By the time of Athelstan the country was divided into shires, hundreds and vills or townships, precisely in order to expedite taxation. The shires of England were unique, their boundaries lasting for...
It has been observed that Londoners became more extravagant in the presence of Charles Dickens, so that they might appear more Dickensian, so
There is a camaraderie that grows up among those who work with old books and old papers, largely, I suspect, because we understand that we are at odds with the rest of the world: we are travelling bac...
The house of the Plantagenets, from Henry II to Richard III himself, was brimming with blood. In their lust for power the members of the family turned upon one another. King John murdered, or caused t...
Is there not something more glorious about making music than making war?
I was at peace with a world which afforded so much bounty, and began to enjoy living at the very end of time.
History is about longing and belonging. It is about the need for permanence and the perception of continuity. It concerns the atavistic desire to find deep sources of identity.
Anxiety was, for her, a form of prayer.
What think you of that, Nick, since you allwaies have your Head stuck in old Books? And I said nothing, for who can speak of the Mazes of the Serpent to those who are not lost in them?
The great advantage of really contemporary fiction is that one finds oneself mirrored on every page
From what Purse are we building these Churches, Walter?From the Imposicion on Coles.And are the Coles not the blackest Element, which with their Smoak hide the Sunne?Certainly they feed the Fires of t...
The body of Saint Mark, supposedly preserved in the basilica was the central point of the configuration between the ducal palace, the market, and the Arsenal. This was the sacred geometry of Venetian...
Never be curious. It is the path to perdition.
It might be compared to some organism which sloughs off its old skin, or texture, in order to live again. It is a city which has the ability to dance upon its own ashes.
It is characteristic of Dickens who, when he grasps the wrong end of the stick, never fails to belabour everyone in sight with it.
He could not bear to part with his paintings because they were an aspect of his being.
Books do not perish like humankind. Of course we commonly see them broken in the haberdasher's shop when only a few months before they lay bound on the stationer's stall; these are not tru...
A survivor, in another sense, was left alive. The king’s nephew, Stephen, count of Blois, was suffering from a severe bout of diarrhoea and declined to join the revelry aboard the White Ship. Since he...
Sometimes the silences, the gaps, tell us more than anything else.
Let Stone be your God and you will find God in the Stone.