HAKA BALWEYTH (Cornish Mining Chant) Kober! Arghans! Sten! Sten! Sten! Yn pub karrek? Yn pub men! Kober! Arghans! Sten! Sten! Sten! An gwella sten? Yn Kernow! [Audio version of this chant to encourage the Man Engine to rise: HERE – … Continue reading
The Man Engine is the largest mechanical puppet ever constructed in Britain. He stands at 4.5m when he’s on his transporter, or when he ‘crawls’, rising to 10.2m when his ‘transformation’ has taken place and he ‘stands’ erect. … Continue reading
Lucia Berlin, A Manual for Cleaning Women. Picador paperback 2016. First published 2015. Lucia Berlin had an eventful life. Born in Alaska in 1936, she travelled extensively in the USA in her youth because of her mining engineer father’s work; … Continue reading
My latest posts have resulted from my end-of-holiday travels in this beautiful county of Cornwall as I strive to make the most of my fortunate location before work resumes soon. On Sunday we went to the Roseland Peninsula, named according … Continue reading
Yesterday’s post about my trip with my wife to Penwith, in the far west of Cornwall, ended with a mention of an art gallery in St Just: the Jackson Foundation. Kurt Jackson is one of our favourite artists, and probably … Continue reading
My long summer break is coming to an end, so my wife and I are trying to make the most of our beautiful county of Cornwall. Yesterday we drove down to St Just in Penrith – the most westerly of … Continue reading
So, Lawrence has established himself in his ‘Promised Land’ of Cornwall. He’s aware it’s not Florida, where he’d hoped to establish his Utopian ‘colony’ of artist-philosophers, Rananim, with disciple-friends like John Middleton Murry and Katherine Mansfield (‘truly blood kin’, he … Continue reading
“When we came over the shoulder of the wild hill, above the sea, to Zennor, I felt we were coming into the Promised Land. I know there will be a new heaven and a new earth take place now: we … Continue reading
William Trevor (1928-2016), The Boarding-House. Penguin, 1968. (fp 1965) In John, 2:18 Jesus said: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He’s predicting his death and resurrection; as such, the words represent a promise, not … Continue reading
Patricia Highsmith: Edith’s Diary. VMC 2015. First published 1977 Patricia Highsmith’s psychological thrillers probe the twisted minds and lives of people who adopt an oblique approach to what most would call reality. (Carol, which I posted about last summer, is … Continue reading