I’m in bed, desperately trying to get to sleep. It is after midnight, I’m warm and cosy, I’m more than tired, I have a long day ahead… and I am going to have to get up and get back on the computer. Words and images are dancing on the inner screen and giving me no peace.

I know what did it… We had been talking about censorship… the banning of books, the tearing down of statues, the demonisation of past heroes because they no longer meet our strict criteria of modern mores. It had been compounded by opening a book I love but which was written well over a century ago. The language, by modern standards, is hard going, although the ideas expressed are crystal clear.

We forgive the archaic forms of speech, knowing them to be the literary language of the time… taken in context, there is no other…