This blog is on the live-streaming of Max Webster’s ‘Macbeth’, starring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo.

February 10, 2025

Is Macbeth truly about a man straining for greatness, or is it more accurately a  ‘woman’s story at a winter’s fire’  that shows the true heights to which the masculine can aspire? This blog is on the live-streaming of Max Webster’s Macbeth starring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo. I am always resistant when the opportunity to see Macbeth arises, with … More This blog is on the live-streaming of Max Webster’s ‘Macbeth’, starring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo.

‘You find me fallen back for a spring, and I have every reason to believe that a vigorous leap will shortly be the result’. Even when we are rich in time and capacity for thought and feeling, why do we tend to be so miserly with it?

February 9, 2025

Budgets are, you might think, something business corporations or Governments have. In both cases they balance real or expected (or predicted) income or revenue against real or expected (or predicted) expenditure in order to be able to plan to meet their goals whilst remaining fiscally in the balance, over at least an acceptable period of … More ‘You find me fallen back for a spring, and I have every reason to believe that a vigorous leap will shortly be the result’. Even when we are rich in time and capacity for thought and feeling, why do we tend to be so miserly with it?

The ‘gnomic aperçu’ seemed once to be the quest of the literary academy. John Banville tells us that apparent words of arcane wisdom often turn out to be ‘academic writing at its most convoluted, most resistant and most sterile, the deathless products of the publish-or-perish academic treadmill’. [1]

February 8, 2025

It seems odd to take as the text behind a blog not a great work reviewed but the review itself. Nevertheless today I do just this. John Banville is a great reviewer – the grim and rather schoolmasterly distaste for orthodoxy in which he specialises makes him a resistible public speaker but a novelist of … More The ‘gnomic aperçu’ seemed once to be the quest of the literary academy. John Banville tells us that apparent words of arcane wisdom often turn out to be ‘academic writing at its most convoluted, most resistant and most sterile, the deathless products of the publish-or-perish academic treadmill’. [1]

A blog on the beautiful new novel by Adrian Duncan ‘The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth’ (2025)

February 7, 2025

‘…, and yet there is something in the form that does not make sense to me’.[1] The beautiful new novel by Adrian Duncan The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth (2025) imagines a project in which the ‘history from within’ is sought of ‘selected sculptures’.[2]  That history in a novel extends to the people who work  … More A blog on the beautiful new novel by Adrian Duncan ‘The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth’ (2025)

Oscar Wilde is reported as saying the law ‘is an ass’, but was to find that some asses had incredible power to hurt.

February 6, 2025

Oscar Wilde is reported as saying the law ‘is an ass’ (as are many others – it is actually a misquotation of lawman Dogberry in Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’), but was to find that some asses had incredible power to hurt. I was born in 1954. The law was part of a vast symbolic … More Oscar Wilde is reported as saying the law ‘is an ass’, but was to find that some asses had incredible power to hurt.

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” Or do they?

February 5, 2025

There are good reasons for avoiding this question. I am 70, but though there is roughly a 21 year gap between my birth date and that of my parents, that gap matters so little now they are gone. At 70, they were though still doing line-dancing and facing the world in retirement. Yet, as I … More “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” Or do they?

Handling the Trump syndrome: Never allow anyone the power to make or change law on their own

February 4, 2025

The Executive Order in the US Constitution allows one man (there’d never yet been a woman) to make Executive Orders with the force of law. Donald Trump signed 36 during his first week in Office. The possession in one person to make or change law is not thought of as possible in the idea of … More Handling the Trump syndrome: Never allow anyone the power to make or change law on their own

A reader falls into Joelle Taylor’s fabulous ‘The Night Alphabet’.

February 3, 2025

‘Everything moves. Everything passes.  Threads tangle so easily, so completely. It is their nature to knot. …/…/ The truth is you must be everyone in a story to understand the story. …’.[1]  A reader who comes to The Night Alphabet looking for a linear story and quickly understood connections between the novel’s sub-narratives  (or some … More A reader falls into Joelle Taylor’s fabulous ‘The Night Alphabet’.

Do houses dream of being home and not their posesion by evil?

February 2, 2025

They say that I am hauntedBut let’s see if that’s the truth.People think their dreams come downFrom their hard-tiled attic roof,Which is what they call their brainsNot up from the dark cellarsWhere hide the things they dare not See: that can’t be flushed down drains.Truth is, some men have bad dreams,Ride night-mares through woods at … More Do houses dream of being home and not their posesion by evil?

Check your inner monitor for ambivalence!

February 1, 2025

I get some news!The first thing IDo, without thoughtApparentlyIs carelesslyInterpret it. News that you receive oft takes a moment to interpret. Is it good? is it bad? Or is it somewhere in between. Perhaps the news contains a mixture of good, bad, or nuanced degrees between positive and negative interpretation as well as a mixture … More Check your inner monitor for ambivalence!

‘EAT YOUR OWN HOUSE, WITCH! I don’t even like candy, darling! (But Candy Darling is another matter entirely) : “Hey, sugar / Take a walk on the wild side”

January 31, 2025

Now here’s a blog prompt that I never ever thought I would answer. My usual recourse to etymology to find a nuance in the question has already reached a block. In the UK we use the term ‘candy’, only because we see and hear the word in USA cultural imports, The UK word for candy … More ‘EAT YOUR OWN HOUSE, WITCH! I don’t even like candy, darling! (But Candy Darling is another matter entirely) : “Hey, sugar / Take a walk on the wild side”

Let’s break from tradition but only so we and the status quo can keep on going on, and on, and on … as they are.

January 30, 2025

Let’s break from tradition, but only so we can go on, and on, and … and the status quo can keep on going on as it is.  The thing about words is that, as I keep endlessly and no doubt obseesively repeating in these blogs, they not only change their meaning but also preserve the … More Let’s break from tradition but only so we and the status quo can keep on going on, and on, and on … as they are.