Monthly Archives: August 2011

Ingreeds

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

Sloanes in Tesco’s: “We’ll buy cheap ingreeds.”

Posted in New words | 1 Comment

Resomation

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14114555

Posted in New words | Leave a comment

“Ascog – Notes on its past and some of the people who have played a part in its story”, by George Bell Barker

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

[Robert Bontine Cunningham Graham, from “Up Stage”, an essay on Reginald Montague’s Ascog grave:] ‘”Failure”, he wrote, “alone can interest the speculative mind”, adding “For those who fail, for those who have sunk beneath the muddy waves of life, we … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Imperium”, by Robert Harris

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

Not a novel. No characterisation, just a story reasonably well told. But the crux is that Harris doesn’t appear to be trying to make me think, or to tell me anything. He is simply putting into narrative form a story … Continue reading →

Posted in Novel, Reading | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“A Most Wanted Man” by John Le Carré

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

A 2009 response to the “war on terror”, set in Hamburg amidst the machinations of German, British and American intelligence services. A very good novel – exciting plot, and truly credible and sympathetic characters: makes you grab it at every … Continue reading →

Posted in Novel, Reading | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“On Chesil Beach”, by Ian McEwan

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

A meditation on Hardy, Forster and Larkin, with all McEwan’s levers in full working order: newly-weds, one called Florence [Forster], their honeymoon in Dorset ending (sort-of) tragically [Hardy], and the main tension being that pre-60s sexual repression destructively and messily … Continue reading →

Posted in Novel, Reading | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Why We Disagree About Climate Change”, by Mike Hulme

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

An intensely promising read, unusual in assessing both “climate change” (Hulme’s typography for the physical reality (or otherwise)), and “Climate Change” (the idea of climate change, what it means to us individually and culturally). So it’s extremely cross-curricular (Hulme began … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading | Tagged , | 1 Comment

“The Go-Between” and “Where Angels Fear to Tread”

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

Leo Colston is, like Steerpike, Mole and Charles Ryder, a middle-class observer of the English aristocrat in 20th-century decline. Of the three, Mole remains a naïve observer, whereas the other two follow the contemporary developments in quantum physics by causing, … Continue reading →

Posted in Novel, Reading | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Claudius

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Houyhnhnm

Under the bed Made Emperor Speechless Thrust upon me Invade somewhere

Posted in Poem | Tagged | Leave a comment