The horse has been man’s most important companion – forget cats and dogs – and the most durable of historical alliances – against which every other covenant has been fragile and ephemeral – not even our relationship with our gods has shown a comparable degree of stability. Our story resonates with an equine leitmotif – in … Continue reading The Twilight of the Equine Gods
Spring is here, spring is here Life is skittles and life is beer I think the loveliest time of the year Is the spring, I do, don’t you? Course you do But there’s one thing that makes spring complete for me And makes every Sunday a treat for me… Tom Lehrer That music always round … Continue reading The Country Life
In Invisible Republic, his masterful telling of the story behind “The Basement Tapes”, Greil Marcus, quotes Bob Dylan: “Traditional music is based on hexagrams. It comes about from legends, Bibles, plagues, and it revolves around vegetables and death”. And this is precisely the theme of Dylan’s belated Nobel Lecture, a presentation that is in its style, … Continue reading Legends, Bibles, Plagues – Bob Dylan’s Nobel Lecture
“Bear me up on angels’ wings, and other transcendental things. Where the golden walls still glow, let my people go to Jerusalem”. Jerusalem is all about faith and passion, and there is no city on Earth that people get more passionate about. The light is luminous. In high summer it almost shimmers. The very air … Continue reading Oh, Jerusalem – a song
As far as we know, Meniscus Diabetes was born in Rome in 25 CE, and acquired his poetic licence during the reign of Emperor Claudius. He had an abiding interest in Rome’s eastern provinces, and one of his surviving manuscripts is this epic ballad. See Roman Holiday – The Perils of a Poet in Nero’s Rome. Lilith … Continue reading Lilith – a poem of ‘the Fall’ by Meniscus Diabetes
One of the pleasures of moving to the Australian bush and living in Bellingen Shire is discovering its often overlooked history. This is the story of Twin Pines. Not as dippy as Twin Peaks, nor as sinister as Wayward Pines, it is a story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. When I first came to this … Continue reading Small Stories – A Tale of Twin Pines
A Contemplation of Historical Fiction in Book and Film A post in the British Medieval History Facebook Group a couple of years back happily anticipated the upcoming showing on US TV channels of the adaptation of British author Philippa Gregory’s War of the Roses White Queen Trilogy. A tiny stone created large ripples. Over 400 comments weighed … Continue reading Fact or Fiction = Friction
Its been a diverse year In That Howling Infinite. We have traveled, to quote Bob Dylan, “all the way from New Orleans to Jerusalem” – and to many other places in between. Vikings and Roman legionaries; Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne and Bruce Cockburn; Britain in the ‘forties and Paris in the ‘fifties; America, the Levant, and even … Continue reading That was the year that was
Last Sunday, The Guardian published a delightful opinion piece by Guardian producer Madhvi Pankhania entitled ‘So long and thanks for all the flat whites: an English view of Australia’. She began: “Recently my colleague Paul Owen shared his experiences about being an Englishman in New York, from the volatile customer service, to the way bragging … Continue reading Down Under
Lewis Carroll’s fabulist masterpiece is 150 years of age this year. In June, we had the pleasure visiting Ripon Cathedral in Yorkshire. An enthusiastic verger ushered us to the choir stalls. One carving therein depicts a griffin catching a rabbit who escapes down a hole. Is this where Alice, in pursuit of the White Rabbit, … Continue reading Go ask Alice. I think she’ll know
In That Howling Infinite 