Ofterdingen and Kropotkin

But all the Mitfordiana - Decca and Debo and Unity Valkyrie, the runnings away, the schoolroom passions for Hitler or Stalin - tend to come into the reader's mind, and to crowd the only thing that matters: the books. [...] Mitford called a collection of miscellaneous writings The Water Beetle, a title borrowed from Hilaire Belloc; the waterbeetle glides gracefully over the surface of the water, but if she ever stopped to think how she did it, she would sink. I don't believe this self-portrait for a second.