‘Plutarch reports that Philip [King of Macedonia and father of Alexander to-be ‘the Great’] saw them “mingled together” – the word Plutarch selects has erotic overtones – and was moved to tears at the sight. “Perish all those who suggest that these men did or endured anything shameful,” Plutarch quotes Philip as saying, as though … More ‘Plutarch reports that Philip [King of Macedonia and father of Alexander to-be ‘the Great’] saw [these men] “mingled together” – the word Plutarch selects has erotic overtones” … moved by the thought of the erastai and erômenoi embracing in death’.[1] This is a blog reflecting on ‘The Sacred Band’ by James Romm (2021).

BOOKER SHORTLIST: ‘Oddly enough, there’s no name in the DSM for the compulsion to diagnose people’.[1] Reviewing this novel is like attempting to categorise the life of people of people use language that may be difficult to understand and who earn their living by making ‘worlds by the thousands’.[2] A blog reflecting on Bewilderment by … More BOOKER: ‘Oddly enough, there’s no name in the DSM for the compulsion to diagnose people’. A blog reflecting on ‘Bewilderment’ by Richard Powers (2021) London, Hutchinson Heinemann.

Reviewing queer content in Pat Barker’s (2021) ‘The Women of Troy’, the second novel of her Briseis trilogy. I did a brief blog on the 2018 novel by Pat Barker called The Silence of The Girls (accessible from this link). Since then it has become clear that Barker’s intention is that that novel is the … More Reviewing queer content in Pat Barker’s (2021) ‘The Women of Troy’, the second novel of her Briseis trilogy.

A visit to an exhibition of Beauty in the Everyday: Dutch & Flemish Masters at Auckland Castle in the Trevor Gallery in The Bishop’s Palace, Bishop Auckland, County Durham. This is an account of a visit on the afternoon of 17th September 2021. Is there a relationship between Protestant Ethics and Commodity Capitalism in these … More A visit to an exhibition of ‘Beauty in the Everyday’ of Dutch & Flemish Art in the Trevor Gallery in The Bishop’s Palace, Bishop Auckland, County Durham. This is an account of a visit on the afternoon of 17th September 2021.

An ODE to the wit and wisdom of Nadine Dorries as our new Culture Secretary. By Steven Douglas Bamlett @StevenBamlett I wrote a couplet on Twitter (https://twitter.com/StevenBamlett/status/1438205482523635728) on Nadine Dorries for a good friend: Justin by name. He then worried me by saying he thought the little couplet ‘what I wrote’ (going Morecambe & Wise … More An ODE to the wit and wisdom of Nadine Dorries as our new Culture Secretary. By Steven Douglas Bamlett

Verse 1 Love prompted us, that’s Geoff and me, to seek In each lovelorn street a gift that will meet, No less than match, our yearning thoughts to say. Desire strains to honour you this birthday Amongst all others, less to praise than silently pace , (this comma is our excited breath’s space) Soft and … More Thursday 16th September is Linda Goffee’s BIRTHDAY. ‘Let’s celebrate’ said Tenniel’s Hatter to Dormouse. ‘Not a word to that Rackham fella!’

A reflective visit to the Art Gallery in York makes me think about how much we owe to examples of excellent curation practice in ‘provincial’ museums to save us from having our reflection about art done for us, with whatever authority, by art history alone. This is an account of a visit on the morning … More A reflective visit to the Art Gallery in York makes me think about how much we owe to examples of excellent curation practice in ‘provincial’ museums to save us from having our reflection about art done for us, with whatever authority, by art history alone. This is an account of a visit on the morning of 11th September 2021 to see a FREE exhibition of Japanese Ukiyo-E Prints at York Art Gallery.

BOOKER SHORTLIST: ‘If all she was was funny, and none of this is funny, where did that leave her’.[1] A reflection on no one is talking about this by Patricia Lockwood (2021), London, Oxford, New York etc., Bloomsbury Circus. Of course dedicated to @TriciaLockwood with apologies for errors. I have put off reading this novel … More BOOKER SHORTLIST: ‘If all she was was funny, and none of this is funny, where did that leave her’.[1] A reflection on ‘no one is talking about this’ by Patricia Lockwood (2021).

BOOKER LONGLIST: ‘The unfolding continued, and he was stretched thin by it, so thin and formless that he might at any moment be taken up by the wind, removed’.[1] A reflection on An Island by Karen Jennings (2021), Newbury, Berkshire, Holland House Books. Reviews of this brief and brutal novel have tirelessly repeated that it … More BOOKER LONGLIST: ‘The unfolding continued, and he was stretched thin by it, so thin and formless that he might at any moment be taken up by the wind, removed’. A reflection on ‘An Island’ by Karen Jennings (2021).

‘She might hope for more but had long ago learned to live with whatever came to pass. Yet sometimes – just sometimes – hope was enough’.[2] Is hope and political liberalism enough in the novel in a world where Black Lives Really Matter? A reflection on Nathan Harris (2021) The Sweetness of Water London, Tinder … More BOOKER LONGLIST: ‘She might hope for more but had long ago learned to live with whatever came to pass’. Is hope and political liberalism enough in the novel in a world where Black Lives Really Matter? A reflection on Nathan Harris (2021) ‘The Sweetness of Water’.

‘What  had been like since the end of the war, physically located in a world that was shorn of the people she loved and unable therefore to participate in it, her mode of existence more akin to that of ghosts than humans, even if she’d existed in a body that possessed weight and could move … More BOOKER SHORTLIST: A ‘mode of existence more akin to that of ghosts than humans’: Tamils in Sri Lanka after the civil war and the ghostly but epic life of a nation that never existed: being a reflection on the philosophy of epic underlying Anuk Arudpragasam 2021 ‘A Passage North’

A definition of an Ootlin by Jessie Kesson: “queer folk who were out and never had any desire to be in”. The novelist, poet and dramatist Jenni Fagan speaks of her upcoming memoir called Outling and the origin of that word in the writer Jessie Kesson at a reading performance of her adaptation of Kesson’s … More A definition of an Ootlin by Jessie Kesson: “queer folk who were out and never had any desire to be in”. The novelist, poet and dramatist Jenni Fagan speaks of her upcoming memoir called ‘Ootlin’ and the origin of that word in the writer Jessie Kesson at a reading performance of her adaptation of Kesson’s BBC Radio Play ‘You Never Slept At Mine’.