Author Archives: rimboval

About rimboval

Writer, thinker and proud grandfather

Trumpism

Posted on 16/02/2024 by rimboval

Following Donald Trump’s first wave of caucus elections for nomination as American president it’s worth examining how a man so manifestly unsuitable for the office has managed to achieve serious consideration of such an eventuality.  The quick answer, as widely … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Trans

Posted on 25/05/2023 by rimboval
Posted in Journeys and destinations | Tagged | Comments Off on Trans

Maestro Giotto

Posted on 19/02/2023 by rimboval

Now when Giotto was beginning to grow famous, it happened that the Pope was anxious to have the walls of the great Cathedral of St. Peter at Rome decorated. So he sent messengers all over Italy to find out who … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, music and beauty | Tagged | Leave a comment

Mr Collins

Posted on 18/01/2023 by rimboval

Someone told me, years ago, that a girl we both knew had compared me to Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice.  Of course I vehemently denied this, pointing out that I was nothing like the pompous fearful clergyman so well … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal story | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A dying fall

Posted on 13/01/2023 by rimboval

Something bad happens to the Mountbatten-Windsor dynasty whenever one of its senior figures goes one-to-one in front of the cameras, or a book.  The king, his ex-wife, both of his brothers and now his second son have all found themselves … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellany | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Charles II

Posted on 08/01/2023 by rimboval

“May I add another evocative example (Letters, 5 November)? Maurice Bowra, the legendary warden of Wadham College, records in his Memories (1966) meeting an old Wadham man, Frederic Harrison, then aged 92. Harrison had gone to Oxford in 1849 and remembered the … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellany | Tagged , | Leave a comment

President or what?

Posted on 21/12/2022 by rimboval

Charles III’s automatic accession to the British throne at the age of 74 provides ample reason for a re-examination of the claims of republicanism for these islands, one of which can boast of having adopted it unilaterally about a hundred … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellany | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Walk about in Rome

Posted on 05/12/2022 by rimboval

Rome in the middle of the 1800s: a rich eccentric, Augustus Hare, revels in the city he has made his home From the experience of many years the writer can truly say that the more intimately these scenes become known, … Continue reading →

Posted in Journeys and destinations | Tagged | Leave a comment

Grass huts

Posted on 16/11/2022 by rimboval

A dictum from Camille Paglia: If civilization had been left in female hands we would still be living in grass huts.

Posted in Miscellany, Quotations | Leave a comment

Appointment

Posted on 08/11/2022 by rimboval

The appointment in Samarra(as retold by W. Somerset Maugham [1933]) The speaker is Death. There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and … Continue reading →

Posted in Journeys and destinations, Miscellany | Tagged | Leave a comment