Wednesday 16 September, 2026

Hope springs eternal We’re in Provence, in a village that had been threatened by the wildfires. One morning we walked up to what I’m calling the “burned treeline” for want of a better term. On a road that had served as a fire-break, there was a house on our left that had narrowly escaped destruction. On the other side of the road were blackened trees as far as the eye could see. And then we spotted this green shoot, emerging from the wreckage. Quote of the Day ”A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” Thomas Mann Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Schubert | Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat, D.960: 1. Molto moderato | Alfred Brendel Link Long Read of the Day The Humanities Are the Moat This essay by Sam Illingworth is a striking defence of academic disciplines that modern societies have been implicitly or explicitly trying to strangle — the Humanities. In it he argues that twenty years of defunding the humanities has created a…