Today's posts

 

 

 

The poem this week is ‘An Old Tale of Swan’s Ale’.   Why not a light-hearted story in verse for a change? This is from Western Australia where I spent a very happy time in 1975.

 

The letter from my terrace in Palma is number 12, ‘One Man in an Ambulance’. 

 

‘Johnson of London’. Here is part 22, the final part. ’The light in the window’     

Today we have finished ‘Johnson of London’, and Boswell is now busy writing his life.  Do dip into Boswell’s biography of Johnson if this play has whetted your appetite.  Don’t be methodical but read wherever the page falls open.  It is guaranteed enjoyment!  

Read about Johnson’s first meeting with Boswell or about his night excursion around London with Langton and Beauclerk.  Some editions show Johnson’s age as well as the year at the top of every page and this helps to see how active he remained well into his seventies.

Johnson has inspired many other biographies.  The one by John Wain (not John Wayne!) is also a great pleasure to read.