Leaving off ‘the book’ for a while. I’ve written most of it in draft, and at amazing speed, but am unhappy with it. That’s partly because I thought I could finish it by recycling a chapter from my about-to-be-published Britain Before Brexit (BBB; chapter 14, if anyone’s interested), but it doesn’t seem to work. These short cuts never do. Final chapters have to grow organically out of what has gone before. In a bit of a Bruckner phase just now, I was put in mind of the attempts to complete his unfinished 9^th symphony (actually 10^th or 11^th if you count symphonies nos. 0 and 00) by tacking his Te Deum on to the end. That didn’t work either. I’ll put the book aside for now, and return to it when my thoughts are more settled.

I still haven’t seen a copy of BBB, sent to me from the UK nearly a month ago, but delayed either by Covid or Brexit or Postnord – there’s no way of knowing which. It’s frustrating, not being able to hold my new baby in my arms.

Still, more time for blogging. Which will resume shortly, I hope. I’d like to write about present-day young ‘anti-imperialists’, who don’t know a bloody thing about it; the Right-wing coup in the UK; liars in government; and depression. (If I can get out of the one I’m in now.)