Category Archives: Reading

luisa miller & ordeal of innocence

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

luisa miller (live from the met, south woodford odeon) even my dad hadn’t heard of this opera by verdi; and the english surname of its heroine certainly feels unusual in this italian-language melodrama with a count and a guy called … Continue reading →

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wittgenstein’s poker & patience (after sebald)

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

wittgenstein’s poker a meeting of the moral sciences club in king’s college cambridge in 1946, where, allegedly, wittgenstein brandished a poker threateningly at karl popper: not much material for a book, you might think – but not so, dear reader, … Continue reading →

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così fan tutte and a portrait of the artist as a young man

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

così fan tutte (live from the met at the odeon south woodford) as with tosca, i was surprised, and pleased, at the level of dark, serious stuff, but this time more so, as superficially it’s a comedy spying on their … Continue reading →

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lauren scott and the seahorse, by chris jones, and trip to windsor and eton

Posted on April 4, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

lauren scott and the seahorse (a teenager novel self-published by a friend) a fantastic first chapter – a gripping opening, strongly establishing the futuristic london, and pulling my eyes along the lines of the page as the chase became intense; … Continue reading →

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london’s hidden rivers and hamlet

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

london’s hidden rivers, by david fathers north of the thames (west to east) Stamford Brook Counter’s Creek River Westbourne River Tyburn River Fleet Hackney Brook River Walbrook south of the thames (west to east) Falcon Brook River Effra River Neckinger … Continue reading →

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being adam golightly and the ferryman

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

being adam golightly an account of how a middle-aged widower with kids has begun to rebuild not his life but a new one – ‘not the same life as before but just a bit crappier’, but something different the account … Continue reading →

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the day of the triffids and a visit to bamford quaker community

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

the day of the triffids far better than i expected (i’d grabbed it from a friend’s shelves in a oh-i-haven’t-read-that-and-really-should-have mood) (though i had enjoyed the midwich cuckoos) – a dark, sober, and believable evocation of london as it might … Continue reading →

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silence and the shape of water

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

SPOILERS silence shusaku endo’s novel (and scorsese’s film) is set during the persecution of portuguese jesuit missionaries in 16th-century japan, but its impact is more 20th-century existential: the story of rodriguez’s slow progress to apostasy is closer to winston smith’s … Continue reading →

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Protagoras

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Houyhnhnm

In Plato Protagoras seems to be a pompous but likeable old chap who’s dined out on his cleverness for many years. In both Protagoras and Theaetetus he seems to focus on advising young men, both those in power and those … Continue reading →

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“Sweet Danger” by Marjery Allingham; “Have his Carcase” and “Whose Body?” by Dorothy L. Sayers

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Houyhnhnm

Sayers is great fun – Wimsey is a wonderful character, such a perfect epitome and caricature of clubland and the Edwardian aristocracy, and her murder mysteries are intricate and teasing. Allingham though is to be preferred: her Campion has greater … Continue reading →

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