David

OLD KENSINGTON, A NOVEL by Anny Thackeray Ritchie, was first published in 1879. Not much read now, in its time the book was highly popular and went into five editions. It came out as Kensington was taking its modern shape, the elegant squares and terraces of stucco town houses that define the area today replacing the ramshackle houses and fields of the mid-century when the romance was set. “In those days,” she wrote, “…the hawthorn spread across the fields and marketgardens that lay between Kensington and the River. Lanes ran to Chelsea, to Fulham, to North End…there were strawberry beds, green, white and crimson in turn…there was a Kensington world…somewhat apart from the big uneasy … [Read more...] about From Victorian Kensington to Bloomsbury: A Literary Legacy

When Joseph Whitworth was growing up in Stockport, the man who became the greatest mechanical engineer of the Victorian age witnessed a traumatic sight. In 1812, this unlovely industrial town on the outskirts of Manchester was overrun by Luddite rioters, all the more terrifying as they were wearing women’s clothes as they went on the rampage, smashing power looms and burning down textiles mills. Many of the Luddites were later hanged, their protest against new technology in vain. Today, the impact of new technology on jobs and social order is as burning a political and economic question as it was in the 19th century. In recent years, millions of Americans and others around the world have … [Read more...] about Why we should never listen to the Luddites

By David Waller When completed in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was one of the great feats of nineteenth century civil engineering. To this day, it is as much a symbol of New York as the city’s vaulting skyscrapers, an epic work of stone and steel that spans 1600 feet across the East River. Born and brought up in Manhattan, Erica Wagner describes how the bridge hadn’t really impinged on her consciousness until her teens. But one Christmas she walked across and had a sudden realisation that it was a thing of poetry, miles of quivering steel wire hanging improbably from two massive granite towers. The bridge became something of an obsession for Wagner, even after she moved to the UK … [Read more...] about Review of Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling: The Man Who Built The Brooklyn Bridge, by Erica Wagner

David Waller draws encouraging parallels between today's turbulent book world and the Victorian fin de siècle. Is the digital revolution in publishing a good or a bad thing for writers and readers? The arrival of ebooks and the Kindle and distribution by Amazon have led to turmoil in the book trade. For every self-published sensation à la Fifty Shades of Grey, there are dozens of tales of novelists or biographers who can't get published at all. As with all revolutions, it feels as though the changes we are living through are unprecedented. Civilisation seems to be coming to an end and, as William Butler Yeats put it, great art is beaten down. But look at the last great upheaval in book … [Read more...] about Quality will survive the digital disruption

I am about forty feet above the ground, pinching a nose of smooth gritstone with one hand and pushing down on an imperceptible rugosity with the other. My feet are scrabbling to find purchase and if I do not manage to lurch another six inches upwards towards that jug-handle of rock, I am due for a rapid and possibly terminal descent towards the scree below. My climbing partner is holding the other end of the rope, but this offers little more than moral support. Both he and I know that that the carefully placed protection laced into the ledges between me and the ground will rip out the moment any weight is placed on them. Especially my weight, for even at the age of 17, I'm 13.5 stone, … [Read more...] about Saturday Dave Looks Back