Category Archives: Reading

“Unholyland” by Aidan Andrew Dun

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

Another step on Aidan Andrew Dun’s journey towards the poetic recognition he so deserves, and perhaps a major milestone: he now has his name and words fixed in stone at King’s Cross, and has attracted, for the cover of this … Continue reading →

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“Unapologetic” by Francis Spufford

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

This book was greeted with huge triumph and relief by Christians, mainly fading Anglicans, as a new candidate for the project of doing-religion-without-actually-believing-it’s-true-in-the-way-that-we-think-people-in-the-past-did. Like Don Cupitt and Karen Armstrong, Quakers and Unitarians. So does it pass muster? Yes, in that … Continue reading →

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“Need to Know” by Timothy Good

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

Convincing, against my expectations. It’s impossible to accept what must otherwise be the case: that the vast range and amount of direct eye-witness evidence is all either faked or imagined. And it’s even more clear that the US authorities believe … Continue reading →

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“The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

A fascinating attempt to novelise the Iliad, taking the material beyond the confines of Homer’s poem, both before and after, but not falling into the trap of having to tell the whole bloody story in detail, wooden horse and all … Continue reading →

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“Mariana” by Monica Dickens

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

Normally I get annoyed with the first few pages of a novel, and have to be coaxed into the author’s world; with this book I was hooked at the start, raving about the prologue of Mary in her Essex cottage … Continue reading →

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“In Defence of History” by Richard Evans

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

Evans seems at first to imply he’s replacing, and steering midway between, E.H. Carr and Sir Geoffrey Elton, and defending History against all things post-modern, but ends up steering midway between post-modernism and ‘traditional’ history. The Afterword, added for this … Continue reading →

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“Cargo of Eagles” by Marjorie Allingham

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

Another great Albert Campion whodunit: there’s something about Allingham’s writing which I really really like. It’s a kind of knowing, yet sympathetic distance, a strong narrative voice, but always stopping before it gets too playful and you lose connection with … Continue reading →

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“The Poet of the Iliad” by H.T. Wade-Gery

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

An eye-opening book; why did no one put this my way when I was studying Homer properly (or perhaps they did)? Probably because there was a reaction against detailed historical reconstruction, seen as sterile and unliterary. Yet Wade-Gery’s lectures are … Continue reading →

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“Z for Zachariah” by Robert C. O’Brien

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

[Spoiler alert] A girl alone after nuclear war, running her family farm; a man walks in from the dead zone, in a unique suit and equipment that sustains life in radioactive environments. She romantically imagines marriage and a family; he … Continue reading →

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“What is a Classic?” T.S. Eliot

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Houyhnhnm

Lecture to the Virgil Society in 1944, in its second year. Starts long-Eliotly, with lots of Latin-based words and the kind of categorising I always imagine is rife in the German philosophers I haven’t read, but when he gets on … Continue reading →

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