Early Modern Whale

Having recently finished Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall , one of thi...

The stillborn daughter of Walter and Deborah Dunch, from the monument described in my prior post.

(Ah well, it makes a change from writing crap on my computer.) It is suggested that he looks like a webcam, connected (of course) by a USBe...

I’ve been reading David Rothenberg’s Why Birds Sing (Allen Lane, 2005), and was charmed to learn o...

The holiday in America was rewarding and demanding. We (this means me and my son Timothy) drove 2,856 miles, in a Pontiac Grand Prix – a gr...

I am fluttering away from my keyboard for a holiday in and around the Rockies (thus squandering mo...

Thanks to the assistance of our highly trained auxiliary staff, marking on this year's Renaissance Literature paper is moving rapidly to...

My parrot, Barney, alongside the parrot from Jan Steen’s ‘The Effects of Intemperance’ (who is being given a sip of wine: a beaker full of ...

Off to another 'Rock, Gem and Mineral Fair', and here's my prime acquisition, from my favourite dealer, Mr R D Mazda. These are ...

Here I am at the top of Valahnukur, a minor peak in the Thorsmork ('Thor's Forest', no less) area. Booth Junior is playing a Nin...

So that my family can access it, a couple of images from my trip to the Scilly Isles. The first, way out at sea near the Bishop's Rock l...

Here's the latest Chinese dinosaur, Gigantoraptor, side by side with Jacques de Gheyn's zoomorphic monster in one of his drawings of...

My good friend Tupper, man of many and fearless opinions, urges me to ‘lighten the pudding’ (his very words) with one or two less formal po...

I was acting as a marshal at the Reading Cycling Club spring road race today. For me, this involved standing at the side of the road just up...

I took myself off to a 'Rock, Gem and Mineral' Fair today, my jackdaw eye a-glint (when did I become so acquisitive?), rather hoping...

And other useless cycling advice from Shakespeare! Taking part in the Reading CC 'Reliability Trial' this last Sunday: 50.9 miles, 3...

The eleventh of the eleventh, and Remembrance Sunday tomorrow, prompts me to post this drawing by my maternal grandfather, Harry Handforth, ...

I’ve been asked to declare myself. As ever, I wrap myself in the cloak of literature (maybe a little less tightly), and offer by way of repl...

A Latin vocabulary for computer terms: http://www.obta.uw.edu.pl/%7Edraco/docs/voccomp.html I am spending too much time at the claviatura , ...

Back in 2002 I did an edition of Donne for Wordsworth Classics, wrapping Introduction and Notes round a slightly modified Grierson text. The...