John Baker’s Blog

At Prospect, Richard Jenkyns discusses what he calls canon anxiety. In a lengthy but never less than interesting essay, Do We Need A Literary Canon? he argues that our sense of belonging, our shared references, must evolve more organically.
Consider the most striking literary canonisation of our times. Jane Austen has always been esteemed, and [...]

This novel would make an excellent gift for any young people you know who are thinking of becoming missionaries.
As night fell, burning torches were set on wooden tripods and the young men raised a song. The elders sat in a circle and the singers went round singing each man’s praise as they came before him. [...]

We were at The Shed as part of an invited audience to help Graham Fellows record a half-hour programme for Radio Four.
Fellows is a British comedian, perhaps better known to many people in his incarnation of John Shuttleworth, an aspiring singer/songwriter from Sheffield in South Yorkshire, and a bit of a nerd.
The recording for Radio [...]

Crimeficreader has done tagged me again. My first impulse was to run, and I did, round and round and ended up in the same position, but panting. I’m not going to tag anyone else.
Thanks for a continuing parade of new things to read, and especially for Charlote Perkins Gilman and The Yellow Wall-Paper.
Thanks for improving [...]