Talk:A. B. McKillop

The "telling detail"
Considering my edit referring to Professor McKillop's rationalisation of his leanings in writing “The Spinster and the Prophet”, I wondered whether McKillop's bereavement could, at least partly, also explain his antipathy towards Wells. However, I must avoid OR. Also in the essay referred to, McKillop says that, in “The Spinster”, he wanted, “through fidelity to the 'telling detail' to evoke a vivid sense of place... to give meaning to the hearts carved in the front doors of Easton Glebe, Wells's country estate – hearts inverted to become spades, as if to serve as a permanent reminder to his wife Catherine (he called her Jane) that there would be no unnecessary romance in this home. Why should we not devote to such details the same meticulous attention we afford to complicated strands of cultural theory?” It was Spade House, not Easton Glebe, where the heart shapes were a bone of contention between Wells and the architect Charles Voysey; Wells reluctantly agreed to heart-shaped door furniture but flatly refused a large heart-shaped letter-plate on the front door as he didn't want to “wear his heart so conspicuously outside”, and it was inverted to form the spade which gave the house its name. Easton Glebe, an old rectory on the Easton estate of Frances Evelyn "Daisy" Greville, Countess of Warwick, was a later dwelling than Spade House for the Wellses, and there is no record of any ornamental hearts there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mabzilla (talk • contribs) 21:36, 15 October 2016 (UTC) Deleted part of post which repeated my earlier addition to article--Mabzilla (talk) 23:56, 15 October 2016 (UTC)