#cecil day lewis

[victusinveritas]

The Volunteer

Tell them in England, if they ask What brought us to these wars, To this plateau beneath the night’s Grave manifold of stars –

It was not fraud or foolishness, Glory, revenge, or pay: We came because our open eyes Could see no other way.

There was no other way to keep Man’s flickering truth alight: These stars will witness that our course Burned briefer, not less bright.

Beyond the wasted olive-groves, The furthest lift of land, There calls a country that was ours And here shall be regained.

Shine on us, memoried and real, Green-water-silken meads: Rivers of home, refresh our path Whom here your influence leads.

Here in a parched and stranger place We fight for England free, The good our fathers won for her, The land they hoped to see.

by Cecil Day Lewis

[ariellewm]

[frimleyblogger]

Head Of A Traveller

My thoughts on Head of a Traveller by #NicholasBlake #CrimeFiction #BookReview

A review of Head of a Traveller by Nicholas Blake – 240207 At the end of The Head of a Traveller, the ninth in Nicholas Blake’s Nigel Strangeways series, originally published in 1949, the sleuth is on the horn of a dilemma. He has in his possession a written confession from someone he admires greatly but has now committed suicide that if handed to the police would tarnish their reputation.…

[pablolf]

For sacrifice, there are certain principles - Few, but essential.   I do not mean your ritual. This you have learnt - The garland, the salt, a correct use of the knife, And what to do with the blood: Though it is worth reminding you that no two Sacrifices ever turn out alike - Not where this god is concerned.   The celebrant's approach may be summed up In three words - patience, joy, Disinterestedness. Remember, you do not sacrifice For your own glory or peace of mind: You are there to assist the clients and please the god.   It goes without saying That only the best is good enough for the god. But the best - I must emphasize it - even your best Will by no means always be found acceptable. Do not be discouraged: Some lizard or passing cat may taste your sacrifice And bless the god: it will not be entirely wasted.   But the crucial point is this: You are called only to make the sacrifice: Whether or no he enters into it Is the god's affair; and whatever the handbooks say, You can neither command his presence nor explain it - All you can do is to make it possible. If the sacrifice catches fire of its own accord On the altar, well and good. But do not Flatter yourself that discipline and devotion Have wrought the miracle: they have only allowed it. So luck is all I can wish you, or need wish you. And every time you prepare to lay yourself On the altar and offer again what you have to offer, Remember, my son, Those words - patience, joy, disinterestedness.

Final Instructions by Cecil Day Lewis

[notesonfilm1]

The Beast Must Die (Viñoly Barreto, Argentina, 1952)

THE BEAST MUST DIE (1952) is another fabulous rescue mission from Flicker Alley and The Film Noir Foundation. An adaptation of a detective novel by Cecil Day Lewis – Daniel’s father – under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake, the fourth novel in the Strangeways series. The beast is a rich industrialist who beats his wife, abuses his stepchild, and is openly having an affair with his business…

[mrmousetolliver]

Cecil Day-Lewis (1942) by Cecil Beaton. Anglo Irish poet and father of Daniel Day-Lewis.

[mudwerks]

(via Killer Covers: And a Very Merry Christmas to All!)

The Corpse in the Snowman, by “Nicholas Blake,” aka Cecil Day-Lewis (Popular Library, 1945). Cover art by H. Lawrence Hoffman

[prismaticxchromatics]

A Room with a View (1985) Director: James Ivory

“A far off the towers of Florence and she wandered as though in a dream through the wavering golden sea of barley touched with crimson stains of poppies. All unobserved he came to her. Isn't it immortal? There came from his lips no wordy protestations such as formal lovers use, no eloquence was his, nor did he suffer from the lack of it. He simply unfolded her in his manly arms… What is it about Italy that makes lady novelists reach such summits of absurdity?”

[billlaotian]

[kindredspiritsandgoodomens]

"She was a spoilt child, and spoilt children are apt to grow up irresponsible, and irresponsible adults - by not facing the seriousness of their own actions - do create a dream atmosphere that affects outsiders too."

Nigel Strangeways

Malice in Wonderland, Nicholas Blake (pseud. Cecil Day-Lewis), 1940

[desdasiwrites]

The river this November afternoon

Rests in an equipoise of sun and cloud:

A glooming light, a gleaming darkness shroud

Its passage. All seems tranquil, all in tune.

– Cecil Day-Lewis, The Complete Poems of C. Day Lewis

[origami-butterfly]

*I left out my three least favourites because there's 15 on the anthology, but those three were: Climbing my Grandfather (Andrew Waterhouses), Love's Philosophy (Percy Shelley) and Before You Were Mine (Carol Ann Duffy)

Power and Conflict version of this poll

[scotianostra]

On September 26th 1994 Jessie Kesson, the author of Another Time Another Place, died.

Born Jessie Grant McDonald in a workhouse in Inverness, Jessie spent her early childhood in an Elgin slum. Aged 10, she was taken from her mother and put into an orphanage for the next six years. After school, a period of varied jobs and accommodation led to a nervous breakdown and a year in Aberdeen Royal Mental Hospital.

At 19, Jessie was 'boarded out' (or fostered) from the hospital to an old woman near Loch Ness. She rejoiced in her freedom and the beauty of her new surroundings. During this time, she met Johnnie Kesson, her future husband. They had two children and moved to London in the 1950s.

Kesson held a wide variety of jobs, including Woolworth's shop assistant, life model, BBC Radio producer, drama teacher, and working night shifts in a children's care home.

She worked full-time until she was 60 years old, and continued her writing career throughout this time. By the 1950s, Kesson was regularly published in Scottish periodicals and had written several radio plays. In an interview Jessie once said ' I've never felt I would write the great big novel. I've aye wanted to write the sma' perfect!'

Kesson gathered a number of notable friends throughout her life, including publishers, agents and fellow writers. Her friends included great Nan Shepherd, Flora Garry, Lisa St Aubin de Terán, Cecil Day Lewis and Neil Gunn. She also maintained many lifelong friendships from her early days in north-east Scotland.

She died in 1994, and her ashes were scattered with her husband's on the banks of Loch Ness near where they first met.

As well as her books Jessie's work was most notably made into a film, Another Time, Another Place, in 1983, starring Phylis Logan, Tom Watson and Gregor Fisher, and The White Bird Passes, was adapted for TV in 1980, she also wrote over 100 plays for radio.

Moment of Communication with List D. Girl.

F - - - off! she said. Dismissing me and my persuasions with a contemptuous stare that crinkled to a smile of small surprise When I in anger roared F - - - off to Where??

Sincerely, Jessie Kesson

[frimleyblogger]

The Dreadful Hollow

My thoughts on The Dreadful Hollow by #NicholasBlake #CrimeFiction #BookReview

A review of The Dreadful Hollow by Nicholas Blake – 240311 Drawing its title from the opening line of Tennyson’s Maud: A Monodrama, the tenth book in Nicholas Blake’s Nigel Strangeways series, originally published in 1953, starts off as a relatively simple case of poison-pen letters, but takes a grimmer and more disturbing turn midway through the book. One of the characters, Stanford Blick,…

[fearandhatred]

this poem (walking away by cecil day lewis) has literally stuck with me for years now and it's about a parent and their child but this part is also about aziraphale and crowley

photoset by alex!!

[kafka-bug]

I have had worse partings, but none that so Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly Saying what God alone could perfectly show - How selfhood begins with a walking away, And love is proved in the letting go.

Cecil Day-Lewis, Walking Away