One of the key settings in my novel Dancing Prince is a small island in the Orkneys, off Scotland’s northwest coast. It’s an archaeological dig, and what’s discovered is a Viking tomb, where no evidence of Viking habitation had been found. A bit to the east, in the Shetland Islands, what is believed to be a Viking town has been discovered. Life imitates fiction?
If you’ve seen the movie The Monuments Men, you know the story of how a small band of art experts was created to recover the tens of thousands of artworks looted by the Nazis (the movie is based on the non-fiction of the same title by Robert Edesl). But did you know that the Monuments Men risked court martial by protesting what began to look like the looting of German museums by the U.S. military of a collection of masterpieces that toured the United States? Martin Bailey at The Art Newspaper has the story.
If you’ve experienced fatherhood (or grandfather-hood), you know the joy of holding that child for the first time. Lee Hutchings, writing at Gentle Reformation, experienced first-time fatherhood in a neonatal intensive care unit, and he talks about the lessons he learned. Casey Cep, writing at The New Yorker (of all places), talks about what happened when she read the Old Testament while she was pregnant.
More Good Reads
Writing and Literature
Mike Mulligan and the Work of Virginia Lee Burton – Kelly Keller at Story Warren.
Psst: Charles Dickens had the secret bookcase door you’ve always dreamed of – Emily Temple at Literary Hub.
The Art and Commerce of the Blurb – Tom Beer at Kirkus Reviews.
Laughing laureate of Western decline: Please take Michel Houellebecq’s mocking critiques of our debased modern world seriously – Ben Sixsmith at The Critic Magazine.
Life and Culture
Nostalgic for Events That Haven’t Happened Yet – Chris Martin at Terms of Service.
The death of the English literature degree – Alexander Larman at The Critic Magazine.
The Left’s War on Gifted Kids – David Frum at The Atlantic.
Abolishing tenure is the least of my proposals – Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution.
Poetry
Take Up the Tale – Malcolm Guite.
Psalm from the Dollhouse – Carla Funk at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).
Faith
If Not Twitter, Then What? – Samuel D. James at Insights.
The Foolishness of Preaching – Jonathan Landry Cruse at Tabletalk Magazine.
History
The Untold Story of the Expedition to Find the Legendary Ark of the Covenant – Brad Ricca at The History Reader.
British Stuff
All Change: The century that changed London forever – Miranda Malins at History Today.
American Stuff
The Appomattox (or Shenandoah) Parole Passes and Confederate Cavalry After Appomattox – Jon Tracey at Emerging Civil War.
The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face – Peter, Paul & Mary
Painting: Woman Reading, oil on canvas by Jacque-Emile Blanche (1861-1942).
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