Hilaire Belloc bought King's Land (in Shipley, Sussex), 5 acres and a working windmill for £1000 in 1907 and it was his home for the rest of his life. Belloc loved Sussex as few other writers have loved her: he lived there for most of his 83 years, he tramped the length and breadth of the county, slept under her hedgerows, drank in her inns, sailed her coast and her rivers and wrote several incomparable books about her. "He does not die that can bequeath Some influence to the land he knows, Or dares, persistent, interwreath Love permanent with the wild hedgerows; He does not die, but still remains Substantiate with his darling plains."

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Monday 14 October 2013

Belloc on Milton...


James the II by Cornelius Johnson

I have increased the number of links, to Belloc's works, on my Blog. If you scroll down you will find them on the right hand side. I have a policy of promoting all of Belloc's works, irrespective of their quality and content. With this in mind, one of the new links will take you to James II. By his own admission this was not one of his weightier tomes. He wrote it in a hurry and for money. Whereas his book on Milton is, as A N Wilson rightly identifies (in my view), one of his best works. Even so, whilst Hilaire was clearly an admirer of Miltonic verse, he certainly had reservations about Milton's character.






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