Eclipse

Well, here in Lichfield, we had a typically English eclipse – which is to say that a magnificent bank of cloud (something scarcely seen in the past three weeks) rolled into place bang on time, right in front of the eclipsing sun, and in an otherwise largely blue sky. 'The world is disgracefully managed,' as Ronald Firbank's Mrs Shamefoot puts it. 'One hardly knows to whom to complain.' We had a couple of glimpses of the sun, so knew roughly what was going on, but the eclipse-viewing pinhole cameras lovingly constructed for the occasion were barely needed. And actually it didn't seem to get notably darker at any point – nothing like the total eclipse I remember from 1999, when darkness fell in the middle of the day and the birds ceased to sing. Could it be that the whole thing had been somewhat overhyped, what with this being the Silly Season and everyone liking these dramas in the skies, such as they are? There seems to be a very marked difference between 90 percent and 100 percent…