It's wet and windy here but it was the same long ago for A.E.Housman.
I love the last verse especially. It is quoted in 'The Charioteer'.

The chestnut casts his flambeaux, and the flowers ( Read more... )

From Josh Lanyon's 'Come unto These Yellow Sands'

You are hiking through Serpent Valley when you stumble upon the mysterious Caverns of Eternity. As you journey farther into the great cavern you discover it branches off into two passageways. One curves downward to the left; the other leads upward to the right. Is it possible that the one leading ( Read more... )

Song-Books of the War ( Read more... )

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/15/mary-stewart
I was sad to hear that Mary Stewart had died but interested to read her obituary. She was the only romantic novelist I could read and I still admire her strong-willed, principled, compassionate heroines. She wrote some excellent historicals too ( Read more... )

I have just finished reading Josh Lanyon's  new book, 'Stranger On The Shore'. I love pretty much everything he writes but this new one is a cracker. It's been ages since I've had to prise myself away from a story because my eyes were too tired to keep reading, desperate to know what happens. Even when I started to see where the plot was going, I ( Read more... )

I didn't realise the third series of this had begun on Radio Four, so I've missed most of it and you can only hear it on iPlayer for seven days. If you get a chance, listen to the latest episode which you can find here . It's an everyday story of gay folk and this episode, The Works Barbecue, is not only funny but touching too.

I heard this poem on 'Poetry Please' on BBC Radio 4 yesterday. The poet was Ghanaian and died in 2007.

Kwesi Brew:      The Mesh

We have come to the cross-roads
And I must either leave or come with you.
I lingered over the choice
But in the darkness of my doubts
You lifted the lamp of love
And I saw in your face
The road that I should take.

Lear: Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
          You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
          Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!


( Read more... )

We have some of the Royal Irish Regiment in the town to help our emergency services cope with the flooding. They are taking people across the bridge in their lorries and I wish I could think of a good reason to go!


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This story is dedicated to erastes, who wrote in her review of 'Prove A Villain':  'As I’ve said before on this blog, every single book I seem to read about Tudor London involves either Kit Marlowe and/or William Shakespeare - the two of them must postively hang around at the city’s gates pouncing on any newcomers.' (She then went on to write a very nice ( Read more... )