As I continue to work towards telling the story of Hindle Walbarrow I find I must also bring a somewhat lesser figure to mind. I must allow the light of history to illuminate, briefly, the unworthy face of Trastin Leer. It must be confessed that somebody who lacks any pretensions to wit or original thought … More A love story, part three. Only the words.
When contemplating telling the story of Hindle Walbarrow It occurred to me that I must first tell the salutary tale of the House of Bumblewin. The Bumblewins are usurers and will indeed lend money. But they are also calculate actuarial tables and even more importantly, they produce the compound interest tables that so many … More A love story, part two. Getting the numbers to add up.
I wished to tell the story of Hindle Walbarrow. But then I ran into a problem. For it to be at all comprehensible I had to provide all sorts of background and exposition. Matters were getting hopelessly complicated and poor Hindle was getting lost in the extraneous baggage others were bringing to his life. To … More A love story, part one. The outer edges of poetry.
Between ourselves I’m not sure I’ve got the right term. I know that there’s light opera, so surely the very existence of the term supposes something heavier? Yet I’ve never heard anybody use the term ‘heavy opera’ so I’ve entitled this anecdote ‘travelling opera’ instead. To be fair Madam Fenisque was involved with a very … More Travelling Opera
It has to be confessed that as a child, Maljie was often short of money. Still she did what she could to remedy this, but was wise enough to realise that blackmailing older siblings was not a sustainable business model. Thus one particularly hot summer she got the idea of having a pool. Given that … More Nymphs and Chimney Sweeps.
It was only the other day when I stopped to chat to old Niccan Tillovit. He’s one of those I think of as ‘the old gang.’ They were the wild young things when I was just a child. They set a standard of debauchery, they were the group that an even older generation fulminated against. … More How tight can you get?
I don’t know about anybody else, but I am certainly left struggling when somebody tells me to act my age. Given that I have never been this age before, I don’t know how I ought to behave. Thus I am always ‘acting’ my age. If by some means I could discover how I was supposed … More Acting your age.
The events chronicled in this story happened some time ago. Thus the people mentioned were, by definition, younger and perhaps more prone to impulsive acts. I hope you will keep this in mind. This is perhaps not the place to be too judgemental. It appears that in Port Naain there was something of a … More Sleigh ride?
There are some who claim that Maljie has, in her time, been a celebrated leader of fashion. Others, less generous, have asked just when this time was. Indeed they hint that it might have been about the time we stopped wearing poorly tanned hides or garments of woven grass. To be fair, I don’t remember … More Wearing the trousers
I was about to start this anecdote by commenting that people have told me that Bartrum Keelhow is mad. Then it occurred to me that it is an introduction I have used rather more often that perhaps I ought to. But that has set me thinking, do I know a lot of mad people? To … More The making of great art
