The city dissolves about us, and its walls
Are mountains of rock cruelly carved by wind.
Sand streams down their wasting sides, sand
Mounts upward slowly about them: foot and hand
We crawl and bleed among them! Is this Senlin?

In the desert of Senlin must we live and die?
We hear the decay of rocks, the crash of boulders,
Snarling of sand on sand. 'Senlin!' we cry.
'Senlin!' again . . . Our shadows revolve in silence
Under the soulless brilliance of blue sky.

From "Senlin: A Biography" by Conrad Aiken

Diary 2015

Lazy journalism

20th May 2015

The Guardian tells us that black girls have a "prodigious appetite" for literature unlike white boys who are described as the "least enthusiastic" readers.

This is lazy journalism. What has colour got to do with it? I don't imagine either of these groups excels or flounders because of their colour.

The Guardian has history here, once describing Constance Briscoe as a "black barrister", whereas she is, in fact, a barrister.

Good grief, do we never learn?

Crossrail 2

21/11/2015

What a lot of fuss over the proposal to put a Crossrail 2 station in the Kings Road. Invest or die! Most of the objectors seem to be closer to the latter than the former.