Screaming in the Castle: Selected Shorter Pieces by Charles Nicholl

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Synopsis

Charles Nicholl’s unique writings awaken in me the same sort of heady excitement I used to feel when poring over my college course guide. What a prospect of learning I discovered in those catalogue pages, and in Nicholl’s work I similarly experience the thrill of intellectual prospecting. Journalist, far-flung traveller, unaffiliated scholar (his specialty is England’s rumbustious 16th and 17th centuries), Nicholl embodies in everything he writes what today seems a discarded tradition, that of the restlessly and insatiably curious mind. This varied and intriguing collection gathers together for the first time fifteen pieces ranging from travel sketches and inquisitive essays on literary or historical themes (including the title piece, about a sensational murder four hundred years ago in a small Italian village), to impressionistic takes on subjects as diverse as Central American politics and Bob Dylan’s music.