This is going to be a blog, mostly, about my published and soon-to-be-published books, in the hope that it will persuade you to rush out to your nearest bookstore (or sign in to an appropriately commercial website) and buy as many copies as possible. My books are all, so far, about natural history and the conservation of wildlife. It may be odd, then, that I am starting off with a link to something completely different: a one-act play that I have been tinkering with, just for the fun of it, off and on for the past several months.
The play is certainly not one written with an eye to commercial success (though I wouldn't object to that, of course). It is, instead, a little gift to my fellow Savoyards - those of us who have spent much of our spare time, over (in my case) a good many decades, listening to, performing in, reading about, and generally wallowing in the quintessentially Victorian operettas of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. In particular, it is for my fellow members of SavoyNet, co-conspirators on an internet listserv and, once a year, members of a first-rate performing society at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England.
One of the problems with being a devotee of G&S (as we like to call it) is that you can forget that not everyone may be on as familiar terms with The Canon as you are. Therefore, just in case, I am going to issue a warning: unless you are a member of the Inner Brotherhood (and if you have to ask what that means, you're not), you may find my little jeu d'esprit puzzling at best. Of course, if you would like to become a devotee, you should first visit the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive. Once you have mastered its contents, my play will become clear as day. You might even laugh at the jokes.
The play is called "The Learned Judgment; or, Gone Abroad". If you would like to read it (and I hope you do), you can view it here:
The Learned Judgment; or, Gone Abroad
