On Friday, April 9th at 7.30pm, I will be giving an online talk with the above title for the Ely Astronomy Club. It will be literary and...

On one occasion, over a quarter of a century ago, at a party of highly intelligent, liberal, literary young people - largely, like me,...

Generally, I regard the television as a mind-rotting menace. In fact, I only acquired a set for the first time about a decade ago when I...

Those of you kind enough to read my previous Lovecraft post may well have been either impressed or horrified that I somehow managed to...

During the period of relative lockdown relaxation in the Autumn I made some small effort to support the catering and entertainment...

I wonder how many other people fortified themselves against the baleful final afternoon of 2020 by listening to all three and a half...

Well, it seems this year that the Booker got it right. The winning book was the one universally predicted by readers, critics and...

Without wanting to sound too much like the egregious Prince Andrew, I can confidently say that I remember pretty clearly what I was doing...

In June of 1851, Herman Melville paused his work on Moby-Dick to write a fascinating letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ostensibly an apology...

It's an old joke. Teacher surprises schoolboy pouring over the works of Lovecraft and promptly confiscates the book, believing it to be...

I can remember in the early 1990s passing a giant poster in the London Undergroud made up of two contrasting panels depicting the...

Out after midnight this morning, stargazing with the Ely Astronomy Club. Just four of us - suitably distanced - amongst the freeways and...

Firstly, I must thank all of you who have so far connected with the blog - a generous response that raised my spirits over a midweek when...

Hello! In July of 1842, the 21 year old Herman Melville jumped ship at Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands - at that time one of the most...