Happy 139th birthday, Dame Rebecca West! O to read what you might have had to say about the present lot in the present circs, thinking upon your devastating commination of the Men of Munich in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon... (and especially, perhaps, given that your sister Letty was a Public Health doctor with a senior post in the London County ( Read more... )

Well, focusing on what 2018 was like for me...
It did not start terribly well, I was quite depressed in January, partly due to its being the anniversary of my father's death and partly due to partner having a bad and lingering go of that nasty flu that was going around in spite of having had the relevant jab some months previous.
However.
I managed ( Read more... )

Can't find this in the Guardian online, but it's reported in 'The Week in Books' bit in the Review section that Howard Jacobson recently gave a speech dismissing children's fiction and crime fiction as mere 'stories' unfit for the designation of 'novel'.
This finally gives me a context in which to place this lovely and touching testimony in a ( Read more... )

Feeling very low-spirited today.
Not so much the chimerical 'Blue Monday' effect as that last week was the anniversary of my father's death (1 year), plus, partner has been having a rather nasty lingering go of flu (in spite of having had the flu jab some months ago).
So probably that.
Maybe other stuff. This entry was originally posted at https ( Read more... )

I did not quite see Narnia the Welfare State born, but it looks as though I may see it die.
As a historian I can see that things do sometimes change in unpredictable ways and directions no-one had anticipated; but possibly I have the optimism of someone of that generation of my gender and class, for whom life was pretty much getting better as we ( Read more... )

Further to that earlier discussion of comfort zones, I came slap up against this in what is probably an otherwise meritorious piece by The Default Person about a conference that was very heavily emphasising and practising diversity. And boy did it make him uncomfortable.
(NB I can't quite see why, because what is discomfort-making about the access ( Read more... )

Felling a bit blah at the moment, so have put myself into
( Read more... )

Am I surprised, or even shocked, to discover that a major figure in the development of 'Glasgow Style' in the late C19th/early C20th, was Margaret Macdonald, along with her sister Frances, and that when she married Charles Rennie Mackintosh his view was that she was the genius, rather than the mere talent, in their partnership?

The fact that it is ( Read more... )

Have been feeling somewhat low-spirited for a while now.

Partly this is surely due to external events over which I have little or no control (or feel I have little or no control) -

Like the current government rolling back the welfare state to the point that I anticipate that the next move is some rebranded version of the workhouse (and don't get me ( Read more... )

I don't know whether there was one precipating event or a coincidental confluence of things, but people have been posting hither and yon about the assumption that anything that helps you deal with a physical or mental condition is a 'crutch', which the Truly Strong and Determined person will endeavour to do without.

As people have already commented ( Read more... )