John Higgs's Octannual Manual #56

End of the quarter century

At the end of my last newsletter, I rashly stated that next time I’d review the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Quite what I was thinking there I don’t know. I’ve spent much of the last week working up a chin-stroking ponder-piece about the State of Things, of the type that Substack is full of. But it’s the winter solstice – it’s not the time for that. It is the still point of the year. The froth and the fury of normal life is suspended. We can climb out of the trenches and play football with the opposing tribe, recognising each other, as Dickens put it, as ‘fellow passengers to the grave.’

So instead, I’ll abandon that essay and just wish a very merry Christmas to you and yours – and hope that you are aware, during the longest night, of a moment of perfect midwinter silence.

Plenty coming up in 2025! Normal service will resume soon!

jhx