Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda
As a child, I was somewhat mystified why a certain hymn in our religion books was called “St Patrick’s Breastplate” but went: Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,…
Once, Prince’s use of “U” for “you” and “2” for “to” (or “too” or “two”) was seen as an example of his supposed eccentricity. Now, of course, it is all…
A while back I reposted an essay I wrote on Nthposition.com (which is now offline) in which featured a quote from J G Ballard: “Cyril Connolly said that the greatest…
. As I have recently written, I am reading a collection of Allan Massie’s Life and Letters columns from the Spectator, which is full of shrewd judgments. In particular there…
From the sermon Forgiveness by Herbert McCabe: It is very odd that people should think that when we do good God will reward us and when we do evil he…
I have just begun reading Elizabeth Taylor’s At Mrs Lippincote’s (not, it feels obligatory to point out, not that Elizabeth Taylor. From Valerie Martin‘s introduction: Though I never met either…
From this review There is still a tendency among not very attentive readers – not to mention people who have read almost nothing of the work but have picked up…
The Making of Mr Bolsover is a novel which it is relatively easy to find critical words phrases to describe – mock-heroic, deadpan, quietly subversive – yet each leaves one…
Séamus Sweeney 