BEAUTY SEEN, BEAUTY SOUGHT Beauty, Stefan Sagmeister & Jessica Walsh, Phaidon: London, 2018, hb, 280pps “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” Keats effused in Endymion – “Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness.” His 1818 poem about the shepherd so handsome he was beloved by immortals was poorly received, and Keats… Continue reading
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The Matter of Manners – In Pursuit of Civility by Keith Thomas
THE MATTER OF MANNERS In Pursuit of Civility – Manners and Civilisation in Early Modern England Keith Thomas, Yale: New Haven and London, hb., 457 pages Among the Bodleian Library’s celebrated Douce Collection of arcana, incunabula and later works is an instructional manuscript of circa 1350, which contains the first-known written English expression of what… Continue reading
Enlightenments – Little Demon by Michael Wilding
ENLIGHTENMENTS Little Demon, Michael Wilding, Melbourne: Arcadia, 2018, 260 pages, $29.95 Captain Cook named Cape Byron for ‘Foul-Weather Jack’ Byron, the adventuring Vice-Admiral who sailed past the easternmost point of the Southern Land in 1764, part of that endless English outpouring that shaped today’s topography. The weatherbeaten Enlightenment navigator, for whom beaches were only important… Continue reading
My Country Life review of Animal: Exploring the Zoological World
The 7 November issue of Country Life carries my short review of Animal: Exploring the Zoological World (introduction by James Hanken, published by Phaidon) – “Animal captures admirably two interlocking intoxications: the thrill of ever-expanding zoological knowledge and the sheer joy of looking at animals, which look right back and into us in challenge and… Continue reading
Irish Times review of Tim Flannery’s ‘Europe: A Natural History’
The Irish Times of 13th October carries my review of Tim Flannery’s Europe: A Natural History. Europe – A Natural History by Derek Turner
Chronicles review of David Cannadine’s ‘Victorious Century – Britain 1800-1906’
The October issue of Chronicles carries my review of David Cannadine’s Victorious Century – Britain 1800-1906 (yes, I realise that’s more than a century!). https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2018/October/43/10/magazine/article/10845470/
Quadrant review of Keith Thomas’s ‘In Pursuit of Civility – Manners and Civilisation in Early Modern England’
The October issue of Quadrant contains my long review of Sir Keith Thomas’s magisterial In Pursuit of Civility – Manners and Civilisation in Early Modern England See table of contents here (paywall) – https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2018/10/
New light on the Lakes
NEW LIGHT ON THE LAKES We’d been dreaming about Andalusia. But plans sometimes must be altered, and so one August evening we found ourselves instead entering into Ulverston, thirteen hundred miles from Andalusia, and even more distant climatically, culturally, and historically. The Lake District – “England’s Switzerland”, Manchester’s playground, stamping-grounds of Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter,… Continue reading
Time’s terpsichorean – review of Anthony Powell by Hilary Spurling
TIME’S TERPSICHORIAN Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time Hilary Spurling, London: Hamish Hamilton, 2016, hb., 510pps Anthony Powell’s million word, twelve-volume novel sequence Dance to the Music of Time is one of the great achievements of postwar English literature, attracting near-universal praise for its subtle and textured evocation of England between the First… Continue reading
Upcoming Chronicles reviews
My review of Kassia St. Clair’s engrossing Secret Lives of Colour will be in the July 2018 issue of Chronicles I have also just sent them my review of David Cannadine’s Victorious Century (no idea yet when that will be published)