The senecans, p.25
The Senecans, page 25
By the southwestern gate of the city wall Cordoba’s greatest son has a statue in hollow bronze. This one is barely a hundred years old, a study of a strong man, more imperial than philosophical, carrying a text, possibly a play or a poem but more likely a speech. He is standing above a cascade of icy water. He looks down towards the river, to evaporating ancient walls on his left, some sturdy trinket-stores on his right, down over the banks of birches and planes into islands of birds, a sanctuary for herons and sluggish ducks, parrots who have escaped from zoos, geese who have invaded from the olive fields.
Acknowledgements
To Mary Beard, Peter Brookes, Sally Emerson, the estate of Beryl Bainbridge, Jo Evans, Sue Foll, Toby Lichtig, Hazel O’Leary, Ruth Scurr, Sally Soames, Ed Victor, Paul Webb.
PETER STOTHARD is a classicist, journalist, and critic. He was Editor of the Times Literary Supplement (2002-2016) and of The Times (1992-2002). In 2012 he was Chair of Judges for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. He holds the President’s Medal of the British Academy and was knighted in 2003.
Jacket design: Talia Rochmann
Jacket image: Peter Brookes
Author photograph: Teri Pengilley
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Peter Stothard, The Senecans
