Simply, Castle Howard is Brideshead. And Brideshead is, in my considered view, such an inseparable part of the soul of the English character that to visit it is to make a pilgrimage to, perhaps, the very heart of post-war England.... (read more)
Since the periodicity of my long-running quotations series has been getting asymptotic with infinity, here are the quotes that have been piling up since the last edition... (read more)
"I knew Sebastian by sight long before I met him. That was unavoidable for, from his first week, he was the most conspicuous man of his year by reason of his beauty, which was arresting, and his eccentricities of behaviour, which seemed to know no bounds.... (read more)
So in all my patting myself on the back for recent good news on the book front . . . I've egregiously neglected to pat on the back those who emphatically deserve it most: that is, YOU.... (read more)
Oh, and by the bye - would you have any interest in taking a crack at Ben Nevis, perhaps in August?... (read more)
Dispatch from the Razor's Edge lives to serve! You ask, we respond. (Well, when we can scrape the time together. And when we can be bothered. Basically, when we get inspired.)... (read more)
"'Just the place to bury a crock of gold,' said Sebastian. 'I should like to bury something precious in every place where I've been happy and then, when I was old and ugly and miserable, I could come back and dig it up and remember.'"... (read more)