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51f0a46 Haydon was more than his model, he was his inspiration, the torch-bearer of a certain kind of English calling which - for the very reason that it was vague and understated and elusive - had made sense of Guillam's life till now. inspiration elusiveness vagueness understatement vague englishmen englishness english John le Carré
6037b67 Wars, wars, wars': reading up on the region I came across one moment when quintessential Englishness had in fact intersected with this darkling plain. In 1906 Winston Churchill, then the minister responsible for British colonies, had been honored by an invitation from Kaiser Wilhelm II to attend the annual maneuvers of the Imperial German Army, held at Breslau. The Kaiser was 'resplendent in the uniform of the White Silesian Cuirassiers' and his massed and regimented infantry... Strange to find Winston Churchill and Sylvia Plath both choosing the word 'roller,' in both its juggernaut and wavelike declensions, for that scene. war poetry british-overseas-territories cars cavalry churchill englishness german-army german-empire infantry kaiser kaiser-wilhelm-ii silesia sylvia-plath upper-silesia wrocław british-empire germany Christopher Hitchens