Category Archives: Literature

This link is a complete, short, Project Gutenberg reprint of a booklet of half a dozen Victorian hand shadow postures. You see the hand in the foregrounds, and the animal in the background. That’s it. You don’t see the shadow … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Prepare to waste it here. It looks as if the new DNB database has been left open for a little while. I recently wrote a wormseye about the absurd pricing of the OED. It turns out that the new DNB … Continue reading → Continue reading →

My next Guardian profile was to be Sybille Bedford. She’s 93, and has just finished what she says will be her last big book. I secured an introduction from Jane Howard, rang her up, and arranged to meet. I explained … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Tate Britain is sitting on about Continue reading →

I invite you to guess — it’s impossible that even Louise should know — which 19th century authority is quoted 157 times in the OED. Among the words partially defined by her usage are “Celtic”, “darling”, “deodar”, “pelt”, “photo”, and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I can’t scan in all of BSC, not least because the last few pages are missing from my the FWB’s tatty paperback of the Faber Book of Parodies. But the first few pages are below this fold. Continue reading →

Cyril Conolly’s wonderful parody, Bond Strikes Camp is too long to scan all the way in. But there is a fragment — four pages — below the fold. Bond, dolled up in full drag, has just been picked up by … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I stole this from languagehat. It is the most awe-inspiring project I have ever seen on the web. Continue reading →

Must push the story below the fold somewhere further on Continue reading →