Ahem. I do. Probably about one set a year. I find settling down to it, following the instructions, using my hands, therapeutic, mindful I suppose, offsetting stress of work.There‘s a formal beauty to the adult sets, seeing how they come together. I don’t have kids, that might be a factor.

Look at the bone structure, the brow…

Gosh, the Daly papers. Looked at those for my PhD research. I thought the picture looked familiar.

Cd the guy on the right be John MacBride?

Owen McGee’s entries in the Dictionary of Irish Biography cover this crowd, but without portraits, alas. For example, Fred Allan might be in this group.

Ah. Guess you’ve seen his entry in the DIB?

Who do you think is on the left?

I assume it has had its topographers & natural historians, plus birders & anglers putting pen to paper?

It is singularly important, like no other individual site is across the islands. Had a squint at googlemaps. Striking that there’s a margin of woodland or unimproved grassland around much of the lake. Is there public access - can it be circumnavigated on foot? An environmental history to be written!

A not-at-all random response, but I went to St Augustine’s in Belvedere. Some years ago. Strange little memory jolt!

The Bedford Hotel is the proper place to mark significant moments in the history of my maternal family. I think this has now passed, alas.

You’re welcome! Also, I’ve looked at POW held at the Dartmoor depot in my Quartz & Feldspar (2015/6), which might also provide some helpful context. Great subject. Lots to do.

Guessing you know Renaud Morieux’s The Society of Prisoners: Anglo-French Wars and Incarceration in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford University Press, Past & Present Series, 2019)?

I deleted for I saw you‘d already answered this.

Yes, point taken. Some of Orwell‘s behaviour goes beyond what patriarchy nominally permits. I think Funder allows the reader to see that, but doesn‘t assert a hard border between the two, for part of patriarchy’s power—arguably—lies in that uncertainty.

Correction: In some ways, Funder’s engagement with Orwell’s biographers, whom she treats respectfully throughout, is the most important part of the book. She shows how their resort to the passive voice, evasive language, and wishful thinking obscure both Eileen‘s labour & Orwell’s sexual behaviour.

Finally, Eileen‘s last letters to Orwell are truly upsetting. By and large, Funder allows them to speak for themselves, and they do. Men should read this book.

Wifedom should make us read biographies differently, more sensitive especially to the representation of women, and especially wives.

First, the central role played by Eileen’s labour, both paid and domestic which made Orwell’s work possible. Second, sanitising his sexual behaviour, especially their uncritical acceptance of his account of Eileen’s point of view, such as her supposed acceptance of an open marriage.