David Gelber
In Search of Lost Pediments
Holland Blind Twilight
By John Martin Robinson
Mount Orleans Press 207pp £25 order from our bookshop
The cover of Holland Blind Twilight, the second volume of John Martin Robinson’s memoirs, shows the author in herald’s uniform within a Gothic ciborium. It points to his twin identity as modern courtier and architectural historian with a belligerent preference for the decaying, the feudal and the Catholic. The first volume, chronicling his upbringing in Lancashire and his coming of age at St Andrews and Oxford, was published as long ago as 2006. Holland Blind Twilight takes up the story with Robinson launching himself into the London conservation world in the mid-1970s.
At just over two hundred pages, this new book’s length is clearly not the reason for the hiatus. Nor does the immediacy of its material explain it: the text barely ventures beyond the 1990s – meaning that we are spared Robinson’s thoughts on the present state of the National Trust.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'The day Simon and I Vespa-d from Daunt to Daunt to John Sandoe to Hatchards to Goldsboro, places where many of the booksellers have become my friends over the years, was the one with the high puffy clouds, the very strong breeze, the cool-warm sunlight.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/temple-of-vespa
Some salient thoughts on book collecting from Michael Dirda with a semi tragic conclusion that I suspect many of us can relate to from the @Lit_Review #WednesdayMotivation
Sign up to our newsletter! Get free articles, selections from the archive, subscription offers and competitions delivered straight to your inbox.
http://ow.ly/zZcW50JfgN5