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The Wool-gatherer is the pseudonym of Hugh Parry. I have taught literature courses in adult education for around 30 years. A few of my victims have been with me for much, or even all, of that time. Leaving aside the personal pleasure of this, a professional advantage is that I have always needed to look …

ARTEMIS

Up to a point, this is mainstream legend – perhaps even history: The vast Greek expeditionary army heading for Troy found itself stuck at Aulis because of a persistently unfavourable wind. The seer Calchas (Cressida’s father) was made aware that the goddess Artemis demanded the sacrifice of Iphigenia, one of the daughters of Agamemnon, the …

A GHOST STORY

When I was a very small child, the farm kitchen was kingdom enough, though naturally I would make excursions into the mysterious worlds of the other rooms and the walled farmyard outside. The dominant piece of furniture in the room was a massive oak Welsh dresser, with three shelves adorned with willow-pattern plates and ewers. …

ATHENE

Let’s get her origins over and done with. The poet Hesiod (early 8th century B.C.), describing Zeus’s sex-life, informs us: Now Zeus, king of the gods, first took to wife Metis, wisest of all, of gods and men. But when she was about to bear her child, Grey-eyed Athene, he deceived her mind With clever …

THE MAP OF CHILDHOOD 1

It was a strange fate that brought my mother from the security and orderliness of housekeeper-companion to a cultured Edinburgh widow to the primitive poverty of a two-roomed cottage in the Clwydian hills and life with a landless farmer’s son. My paternal grandfather was a dictatorial patriarch of the old school running his two small …

MERCURY RISING

One of the functions of the Greek god Hermes was as a messenger; also, he could be said to be a courier. The company of which he is the titular patron has been one of the better ones in recent months, but, if Hermes lets humanity down sometimes, it is not surprising for several reasons, one …

CHILDREN – AND THEIR DANGERS

We all suffered from the usual childhood illnesses: chicken pox, measles, mumps, German measles and whooping cough. There were no vaccinations against them in those days. I went down with chicken pox while Mum was still confined to bed after the birth of Fred [Olive’s younger brother]. So that the new baby didn’t catch it, …

HARRY GRAHAM

In 1899, Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes was published, without, as far as I know, the Home Secretary being inundated by ‘snowflakes’ protesting, which is yet another warning against lumping whole eras into narrow categories. All the same, Graham was taking pot shots at particularly sacred cows: the sanctity of the family; the innocence of …

THE JOYS OF HOUSEWORK IN THE 30’s AND 40’s

Mum cooked on the paraffin stoves or on the cast iron range in the kitchen, the main living room. Lighting was by candles or by a paraffin Aladdin lamp. All this was bad enough by present standards, but what really shocks me is the amount of cleaning Mum did. She was very house-proud and conscientious, …

A FEW PARODIES

Charles Calverley was famous in his day as a parodist. You don’t have to know Browning to appreciate this stylistic avalanche of noisy silliness – but it helps. This is the poet going out of his house on an inclement day, with money in his pocket that will enable him to make an unforeseen purchase:Mark …

CHARLES CALVERLEY, PART 2

The cat who was complaining in Part 1 of the blog about being unfairly blamed for cruelty and domestic damage now recalls her more vivid past:I remember, I remember, how one night I fleeted by,And gained the blessed tiles and gazed into the cold clear sky.I remember, I remember, how my little lovers came;And there, …