It is in line with the perversity of my nature that one of my favourite places in Scotland is Dundee. Aside from its many qualities, one aspect of understanding the city is to know about its history of whaling. (http://www.fdca.org.uk/Whaling_Industry.html) The McManus Galleries (http://www.mcmanus.co.uk/) has excellent displays on the subject, and it was here first in […]
Thomas Perry (http://www.thomasperryauthor.com/Thomas_Perry/Welcome_1.html) has offered a variety of suspense fiction starting with The Butcher’s Boy, which received a 1983 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel. This was followed by Metzger’s Dog, Big Fish, Island, and Sleeping Dogs. He then launched the critically acclaimed Jane Whitefield series. To date he has published
The Bible (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible) is the most widely distributed collection of literary texts in human culture. The Greek word βιβλία (biblía) means ‘books’. Its two parts, The Old and New Testaments between them comprise 66 books. This number itself is contentious because there is no one ‘Bible’. Different faith traditions have fixed their ‘canon’ of Scripture in different ways. It is nevertheless the
The Unauthorized Version by Robin Lane Fox Read More »
David Baldacci (http://davidbaldacci.com/) began writing stories as a child, when his mother gave him a notebook in which to record them. He wrote for more than two decades, penning short stories and later screenplays without much success. While practicing law, he turned to novel writing, taking three years to write Absolute Power. Published in 1996,
The convenience of electrical power is all around us. Like many things it is so much the background to our lives that we take it utterly for granted. Yet, in this case as in so many others, we are standing on the shoulders of giants. One giant to whom we should be grateful is Michael Faraday
The intuition that ‘all is one’ dates back at least to the early Greeks. This sense that there is a fundamental unity to all existence is expressed in Parmenides(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmenides), and is found in much of the ancient religious tradition of the Far East. In more recent times philosphers such as Spinoza articulated their world view
Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs Read More »
Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho (Paulo Coelho – Wikipedia) offered this tale about fear, temptation and responsibility in 2000. The fable is about a man who sets out on a journey to discover the true face of humankind. Viscos is a small village located in France. It has only 281 inhabitants. In the past, the place was crawling with thieves,
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho Read More »
As I write on 19 December 2015 people across the world are preparing to put an organ in their bodies through an assault course. This annual ritual is known as ‘Christmas’. The organ in question is not much discussed in polite conversation, and preferably not at a sacred time of the year. It is the
A myth is not an untruth or a lie. The word ‘myth’ has been hijacked to convey the meaning of falsity in recent decades, but this hijacking has done great disservice to the concept of myth. Myth, rather, is a package, in which deeper truths are contained. Edward Walker argues here that we should recover the value of
Treasure Beneath The Hearth by Edward Walker Read More »
