Category Archives: arts

arts, books, personal

The Anthony Powell Society at 25

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7 Ormonde Gate, ChelseaOn a balmy early evening, on this day 25 years ago, six of us gathered at 7 Ormonde Gate, Chelsea, just across from the National Army Museum, at the invitation of Julian Allason.

Julian had the grand idea that we should celebrate English author Anthony Powell, who had died a couple of months earlier at the age of 94.

I was introduced to Powell’s magnum opus, A Dance to the Music of Time, in 1983 by my wife’s best friend from school. “You like Evelyn Waugh”, she said, “You might like Dance.” Powell soon became one of my heroes.

Since about 1993 I had been building a web presence for Powell. And in 1997, at the time Channel4 TV showed their 4-part dramatisation of Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time, I had started an email discussion list for Powell’s works. I was resisting suggestions that I should start a Society in Powell’s honour.

Julian was one of the early contributors to the email discussion list, along with our friend Stephen who was one of the six aforementioned. I dragged in my wife, N, and our friend Sue, who was (and still is) a professional conference and event organiser. Julian brought along his friend Catherine, a PR specialist. Experts were needed!

As Julian had said to me a couple of weeks before: “We must celebrate the man. We must have a conference.” Which is where discussion started on that fateful evening.

Being the ever practical project manager, I asked how we were going to achieve this. After all, I pointed out, we were six nobodies, we had no entrée into the literary world, we had no money, and frankly we stood little to no chance of getting useful big name sponsorship (organisations like Vodafone and The Daily Telegraph were mentioned).

Julian, great on ideas and not one to be thwarted, said that we had to have something on which to hang the conference. So at 19:30 under a huge portrait of Peter the Great, the response was …

“We hereby form the Anthony Powell Society”

OK, Julian, then you’re Chairman … and Keith you’re Secretary (which I remained for 18 years!).

But we still had no members and no money. Julian committed to fix us a bank account. We agreed that everyone then joined to the email discussion list (barely more than a couple of dozen people) was an honorary member until the end of the year – giving us time to organise a membership system.

And that conference? We held it at Powell’s alma mater, Eton College, the following St George’s Day. To this day I have no idea how we achieved that given that we were all also doing demanding professional jobs.

Since then the Society has achieved a lot: not least 10 international conferences and more than a few publications; we were awarded charitable status in 2003.
(On a personal note the Society has taken me to places, and introduced me to people, my wildest dreams couldn’t have conjured up.)

So today, after a lot of hard work, good luck, and almost against all expectations, the Anthony Powell Society celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Sadly Julian died a few years ago, so will not be here, at least in person, to see the fruit of his idea.

AP Soc logo

You can find out more about the Anthony Powell Society and its work at https://www.anthonypowell.org/. There is also a Facebook page and a YouTube channel.

arts, history, links, medical, nudism, photography, science, sexuality

Monthly Links for May

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Here is this month’s well packed collection of links to items you didn’t know you’d missed …

Science, Technology, Natural World

Let’s start with something which has always been a bone of contention … Do we all see colour the same way? And if so why is it that what I describe as blue, you say is turquoise?

Research has found that chimpanzees have surprisingly good hygiene habits: they use leaves to wipe bums and clean up after sex.

Down in the ocean depths there is still mystery surrounding the largest light in the sea.

And now up in the air … we’ve long known about their intelligence, but now it appears that crows can do geometry.

Scientists try to imagine what it’s like to be a raven or crow.

And now to our own intelligence … Can you convincingly explain the Monty Hall problem?

Is there really an underlying mathematical sequence which this year’s Premier League title for Liverpool has highlighted?

So there’s a new Pope, but how is the Conclave’s tell-tale black and white smoke ensured?

We’ve all heard of antimatter, but now researchers have discovered anti-spice, which makes chillies less hot. [££££]

Talking of hot … astronomers are now suggesting that a nearby ancient supernova (below) is an invader from another galaxy. [££££]

A new theoretical study is proposing that the very existence of gravity is evidence that we are all part of a giant computer simulation.

Back with the (slightly) more mundane … there’s a collection of astronomers who spend their time trying to find and catalogue the seemingly infinite number of pieces of rock that whizz over our heads every day. [LONG READ]

Health, Medicine

Just why do some of use get travel sick but others don’t?

Sexuality & Relationships

Here’s a look at sex, art and the art of sex in ancient Pompeii.

Environment & Ecology

Not just “no mow May” it needs to be “leave it alone June, July and August” … We’d help our declining butterflies (and many other species) by mowing our lawns a lot less.

Researchers are discovering that there really are fungal superhighways connecting things up under our feet.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

Here’s a look at whether Spencer Tunick’s massed nude bodies (below) constitute good nude photography or not. [LONG READ]

The Courtauld Institute in London has released a huge art photo archive online, and it’s free

Also in London, at the Cartoon Museum, there’s an exhibition of cartoon cats from Korky to Garfield.

They seem to be two unlikely bedfellows but Cockney and Yiddish influenced each other considerably in London’s East End.

Going back in time, here’s an introduction to the history of runes. [LONG READ]

Here’s the story of how English lost several letters from its alphabet. [LONG READ]

And English then underwent the Great Vowel Shift which further ruined both our spelling and writing. [LONG READ]

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

A visit to the Rollright Stones (above) – and IME they’re worth a visit. [LONG READ]

There’s a new study looking at pregnancy amongst the Vikings.

A look at the expansion of Medieval Europe. [LONG READ]

An American looks at what other Americans actually know about medieval history. [LONG READ]

It’s not quite a grimoire but the Picatrix contained all the secrets to becoming an evil wizard.

What was happening in London during the first English Civil War (1642-1646). [LONG READ]

In Austrian village there’s a mysterious mummified priest – and it turns out he was mummified via his rectum!

London

North-west London boasts several Black Madonnas.

Some of the Cold War tunnels under central London are to be turned into a permanent museum of military intelligence.

Food, Drink

How to reduce the risk of your fridge being a breeding ground for bacteria.

Aspartame: a calorie-free, but not risk-free, artificial sweetener.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

So just how much can your name influence your future or occupation?

Here’s something on thinking slowly and recognising your biases and maybe improve your life. [LONG READ]

On the world of Berliners getting together in the nude. [LONG READ]

An Australian sex writer on learning to appreciate her curves.

And the same Australian sex writer on why she loves her full bush, even in a bikini.

On the naturist attitude to the inevitable erections.

Wow! Ha ha!

In 1990, in Calvine, Scotland, two men photographed what is reportedly the best UFO picture ever seen; but it’s remained a mystery.

And I’ll leave you with a little fable about the evolution of why women like performing oral sex.

Be good!

arts, environment, history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

Our packed monthly round-up of links to items you may have missed …

Science, Technology, Natural World

First up we have to highlight this years Ig Nobel prizes.

Palaeontologists have discovered several new species of extinct bone-crushing Tasmanian Tigers.

At the other end of the size scale, researchers looking in a Tibetan glacier have found over 1700 different frozen viruses.

Still with research reported in Popular Science magazine, the social white-browed sparrow weavers varying nest shapes demonstrate that birds have “culture”. Mind I thought we already knew that from the dialects of Meso-American parrots.

And while with “culture” apparently marmosets have individual “names” for each other.

Grief is well documented emotion in humans, and it seems some other species, but do cats grieve?

Scientists continue to unravel the meaning of our dreams.

So how do you know what that smell is? How does our sense of smell work? [LONG READ]

Leaving the animal world for the geological, in September 2023 something made Earth ring like a bell for nine days. [LONG READ]

Back in the early life of the solar system, it seems that Jupiter’s moon Ganymede was struck by an asteroid bigger than the one which wiped out the dinosaurs.

The asteroid Apophis is due to fly by very close to Earth in 2029, and now an astrophysicist is predicting a very slightly higher chance it may hit us.

Meanwhile, way out in the universe, researchers have discovered the largest jets ever from a black hole – and they make our galaxy look miniscule.

Health, Medicine

So how much proper risk assessment was done around Covid? And by whom? [LOMG READ]

OB/GYN Dr Jen Gunter shares some takeaways from the recent (American) Menopause Society Meeting.

Our bodies are full of nerves, but the longest one orchestrates the connection between brain and body.

While on brains, within the billions of neurons they contain there are trillions of typos – some good, some bad. [LONG READ]

And still on brains, it’s being suggested that many older people don’t just maintain, but actually increase, their cognitive skills. [££££]

And finally with things mental, a Stanford-led research group has identified six different types of depression each of which is likely to respond differently to various treatments. [LONG READ]

Sexuality

Sex historian Dr Kate Lister tries to explain exactly why women masturbate. [££££]

Environment

Nature is like art in many ways as for many humans both are subjective.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

Loughborough has installed a new memorial bell as a tribute to those who died from Covid, and a thank you to NHS and other key workers. And unusually for the UK, it’s a campanile. We need more campaniles.

In which David Hockney stimulates an academic epidemiologist and mathematician to think about four dimensional chairs.

Philip Curtis, the director of The Map House in London, talks about mapping Antarctica.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

We reported previously that Stonehenge’s altar stone had been identified as originating in NE Scotland. Now it seems that the front runner locations, Orkney, has been ruled out.

Further up into the cold lands, archaeologists are shedding light on a little known ancient culture in northern Greenland. [££££]

In Britain we are generally pretty ignorant about the way in which ancient India shaped science and mathematics.

Archaeologists in Spain have used DNA to uncover some of the secrets of a Christian cave-dwelling medieval community.

Meanwhile in Poland archaeologists have found the burial of two children suspected of being vampires.

Henry VIII did many notable things including accidentally changing the way we write history.

London

Our favourite London blogger, Diamond Geezer, visits Theobalds Grove (one stop outside Greater London). This is my home town; I was brought up just three minutes walk from this station! Needless to say it’s changed quite a bit since I last lived there in late 1970s.

I lived a couple of hundred yards down the road to the right of the church

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

So just why do men bother with depilation?

Emma Beddington set out to see what it’s like to spend a day as a dog, and finds it impossible.

People

A German mathematician who lived in France as a hermit, left thousands of pages of work. Now there’s a debate over whether he was a mathematical genius or just a lonely madman. [LONG READ]

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally some pictures of the first UK Hobby Horse Championships.

amusements, arts, memes

June Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Art

  1. What year did Vincent Van Gogh die?  1890
  2. What Renaissance artist is buried in Rome’s Pantheon?  Raphael
  3. Who painted the famous artwork Guernica?  Picasso
  4. Who painted the famous artwork The Birth of Venus?  Botticelli
  5. Which US artist died in a car crash in August 1956, aged 44?  Jackson Pollock

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2023.

amusements, arts, memes

June Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As before, they’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as having a bit of fun.

Art

  1. What year did Vincent Van Gogh die?
  2. What Renaissance artist is buried in Rome’s Pantheon?
  3. Who painted the famous artwork Guernica?
  4. Who painted the famous artwork The Birth of Venus?
  5. Which US artist died in a car crash in August 1956, aged 44?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

arts, beliefs, environment, food+drink, history, links, medical, memes, science

Monthly Links

Well then … Here we go with another collection of links to items you didn’t know you didn’t want to miss.

Science, Technology, Natural World

In the latest of the grand space projects, NASA has retrieved a couple of hundred grams of an asteroid and dropped it back to Earth.

Now we’re coming down to the top of a 22,000-foot volcano where Earth’s highest-dwelling vertebrates have been found

Japan has a new island thanks to an underwater volcanic eruption.

Still on the fiery nature of Earth, there’s been a swarm of earthquakes happening in Iceland, which likely precedes a volcanic eruption.

Still on earthquakes, a researcher, at the Vatican Library, has found a 500-year-old Hebrew note which reveals an unknown earthquake swarm in Italy.

Now to the natural world …

Serotine bats (above) have surprised scientists by being the first known mammal to have procreative sex without penetration.

Staying with rodents … experiments suggest that rats may have the power of imagination.

In the Amazon there’s a somewhat horrifying parasitic wasp (below) with a huge head, and it is just one of over 100 newly discovered species.

This is somewhat bizarre … it seems that starfish are just a large, flattened head, with no body. [££££]

Health, Medicine

Scientists seem to have worked out why some people get headaches from drinking red wine.

And now we have three items for the female population …

In the first, OB/GYN Dr Jen Gunter tries to once and for all explode the myth of menstrual synchronization.

Dr Gunter then looks at the sense in poking garlic up your vagina.

Finally academic sex researcher Dr Kate Lister tests oral probiotics for vaginal health. [££££]

Sexuality

And now on to actual sexuality … in which Dr Emily Nagoski looks at some approaches to sex for the disabled.

Expert sex therapists suggest the usual 20 ways to revive your flagging libido.

Environment

On the interaction between wild pigs and golf courses.

Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics

Why is there this assumption British voters become more Conservative with age – and is it true?

Let’s obscure the players’ genders and then see how men’s and women’s soccer compare.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

Archaeological finds are revealing that art is much older than our species. [LONG READ] [££££]

There’s a boom in people taking up life drawing.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Near China’s “Terracotta Army” archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a 2000-year-old sheep-drawn chariot.

Moving west, a large number of clay stamps used to seal Roman documents (above) have been discovered in Turkey.

Meanwhile off the coast of Sardinia divers have discovered around 50,000 Roman coins.

A cartographer has created a London Underground style map of Britain’s Roman Roads.

Excavations around Sutton Hoo in Suffolk continue to turn up suprises. One latest find is the remains of what might be an early 7th-century temple.

Coming gradually up to date … A hoard of medieval pennies dating from the reign of King Stephen has been found in Norfolk.

In Germany they’ve found a centuries old grave containing a skeleton with four prosthetic fingers.

Dr Eleanor Janega takes reveals the real story behind the killing of Joan of Arc.

Forensic research proves that the Ancient Ram Inn in Wotton-under-Edge (above) is old, but not as old as is made out. [LONG READ]

London

Here’s a look at the life of Wenceslaus Hollar who is best known for his panoramic views of 17th-century London (below).

Food, Drink

The convoluted story of the sandwich called Gua Bao. [LONG READ]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Mathematician Kit Yates looks at whether the time has come to stop changing the clocks twice a year.

Cheese-rolling, straw bears and weird rituals: one man has made it his life’s work to record the whole of British folklore, and he now has a massive collection.

There’s a collection of walks around the UK’s strange and sacred sites.

Returning to sex researcher Dr Kate Lister, she’s written about growing out her pubic hair for the first time in 20 years. [££££]

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally, in a surprise revelation it has been discovered that a supposed Yeti hair actually belonged to a horse.

arts, history, ramblings

Christmas Stamps

Royal Mail have released this year’s Christmas stamps, and yet again we’ve managed to create a perfectly horrible, ever more nauseatingly religious, set of designs – which isn’t helped by this ubiquitous barcode.

UK 2023 Christmas Stamps
This year’s British Christmas stamps
[Click the image for a larger view]

Royal Mail had (at least until recently) a policy of alternating religious and secular themes year-by-year. This seems to have gone by the board as the last five years’ designs have all been religious.

Yes, I know Christmas is supposed to be a religious festival, and this is a nominally Christian country. However it would be really good to (a) have some stamps celebrating the pagan Yule – or Roman Saturnalia which provided much of the Christian festivity – and (b) some decent, simple designs.

We’ve had special Christmas stamps every year since 1966 (thanks to the then Postmaster General, Tony Benn, whose idea it was). But to my mind there have been few really good designs. From all the years, perhaps the one I like best – for their clean simplicity – are the ones from 1980.

UK 1980 Christmas Stamps
1980

With 1969, 1973 and 1993 following on (not necessarily in that order).

UK 1969 Christmas Stamps
1969
UK 1973 Christmas Stamps
1973
UK 1993 Christmas Stamps
1993

As for the rest, they span the range from merely OK to abominably awful.

Not that other countries’ stamps are necessarily any better, although many are.

amusements, arts, environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

And so to this month’s collection of links to items you dodn’t know you din’t want to miss! Let’s start, as usual, with the tough science stuff.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Some scientists have been thinking about how life would have started and self-assembled. [LONG READ]

alien life

Turning the tables round, will we actually know alien life when we encounter it? [LONG READ]

While we decide that, how likely is it that alien life is eavesdropping on our mobile phone calls? [££££]

Staying with the cosmological … Observers have detected the largest cosmic explosion ever seen.

Meanwhile the James Webb telescope has found asteroids in the Fomalhaut star system.

And it gets weirder, as astronomers think they’ve seen live-action of a star swallowing one of its planets.

Coming back a little nearer to sanity … hare’s a look at Alan Turing and the most important machine that’s never been built. [LONG READ]

After which, riddle me this … How do you find a new species of Demon Catshark? By reading it’s eggs, of course. [££££]

But then again, genetics turns up many surprises, including the mutation which turned ants into parasites in one generation. [LONG READ]

More strangeness on genetics … it turns out strawberries have eight sets of chromosomes, which have contributed to their domestication and survival. [££££]

Deeper and deeper into plants, photosynthesis actually requires four photons to complete the transfer of sunlight into chemical energy but the details of the final step are only now coming to light. [££££]

And so back into the (almost) real world. Clever palaeontologists have been able to recover the DNA of the wearer of a 25,000-year-old pendant.

Health, Medicine

How accurate are all those old-wives tales – you know like “chocolate causes acne” and “carrots help you see in the dark”?

So just what are puberty blockers and how do they work? Side issue: should we be using them? [££££]

Medics now seem to have decided that removing just the Fallopian Tubes will significantly reduce the number of women with ovarian cancer. [££££]

Meanwhile, deciding whether to have HRT treatment for the menopause is a difficult decision for many women. [LONG READ]

Sexuality

Here’s the usual, and regular suggestion of ten ways to improve your sex life.

Environment

All the rubbish buried along the Thames estuary is coming back to the surface to bite us. Why do we think we can treat the place like a trash can? [LONG READ]

Japanese knotweed

There’s one thing you do not want in your garden (or anywhere): Japanese Knotweed. [LONG READ]

Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics

Historian and headmaster Sir Anthony Seldon has been writing book-length report cards on British prime ministers for 40 years. His latest is on Boris Johnson, and he’s not impressed.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

Oh dear. Some of the southern Italians are upset. They’ve decides that a mermaid statue is too provocative. Judge for yourself …

mermaid statue, front

mermaid statue, rear

London’s Courtauld Gallery has released almost a million rarely seen photographs from their collections online anf free.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

The Mediterranean keeps producing ancient shipwrecks. Now one off Sicily has been found to contain ingots of a rare alloy called orichalcum.

A look at the Port of London in Roman times.

A large Roman temple in France could have been used for the worship of many gods.

So what was the Medieval attitude to cats?

Food, Drink

Emma Beddington asks why we’re unable to give up salt – but doesn’t come up with a good answer.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

This is Local London website runs a series of thoughtful articles by senior school pupils on various topics. One recent such looks at attitudes to gender identity.

Here are yet another ten reasons to embrace everyday nudity.

normal nudity

normal nudity

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

A study – surely a contender for an Ig Nobel Prize – has discovered that it is “barely possible to identify a beautiful scrotum“. [££££]

conker balls

arts, history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

In keeping with everything springing back to life and growing we have a blossoming collection of links to items you may have missed this month.

Science, Technology, Natural World

First off, here’s a Twitter thread from astrophysicist and science communicator Katie Mack assessing future technology.

Looking the other way, at the consequences of the universe’s origins, there appear to be four possible types of multiverse.

Weirdly it seems that the majority of planets in the Galaxy are in orbit around stars we cannot see. [££££]

And to “homemade” stars … the first atomic bomb (the Trinity Test) created a “forbidden” quasicrystal.

Meanwhile some evolutionary innovations wait millions of years for their chance to shine. [LONG READ]

Wasps complicated social lives can illuminate the evolution of animal societies.

Palaeontologists have recently found the oldest bat skeleton on record.

At the other end of the accessible world scientists have spotted an unknown fish at a record depth of 8300 meters off Japan.

Talking of unknown life in unexpected places … oceanographers have found a massive river and cavern beneath a West Antarctic glacier which is teeming with life. [LONG READ]

Finally in this section of the unexpected, scientists are reporting that plants emit rapid bursts of ultra-sound when stressed – although it isn’t clear if this is an artefact of their structure or a “deliberate” act.

Health, Medicine

Here’s a review of Kate Clancy’s new book Period, which aims to change we understand menstruation.

Sexuality

According to a recent survey Britain is a lot sexier than thought.

In an unsurprising finding it seems sexual wellness and talking about sex helps us flourish.

All of which makes sense when you consider that someone, somewhere, thinks we all need to learn the dos and don’ts of kissing.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

So are coincidences real, or are they merely us spotting patterns which should be expected? [LONG READ]

Art, Literature, Language, Music

Researchers have looked at the science underlying why some Renaissance artists used egg in their oil paints.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Let’s start this long section of history with the Ancient Egyptians … They seem to have been creating automata 4000 years ago.

Also in Ancient Egypt, archaeologists have found a collection of severed hands and suspect it is evidence of trophy-taking.

Across the globe in Mexico archaeologists have found what they believe is a scoreboard for the ancient Mayan ball game pelota (above).

Iceni Queen Boudicca who led a revolt against the Romans is enjoying a resurgence as a symbol of rebellion and a feminist icon.

New dendrochronology shows the Vikings really did live in Newfoundland around 1021, but we don’t know how long for.

A building archaeologist asks “what is a castle?“. [LONG READ]

In a surprise twist Pink Floyd have inspired research into medieval monks and volcanology.

Going Medieval takes a look at nobility, courtship, moral justification, and sexy tapestries. [LONG READ]

In another round of medieval myth-busting our building archaeologist looks at why the historic records may not tell you the date of your house. [LONG READ]

Etchings of the Coronation of Charles II in 1661 by Wenceslaus Hollar have been found hidden in the back of a cupboard.

Temple Bar was once an historic boundary to the City of London – and the site still is. [LONG READ]

They’re digging underneath the Palace of Westminster, and one recent discovery is an 18th-century fish token gaming counter.

London

Over 300 old London street signs are up for auction next month (18 May).

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

In a break with tradition, King Charles will use a new coach for the Coronation procession to Westminster Abbey – and it has electric windows and air con.

Some people absolutely cannot abide being in the same room as some of their hated foods.

People

And finally, the 40-year mystery of three abandoned children and two missing parents.

arts, books, thoughts

On Poetry

Until now I had never read TS Eliot’s The Waste Land. So when Simon Barnes (yes, that Simon Barnes: environmentalist, journalist, author, former Chief Sports Writer of The Times) had a piece recently in The New European I took notice.

I know Barnes slightly; he’s a great fan of Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time and gave the 2022 Anthony Powell Society Annual Lecture just a few weeks ago. So of course I took notice – especially as he read English at the University of Bristol, and I know him to be a thinker.

Why had I not read The Waste Land before? Well, I’m not a great reader of poetry; I never have been, partly because, like so much of English Literature, I was put off it by school. It’s not that I dislike poetry but all the

I wondered lonely as a cloud of golden daffodils

[sic] stuff turns me off, as does most modern so-called poetry that doesn’t scan and doesn’t rhyme – and I’m not even sure how Shakespeare brings off blank verse. So spare me, inter alia, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Longfellow (of the first type) and Allen Ginsberg, Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy (of the second).

But there is poetry I like. Coleridge, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834. Lewis Carroll, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43909/the-hunting-of-the-snark. TS Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (see Eliot can write “proper” verse) – I knew the entire 66 lines of Skimbleshanks off by heart when I was about seven or eight. Roger McGough, Summer with Monika. C Day Lewis, Requiem for the Living. John Updike. Christopher Smart, Jubilate Agno.

But I’m sorry, The Waste Land is pretentious garbage – and the Four Quartets are not that far behind. It neither rhymes (OK, there’s the odd couplet) nor scans. For me it is in the same rubbish bin as Ulysses, Finnegan’s Wake, Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, Edith Sitwell’s Façade. None of them make sense, and they’re pretty unreadable. Pseudo-profound bullshit, one suspects written to make money from a clutch of gullible critics. And were they gulled.

No, sorry, you enjoy it if you want to, but it says nothing to me. Just leave me alone to be a Philistine.