W. Russell Brain (1895–1966)

I came across this book quite by chance in a local bookshop - attracted by its simple premise and usual components, there can't be many books of teatime conversations between poets and neurologist - and it has proved to be one of the most rewarding, funny, intelligent, charming and moving books I've read recently.


Taking the form of a recounted conversation, the book reads almost like a fictional monologue built around the carefully documented conversations and crucially, the inquisitive and questioning conversational style of the acclaimed and widely celebrated British author and man of letters. De La Mare holds an unusual position in British literature, as his broad range of activity - a poet, anthologist, theorist, novelist, short story writer, children's author, etc. - leave him somewhat outside of more canonical writers who specialised in one arena. But it is exactly this eclecticism and his broad reading and social connections that make this book such a rich read.


The book recounts the late friendship of Sir Russel Brain with De La Mare and in between the poets numerous reflections and digressions related to the nature of reality and dreams, on poetry and literary theory, on friendship, childhood and memory the book traces the changes in de la Mare in the last years of his life. The health of de la Mare is discussed with the same spirit of intellectual inquiry as his other favorite subjects. There is a pervasive optimism in De La Mare and his constant questioning of all manner of subjects. His reflections on his own age and health make for some of the books most interesting explorations, supported by Brain's expertise as well as de la Mare's surprising perspective and ability to find interest in what others may regard as restrictions, such as his positioning of a mirror in his bedroom that allows him to watch the sun rise without leaving his bed.


A fascinating and highly unusual portrait of the a unique British intellectual.… (mer)

Lord Brain collects several speeches and essays, done for various medical societies in Britain, in the 1950s, in this volume. Four of the selections concern Samuel Johnson or contemporaries, describing some of Johnson's tics (possibly Tourette's by the description, not diagnosed by Brain). He writes in general about genius, and about perception, with very formal prose. There is also an entertaining description of medical cases in Dickens, and about sitting for a sculptor. Brain must have been more of a literary person than a scientist, although he did author a general neurology textbook.… (mer)