Really this has gone too far. Last year, I reviewed for this magazine books upon subjects ranging from forensic science to the Spanish Armada, always hopeful that the next assignment was going to be slightly more up my street, or wherever. And now look – The History of Creek Philosophy; I mean, what kind of a title is that to send a guy with a degree in sanitary engineering from Heriot-Watt and a PhD in creative writing from the State University at Bowling Green? I believe the editors, due to a surfeit of lampreys, preserved ginger, and Bailey’s Irish Cream over Yuletide (or perhaps at the contributor’s party, to which I was not invited), may have been indulging in some form of little joke.  

Because the truth is, I don’t know Pythagoras from Postman Pat, except in so much as I can understand the old Greek better than the patently idiotic cartoon; and the only thing I can recall distinctly about Socrates is that he never actually wrote anything, although there is apparently an