There are few things more dangerous to a peaceful evening than a Marxist in full flow. One minute you’re happily contemplating the head on your shandy, the next you’re being lectured about 'historical inevitability' by someone who’s never held a job long enough to be sacked. The conversation usually begins with the inevitable: “Dialectics is … Continue reading Dialectics, or How Karl Marx Ruined My Shandy
Tag: history
Through Darkness, Light: A Reflection on Helen Keller
I sometimes wonder how many of our modern idols would survive without their filters. Strip away the stage-managed profiles, the publicists, the polished platitudes - and what are we left with? Often, very little. But every now and then, we encounter a figure whose inner world shines even brighter than their public image. Helen Keller … Continue reading Through Darkness, Light: A Reflection on Helen Keller
The Scent of Empire: On the Case of Princess Margaret Teresa
Velázquez paints her as an angel of empire; the nose might have told a different story. “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ… and to the other the savour of death unto death.” – 2 Corinthians 2:15–16 Few things are so deceptive in art as cleanliness. And few things so tragic in … Continue reading The Scent of Empire: On the Case of Princess Margaret Teresa
Bluebird and the Abyss: On Donald Campbell and the Art of Vanishing
“All men dream: but not equally.” – T. E. Lawrence “The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry I’ve always been haunted by that final film clip: the blue hull slicing across Coniston like a bullet skimming a baptismal font, … Continue reading Bluebird and the Abyss: On Donald Campbell and the Art of Vanishing
The Tudors Break a Sweat: My Encounter With the Most Pointless Plague in History
Is there anything more British than politely dying of a mysterious illness while sweating profusely and refusing to make a fuss about it. Enter: The Sweating Sickness of 1485 - or as I like to call it, the Tudor’s very own bout of medieval man-flu, except it killed you quicker than a court summons from … Continue reading The Tudors Break a Sweat: My Encounter With the Most Pointless Plague in History
Wording 