index

When the albatross begin to circle and the City’s bells ring, we soon learn to seek the nearest greystone building. The instruction is so old that no one recalls who first gave it, though it appears in several municipal pamphlets under the subheading ‘Seasonal Practices and Irregular Weather’. Children learn the rule alongside other civic habits: do not run along the harbour wall during southerlies; return borrowed ladders; when the bells ring and the albatross circle, find stone.

…