‘Opium! dread agent of unimaginable pleasure and pain! I had heard of it as I had of manna or of ambrosia, but no further. How unmeaning a sound was it at that time: what solemn chords does it now strike upon my heart! what heart-quaking vibrations of sad and happy remembrances! Reverting for a moment … Continue reading Buying the Sunbeam 1: I am tempted
Author: jfmward
Author, bicycle enthusiast
A Silken Seat
(to enlarge any of the pictures below, just click on them) 'When a man says he'll do something, he'll do it - there's no need to remind him every six months' -The Madonna of the Yarnwinder by Leonardo da Vinci It is almost exactly six months since a conversation on the Slow Bicycle Movement … Continue reading A Silken Seat
Switching sides: a confession
When I was younger - more than quarter of a century younger - I did something that I now think was wrong, though I didn’t at the time. I was asked to cover someone’s Higher English evening class and found that they were studying Wordsworth’s poem that begins ‘Up! up! my friend, and quit your … Continue reading Switching sides: a confession
‘The sound must mean mischief’ : M R James and the Age of Uncertainty
J Atkinson Grimshaw, 'Shipping on the Clyde' Is it still possible to write ghost stories or are they mere period curiosities? Let me start by saying that the period and the milieu from which MR James’s stories spring has a strong attraction for me. Things Edwardian afflict me with acute nostalgia (nostalgia, as its name … Continue reading ‘The sound must mean mischief’ : M R James and the Age of Uncertainty
The perils and pitfalls of adaptation in the ghost stories of M R James
('Young Shepherds at Evening Time' by Myles Birket Foster) The usual effect of seeing any film or TV adaptation of a book or story that I like is to send me back to the original, so on that ground alone (assuming I am not the only one so affected) I would say that such adaptations … Continue reading The perils and pitfalls of adaptation in the ghost stories of M R James
In just spring: impromptu circular
(for the map of this route, click here) The best excursions, like the best parties, are impromptu. When you are lazy and idleminded, and prone to melancholy (I am all of these things) then not having to do things generally means not doing them. I work at home (or not, as the case may be). … Continue reading In just spring: impromptu circular
Passionate intensity : ranting and advocacy
(this painting, which brilliantly captures the theme of this piece, is The Orator by the German expressionist Magnus Zeller - click to enlarge: it's worth a closer look)We live in querulous times: there is a lot of anger about; a lot to be angry about. The lines Yeats wrote in 1919 (about the same time Zeller made his … Continue reading Passionate intensity : ranting and advocacy
The saddest pachyderm?
This fine drawing is by the Netherlands-based artist Redmer Hoekstra - (see more of his work here: and his web-page here) As a friend of mine observed, the rhinoceros looks very sad - perhaps he is reflecting on the fact that being a boat and still having to walk seems the worst of both worlds. … Continue reading The saddest pachyderm?
Experiments with Time
Salvador Dali: 'The persistence of Memory' 'An Experiment with Time' is a book I have mentioned before by that interesting Irish inventor and pioneer aeronaut, JW Dunne. It was very popular once and for a time you could almost guarantee that you would find at least one copy in any second-hand book shop you cared to visit … Continue reading Experiments with Time
Force of Habit
'Mind-forged manacles', as well as being one of Blake's most resonant phrases, also shows how well (and succinctly) poetry (and art in general) can express a complex idea that it is difficult to express by standard reasoning. At the heart of Blake's phrase is a contradiction, something that is anathema to conventional reason: 'forging' is … Continue reading Force of Habit
COMPLEAT TROWZER 