The Arcadian Cénacle

Baroque. Caravaggio. Beardsley. Wilde. Waugh. Brideshead Revisited. Jaroussky. Byron. Keats. Shelley. The Pre-Raphaelites. Ruskin. Handel. Purcell. Gothic literature. Ghost stories — du Maurier, M.R. James. Ruins and the Romantic sublime.

Anything strike a chord? See something you'd like to talk about properly, with someone who won't need it explained?
I'm quietly putting together a small circle — The Arcadian Cénacle — for people who actually live in this world rather than just visiting it. No pressure, no commitment, just genuinely good conversation with people who get it. Comment or reply if any of this speaks to you.

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The Arcadian Cénacle is a brand-new circle, just starting out, for people who live in the world of Baroque music, Gothic literature, the Pre-Raphaelites, and the aesthetes and decadents who came after them. Wilde. Waugh. Brideshead Revisited. Caravaggio. Beardsley. Byron, Keats, Shelley. Ruskin. Handel, Purcell, the countertenor voice. Ghost stories that know exactly what they're doing — du Maurier, M.R. James. Ruins, and why we find them more honest than anything new. The intention is to run it in the spirit of an old-fashioned salon — proper conversation with people who won't need the reference explained, not a lecture series, not a book club with a syllabus, not small talk. No pressure to perform expertise, just genuine engagement. We're starting on Zoom, with a view to taking it in person — pub snugs and quiet corners rather than anything corporate — once there's a small, committed core who know each other a little. If any of this strikes a chord, come and help build it from the beginning.