The following are my comments on Richard Reeves biography John Stuart Mill Victorian Firebrand (2007) taken directly from my comments on Trollope-l - some of the remarks therefore refer to debates on list but these are pertinent so I have refrained from any editing. Chapters 1 and 2 I have now started Richard …
Author: nick2209
Anarcho-socialist, Birmingham City Women supporter, lover of Americana/Country, Byron fan, atheist - and clinical depressive, which should be unrelated to foregoing although you have to wonder!
J.I.M. Stewart – Myself and Michael Innes
J.I.M. Stewart – Myself and Michael Innes (1987) This book is subtitled A Memoir, which is certainly a far more suitable description than auto-biography. Indeed it is short on some basic biographical facts which can more easily be picked up from Wikipedia. Stewart was born in 1906 in Edinburgh, where he attended the Edinburgh Academy, before …
Some July Movies
A separate blog for four movies watched already in July. The reason for this sudden increase in movie-watching is the near disappearance of any interesting new material on television on British television during the summer months (combined of course with a 'good spell' Depression wise). Although my movie reviews would normally form part of the Monthly …
Crabbe – Tale 9: Arabella
One thing which I have failed to comment on is the way in which certain of The Tales are grouped, or follow on from one another. There are dialogues between the Tales some of which take of the forms of oppositions, others of complements. This is most definitely true of Tales 6-9 all of which …
Crabbe – Tale 8: The Mother
Another hard tale of a parent and a child - in this case a Mother and daughter. The Tale actually begins with the Mother's parents who are fatefully indulgent, granting Dorothea, their only surviving child's ('Sons they had lost' - Crabbe is always alive to social facts such as the infant mortality rate) every wish, so …
June Miscellany (2009)
A scanty month dominated by another bout of Depression. In fact a week of recovery at the beginning June has only punctuated an episode which began in May and from which I am far from recovered. The problem in writing about Depression is that it is miserably re-iterative, solipsistic and impossible to make interesting. Depression …
Charles James Fox – poor book, fascinating man.
I have been reading Charles James Fox Man of the People by David Powell(1989) and reproduce the comments I have made on the Eighteenth Century Worlds list. >>>I have now finished David Powell's book : unfortunately it is not good and cannot really be recommended. It is poorly-written and unscholarly - there are no notes, sources or …
Continue reading Charles James Fox – poor book, fascinating man.
Bewick and his Tale-pieces
In April we went to see an exhibition of Thomas Bewick vignettes entitled 'Tale-Pieces' at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. The Ikon is Birmingham's contemporary art space so it was rare for it be hosting an exhibition like this; it was also the first time we have visited the gallery, contemporary art not being something …
May Miscellany
Let's start with the best. May was a remarkable month for original television films featuring two absolute gems, and what is more gems of completely different kinds. I have already written about Compulsion (see blog of 14th May); here I turn my attention to The Unloved co-written and directed by Samantha Morton and screened on Channel …
The Tiger in the Smoke
Margery Allingham's The Tiger in the Smoke (1952) is not only one of her greatest books, and possibly her best, but one of the true masterpieces of British mystery fiction. It is one of those books to which I am always somewhat nervous to return in case in should prove that my memory has played me false, that …
Moving Toyshop 