Knocking on the Moonlit Door: Reflections on Journeys to Europe and Other Destinations

Margaret Thompson would make an ideal companion on any journey and, failing that, an essay of hers is great company in an armchair or in bed, during those last twenty minutes before sleep. The pieces in Knocking on the Moonlit Door are vivid, wise, wry, philosophical and passionate by turns and sometimes all at once. They open doors on other worlds and on our quotidian life: my favourite, perhaps, is the final piece Point of Origin, dense with allusions, where she refelects on the birth of her grandchild, comparing him to a 'fresh-baked loaf of bread' and noting how the instinctive urge to cherish' is something we share with all the other creatures on earth. At the same time, she avoids sentimentality and is not afraid of observing that while '...this tenderness is any infant's hope ... at the same time, it may not be enough.' Highly recommended.