(a racy tale of a manipulative and exploitative relationship, with cross-dressing, starring Speech as Trilby, Writing as Svengali) Trilby by George du Maurier - grandfather of Daphne - has the rare distinction of giving two new words to the English language, one for a type of hat, the other a sort of person. It was … Continue reading Plucked from the chorus line – a fable

(This piece is the origin of the parable I published yesterday as The True Source. Stories and parables are one of our most ancient ways of expressing ideas, so it seemed natural to use one to try and express what I was trying to say about the relation between preliterate society and our own) Here … Continue reading The True Source: a companion piece

Once upon a time there was a farmer who had to travel a long way through desolate country to take his grain to the mill; on the left side of the road that he followed - little more than a track, really - a broad plain spread out, with a long ribbon of mist in … Continue reading The true source: a parable

Much has been said of the gallant little spacecraft New Horizons winging its way past Pluto at 14 kms a sec - it’s taken nine and a half years to get there, a journey of some 3 billion miles - and now it is heading off into the farthest and coldest reaches of our solar … Continue reading The End of All Our Exploring

A young man goes to a wise woman and says, ‘I am a seeker after truth. Show me what is true.’ So the woman takes him to a bell-foundry. She strikes the first bell, which gives out a beautiful clear note, as does the second; but the third is cracked, and gives a flat, dull … Continue reading A Fable

The other day, I was composing a poem in the basilica of Sent Antuan in Istanbul, just before mass (you must forgive this opening: it’s so rarely I get the chance to make such a statement truthfully that I feel I must take the opportunity when it presents itself - and it is relevant, as … Continue reading A Byzantine Epiphany