Wednesday 11 July 2012

As beautiful as falcons against the sky








Liz Smith about Hilary Mantel in her review of 'Bring Up the Bodies' in The Huffington Post, 31 May 2012:

The author is a lyrical mysterious Shakespearean sort of writer, her words as beautiful as falcons against the sky, then landing with gore on their talons.

She is.


"But Parliament cannot see how it is the state's job to create work. Are not these matters in God's hands, and is not poverty and dereliction part of his eternal order?...It is an outrage to the rich and enterprising to suggest that they should pay an income tax, only to put bread in the mouths of the work shy. And if Secretary Cromwell argues that famine provokes criminality: well, are there not hangmen enough?"

Not so much has changed, has it, really, underneath.




Vittore Carpaccio, Portrait of a Knight, 1510