What Remains After Love: A Reflection on The End of the Affair

There are books that don’t so much entertain as they haunt. They don’t ask for your approval, or even your sympathy - they simply step into the quietest room of your mind and sit there, uninvited, until you are forced to acknowledge them. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene is one of those … Continue reading What Remains After Love: A Reflection on The End of the Affair

A Cacophony of Creaks and Courage: On the Curious Brilliance of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old

I came to The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old expecting the sort of gentle chuckle one lets out when a pensioner mistakes TikTok for a foot ointment. What I found instead was a revelation - less a book, more a quietly defiant act of civil disobedience, written in biro. If Alan Bennett’s … Continue reading A Cacophony of Creaks and Courage: On the Curious Brilliance of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old

“People Ruin Beautiful Things”: On Gibran, Secrecy, and the Sacred Art of Keeping Quiet

“Travel and tell no one, Live a true love story and tell no one, Live happily and tell no one - People ruin beautiful things.” They say Kahlil Gibran wrote that, and perhaps he did. Then again, the internet says many things: that Einstein married Marilyn Monroe, that Churchill coined every popular meme, and that … Continue reading “People Ruin Beautiful Things”: On Gibran, Secrecy, and the Sacred Art of Keeping Quiet

On Dandy Dick – Part One: Or, How to Ruin a Dean and Win a Race

Theology, gambling, and a horse named after a dandy – what could possibly go wrong? There are some things that should never mix: vicars and vodka, bishops and betting shops, or indeed, the very Reverend Augustin Jedd and anything with hooves. And yet in Arthur Wing Pinero’s frothy 1887 farce Dandy Dick, all these taboos … Continue reading On Dandy Dick – Part One: Or, How to Ruin a Dean and Win a Race