fourth edition

The economic recession has claimed many victims. The first phase saw people losing jobs, companies going bankrupt and banks folding. Experts say that this first wave is over. Signs of economic growth are visible in the financial sectors. We are now living through the second phase: spending cuts have to be made. This is all [...]

It is not often that people are praying for my soul when I’m at knitting group. Tonight was certainly different. We got caught up in evangelical Christians protesting the play Jesus Queen of Heaven outside Glasgow’s Tron Theatre which involved the press and some (rather bored) policemen. As odd as the praying thing was, it [...]

“It is a sign of a deeply disturbed civilization where Tree huggers and Whale huggers in their weirdness are acceptable… while no one embraces the last speakers of a language.” -Werner Herzog
Found here which looks at whether we should preserve languages and whether a world with monolithic language usage would be a bad thing? More [...]

“This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England… as radically, if not more so, as the Sutton Hoo discoveries. Absolutely the equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells.” – Leslie Webster, Former Keeper, Department of Prehistory and Europe, British Museum
The UK’s largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure has been discovered [...]

I saw this* and then I started missing academia once more and also really, really wanted to move to London. But, you know, life isn’t so bad. Thursday I’ll be baby-sitting the Old Maiden Aunt studio as Lilith’s away, so do pop by West Kilbride if you fancy buying some lovely handpainted yarn and a [...]

Perhaps the real question is not why you read, but how you read. This observation was brought to you from me having finished Julian Barnes’ Flaubert’s Parrot just an hour ago. I was certain I had read the book before – but I’m not sure. I recognised the opening chapter. It is entirely possible I [...]

Why do you read? It is such a fundamental question. I ran into it the other day when I was discussing the Western canon in an internet setting (I know, I should avoid those). As always the answers intrigued me more than the actual question. One answer will invariably emerge: “The point of reading is [...]

I like many things, but there are not many things that I love. I definitely love incunabula (books printed between 1455 and 1500) and early modern period printed books. Yesterday I went to Edinburgh to look at some very old printed books from Scotland. I was not disappointed.
I have long been interested in and worked [...]