There are phrases that ring through history like bells tolling in fog: ‘Et tu, Brute?’, ‘I have a dream,’ ‘Father, forgive them.’ Yesterday another such phrase was spoken - not in marble halls nor on the steps of Washington, but from a widow’s lips at her husband’s memorial service. Erika Kirk stood before the world, … Continue reading ‘I Forgive’: A Widow at the Crossroads of Rage and Grace
Category: love
All Roads Lead Back: On Darwish, Memory, and the Futility of Forgetting
Mahmoud Darwish once wrote: ‘All roads lead to you, even those I took to forget you.’ On first reading, it sounds like the lament of a man caught in the undertow of lost love, circling endlessly back to the figure he most wishes to escape. But linger with it a while, and the line grows … Continue reading All Roads Lead Back: On Darwish, Memory, and the Futility of Forgetting
A Pair of Blue Eyes – Or, How Not to Court a Vicar’s Daughter
When I first took up Hardy’s A Pair of Blue Eyes, I braced myself for the usual experience: a young woman falls in love, society disapproves, a man dangles from a cliff, and everyone ends up in a metaphorical ditch by chapter thirty. Hardy’s nothing if not consistent. He’s the grim reaper of literature - … Continue reading A Pair of Blue Eyes – Or, How Not to Court a Vicar’s Daughter
The Tale of the Broken Flower Pot
A Story from the Settle Flowerpot Festival I’ve spent a fair bit of time in the Yorkshire Dales this year so far, so, I’ve crafted a little story inspired by Settle’s penchant for flamboyant flower pots. Enjoy. In the crook of an old dry-stone wall, on the edge of Settle’s bustling village square, there lived … Continue reading The Tale of the Broken Flower Pot
Folie à Deux – On Madness Made Mutual (with Brontëan Echoes)
Preface - On the Madness of Love, and the Love of Madness Few things are more dangerous than a person who agrees with you completely. Especially if you're wrong. And doubly so if they are too. I recently re-read Wuthering Heights - which is, as far as I’m concerned, the great British novel of shared madness. … Continue reading Folie à Deux – On Madness Made Mutual (with Brontëan Echoes)
Wording 