Lilacs, False blue, White, Purple, Color of lilac, Your great puffs of flowers Are everywhere in this my New England. Among your heart-shaped leaves Orange orioles hop like music-box birds and sing Their little weak soft songs; In the crooks of your branches The bright eyes of song sparrows sitting on spotted eggs Peer restlessly … More Lilacs
Few weeks ago, I had surgery and I am only now trying to catch up on all the intended blog posts, including this one on the first Finnish bible in the Old Library of St John’s College, Oxford, kindly shown to me by their Assistant Librarian Ruth Ogden last month. I wondered about saving this … More One important book
On Saturday the Weston Library celebrated the centenary of the Hogarth Press with a pair of lectures (Dame Hermione Lee!) and a marathon printing workshop in the Old Bod. I had no idea that the Schola Musicae is now used as a print shop by the library – a whole treasure trove of ancient printing … More Lately
Warning: this post is heavy on poetry and purple prose. On the Bank Holiday Monday couple of friends and I set off to visit the Sissinghurst Castle in Kent. It was a cold, rather dreary day, the sky hanging low, and no amount of wishing and hoping on out part would make the clouds part. … More England’s song
I wrote this post already couple weeks ago, but never got around to publishing it – as much as I love the Wimsey novels, I am actually a bit lost on what to write about them or about Dorothy L. Sayers herself, and this post shows it; my apologies for what looks like a really … More On reading Dorothy L. Sayers, Part 1
I very strongly associate some writers, books, pieces of music with specific seasons. It is finally summer(ish) in England, and the first warm, long evenings have made me reach for Virginia Woolf. Fingering my copy of A Room of One’s Own (the edition is from the year I was born), I wanted to write a … More Virginia, Virginia!
Shakespeare for absolute beginners 