Today’s mail brought a box. The return address was Connecticut, so I knew its origin, if not its contents. Imagine my surprise when I opened it and found a new book—one I hadn’t known about—devoted to the London churches of Nicholas Hawksmoor. I noticed the publisher (Lars Müller, a publisher of genuinely beautiful volumes) and began to salivate.

Two hours later, I can report that the photographs are black and white, while the drawings (newly-drawn plans and elevations) are printed in rich orange on a black background. Suddenly I feel emboldened to complete the design of an imaginary Hawksmoor church which evolved in my mind during the reading of Hawksmoor, a Peter Ackroyd novel.

I think I can pull this off.

PS: If Hawksmoor has made a cameo in Agincourt, I’d look in the cemetery.