New Place

Hiding in plain sight
A recent visit to Stratford-upon-Avon revealed a few new angles I’d not fully appreciated before. Shakespeare’s final home, New Place, has in recent years been subjected to extensive archaeological exploration and refashioning for the modern age. Previously you had to enter through Nash’s House (next door) named after the Thomas Nash who married Shakespeare’s grand-daughter, Elizabeth Hall. Now you enter through a beautifully crafted wooden door in the same position as the original gatehouse.

Commuting to London
Germaine Greer’s superb Shakespeare’s Wife produced a brilliant account of the social history of Elizabethan and Jacobean domestic life in the Midlands. One of her central ideas demonstrates how many men in the Midlands would commute to London but live in smaller market towns like Stratford, especially in the winter. 375 years of traditional Shakespearean biographies have claimed that Shakespeare left Stratford for London and never went back until he retired. The evidence suggests otherwise. There is no reason to think Shakespeare was any different to other commuters. He only ever rented temporary lodgings in London.

Roots in Stratford
In his will Shakespeare named 25 beneficiaries. Of those, 21 were connected to his life in Stratford. He bought 107 acres of Stratford land for £302 in 1602 and three years later paid £480 for a share in the Stratford tithes, an annual tax from which he made £60 a year. These are not the actions of someone who didn’t feel he belonged to Warwickshire. Both his daughters married in Stratford and Greer’s biography of Anne Shakespeare (née Hathaway) (and the new archaeology at New Place) persuade me that Anne was a successful brewer and New Place was a thriving and productive hive of (potentially commercial) industry.

New Place
The biggest evidence that Shakespeare belonged to Stratford is of course New Place itself. It was the biggest house in the centre of town, built by the Clopton family in 1483. By the time Shakespeare bought it (for £120 – a schoolmaster’s annual salary was £20), the building had 10 fireplaces and a much greater number of rooms. The latest archaeology has been able to identify the house’s footprint and revealed it had three sides around a courtyard with a freshwater well. Facing the street was the gatehouse side with a long gallery above it; along Chapel Lane was the service block with a kitchen, laundry and brewery; and the main living block, including a Great Hall, angled slightly inwards, protected from the main street and with views over the gardens.

Warm at home, secure and safe
You’d think after at least 30 years of being a Shakespeare fanboy there’d be few surprises left for me. And yet…. if you put two and two together and realise that Shakespeare owned New Place for 19 years of his life (between 1597 and 1616 when he died) and for a good part of the year he lived there, it is inevitable that he would have done some of his writing there. I know this sounds obvious, but the prevailing impression has been that Shakespeare only wrote in garrets in London. Over half Shakespeare’s work was completed during the period he owned New Place. Writers write anywhere and everywhere. It’s inconceivable that his imagination didn’t soar and pour out at New Place.

Boy, let me see the writing

Aspiring author - will my book ever be a page-turner?

Murder your darlings

In Shakespeare’s Richard II, the Duke of York repeats “let me see the writing” twice in the same scene. It’s very tough to show someone your writing. But when you do, miraculous things can happen. Having presented daughter Emily with another new section of my novel to look at, she asked a pertinent question and I removed 250 words within seconds. And instantly saw how much better the page was. Clearer. More vivid. You need a critical eye to help murder your darlings.

And there it is in writing, fairly drawn

So far Emily is my only reader. My “First Reader.” My “Prime Reader.” And will be the only one until I am certain I want a second reader. If I ever do. I want to spend every second with my characters. It’s noticeable that my other retirement projects have fallen away. I’m walking less, which I must change. I’m mopping and hoovering less, which can wait. I haven’t really spent time on jigsaws or piano practice. What happened to learning Italian? Facebook and Emails barely get a look-in. I’m behind on TV, cinema and theatre-going. But I’m fully immersed in the crises on the planet Rhenium.

Bruising edits....

 

Bruising edits

The trilogy was originally called The Akolyte Wars but even that’s changed – it’s now The Rhenium Wars (editor: PS at some point in the future it becomes Rhenium Tales!) and all past labels in this blog have been changed accordingly but, for the record, that change happened on May 1st 2017. As did Raydan’s solo instrument. (He’s my first person character.)  Raydan used to play the violin, but now he plays the mandolin. Why the change? Something clicked about something in a future chapter and a mandolin it had to be…. Write. Edit. Write and edit. Write. Write. Write more. Edit later.

Raydan, possibly, aged 35+ (he's 14 when the book starts....)

Kill your darlings

I attended a Guardian masterclass on writing suspense with Claire McGowan and a very inspiring day it was too with terrific follow-up materials and exercises to complete. It helped me fully understand the notion of murdering or killing your darlings, that famous writerly advice about being ruthless in the editing stage. Don’t be precious about things you’ve written. Slash. Burn. Purge.

Scene of an inspiring writing day....

Origin of phrase?

The true origin of the phrase is lost, I think. Contenders for its invention include: Anton Chekhov, G K Chesterton, William Faulkner, F Scott Fitzgerald, Alan Ginsberg, Eudora Welty and Oscar Wilde. But I’ll quote two:
From Stephen King’s On Writing: a memoir of the craft

“kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”

And from Arthur Quiller-Couch in his 1914 lecture On Style

“If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it — whole-heartedly — and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.”

For no reason other than....

When most I wink

Actual anniversary
Today is my Pearl Anniversary of being married to Sally on July 5th 1986. Thirty years, four houses, two daughters, and two careers later, we are celebrating by going out for a meal tonight. Over the weekend family and friends surrounded us but tonight we’ll be going it alone. Will we have enough to talk about after thirty years? I expect so.

Dud in the pit at Birmingham Hippodrome and afterwards in a Chinese restaurant

There are certain people….
People come and go in your life. Some are “little while” friends and some take root in unexpected ways. I met one such friend in 1979, before I’d met Sally, whose 1998 wedding in Italy I was honoured to attend (along with Sally, Emily and Harriet.) Dudley Phillips, for it is he, loves family, loves music, loves castles, loves reading, loves absurd humour, loves talking, loves listening, loves being quiet, loves eating, loves drinking, loves life – all loves I happily share. Our most recent meeting was prompted by his performance in the Colin Towns’ Mask Orchestra playing Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn music for David Bintley’s Shakespeare Suite for Birmingham Royal Ballet. Dud plays bass guitar thrummingly, dynamically and intricately, always supporting, always driving, always surprising.

Wink
The first piece, choreographed by Jessica Lang, was based on five Shakespeare’s sonnets read tenderly by Alfie Jones, taking as the starting point Sonnet 43 “When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see….” The sonnet can be paraphrased something like the following, and it is as good an expression of friendship as I know:

When I’m asleep, then I see clearly
For during the day I look at things I don’t care about
When I sleep I dream of you.
Your image brightens the darkness of sleep
You brighten the dark
You even brighten the day
Things seem clearer when I think of you.
Day seems like night until I see you
During the night it seems like day when I dream about you.

Dudley Phillips on bass and Wink

A group of ten dancers twisted, turned and lifted through pairs, trios and groups expressing heartbreak, joy, loss, love and anger. A raw violin dominated the music by Jacob Ciupinski, aching with longing, longing with ache.
The Moor’s Pavane
José Limón’s riff on Othello was less abstract and set to stately music by Purcell. The four dancers representing Othello, Desdemona, Iago and Emilia presented a palpable sense of abusive love, smothering emotions and violent outbursts. The contrast between the regular pulse of the music and the discordant actions and reactions between the four performers was deeply disturbing.

The Moor's Pavane

The Shakespeare Suite
The final piece, the highlight, David Bintley’s The Shakespeare Suite, with Dudley’s bass playing, surprised and delighted with sassy variations on Shakespeare plays: a virtuoso Hamlet, a punky Taming of the Shrew, a quirky Richard III, a gothic Macbeth, a comically lusty Midsummer Night’s Dream, a troubling Othello and a lyrical Romeo and Juliet. Each pairing (Kate/Petruchio, Richard III/Lady Anne, Macbeth/Lady Macbeth, Titania/Bottom, Othello/Desdemona and Romeo/Juliet) was scored with a different mood and strangely captured the essence of the whole play without any words at all. Hamlet leapt alone but was surrounded by the other dancers in more abstract outfits symbolising different aspects of his personality (or so I thought….) The designs were startlingly bold (Costumes: Jasper Conran; Lighting: Peter Teigan and Steven Scott.) The Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn music was sexy, strutting, prowling and funny – switching and purring, changing and swinging as the pairings paraded. One of the best things I’ve seen (and heard) this year!

Loyal, Dependable, Non-judgemental, Honest, Open-hearted
A couple of lines that neatly capture my thoughts about Shakespeare (and Dudley….):

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor’d and sorrows end. (from Sonnet 30)

"Come Crush A Cup Of Wine"

First and Second Elizabethan Ages - "Tavern Brawls"

I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking*

(* Cassio from Shakespeare’s Othello)
In my previous blog I sung the praises of BritWit extraordinaire, Adrian Smith, enthusiastic oenophile. It was easy to celebrate the wine-tasting experience by recalling Shakespeare quotations about drinking, given his plays are riddled with references to quaffing. Alcohol is everywhere. I’ve known plenty of people in my life who struggled (and struggle) to moderate drinking. And I’ve never been one to preach since I’ve got my own over-eating disorders and addictions. Modern society is rife with the tussle to control consumption, whether of material goods or of addictive food and drugs.

Nights out that didn't end so well....

Thou'rt a scholar; let us therefore eat and drink*

(* Sir Toby Belch from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night)
I know I drank too much beer and lager as a teenager and sometimes also at university. Some weekends now definitely involve way too much wine, but the fact is that “crushing a cup of wine” (as the Capulet servant invites Romeo to do) is a very sociable and enjoyable thing to do. Throughout history and literature, wine (and beer) have been constant presences in British life.

Come, I will go drink with you*

(* Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff)
I included an image of the gloriously ignominious and indisputably English Falstaff at the end of the last blog. He only appeared in three of Shakespeare’s plays and his death is described in a fourth. (Falstaff appears in Henry IV Parts One and Two as well as in The Merry Wives of Windsor and his death is described by Mistress Quickly in Henry V.) Falstaff certainly dominates Shakespearean images of drinking.

Paola Dionisotti as Mistress Quickly and Antony Sher as Falstaff

The loyal Mistress Quickly even subscribes drink to improving his health and temper, though, alas, she recognizes he has had too much in Henry IV Part Two:

MISTRESS QUICKLY (to Falstaff): I' faith, sweetheart, methinks now you are in an excellent good temperality: your pulsidge beats as extraordinarily as heart would desire; and your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any rose, in good truth, la! But, i' faith, you have drunk too much canaries; and that's a marvellous searching wine, and it perfumes the blood ere one can say 'What's this?'

Judi Dench as Mistress Quickly and Simon Callow as Falstaff

Drink a health to me*

(* Petruchio from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew)
There are many “feasts” in Shakespeare that involve wine (Romeo and Juliet springs to mind) but there are a few key scenes where the drinking starts in a light-hearted way but leads to horrible consequences for one or more of the characters. Timon’s guests eat and drink to financial disaster in Timon of Athens. Trinculo and Stephano get Caliban blind drunk in The Tempest.  Lepidus is the butt of the Romans’ jokes in Antony and Cleopatra’s drinking scene, though it marks a deeper humiliation for Octavius too.

Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, Othello and Timon of Athens

I'll drink no more than will do me good*

(* Mistress Quickly in Henry IV Part Two)
Did the actor who first played Octavius in Antony and Cleopatra also play Cassio in Othello since that scene’s drunken military orgy, orchestrated by Iago, portrays a similarity between what happens to Octavius and the downfall of Cassio – a man desperate to fit in with “the lads” who then drinks too much and suffers later. Did Shakespeare get carried away once too often in the taverns of Stratford and London? Did drink pay a large part in the accidental death/murder/assassination/skirmish in Deptford that ended Kit Marlowe’s life? The scenes in Antony and Cleopatra and Othello are such vivid lad-drinking scenes that Shakespeare must have experienced out-of-control drunkenness in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

The death of Christopher Marlowe - "a Great Reckoning in a Little Room"

These clothes are good enough to drink in*

(* Sir Toby Belch from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night)
Falstaff’s nearest rival for Top Drunk in Shakespeare’s work is Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. Toby utters the immortal line to the Puritan Malvolio who tries to stop the drunken revelry:

TOBY BELCH (to Malvolio): Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

The old reprobate, Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Nigth

There is no doubt the audience are on Toby Belch’s side at this point in the play, even though the sound of drunks when you are trying to get to sleep can be disturbing. As with every theme he covered, Shakespeare presents two sides to the human condition – “good company, good wine, good welcome/Can make good people” is the belief of Guildford in Henry VIII. Cassio in Othello has another perspective on alcohol: “O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!”

Drinking Philosophy 

by Terry Pratchett’s Death and Albert:

Death: "THERE ARE BETTER THINGS IN THE WORLD THAN ALCOHOL, ALBERT."
Albert: "Oh, yes, sir. But alcohol sort of compensates for not getting them.”

Death and Terry Pratchett and an idyllic view of drinking....

Good company, good wine, good welcome

Adrian Smith of Drink Me Magazine with Harriet, Emily and Sally

Have we no wine here?*

August began with an unmissable invitation to a wine-tasting experience organised by the extraordinary Adrian Smith, journalist and oenophile** currently writing for Drink Me Magazine.  His articles are worth checking out if you want to dip into delicious prose and delve into the more devious tips and hints to delight your friends who like to drink wine. 
* paragraph title from Shakespeare’s Coriolanus
** Oenophile = a connoisseur of wines

Language is wine upon the lips*

Adrian greeted his guests with Lanson Père & Fils fizz, a refreshing, yeasty, lively guzzle which allowed us time to take in the ambience of his stylish office space, centrally placed above Leeds railway station. We were allowed a sneak peek of the rooftop garden with inspiring views across Leeds. Who would want to retire with such a pleasant place to work and such a genial job? Adrian is a lucky guy! His online writing provides glimpses into the variety of wining and dining he enjoys in return for his enthusiastic reviews 
* Virginia Woolf invented the title of this paragraph, though it’s a good description of the way Adrian communicates too!

Drink to the general joy of the whole table*

Groaning under a counter top was a selection of edibles (pictured above) including various cheeses and meats for all tastes, with crackers and nibbles to munchily crunch between wines. One new experience for me that will feature on treaty tables in the future is Chaource cheese, a creamy slightly crumblier alternative to Brie. I learned how different glasses release different aromas and there is such a thing as a universal wine-tasting glass. In a job long ago I was a drama teacher to Adrian but on this August afternoon, he was the expert and I was a (happy and increasingly sozzled) pupil.
* paragraph title from Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Eat and drink as friends*

The company was convivial – and of course, as the afternoon progressed and more wines were sampled, the conviviality swelled. This was aided by a very clever competition which involved an aroma test – sampling (in pairs to keep the banter flowing) some sublime, some acrid and some weird smells. The aim was, simply, to identify the kinds of flavours that can go into wine – not so simple after all!
* paragraph title from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew

Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature*

* paragraph title from Shakespeare’s Othello
Iago’s description of wine – a good familiar creature – can only be applied, of course, to social drinkers who haven’t tipped over into the state of being an alcoholic. But throughout history and literature, wine (and beer) have been constant presences in British life. I’ll write about that next time. But for now, what did Adrian serve us?
Whites:

• Rod Easthope Sauvignon Blanc (Light, Citrussy, POPULAR WITH US!) 
• Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc (Gooseberry, Apricot, Flowery, POPULAR WITH US!)
• Greywacke Chardonnay (Tuna, Tomato, Socks, NOT SO POPULAR….)

Rosé:

• Manera Piemonte Rosato (With a kick, Sweet, Light, Peaches, POPULAR WITH US!)

Reds:

• Rod Easthope Pinot Noir (Smoky, Dark Cherry, Earthy, POPULAR WITH ME, LESS SO WITH OTHERS!) 
• Rod Easthope Moteo Syrah (Peppery, Darkly fruity, POPULAR WITH ME, LESS SO WITH OTHERS!)
• Viña Borgia (Spanish, Fruity, Raspberries, POPULAR WITH US!)
• Graffignia Red Blend (Black plum, Vanilla, Ripe, Dry POPULAR WITH ME, LESS SO WITH OTHERS!)
• Graffignia Malbec (Argentinian, Chocolatey, Black pepper, Smokey, POPULAR WITH ME, LESS SO WITH OTHERS!)
• Marques de Casa Concha Merlot (Chile, Blackberry, Full Bodied, POPULAR WITH ME, LESS SO WITH OTHERS!)

What the experience taught me is to taste with confidence and trust my palate. It’s clear that perhaps I’m less discriminating than the rest of my family when drinking wine! Many thanks, BritWit Adrian, for hosting a delectable afternoon of drinking pleasure!

This England: Love and Marriage

“Why, sir, you know this is your wedding-day” – from Taming of the Shrew

It was wonderful to attend two family weddings recently: (Laura’s here and Gemma’s here.) There can’t be many events in the human calendar that are more optimistic than a wedding – two people setting out on what they hope will be a lifetime commitment. Two people investing in a future together, choosing to be thought of as a couple rather than two individuals.

An unorthodox wedding in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew

Memorable weddings
Both recent family weddings were affirming and inspiring events. I haven’t been to so many weddings that they have become routine. All the ones I have been to as an adult have been distinctive and memorable. One for a work colleague at Victoria Hall in Saltaire included the couple rising through the stage on a Wurlitzer organ. One at a hotel on the Wirral had quirky balloon table decorations. Leeds Town Hall was the magnificent setting for a civil partnership ceremony for two men who sported stylish brooches for buttonholes. Personalised touches seem to be the way to get your wedding remembered.

Historically, church weddings are modern
Marriage has been a non-religious institution far longer than it has been a religious institution. Only in the 12th Century – 1184 – did priests begin to preside over weddings. Until the 16th Century the betrothal part of the ceremony was allowed only in the church porch. It makes sense, therefore, that weddings in hotels, in forest glades, on beaches, in castles and in town halls are not only legitimate but they are more traditional than church weddings which are – in historical terms – new-fangled.

Irish Common Sense
The recent vote by the Irish people to change the constitution to allow gay marriage is a triumph of progress and civilisation, in my opinion. It is truly wonderful (I’m full of wonder about it) that one of the most famously Catholic countries in the world has been the first to legalise gay marriage by popular vote. Objections to gay weddings are borne out of prejudice, not historical development. The argument that weddings are the property of the church and are purely for the procreation of children makes no historical sense.

Rainbow over Dublin as Ireland's people votes to allow gay marriage

A threat to family life?
Why on earth wouldn’t a country in the 21st Century allow two humans to commit for the foreseeable future to loving and supporting each other? If a creator God exists, hasn’t he created everyone in His/Her loving image? Doesn't He/She promote that Love is Everything? Two men or two women marrying will not threaten the march of time, destroy the ozone layer or awaken the sleeping horsemen of the apocalypse.

Christian scripture
Jesus had nothing to say about gay relationships but was very clear about not condemning others.

• he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her….And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee…. I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.  (John 8)

The Old Testament rules forbidding sex between the same gender (Leviticus 18) also ban: 
• sex during menstruation
• mixing meat and dairy (eg cheeseburger, lasagne)
• eating pork
• touching a dead pig
• being uncircumcised
• working on the Sabbath
• being a drunk
• planting more than one kind of seed in a field
• wearing mixed fabrics
• clipping the edges of your beard.

And that list is just the obvious selection. President Bartlett in The West Wing expressed it well (in the clip linked here; the relevant bit starts around the 2:15 mark.) If all those bullet points above are now allowed (and have been for a very long time), why pick on one item in the forbidden list that simply fits a prejudice?

"These couples shall eternally be knit" – from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Historically (and rationally, logically and philosophically), therefore, committing to another person in public in front of witnesses seems to have nothing to do with religion or sexuality and everything to do with love, friendship and loyalty. All good things. Non-church, non-religious weddings have a longer history than church or religious weddings. Any two people can join their hands in matrimony (it used to be called hand-fasting) and therefore gay marriage is a perfectly proper historical act.

Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream - a dreamy ending!

Love Thy Neighbour
And, just in case anyone worries about what Jesus’s own rules are:

• ….thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.  (Mark 12)

Anything legislating against love, therefore, seems to be distinctly un-Christian.

If God is the Creator, He/She Created Everybody

H is for Hawk

Helen Macdonald

Congratulations to Helen Macdonald for the prizes she has won (e.g. Samuel Johnson non-fiction, Costa book of the year) for H is for Hawk. Not to everyone’s taste (it seems from some nit-picking commentators) but the memoir’s success has revived interest in TH White, a writer from my own childhood that I’ve mentioned before. I am looking forward to reading Macdonald’s book when it is out in paperback but for now I’ve enjoyed the thought of it and reveled in the tangled muddle people get into whilst trying to fathom her use of the biography of TH White.
A Grief Observed
H is for Hawk concerns three strands: the grief Macdonald felt when her father died, her decision to train a goshawk named Mabel and the biography of TH White, the author of The Goshawk. The success of whether or not she succeeds in integrating these three strands is what the reviewers want to analyse. But as a fanboy reader I’m (oddly) looking forward to reading about grief; having retired it seems that bereavement is one of the most significant experiences in life – looking back and looking forward. I’d like to see how Macdonald expresses the earthquake of losing her father. The best account I’ve ever read, thus far, of grief is in CS Lewis’s A Grief Observed, a book I read soon after my Mum died.  I’m open to other suggestions….

Taming the Wild

I imagine that taming Mabel (the goshawk in the memoir) is equated with taming the self, taming the emotions, taming the grief. I might be wrong but taming has a long history in culture and literature from Taming of the Shrew (which I’ve seen and directed) to Barry Hines's Kestrel for a Knave (which I’ve read and taught) to 50 Shades of Grey (only a guess here since I haven’t read it – will I see the film?  Probably not.) In 1486 The Book of St Albans listed a falconry hierarchy so Golden Eagles were for Emperors, Falcons for Princes, Merlins for Milady, Sparrowhawks for a Priest and a Kestrel for a Knave. A Goshawk was for a Yeoman, a word surviving now for the Yeoman of the Guard at the Tower of London, but in medieval times probably meaning an employee of a noble household.

 The Goshawk

Helen Macdonald cites her reading of TH White’s The Goshawk as an event that inspired her in her teenage years. I read a copy borrowed from Wakefield Library in the summer before I was fifteen. Why did I choose it to read? My older brother had been interested in birds of prey and the film of Kes had made a permanent and formative impact. I knew that TH White had written The Sword in the Stone, the book on which the Disney film was based but I hadn’t read that, just enjoyed the cartoon. So it seemed to fit the creed of my charismatic English teacher, Mary Cohen, a book that “called” to me instinctively. Don’t choose books because you feel you should read them, she taught. Choose books that choose you. Don’t read a book you are not enjoying; stop it and choose another. Reading is for pleasure, for escapism, for opening your heart, mind and soul.  

Violence and War

The Goshawk completely floored me. I ought to re-read it since I am only remembering the impressions it left on me. It felt like a book about the sadness and tragedy of the human race, an account of White’s dread of the effects of violence and war. I remember crying in a central section (no spoilers) and at the end feeling a wild sense of optimism. It took me on an imaginary rollercoaster of emotions. It revealed allegory to me in a powerful way.This book that contained diagrams and instructions about hawking also posed questions about man’s inhumanity to man, through the interactions the narrator had with the natural world. I suppose I’m hoping Helen Macdonald’s memoir is going to do something similar for me. Should I be even writing about a book that I haven’t read yet? Sometimes anticipating a book can cause flights of fantasy.... and The Goshawk led directly to the book that changed my life.... 

One thing leads to another....