For me, as for many others, the reading of detective stories is an addiction like tobacco or alcohol. The symptoms of this are: Firstly, the intensity of the craving — if I have any work to do, I must ...

With war looming, W.H. Auden stood in a museum and was inspired to write. The resulting poem, “Musée des Beaux Arts,” is one of the most famous ever written about art.

A face disguised as a dried riverbed. I met Auden at dinner shortly after he moved to Christ Church from St Mark's Place in New York. Photographs of that iconic, seamed face didn't prepare me for ...

To invoke a classic reflection from an earlier era, WH Auden, in The Guilty Vicarage, famously described the genre of detective fiction (the “whodunit”) as an exploration of the dialectic of ...

The Guilty Vicarage. Download PDF Adjust. Share. Notes on the detective story, by an addict. by W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden, a confession. For me, as for many others, the reading of detective stories is ...