I’m off elsewhere.
It was fun for a while. I have made friends, exchanged ideas and found inspiration here. But no more.
Adieu.
Here, by way of envoi, are some favourite blue sky paintings. #DutchLight
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30 Oct 2023
Estuary in Scotland
The northlands by dutchlight
are pearl to the gullseye
the breeze from the river
a stairsweep for pigeons.
The breadwork of harvest
gives crust to the partridge
and the mistings of autumn
are fogs in the oakwood.
Charles Johnston, 1974
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Four years ago, I was living here. Thanks to @Letterenfonds @DutchLiterature #DutchLight #Huygens
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After my #DutchLight talk at #WWWDartington22 I travelled back from Devon following part of the route taken to London by the soon-to-be William III, his secretary Constantijn Huygens jr and their 21,000-strong invasion army in 1688. They landed at Brixham . . .
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Looking forward to talking about #DutchLight and how Christiaan Huygens set science in Europe on the right path: Friday 15 July @Ways_With_Words in beautiful Devon. Come if you can.
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Oh all right then.
Ahem. You can read about him in my prize-winning biography #DutchLight. It’s quite fat but very readable, they say.
Happy birthday, Christiaan Huygens, discoverer of Titan and Saturn’s rings, inventor of the pendulum clock, and author of the wave theory of light, born #otd 1629.
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New review of #DutchLight: ‘anyone who plunges in . . . is suddenly on a wonderful journey through a turbulent time in the history of science and learns a lot about the vulnerable and often hesitant person behind the great researcher [Huygens]’ swr.de/swr2/literatur/nette-…
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I am delighted and honoured that #DutchLight has won the biennial Samuel Pepys Award. It was great fun meeting Pepys Club members for food and drink, readings and bawdy songs.
This medal is an astonishing piece of craftsmanship. How many events from Pepys’s life can you find?
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Who’s that girl? Mysterious figures doodled by Christiaan Huygens appear amid calculations and drawings of clock mechanisms in his scientific notes. On the @spectator books podcast, @questingvole and I discuss the mysteries of his private life #DutchLight spectator.co.uk/podcasts/boo…
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Many wonderful reviews for #DutchLight:
‘This book, soaked like the Dutch Republic itself “in ink and paint”, is enchanting to the point of escapism . . .’
— Simon Ings, @spectator
‘A clever and comprehensive portrait of a unique mind’
— Chris Allnutt, @FT
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For the paperback edition of #DutchLight, out today, the light is paler, more like this Ludolf Bakhuizen than the Salomon van Ruisdael tones of the hardback.
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At last, #DutchLight is out in paperback. All the same words, the same lovely colour images, the same glittering array of 17th century personages, the same frankly surprising footnotes. Just £10.99 or less.
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Thanks for your interest. Sadly there’s little I can add. I have this précis of the story in my #DutchLight. The source (in Latin and Dutch) is here: dbnl.org/tekst/huyg003oeuv01…
I looked for a mention in Tulp’s Observationes medicae, but found nothing.
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A few things you might not expect to come across in a biography of a 17th century scientist:
sexting
gender reassignment surgery
cannibalism
solar-powered devices
euthanasia
ice cream
#DutchLight
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A great new resource for book lovers here.
Based on #DutchLight, @bwb asked me to pick five favourite books about the Dutch ‘Golden Age’. I chose @simon_schama, @LauraJSnyder, @StellaTillyard, @anne_goldgar and Steven Nadler. shepherd.com/best-books/dutc…
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Another lovely review from across the North Sea for #DutchLight. My ‘foreigner’s tribute’ to Christiaan Huygens is judged ‘impressive, highly readable’. Yay!
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I think I can confidently say I have examples of all three types in #DutchLight.
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22 Mar 2021
Rivers, streams, canals, lakes, ponds, the sea. The abundance of water in 🇳🇱 , and its reflection against the clouds, greatly influenced Dutch painters. The documentary #DutchLight (2003) was an eye-opener.
Also for aesthetic reasons, I #valuewater . images.app.goo.gl/3D3z34vy1a…
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