Mark Charan Newton

Two very fine ruins, Rievaulx Abbey (the more complete ruin) and Byland Abbey (with the remains of a circular window now looking totally fantastical). Both in North Yorkshire, both victims of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when Henry VIII was getting frisky and needed a little divorce action.

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I shall shambling across the Yorkshire Dales for a few days, investigating, amongst other things, this scandalous affair.
Pubs in Yorkshire have been ordered to ban people from wearing flat caps or other hats so troublemakers can be more easily recognised… “Asking a Yorkshireman to take off his flat cap - whoever heard of anything so [...]

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5am. It always amazes you just how many people are up, which is a clear sign you’re not used to early mornings. They’re not even bleary eyed. They walk with an disarming purpose.
Then the train out into the country—a layer of fog mixes with the haze of the rising sun, forcing an uncertainty across the [...]

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Some thoughts on a book I read late last year. The Alexandria Quartet comprises of four novels, Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea. The first two are the most tightly linked, for everything you know in Justine is looked at from another angle, although still from the same narrator. Mountolive is more distant, and Clea certainly [...]

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I think I love her. Yes, I really think I do.
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And this piece in the Guardian, where some dude is discussing his hatred of second-hand books. You have to admit, he might have a point on one or two of the matters.
It’s all [...]

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I have been tagged by James at Speculative Horizons with regards to the current trend in the blogosphere:
Pick up the nearest book, turn to page 123 and write down the fifth sentence.
In my case, I’m rereading Gene Wolfe’s New Sun series in Severian of the Guild. The quote is:
‘And you have known a great [...]

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Quite possibly the best video ever.
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One of my favourite reference books is The Book Of Imaginary Beings, by Jorge Luis Borges.
If I have a problem with the fantasy genre at the minute, it is that, on occasion, it does not embrace… erm… fantasy. It can be quite conservative in the imagination department, and I wonder where the fantasy has [...]

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Now, I came across Kiva Microfunds and thought the whole thing pretty damn interesting. Apparently, Bill Clinton thought it a good idea too.
Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.
The [...]

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“We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges. When soldiers take their oath they are given a coin, an asimi stamped with the profile of hte Autarch. Their acceptance of that coin is their acceptance of the special duties and [...]

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