All Purls. No Swine.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to post, with permission, my Ricochet friend Seawriter's book reviews here. This one is particularly interesting, involving a book I haven't read yet, but which encompasses a subject dear to my heart, whether it be via a familial obligation, professional expertise, or simply a heartfelt interest. One of the most… Continue reading Book Review By Seawriter: On Reading the Enemy’s Email
She was born in Birmingham on January 23, 1912, into an England that was rending itself apart. Suffragettes demanding a woman’s right to vote were chaining themselves to Parliament’s railings, smashing storefront windows in Oxford Street, and living-room windows in Downing Street. Newly-empowered Socialist labor unions were flexing their muscle, threatening strikes in coal mining,… Continue reading Jenny Alice May Mapson, R.I.P.
I had a peripatetic childhood, and by the time I finished high school I’d attended well over a dozen schools on three different continents, with time off for good behavior during a glorious year (in about third grade) where there wasn’t a school anywhere in sight. My mother, who was largely disinterested in her parenting… Continue reading Entertaining Angels: Life Comes Full Circle Edition
The first book of the trilogy, Toward the Gleam, appeared in 2011. A fantasy, the book’s premise was that J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth legendaria were based on actual events. Author T. M. Doran bases a central character on Tolkien--John Hill, who finds a prehistoric manuscript preserved over thousands of years. Set in the… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: Kataklusmós, The Conclusion of an Epic Fantasy Trilogy
Oh, holy cow. It’s January 22. Exactly 120 years ago today that Queen Victoria popped her clogs breathed her last. I don’t know why the recency of that date surprises me so much. Perhaps because so many members of my family whom I remember were alive on that date. Great Granny, who was born four years… Continue reading The Widow At Windsor
Happy January 21! The sun has come up, the earth is still turning, and life goes on in these United States. Today is, according to legend, the 1717th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Agnes of Rome, patron saint of young girls and defender of the chaste. Brutally murdered in AD 304 at the order… Continue reading “Lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon”
It's been, as my mother used to say, "as cold as charity" around Chateau Right for the past few days, chilly, damp and blustery--very reminiscent of a long-ago Thanksgiving and one of the most magical episodes of my life. I refer, of course, to the strange case of the Macedonia Baptist Bunnies. If I were… Continue reading Macedonia Baptist Bunnies!
One of my favorite authors, Rudyard Kipling, died 85 years ago today. Eighty-five years. Lord, not all that long ago. I’m within two decades of that lived milestone myself. (I’m 66, for those of you who are keeping track, or who’d like to weigh in on what an irrelevant old hag I am.) On that… Continue reading “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!”
Why do men fight, and why are they willing to continue to fight to the last man, preferring death to surrender? T. E. Lawrence said men go to war “because the women were watching.” According to Michael Walsh, in his new book, Lawrence’s answer holds more truth than irony. Men fight for their families. Last… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: Why Men Fight
Sixty years ago today, my idyllic life as an only child came to an end and I began the rest of my life as a sibling. We were living in Mubi, in the British Cameroons which was, at the time, administered as a United Nations Trust Territory. In a few short months, a plebiscite would… Continue reading “Two Different Faces”–Happy Birthday, Sis!