Laurence Whistler: 3 books

Shortly after the end of World War II, Laurence Whistler set out to write ‘a guide to the festivals of England as they are and as they might be’: the result is a captivatingly readable and enchanting narrative, the ancient holidays revealed as a microcosm of the wheel of life in England. Christmas,...

For children the day begins with a weight on the toes, long, angular, and many-faceted as a leg by Picasso. The stocking should be opened by candlelight: no other light is resonant at that high frequency of excitement. Christmas is one of the oldest of our traditions, more ancient than any...

Laurence Whistler’s story of his five-year marriage to Jill Furse before her sudden early death has achieved a classic quality. Despite the tragedy of its ending the lasting impression is of two lives lived to the full in supreme happiness. Jill Furse was remarkable for many gifts; beauty, acting,...