This song seized me by the lapels and demanded my tears like a debt collector at the door. It’s rare, subtle, infinitely dangerous – it simply stands at a distance, tips its hat, and in doing so undoes you entirely. Ans Herz geh’n is lethal. I didn’t understand a word of it when I first … Continue reading Ans Herz geh’n – A Song That Refuses to Weep (and therefore breaks you anyway)
Category: Writing
Glinda’s Bubble: A Study in Benevolent Bastardry
I’ve long held a rather unfashionable view about dear Glinda the Good Witch, and it’s high time I set it down in ink – or pixels, as the modern fashion demands. To me, she isn’t merely a fluttering pink confection of benevolence; she’s the most insidious sort of villain, the one who smiles whilst sharpening … Continue reading Glinda’s Bubble: A Study in Benevolent Bastardry
Cakes and Ale, or the Saints and the Sinners
I came to Cakes and Ale not with a sense of moral urgency, but with a cup of tea and a faint suspicion that I was about to be gently mocked. That suspicion, as it turns out, is the correct posture in which to approach W. Somerset Maugham. One doesn’t read Maugham expecting thunderbolts from … Continue reading Cakes and Ale, or the Saints and the Sinners
A Very English Form of Possession – de la Mare’s, Seaton’s Aunt
I’ve always thought that the most frightening people don’t slam doors, rattle chains, or float about moaning like an amateur operatic chorus. They make the tea properly. They keep the house tidy. They speak softly. And they watch you. That’s why Seaton’s Aunt by Walter de la Mare unsettles me far more than any amount … Continue reading A Very English Form of Possession – de la Mare’s, Seaton’s Aunt
When Heaven Knocked Softly: Merry Christmas
It began, as most life-altering things do, without warning. Mary wasn’t praying for revelation. She wasn’t prepared. She was simply living — and that, it seems, was enough. The angel didn’t descend with thunder or spectacle, but with words. A greeting, strangely formal, and yet weighted with eternity. She was told she was favoured, though … Continue reading When Heaven Knocked Softly: Merry Christmas
