EP Thompson's
biography of Morris concentrated on the political element, but McCarthy offers
a much more rounded picture. She speaks very highly of EP Thompson's work
though, and credits him with reviving awareness of Morris' politics when he was
in danger of being seen as a nice artist and craftsman for the middle classes
rather than a radical, or, as McCarthy prefers to describe him, a radical conservative. Obviously I'm now on a
Morris kick, planning trips to the Red House and Kelmscott, critiquing
everything in the house to make sure that I either know it to be useful or
believe it to be beautiful, and looking for antique prints of the frontispiece
to 'News From Nowhere' on eBay.
The Collini Case was
translated from the German by the legendary Anthea Bell, and was a legal
procedural that received great reviews for uncovering a shocking loophole in
German law that meant war criminals could not be prosecuted. Everyone involved
had missed the implication of the clause at the time, which is almost
understandable given the innocuity of it; the author publishes it at the end
and the banality of it is chilling.
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