Monthly Archives: February 2021

Do you remember your books?

Posted on 3rd February 2021 by Ian

Steve Lamacq asked listeners to his BBC Radio Six programme what books they studied in schooldays. The answers he received were familiar, the texts may still feature on some GCSE syllabuses. Among the responses were George Orwell’s Animal Farm and … Continue reading →

Posted in Unreliable memories | Leave a comment

Adaptation

Posted on 2nd February 2021 by Ian

Beneath the crest on the front of my sweatshirt, the motto read, “rerum cognoscere causas.” “What does that mean asked someone in the Glastonbury pub?” “To know the causes of things,” I said. “What does that mean?” they replied. There … Continue reading →

Posted in The stuff of daily life | Leave a comment

Short-sightedness

Posted on 1st February 2021 by Ian

Did people in the Nineteenth Century have better eyesight? The print in some books is so extraordinarily small that it is a wonder that it could have been read by the lamplight or candles which lit the average house. Anyone … Continue reading →

Posted in The stuff of daily life | 1 Comment