Biographer (Ackerley, Isherwood), Historian (The Old Lie, The Last Veteran, Housman Country), Journalist & Editor. And out now: Some Men In London, Vol 1
Joined June 2013
- Tweets 7,171
- Following 1,732
- Followers 2,455
- Likes 13,305
3,150 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
Mar 13
My X account was hacked twice. Now I have regained control and warn everyone not to click on any links in messages like the one below. Huge apologies for all this. Please make sure you have your 2-factor authentication turned on to avoid my fate.
5
13
714
“An actor is often a soul which wishes to reveal itself to the world but dare not [...] and at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerise a group of innocents.” Alec Guinness, born 2 April 1914
#alecguinness #acting
1
7
33
722
“Your ‘Youth’ has fallen from its shelf,
And you have fallen, you yourself.
They knocked a soldier on the head,
I mourn the poet who fell dead.
And yet I think it was by chance,
By oversight you died in France.”
Isaac Rosenberg, killed in action 1 April 1918
#isaacrosenberg
3
14
218
Mar 31
“Then, as my soul to heaven, her first seat, takes flight,
And earth-born body in the earth shall dwell,
So fall my sins, that all may have their right,
To where they’are bred, and would press me, to hell...”
John Donne, died 31 March 1631
#johndonne #poem
4
23
390
Mar 30
“I ran out in the morning, when the air was clean and new,
And all the grass was glittering and grey with autumn dew,
I ran out to the apple tree and pulled an apple down,
And all the bells were ringing in the old grey town.”
Frances Cornford, born 30 March 1886
#francescornford
3
17
359
Mar 29
“I had come with such pain and labour to a place where emptiness had arrived before me. I was too late, something black and hollow had overtaken me and wriggled through the door.”
Denton Welch, born 29 March 1915
#dentonwelch
1
8
21
493
Mar 28
“No American company would have dared to make it, and a very few were brave, their word, enough to screen it in the States. We have come a long way now … anything goes. Which is a great pity.”
Dirk Bogarde, born 28 March 1921, on the film Victim (1961)
#dirkbogarde #victim
3
3
26
488
Mar 27
“I
don't wear brown and grey suits all the time,
do I? No. I wear workshirts to the opera,
often. I want my feet to be bare,
I want my face to be shaven, and my heart—
you can't plan on the heart, but
the better part of it, my poetry, is open.”
Frank O’Hara born 27 March 1926
4
21
572
Mar 26
“With the great gale we journey
That breathes from gardens thinned,
Borne in the drift of blossoms
Whose petals throng the wind;
Buoyed on the heaven-ward whisper
Of dancing leaflets whirled
From all the woods that autumn
Bereaves in all the world.”
A.E.Housman, b. 26 March 1859
1
8
27
658
Mar 25
“There are images that stay vividly in your mind, even after many years: images coupled with the feeling that at the same time came to you. Sometimes you can know that such an image has been selected to stay with you forever...”
Paul Scott, born 25 March 1920
2
6
24
1,174
Mar 24
“Apart from the desire to produce beautiful things, the leading passion of my life has been and is hatred of modern civilization.”
William Morris, born 24 March 1834
#williammorris
17
45
1,977
Mar 23
“The blackbird flies with panic,
The swallow goes with light,
The finches move like ladies,
The owl floats by at night;
But the great and flashing magpie
He flies as artists might.”
T.P. Cameron Wilson, killed in action, 23 March 1918
#warpoem
1
2
14
269
Mar 22
“Class amusements, be they for Dukes or plow-boys, always become nuisances and curses to a country. The true charm of cricket and hunting is that they are still, more or less sociable and universal...”
Thomas Hughes, died 22 March 1896
#thomashughes #cricket
14
260
Mar 21
“Near a whole week had elapsed without my writing a single page of [my journal]. By way therefore of penance for my idleness, and by way of making up the time lost, I determined to sit up all night; which I accordingly did, and wrote a great deal.”
James #Boswell, 21 March 1763
2
5
42
5,850
Mar 20
“The blessèd part has not been given to me
Gladly to suffer fools, I do confess
I have enticed and merited distress,
By this, that I have never bow’d the knee
Before the shrine of wise Hypocrisy...”
Lord Alfred Douglas, died 20 March 1945, excusing his life-long intemperance.
13
307
Mar 19
“Little islands are all large prisons; one cannot look at the sea without wishing for the wings of a swallow.”
Sir Richard Burton, born 19 March 1821
#sirichardburton #explorer
3
8
268
Mar 18
“A short life and a merry one, my buck!
We used to say we’d hate to live dead-old,—
Yet now ... I’d willingly be puffy, bald,
And patriotic. Buffers catch from boys
At least the jokes hurled at them.”
Wilfred Owen, born 18 March 1893
#wilfredowen #poem #warpoetry
4
14
273
Mar 17
“Yesterday I began drawing the great Mr [John] Osborne, tall, thin, spectral: in black skin-tight trousers that showed a cute bottom and a huge lunch. And camp, my dear – not ’arf.”
Colin Spencer, 17 March 1962
#johnosborne #colinspencer
8
193
Mar 16
“Mosley spoke for an hour and a half and to my dismay seemed to have the meeting mainly with him.”
George Orwell, Barnsley, 16 March 1936
#georgeorwell #oswaldmosley
1
3
18
1,415
Mar 15
“The winds are sometimes sad to me,
The starry spaces, full of fear;
Mine is the sorrow on the sea,
And mine the sigh of places drear.”
Lionel Johnson, born 15 March 1867
#lioneljohnson #poem
1
1
19
1,468
Mar 14
“Lady Curzon’s birthday – we dined with her quietly [...] Lord Curzon is still very weak, He was allowed three oysters, but ate four to spite his doctor.”
Chips Channon, 14 March 1925
[Curzon died six days later.]
#lordcurzon #chipschannon
5
12
72
3,158