Scriptus Voices

Scriptus Voices | Scriptus Books

The essays below offer a distinctive voice on the subject matter covered: provocative, challenging or simply informative. We will add more on a regular basis, to cover literature, current events, history, faith and more.

Do you have an essay you want us to publish here? Please see the guidelines and upload form on our Submissions page.

The History of Go (Weiqi) and the Games at Danghu

Philippe de Felice

In this essay, Philippe de Felice provides a short history of the ancient Chinese game of Weiqi, known in the West as ‘Go’, including a short description of the epic 18th century match between two great masters at Danghu in 1739…

Read more

Growing Up With Eighty Years of Dangers in Los Angeles

Stephen Geller

Steve Geller recalls on his idyllic childhood in Los Angeles and mourns the recent inferno that devastated the city of his youth…

Read more

Growing Up With Eighty Years of Dangers in Los Angeles

Stephen Geller

Steve Geller recalls on his idyllic childhood in Los Angeles and mourns the recent inferno that devastated the city of his youth…

Read more

Flora of the Himalaya

Hilary Lewis Ruttley

Hilary Lewis Ruttley, Yoga teacher and Indian Art expert, describes the enduring charm, medical importance and cultural significance of the Himalayan blue poppy and other flora from the Sacred Himalayan Landscape. She also makes a passionate plea for conservation of this precious resource for humanity…

Read more

Hip and the Creative Experience

Stephen Geller

Steve Geller writes about the creative process of Jazz…

Read more

How and Why I Am Ahead of My Time – and Happily!

Stephen Geller

“Why am I aware, at the age of 83, that the only theme I felt and feel worthy of pursuit as a writer of novels and plays and films, was and is the strength of creation, with its costs in a society that appears politically, socially, economically and psychically to have its own way of defining, if not defying, creation to creators?”

Read more

Some Words About My Father, Me, and My Mother

Stephen Geller

A re-creation of the recreation of father, son, and mother, in interesting days and nights. The author would like to thank Kae Geller for her editorial gifts, utilized five-fold times, upon this demanding text. Please consider his thanks an even more loving essay!…

Read more

The First of Memories: Colin Wilson, Ritual in the Dark and a Screenplay of Friendship

Stephen Geller

Stephen Geller writes about the making of a film of Colin Wilson’s early novel ‘Ritual in the Dark’ and his experience of working with the author…

Read more

James Merrill: Past, Present and Future

Stephen Geller

Stephen Geller describes his admiration for James Merrill’s poetry, in particular ‘Divine Comedies’…

Read more

Peter Sellers and Me

Stephen Geller

Stephen Geller recalls his time working with Peter Sellers…

Read more

The Greatest American Playwright

Brooke Allen

A previously published essay on an early 20th century American playwright…

Read more

The First of Memories: Gore Vidal

Stephen Geller

A recollection of Gore Vidal by Stephen Geller…

Read more

The First of Memories: Kurt Vonnegut Jr

Stephen Geller

A memory of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Stephen Geller was the scriptwriter for the film of ‘Slaughterhouse 5’ and got to know Vonnegut well…

Read more

The Art of Tragicomedy

Stephen Geller

Stephen Geller analyses Donald Trump’s explanations of what really happened during the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021…

Read more

Constitutional Monarchy – An Anachronism That May Still Have Value

David Tenterden

David Tenterden considers the arguments for and against a Constitutional Monarchy and its role in British society and political life…

Read more

Mimesis

Stephen Geller

Stephen Geller recalls his early life in an artistic family living in the Hollywood film industry and his current writing…

Read more

Living with the Barbarians

Philippe de Felice

The end of the western Roman Empire was an event that still resonates today – a little-known autobiography of a rich Roman gives us a dramatic insight of the barbarian invasions…

Read more

Of Muses and a Muse

Stephen Geller

Stephen Geller’s fond tribute to his actress mother and his unusual family of Ukrainian Jewish emigres…

Read more

Goodbye and Hello to a Friend

Stephen Geller

How a friendship proved to be life-affirming, and life-changing to the author: a tribute to the famous lyricist, Marilyn Bergman…

Read more

Hadrian’s Farewell to Life

Philippe de Felice

At the end of his life, the desperately ill emperor yearned for death. His poems and contemporary sculpture provide moving evidence of his end…

Read more

The Rouffignac Flutings

Philippe de Felice

Are the mysterious markings on these ancient caves evidence of rituals of our Palaeolithic ancestor?

Read more

Sappho’s Private Agony

Philippe de Felice

Has Sappho’s poetry as homoerotic literature been based on a misunderstanding of Greek conventions? Recent discoveries of new Sappho texts may indicate this…

Read more

Pericles

Andrew Rissik

Andrew Rissik argues here for the central importance of Shakespeare’s Pericles. This rarely performed play was left out of the 1623 First Folio, and is still regarded by scholars as verbally problematical and artistically weak…

Read more

The Ghost of Amenemhat

Philippe de Felice

In this essay, Philippe de Felice surveys one of the masterpieces of ancient Egyptian literature, “The Instruction of Amenemhat”, which describes the assassination of Pharaoh Amenemhat I, the founder of the 12th dynasty…

Read more

Don’t Feed the Alligators

Steve Geller

Steve Geller’s recollection of establishing a touching but unsettling relationship with a Georgia marshland alligator…

Read more

Comments on Scriptus Voices

Please use the form at the bottom of this page to enter your comments about Scriptus Voices (requires registration and log in, your email address will not be published). Please note this discussion forum is moderated and we reserve the right to publish or disapprove comments and replies.

Leave a Reply