Some creatures exist twice: once in the flesh, once in the imagination. Wolves, lions, demons, politicians - take your pick. In the wild hills of Gévaudan between 1764 and 1767, one such double-lived beast stalked the countryside. To the peasants it wasn’t simply a wolf, but la Bête - a monster, a terror, and an … Continue reading The Beast of Gévaudan: Folklore in Fur, Politics in Fangs
Category: history
King & Conqueror: A Royal Mess of Mud, Murk, and Misfires
History, we’re often told, is written by the victors. But in the BBC’s latest offering, King & Conqueror, history is rewritten by screenwriters who appear to have skimmed a Wikipedia stub, lit a few candles in a cowshed, and declared themselves medievalists. The premise was promising. Harold Godwinson versus William the Bastard - England’s last … Continue reading King & Conqueror: A Royal Mess of Mud, Murk, and Misfires
Wilde’s Salomé: A Decadent Dance with Death
It’s almost too neat that Salomé should have been written in French. The language of Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and decadence itself lent Wilde the perfect tongue for blasphemy dressed in silks. The Victorians expected their theatre to teach morality, to improve the soul, to extol duty. Wilde offered them instead a necrophilic waltz in candlelight, where … Continue reading Wilde’s Salomé: A Decadent Dance with Death
St. George, the Dragon, and the Colours We Raise
There he stands - or rather, rides - our St. George, spear braced, horse rearing, dragon writhing beneath (featured image below). It’s an image both timeless and terribly timely. Though centuries have passed since this tale was first illuminated in parchment or carved into stone, its symbolic force remains more urgent now than ever. For … Continue reading St. George, the Dragon, and the Colours We Raise
A Symposium of Souls
Every age writes its own dialogues. Plato had Athens, with wine and philosophers reclining in the glow of Socratic irony. I have my own fireside, bottles scattered across an oak table, and a cast of minds whose shadows have shaped my own: Hardy, Wilde, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Jung, Scruton - and, for my own amusement, Hartley … Continue reading A Symposium of Souls
Wording 