Seductive croquetas

The Spanish version of the dish is the finest, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto

CHILDISH misunderstandings can be persistent. I once persuaded Hugh Trevor-Roper to return to his old school to talk to the boys. Mellowed by common-room port, he confessed that a line in the school song defeated him: “I know many old men,” he explained, “who prefer the country to the town.” At 12 years old, he had mistaken the Latin anthem’s reference to what was originally a dual foundation — an urban hospice for the elderly and a rural academy for the young. Before becoming an historian, Hugh had been a redoubtable Classics scholar, who won top prizes for the subject at Oxford; yet no learning could unfreeze his childish perception. I recall hearing a notable poetess tell me how, long after she attained literacy, a dangerously heretical conviction endured: that…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 2023

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