thanks to JK Rowling, many people now know what a boggart is. There was a time, however, when you needed a Lancashire heritage to understand the word. Lancashire doesn’t have a lot to offer the world other than the dubious delights of Blackpool, which I won’t go into here. Let’s just say it’s an acquired [...]

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The Castrato and His Wife

There is something infinitely sad about listening to the unnaturally high, reedy voice of Alessandro Moreschi, the last castrato singer and the only one to ever make a sound recording (in 1902). When he died in 1922, Moreschi was a relic of a past era. The height of the fashion for castrati coincided with the [...]

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“Sir, when a man is tired of London he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life affords.”

Johnson’s house, 17 Gough Square, a photo by mefinx on Flickr. It is a truly horrible day weatherwise – wind and rain pounding against the windows in true autumnal fashion. If this keeps going until lunchtime, my first day back at work in the school library will be manically busy. I am trying not to [...]

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