August 15, 2019August 15, 2019

‘I have the strongest possible dislike for Ireland. I dislike that awful national egotism, always going on about what it means to be Irish.’

I have previously blogged about Anthony Powell. I’m well aware that he had little time for Ireland and the Irish – not something especially hard to discern from a quote likethis…

August 14, 2019August 15, 2019

Anthony Powell on the strange case of Ashton-Gwatkin

From Duncan Fallowell’s interview with Anthony Powell “Twentieth Century Characters” ‘The only time something I’ve written has attracted the law was when I reviewed a novel of Sartre’s for the Times…

August 13, 2019

F, L and P from the Index of “Eugenics and Other Evils”, GK Chesterton

J G Ballard, in his 1977 short story The Index, told the story of one of the Twentieth Century’s most influential men: Henry Rhodes Hamilton … the only trace of whom…

August 11, 2019August 11, 2019

A title longer than the poem: track of Alexander Pope’s “Epigram Engraved On The Collar Of A Dog Which I Gave To His Royal Highness” on Spotify

I found this somewhat amusing. I love Pope, but do find this epigram a bit laboured: I am his Highness’ dog at Kew; Pray tell me, sir, whose dog…

August 11, 2019

“He had an irritating habit of insulting waiters in restaurants, and often sat at the table for 45 minutes before deigning to consult the menu. ” – the Daily Telegraph obituary of Charles Higham

I am partial to the odd rogue (fully aware that, as the narrator of “The Spy Who Loved Me” would say, it reads better than it lives) and partial to the obituary page…

August 9, 2019

The mother’s arm is moving upwards: how are we able to see in her gesture the tender sweetness leading her to caress the cheek of her sleeping child or the inner violence preparing to hit the soldier’s cheek? How can we foresee in the heavy murderer’s hand movement a slight faltering revealing his fragile uncertainty in finishing his task, how can we measure the hesitation of the woman’s arms closing to protect her crying, in resonant dialogue with the bodies moving around her?”

Originally posted on A Medical Education:
As my ItsMe2 experience surely proves, I like a grandiose megaproject as much as the next man. I am glad therefore to discoverEn-TIme-Ment, which…

August 9, 2019

“Development is always going to destabilize a fragile balance of social forces.”

Originally posted on A Medical Education:
Via the work of John Adams, I have had some familiarity with the Douglas-Wildavsky Cultural Theory of Risk. Like this reviewer, I find the Douglas/Wildavksy…

August 9, 2019

“The Radium Water Worked Fine until His Jaw Came Off”

Originally posted on A Medical Education:
The sad death in March 1932 of Eben Byers led to this headline in the Wall Street Journal. From Wikipedia: In 1927, while returning…