What should we talk about today?
The world according to Kirkey
Following Parliament’s historic decision Kirkey poses the question, “when do you want to die?” Even in the darkest recesses of humanity, humour has its rightful place. Triboulet, a 16th century jester at the royal court of King Francis I, smacked the rotund bottom of his boss in a fit of farce. The unimpressed monarch decreed … Read more
There is something compelling about graveyards and the narrative they provide for the living. Once people gathered around these memorials, no doubt expressing the undertaking of eternal remembrance; but that isn’t a reality, since we all wither – just like these stones. Filling the space between being born and ending up in a similar place … Read more
If my own experiences are anything to go by funerals are usually pretty sombre occasions. I suspect the only exceptions to this general rule are when genocidal maniacs such as Hitler, Genghis Khan, and Pol Pot kick the bucket. Culture shapes what rituals are followed and how mourners should behave, with religion very often presiding … Read more
There remains a degree of uncertainty over who the following words are attributable to, although being long gone I am sure that none of the ancestors of Benjamin Franklin, in a letter written in 1789 about the American Constitution, or Christopher Bullock, in his novel The Cobler of Preston (1716) or indeed Edward Ward, in … Read more