Category Archives: Backstory for Conceit
Long View of London from Bankside by Wenceslaus Hollar
The most famous view of London is by Wenceslaus Hollar, titled “Long View of London From Bankside”, which shows the dense tapestry of buildings on either side of the Thames. The view stretches from the Globe Theatre, at the left (west) to the Tower of London on the right (east). I made good use of a huge print of this… Read More
John Donne’s Island and the Brexit Perplex
No one more worthy of being quoted on the Brexit issue than the great English priest and poet, John Donne: No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory… Read More
Re-enactment of John Donne’s Gunpowder Sermon, 1622
On November 5, 1622, the Dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, John Donne (the main subject of my novel, Conceit), preached a sermon in St Paul’s yard for Gunpowder Day. A brilliant digital re-creation of this sermon, which includes elaborate models, diagrams, videos, and acoustic files, gives us the amazing opportunity to be part of the large crowd listening to John Donne on… Read More
London Before the Great Fire of 1666
What did London look like before the Great Fire of 1666 that destroyed the old Saint Paul’s Cathedral? Six students from De Montfort University in Leicester “have turned a historic map into a realistic and detailed 3D animation of Tudor London,” says The Telegraph. “The video shows the area around Pudding Lane in the City of London before the Great… Read More