Beast of a Nation 
Andrew O’Hagan
In Westminster Abbey a couple of years ago, I stood for over an hour talking to Neal Ascherson. It was one of those freezing January evenings – cold stone, long shadows – and we adopted our BBC faces in Poets’ Corner, looking at the memorials and marble busts on the walls. I noticed Ascherson was taking his time over an inscription to the poet Thomas Campbell, and some words of Campbell’s began to echo somewhere in my head, two lines from The Pleasures of Hope.
‘Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,
And robes the mountain in its azure hue.
Not good lines, but they seemed good enough as I watched Ascherson watching. He gave the impression there was something new to be said about Campbell.
Subscribers to the print edition can log in to view the entire article. For information about subscribing to the London Review of Books click here. This article is available for purchase online. Buy this article.
Andrew O’Hagan’s The Atlantic Ocean, a collection of essays on Britain and America, will be published in June. Be Near Me, his last novel, has been shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Other articles by this contributor:
Hating Football · Andrew O’Hagan deserts the Tartan Army
The Nominee · With the Democrats
Good Fibs · Truman Capote
How to Survive Your Own Stupidity · Homage to Laurel and Hardy
Iraq, 2 May 2005 · Two Soldiers
Cartwheels over Broken Glass · worshipping Morrissey
At the Design Museum · Peter Saville
A Journey in the South · Andrew O’Hagan travels to New Orleans
print layout
tell a friend