WOOL-GATHERER 18

 

 

‘You Do Bird Impressions? We’ll Let You Know’:   Is technical flashiness compatible with artistry?

 

‘The Foreword Writer Pushes Himself Forward’:   An apologist for Caruso is rude about Wagner fans.

 

‘Your Best Friend is a Fool’:   Some thoughts about Touchstone, fools and Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson.

 

‘ England 0  France 0’:   English victories in the 100 Years’ War, seen from different sides (See Extracts Page).

 

‘A Fair Cop’:   Victorian female detectives and Gothic predecessors (See Extracts Page).

 

‘A Bird in the Bower Worth Two on the Throne’:   Mistresses kept in secret places:Locrine and Tennyson’s Becket.

 

‘Stoicism in Interesting Times’:   The philosophical letters of Seneca.

 

‘The Rationale of Murder’:   Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Dickensian analogues.

 

‘The Lady is a Doormat’:   Put-upon wives in the Shakespeare apocrypha:The London Prodigal and A Yorkshire Tragedy.

 

‘Herod, Don’t be so Horrid’:   Poetry and libretti of John Fuller.

‘Seeing the Light’:   Imagery of light in R.S. Thomas.