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Praise of Folly
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn? Mr Bennet, Pride & Prejudice The idea for this post was jokingly suggested to me on Twitter (by @hprw),...
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Flowchart: are you well-read?
I have invented a foolproof flowchart to help you though sticky literary social situations: are you well read? Filed under: Uncategorized, Writing Tagged: Animal Farm, are you well-read?, Catch 22,...
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NaNoWriMo Blues
I’ve never taken part in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This is what I think they’re going through. November’s the month when some writers will try to write 50K words: NaNoWriMo is nigh. You...
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Daniel in the lions’ den: literary criticism by an atheist
I find myself attending evensong a bit these days. For an atheist, it throws up a number of issues, but since my son is one of the choirboys I tend to show up to say hello to him and enjoy the music....
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Elizabeth Jane Howard: Getting It Right
Elizabeth Jane Howard died yesterday, aged ninety. She’s had obituaries in many papers, including The Telegraph and Guardian. Her most famous novels, the Cazalet chronicles, have been talked about all...
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Laughing in the face of Health and Safety
What is important? That’s a small question with an enormous answer, and I won’t pretend I can do it here. Mr Casaubon in Middlemarch spent his life trying to tie together the Key to all Mythologies –...
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How (not) to behave at a concert: an audience guide
I went to a school concert yesterday, in an old chapel. The kind with carved stone, wood panelling and creaky pews. They weren’t the delightful Creaky-Pughes one might have met last summer at Henley...
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Are you a technology dinosaur?
It’s finally happened. I am officially old and Behind The Times. I’ve never been a person who starts queuing for new fruit watches as soon as they’re announced. I’m not a bloke either, which may have...
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Life, Death and Cellos
I’ve been sitting on some news. It’s wriggly and excited news, and I keep needing to jump up and twirl before sitting on it again, uncomfortably. And my news is this: *clears throat in manner of Miss...
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And then there were three
First: an apology. I intended this blog to be regular bits of silliness we could all enjoy, not a one-way forhorn for news. Recently, I have failed. Maybe Brexit has worn me down. I promise to try...
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