Right — pull up a chair, or a turnip, or whatever passes for furniture these days — because I’ve just finished The Three Strangers and by Jupiter’s whiskers, what an experience it was. Like trying to shave a goat on a merry-go-round. It's a night so wet it would make Noah look skywards and say, “You what, again?” … Continue reading Wessex Tales: Why You Should Never Invite Strangers to Your Baptism: A Hardy Story: The Three Strangers
Tag: Faith
The Power of the Classics: Enoch Powell and the Legacy of Political Rhetoric
It has always struck me as curious that, in an age where fewer and fewer people read the great works of antiquity, classical literature still finds its way into the mouths of politicians. Like incantations spoken in a dead language, these references - often half-remembered, plucked from history like ripe fruit - are meant not … Continue reading The Power of the Classics: Enoch Powell and the Legacy of Political Rhetoric
Through Hell and High Water: A Wanderer’s Musings on Dante’s Inferno
I have long been of the opinion that if one is to take a trip, one ought to choose the destination with care. A sojourn in Tuscany, perhaps; a jaunt through the Alps; or, at the very least, an unhurried ramble through the English countryside, where the only fiery pits one encounters are the embers … Continue reading Through Hell and High Water: A Wanderer’s Musings on Dante’s Inferno
T. S. Eliot’s Little Gidding & The Waste Land
T. S. Eliot’s Little Gidding is the grand finale of Four Quartets, a poem of spiritual reckoning and renewal that reads like a soul’s dark night before the dawn. It is a tapestry woven with threads of history, theology, and poetry, each stitch pulling the reader deeper into Eliot’s meditative vision of time, suffering, and redemption. The poem … Continue reading T. S. Eliot’s Little Gidding & The Waste Land
Getting and Spending, We Lay Waste Our Powers
While wandering through the pages of Wordsworth’s works not long ago, I stumbled upon a line that latched onto my mind with an almost stubborn tenacity. My thoughts have a habit of seizing upon certain phrases, much like a dog sinking its teeth into a well-chewed bone - unwilling to let go until every last … Continue reading Getting and Spending, We Lay Waste Our Powers
Wording 