PROLOGUE Each time I finish blogging a volume of the Lindchester Chronicles, I vow it will be the last. But here we are again, dear reader, about to set off on a new adventure. ‘As a dog returneth to his vomit,’ says the proverb writer, ‘so a fool returneth to his folly.’ I’ve never had a dog, but I’m guessing most owners haul the dog away and swiftly clear up, (before googling ‘How to get dog vomit smell out of carpet.’) We must not collapse the distinction between vomiting and regurgitation, however. Regurgitation is a natural and wholesome process in the animal kingdom. We have much to learn from the ordering of the natural world. It behoves us to remain humble, and recall that God does not make mistakes. If we are going to argue from nature, we cannot do better than contemplate emperor penguins. Everyone loves emperor penguins, with their monogamous heterosexual lifestyle, so unlike those gay zoo penguins that one reads about. The male emperor penguin incuba
