Literature
The dark horse of Durban
The work of Roy Campbell does not deserve to be ignored
In the beginning: neither fish nor fowl
Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson
Don’t judge a play by its label
The instinct towards appeasing “sensitivity” would stifle the creative impulse
Gregory Snaith: Little Magazine Editor
Only Gregory seemed prepared to upset the applecart
Jane Austen versus virtue signalling
What Mansfield Park can tell us about contemporary politics
Plain Janeites
For all their admirable dedication, keepers of the Austen flame cannot be so protective
From cholera to coronavirus
A forgotten novel offers insights into living with a deadly and dehumanising pandemic
There is a lushness to this expanded Letters
There is frequent reporting of local news, often betraying a hobbit-like
preoccupation with the availability of beer
The humanity of Horace
The wisdom of someone who has lived a little is at the heart of the verse of the ancient poet who was adopted as the mascot of the Enlightenment
The Committee of the Edwin Savage Society
What arouses such fascination in this obscure literary figure?
Flawed paean to a heartless auteur
A lack of empathy goes to the hollowness at the heart of so many Kubrick movies
Crowning glory?
The coronation came and went far too quickly
The blunders that restored the Crown
The Fall: Last Days of the English Republic by Henry Reece
The end of high quality homes
Michael Gove’s new leasehold reforms risk derailing the economic engine that helped finance some of Britain’s finest suburbs
Two sides of the weird frontier
The archly neutral now stands on the margins, looking out at a society of fear and outrage
A last chance at class
Labour is running out of time to put working class MPs into parliament
Reformed towns
The Reformation was a transformative moment in English urban history
The Venice Art Biennale
The overall tone is rather bloodless, smug and muted where one might hope for exhilaration
What price justice?
Small disputes involving ordinary people are not a waste of the courts’ time
Organic snake oil salesmen
The Greens have an easy answer for any question (well, almost any question)
Only Joe Biden can save America
He needs to keep reminding the American public that unless they vote for him they are evil and racist
