Sam Leith
@questingvole.bsky.social
@spectator lit ed. “Clock-white, still friendly to the earth.” https://bit.ly/TheHauntedWood
It’s that time of year again: here are some of the books I’ve enjoyed this summer. If you’ve read any good ones, let me know!
Worth reading this one to the end. The final couple of paragraphs are chef’s kiss stuff.
Reform tells councillors to say donation inquiry is a ‘smear’ and ‘hit job’
The Metropolitan Police are investigating donations made to the party by Fiona Cottrell, mother of the fraudster ‘Posh George’, who has been funding Nigel Farage
thetimes.com
Worth reading this one to the end. The final couple of paragraphs are chef’s kiss stuff.
Reform tells councillors to say donation inquiry is a ‘smear’ and ‘hit job’
The Metropolitan Police are investigating donations made to the party by Fiona Cottrell, mother of the fraudster ‘Posh George’, who has been funding Nigel Farage
thetimes.com
On the language of Homeric Greek, and the language of a certain forthcoming film: here are a few simple observations.
ICYMI: my heartfelt praise for the book all #rhetoric geeks, and anyone else for that matter, should own.
The Book That Changed My Life (or, at least, one of them)
Rhetoric, re-reading
open.substack.com
Oh my god this is tense. I didn’t think I cared about football but I discover that I really, really want David Baddiel to have to write a new song.
A beginner's guide to the tricolon, featuring Julius Caesar, Winston Churchill, and the best and most meaningless tricolon of the 21st century.
Tricola
Rhetoric; not the Pepsi Challenge
open.substack.com
did not know that Carol Ann Duffy and it's wonderful
This is a delight to read. On the lost sensation of a party happening around you to the found poetry of the shipping forecast. Then into focus on a more particular, personal loss.
Sam Leith@questingvole.bsky.social · last mo.On feeling melancholy and listening to the Shipping Forecast
On feeling melancholy and listening to the Shipping Forecast
The Shipping Forecast
Anatomy of (my) melancholy
open.substack.com
Sam Leith (author of the The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading) on Beatrix Potter. He's asking questions that I've never worried about, but perhaps you have....
Sam Leith@questingvole.bsky.social · 2mo ago
This is superb. I suspect Sam's well-argued, well-written piece will find more sympathetic readers than Will Self's infamous diatribe describing Orwell as 'the supreme mediocrity' though he's making some similar points about those who follow his rules in slavishly pedantic fashion...
Sam Leith@questingvole.bsky.social · 2mo ago
This, from @questingvole.bsky.social, is chock-full of good advice (which I may or may not have ignored by using a strictly unnecessary word in the foregoing).
What Orwell Got Wrong About Language
Writing: feat Georges Orwell and Weidenfeld, wise words from T S Eliot and the chance to tease my old friend Simon Heffer
samleith.substack.com
Omg. It was Tom who did that brilliant thing with Heffer I mentioned.
Tom Freeman@tomfreeman.bsky.social · 2mo agoGreat piece on that much-revered Orwell article, which contains some good stuff but is kind of patchy. Also: it me!