De Quincey

[k-j]

Tried to read Confessions... when I was a teenager, failed miserably. Reading it now aged 34, enjoying it immensely. TdQ seems a very genial and fair-minded chap, slightly precious in his youth but which of us wasn't? He has a great talent for writing plainly yet eloquently, of making the most of saying just what he thinks. And contrary to how I remember it, not at all sentimental. Really looking forward to the other short pieces in the volume I have. Hoping I can finish (it's library) before I leave town next Thursday.

[Antcliff]

I've never got round to reading it K-J. I am going off on holiday. You make me think I should take it along.

[David]

I'm reading the second volume of Richard Holmes's biography of Coleridge. Shocking description of the effect of opium addiction on, ahem, the lower digestive system.