Dedication OR I wish I had written that

William J. Lines is (or was?) a West Australian, a writer of lovely history, and I have just been mining his tale of Georgiana Molloy, called An All Consuming Passion, for a short piece in a more general book.  Because I had already done a fairly extensive coverage, he filled out the picture for me and clarified a few oddities and misconceptions, but without offering any extra meat that I could use—but he provided a delightful read.


All the way through, I admired and enjoyed his prose, and then I came upon this gem:

"I also wish to thank the archivists at the Cumbria Record Office, Carlisle, England, whose institution epitomises the very best Anglo-Saxon traditions of openness, access, and cooperation. Despite a decade and more of ignoble Thatcherite economic rationalism, which attempted to rob public life of its purpose and community of its bonds, the spirit and means of free enquiry endure."

Bravo, Mr. Lines!!


It's a book well worth finding and reading, even before you get to that on pages 335-6.