Friday 21 August, 2026

Mugshot I was brooding about Keynes the other day (because of something I’m writing) and suddenly looked at the mug on my desk, and there he was, courtesy of a David Low cartoon in the New Statesman of 1932! Quote of the Day ”The three great elements of modern civilisation: gunpowder, printing and the Protestant religion.” Thomas Carlyle Miserable bugger he was, too. Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Bob Dylan | Like a Rolling Stone Link A truly wonderful song about hubris. Long Read of the Day ‘Plastered Saint’ If you want a compellingly readable memoir in which the author paints a self-portrait ‘warts and all’ (as Cromwell memorably demanded of a portrait painter), then Terry Eagleton’s your man. And here is a fine example of him at his confessional best. If you’re puzzled by the title, then you’ll just have to read on. I got into Cambridge but stumbled through my time there sick at heart. I suppose I was unconsciously convinced that I had killed my father in order to…