Enoch Soames, Esq., a self described 'dead white male walking', is a 'dim', fin de siècle, Catholic, diabolist poet previously known for producing only two slim volumes of poetry - Fungoids and Negations. An acquaintance of such notables as Sir Max Beerbohm, Sir William Rothenstein, Edmund Gosse and Ernest Dowson, he lived and worked in London until 1897. After a notable absence, he returned to London in 1997, resuming his life and work, and in his spare time haunting the Reading Room at The British Museum. He blogs at The Charlock's Shade.
Why do you blog? > Out of loneliness to begin with. I then discovered that I am as inept at making friends online as off. So now it is just boredom.
What has been your best blogging experience? > My one week as the subject of the normblog profile.
What has been your worst blogging experience? > All of the other weeks.
What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? > Watch not your counter or your hits; they will always be disappointing, and anyway one would prefer the masses not to know where you are.
What are your favourite blogs? > Stephenesque, Outer Life, The Misspent Life and Armavirumque are a few of my favourite things. I also enjoy the normblog cricket posts.
Who are your intellectual heroes? > Thomas Hobbes, Cardinal Newman, Christopher Dawson, Michael Oakeshott, Paul Elmer Moore, William Hazlitt, Walter Bagehot.
What are you reading at the moment? > Seven Men and Two Others by Sir Max Beerbohm.
Who are your cultural heroes? > William Shakespeare, Sir Max Beerbohm, Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell, George Orwell, H.H. Munro.
What is your favourite poem? > 'To a Young Woman'.
What is your favourite movie? > Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.
What is your favourite song? > 'Werewolves of London' by Warren Zevon.
What philosophical thesis do you think it most important to disseminate? > As Paul Elmer More said of being a reactionary: 'it is essentially to answer action with action, to oppose to the welter of circumstance the force of discrimination and selection, to direct the aimless tide of change by reference to the co-existing law of the immutable fact, to carry the experiences of the past into the diverse impulses of the present, and so to move forward in an orderly progression.'
What philosophical thesis do you think it most important to combat? > The whole post-modernism/ moral relativism school. It is a most pernicious doctrine.
Who are your political heroes? > King Henry II, King Richard III, Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart., Lord Acton, Edmund Burke.
What is your favourite piece of political wisdom? > When someone says they are 'committed', it means that they are committed to their own opinions.
If you could effect one major policy change in the governing of your country, what would it be? > I would return the rebellious North American colonies to the Queen.
What do you consider to be the main threat to the future peace and security of the world? > Do you mean besides people?
Do you think the world (human civilization) has already passed its best point, or is that yet to come? > We are all passengers on the trip downhill.
What would be your most important piece of advice about life? > Men will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth, or a wig. How many of them will own up to a lack of humour?
Do you think you could ever be married to, or in a long-term relationship with, someone with radically different political views from your own? > I really don't think I have a choice in the matter; everyone has radically different political views from my own.
What do you consider the most important personal quality? > A sense of humour.
What personal fault do you most dislike? > Lack thereof.
In what circumstances would you be willing to lie? > In those circumstances in which I would be unwilling to be caught.
Do you have any prejudices you're willing to acknowledge? > I am not prejudiced; I hate everyone and everything equally.
What is your favourite proverb? > Every improvement in communication makes the bore more terrible.
What commonly enjoyed activities do you regard as a waste of time? > Television watching.
What do you like doing in your spare time? > Reading.
What is your most treasured possession? > My books. I have collected over one thousand volumes, and the library is still growing.
If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to? > I always liked Beauchamp, although I would settle for Mycroft.
What talent would you most like to have? > To be able to write a proper blog.
What would be your ideal choice of alternative profession or job? > It would be good to be King.
Who is your favourite comedian or humorist? > Sir P.G. Wodehouse and H.H. Munro, with nods to Benchley, Thurber and Jerome K. Jerome.
Who are your sporting heroes? > Sir Donald George Bradman.
Which English Premiership football team do you support, and which baseball team? > Manchester United; and the St. Louis Cardinals.
How, if at all, would you change your life were you suddenly to win or inherit an enormously large sum of money? > What, again? No really, I doubt that it would change my life much, except that the library would grow at a much faster pace.
[The normblog profile is a weekly Friday morning feature. A list of the first 52 profiles, and the links to them, can be found here. Details of subsequent profiles are here.]