Monthly Archives: June 2010

So  many books, so little time.  Some pot­ted com­ments. Wolf Hall by Hil­ary Man­tel. An amaz­ing achieve­ment — present tense through­out, and through the eyes of the Tudor politi­cian, Thomas Crom­well.  It cre­ates an utterly believ­able milieu, though which the … Con­tinue read­ing →

North­ern Broad­sides and the Can­ter­bury Tales.  The amaz­ing ver­sat­il­ity of this theatre troupe in the ser­vice of one of the great story-tellers of the Middle Ages.  A selec­tion of pil­grims plus a rather naïve poet who scribbles busily as they … Con­tinue read­ing →

This play is just bril­liant.  So many chances to be maudlin, sen­ti­mental, to dilute the suf­fer­ing of humans by con­cen­trat­ing on the suf­fer­ing of anim­als — but none of those pits fallen into.  Present­ing WWI through the story of the … Con­tinue read­ing →