In truth, the news of Charlie Kirk’s assassination knocked the breath out of me. Over these last twenty four hours I found little appetite to write, or even to stir myself to much at all. I let the hours pass in quiet, trying to steady the heart and unclench the mind. When grief or anxiety … Continue reading The Draggle-Tail: A Word in Mud and Memory
Category: Literature
The Forgotten Divinity: On The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
“Great Pan is not dead, but sleeping; and the reed shall sound again at the hour of need.” - Adapted from Plutarch It’s a curious feature of English children’s literature that its most enchanting works are often its most subversive. Carroll slipped logic puzzles and ontological riddles into Alice; Tolkien smuggled Catholic theology into hobbit … Continue reading The Forgotten Divinity: On The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Wooden Shadow: Laura Purcell’s Silent Companions and the Gothic of Hollow Lives
Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions - a book which proves, if nothing else, that the Victorians couldn’t leave well enough alone. If it wasn’t séances or table-tipping, it was cardboard aristocrats painted to look like Aunt Mildred, propped up in drawing rooms like the world’s most unnerving IKEA mannequins. History assures us they were ‘decorative,’ … Continue reading The Wooden Shadow: Laura Purcell’s Silent Companions and the Gothic of Hollow Lives
The Machine That Would Not Stop
If you want to terrify a modern reader, you needn’t bother with haunted houses, poltergeists, or even climate change. All you need to do is thrust E. M. Forster’s 1909 short story The Machine Stops under their nose and whisper: “This is you. Right now. With your Wi-Fi password tattooed on your soul.” Forster, that … Continue reading The Machine That Would Not Stop
The Beast of Gévaudan: Folklore in Fur, Politics in Fangs
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
Wording 