FORTUNATE AND UNFORTUNATE ISLES Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands—Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will Judith Schalansky, London, New York: Penguin, 2012. 240 pp The West is writing over all the world’s white spaces. The unrolling triumph of Occidental enlightenment and exploration has meant the near-complete charting of the planet—conquest of the tallest peaks,… Continue reading
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The English Wändervögel
THE ENGLISH WÄNDERVÖGEL Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure Artemis Cooper, London: John Murray, 2010 On December 9th, 1933, an eighteen-year-old miscreant rushed through the rain at Tower Bridge to catch the Stadtholder Willem, about to hoist anchor and leave for Rotterdam. His luggage was light—a little money, a few letters of introduction, a knapsack, a sturdy… Continue reading
The once-weres and could-have-beens of Europe
THE ONCE-WERES AND COULD-HAVE-BEENS OF EUROPE Vanished Kingdoms—The History of Half-forgotten Europe Norman Davies. London: Allen Lane, 2011. 800 pp, £30 hob When I visited the Naval Museum in Madrid several years ago, I took away as a souvenir a facsimile of a coloured 1756 naval manual illustration entitled Banderas que las naciones arbolan en… Continue reading
Land hunger, land anger
Land hunger, land anger The Field (1990) The Field opens in dramatic style. The setting is the rural west of Ireland, in 1965. A father and son are seen silhouetted at the top of a cliff, having dragged there a strange and heavy load – a dead donkey stallion – which they then precipitate over… Continue reading
Reconnecting with Cavafy
RECONNECTING WITH CAVAFY Shades of Love – Photographs Inspired by the Poems of C. P. Cavafy Dimitris Yeros, poems translated by David Connolly, Insight Editions, San Francisco, 2010, 165 pps, $75 Your nightingales, your songs, are living still And them the death that clutches all things cannot kill.(Callimachus) This volume landed in my postbox burdened… Continue reading
The tide-watchers
THE TIDE-WATCHERS At the end of a sand-heaped lane A scene from Rembrandt – Worried lights clustered against hugeness; Lowlit men appraise an upraised ocean Boiling where a beach should be. Quiet speaking on a universal plain As wind blows the buckthorn flat and The blackest of black cattle stand against stars Behind… Continue reading
Cold constitutional
COLD CONSTITUTIONAL On the ice-edge of the hill Gazing down grateful from verge of valley, Coming in across country, a splinter of winter – My feet hold fields. And today, I saw the sun so wonderfully die, The land turn black, crisp cutout trees clutching stricken stars, My Ordnance Survey filled… Continue reading
Home life of a predator – scenes from the Leopard’s lair
Home life of a predator – scenes from the Leopard’s lair Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa – A Biography Through Images Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, Alma Books, Richmond (Surrey), 2013, 125 pp, £25 It must be at times frustrating to be a considerable academic and author in one’s own right, yet to be known chiefly because of… Continue reading
William (Brown) the conqueror
WILLIAM (BROWN) THE CONQUEROR British children’s writers usually find favour in America—from A. A. Milne and Kenneth Grahame to J. K. Rowling and Nick Park—but one who has never quite captured American hearts is Richmal Crompton, author of the classic Just William stories. Why this should be is unclear, because at their best the stories… Continue reading
The romance of the classical – on the Appian Way
THE ROMANCE OF THE CLASSICAL To the heart of youth the world is a highwayside. Passing for ever, he fares; and on either hand, Deep in the gardens golden pavilions hide R. L. Stevenson, Songs of Travel No youth, but a man in his 40s bareheaded under merciless sun. Nor were there any golden pavilions… Continue reading