The news that Jack Vance has passed away reminded me of an unsolved lexicographical mystery which now seems further than ever from resolution: the source of the word libram for a grimoire or more generically a book, which has turned up in various works of fantasy and for which Vance is thought to be the earliest …

As summer approaches, many of the heritage sites much loved by day-trippers are facing problems because of a shortage in coal and the resulting increase in costs.
B.B.C. News, three days ago

What’s in a name?

I found this sketch folded and tucked inside an old paperback copy of The Moonstone. The signature, ‘JRS’, belongs to my late father, John Seddon, who was quite an accomplished amateur artist when the fancy took him. What I should like to know is, who is depicted? Someone real rather than imaginary, I think. Other portraits …

There’s something peculiarly beguiling, perhaps because also frustrating, about mysteries hidden in plain sight. The fourth Kryptos code might be the most brazen, flaunting its undeciphered self on a sculpture outside the C.I.A. headquarters. Then there are the texts that might be meaningful: someone might verify tomorrow that the Voynich Manuscript can be deciphered to produce …