Under the Volcano

Ah, guilt and sorrow had dogged Juan’s footsteps too, for he was not a Catholic who could rise refreshed from the cold bath of confession.

Mexican Miracle Paintings, Wellcome Collection, Euston, Camden, NW1

Yet the banality stood: that the past was irrevocably past. And conscience had been given man to regret it only in so far as that might change the future.

Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano (1947)

For man, every man, Juan seemed to be telling him, even as Mexico, must ceaselessly struggle upward. What was life but a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn?

Mexican Miracle Paintings, Wellcome Collection, Euston, Camden, NW1

From Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano (1947)

Chelsea Fire Station

It was true; there had been a few burnt cars left isolated on the nearby wasteland.

Chelsea Fire Station, King's Road, Kensington & Chelsea, SW3

They had come and gone, yet never had they held such an ominous presence as they did now.

Tower of London

Someone had set fire to the contents of a bin outside. Some people that could not be identified from a distance had gathered to bathe in light and heat.

Detail from The Tower and the Mint by T. Shotter Boys, The Good, the Bad & the Queen, Tower Hill, City of London, EC3N

It was the only light visable in the circle of darkness.