Skip to content

Category Archives: correspondence

Trouble at’ Mill

Notes on the life (and afterlife) of JS Mill, philosopher . The classical liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill was born and died this month – in, respectively, 1806 and 1873 – and in between he wrote (or co-wrote, with his wife, and then his step-daughter) On Liberty, Utilitarianism, Principles of Political Economy, Considerations of Representative Government, […]

(Re)building a library

Confessions of a bibliomaniac in the South Atlantic. — For The Critic

The Very Old New Normal

An ancient livery company celebrates St George’s Day and a year of successful ‘virtual’ operation in the teeth of Covid-19 . A year ago today, around the swelteringest part of the Sri Lankan year, I clambered to the roof of our apartment building in Colombo, donned my lairiest tropical shirt, cracked a Lion ‘larger’, and, […]

Research and rescue

The Falkland Islands bids farewell to the RRS James Clark Ross, and a Marylebone gallery hosts a virtual exhibition of Antarctic photographs. — For The Critic

The Evensong at the End of the World

On singing evensong for Candlemas, in Stanley Cathedral. — For The Critic

Quarantined in the Falkland Islands: 2

The saga continues. — For The Critic

Crashed and Burnsed

On giving a poetically bad speech to the Caledonian Society of Sri Lanka, at the Galle Literary Festival. — For The Critic

Quarantined in the Falkland Islands: 1

From South Asia to the South Atlantic, in the time of Covid. — For The Critic

Bookselling: my part in its downfall

Some thoughts on my brief time at Waterstone’s, along with a review of Shaun Bythell’s Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops. — For The Critic

None shall sleep

A Toscca seminar on potential catastrophe in the Caucasus. — For The Critic