The Broken Compass

The Broken Compass

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Essays

Nottingham alabaster: objects of strangeness, mystery and devotion
How the English Reformation tried to obliterate a unique medieval artform
 • Mathew Lyons
The fall of the Duke of Norfolk
Come at the Queen, you best not miss…
 • Mathew Lyons
Beyond The Jungle Book: Kipling, Orwell, Rushdie and me
What Kipling's critics get wrong about his writing
 • Mathew Lyons
The Midnight Folk: memory, magic, and consolation
The private griefs and terrors behind John Masefield's classic children's book
 • Mathew Lyons
Into Great Silence
Exploring the meaning of Philip Gröning's extraordinary film, twenty years on
 • Mathew Lyons
The acid-tongued ambassadress
The indomitable Lady Walburga Paget, our woman at the nineteenth-century courts of imperial Europe
 • Mathew Lyons
Louis MacNeice and Autumn Journal
One of the 20th century's great history poems – and a joyous confession of faith in everyday life
 • Mathew Lyons
Remembering Richard Tarlton
The forgotten life of the Elizabethan theatre's greatest star
 • Mathew Lyons
Re-imagining Elizabethan London
In search of the invisible city
 • Mathew Lyons
Ladders of escape: Joan Miró’s bizarre love triangle
A calm walk through the charged landscapes of 'Dog Barking at the Moon'
 • Mathew Lyons
First thoughts on Tom Lehrer
For Engelsberg Ideas: what does the death of a long-retired comedic titan tell us about his art
 • Mathew Lyons
Thomas Coryat: the first great English travel writer
From London to the Mughal court on foot (1608–16) – via Paris, the Alps, Venice, Xante, Troy, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Damascus and more
 • Mathew Lyons
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