Sublime

Others, including Priestley and both Darwins, used their commonplace books as a repository for a vast miscellany of hunches.

Quite a strange man, thought James, watching him go – but what a relief to discover he still contained the capacity to be taken by surprise.

Francis Spufford writes, “We don’t have an argument that solves the problem of the cruel world, but we have a story.”

I know it’s heresy, but I have to say, I’ve never really got the point of opera?” He says this comfortably. He says it as if, his whole square-chinned life long, he has been saying confidently stupid things, and the world has reliably responded by saying, good point, Rory old man.