The Subtlety of Governor Gumpas – C.S. Lewis and a Detail of The Discarded Image

May 8, 2019

I’ve been rereading C.S. Lewis’ The Discarded Image today, sparked by a reread of Michael Ward’s work on planetary symbolism …

Paté and Parallels: Reading “The Last Chronicle of Barset”

April 14, 2018

I’ve been reading Anthony Trollope’s The Last Chronicle of Barset recently, and enjoying the experience. [Spoiler warning: don’t read this …

February 20, 2018

This term I am in the enviable position of teaching Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as part of the …

February 20, 2016

Midcentury British fiction by women is one of my favourite genres, and I have the overdraft with Persephone Books to …

February 5, 2016

“This it what it was like. No matter who you were back then, and whoever you ended up as afterwards, …

January 6, 2016

Anthony Trollope invented the pillar-box, and then regretted it. That’s one of those facts which has been at the back …

August 8, 2014

World War. A British headquarters. A commander pores over a deskful of papers whilst their second-in-command fusses around them, irritably …

October 24, 2013

For a little while it was Violet Baudelaire. There were many, many years when it was Lyra Silvertongue. There was …