Jeremy Baker
Bill arrives in Tarawa, Kiribati
I’m so incredibly proud of Bill. He’s just arrived safely in Tarawa, Kiribati 🇰🇮 to take up a 3 year secondment as Chief Justice of Kiribati. We will miss him terribly, but this is a role in which he can make a huge difference to a Pacific nation. Tekeraoi te mwananga! #billhastings #tarawa #kiribati🇰🇮 #pacific #temoananuiākiwa
"Herself" (movie)
Saw ‘Herself’, a stunning and shocking film (in so many ways) directed by Phyllida Lloyd, and starring writer Clare Dunn, Harriet Walter, Conleth Hill, as well as two excellent child actors. Addresses both feminist and housing issues in a gripping story.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/herself-movie-review-2021
Sneaky dinner at @oli_and_mi kitchen before a movie at Lighthouse Petone. #dinner #billhastings #petone #wellingtonnz #aotearoanz
Very proud of the mahi (work) my partner has undertaken for the last nine years: www.stuff.co.nz/national/… #billhastings
Books on Early Medieval England
Two new books on Early Medieval England. Quite apart from anything else, both are exquisite objects.
"The First Kingdom" - Britain in the Age of Arthur (Max Adams 2021)
Focuses on the two centuries after the end of the Western Roman Empire around 400AD. Explores the archeological, geographical and limited textual evidence for continuity and change in this period, and the emergence of new forms of political and social organisation in the post-Roman era. [LibraryCatalog]
"The Anglo-Saxons" - A History of the Beginnings of England (Marc Morris 2021)
Covers a longer period from the end of Roman Britain to the Norman Conquest of 1066AD. Draws on much recent scholarship, archeology and analysis, but also seeks to provide a coherent narrative for the era. The role of the church and religion, and state formation, are given prominence, as well as key individuals both ecclesiastical and royal. [LibraryCatalog]
American Gods - Vols 1 - 3
Rainbow Moon
(c) Andrew McCarthy (https://cosmicbackground.io/):
"The Partial Eclipse, not long before totality. A good time to view the way light color splits as it bends around the Earth".
Two new books...
Two new books arrived today. 📚
Both advance the notion that key philosophical ideas 'remade the world' - but advance completely opposite views of what that driver was. Tom Holland argues that Christianity is the defining underpinning of the modern world, while Stephen Greenblatt argues that it was the rediscovery of pre-Christian thinking in the renaissance that defined modernity.
Dominion - How the Christian Revolution Remade the World (Tom Holland, 2019)
The Swerve - How the World Became Modern (Stephen Greenblatt)
