A question asked in order to create a dramatic effect is known as a rhetorical question…‘And so the facts don’t mean much until you have interpreted them?’The task of a writer is to interpret the facts. Peter Ackroyd is a master of dark interpretations of history and his Hawksmoor is one of such eisegeses establishing the murky and murderous rapport between the past and the present.Do cathedrals – houses of God – serve the living or do they glorify the dead? The Night was far advanc’d, and the Clock struck Eleven as we entered the Street; I wanted no Coachman to see us, so I took him by the Arm and led him thro’ Alleys to the Church. He had so got his Load, as they say, that he came along with me quite willingly and was even ready to sing out loud as we cross’d the dark and empty Lanes.Do you know this one, do you? he asks: Wood and clay will wash away, Wash away, wash away, Wood and clay will wash away I have forgot the rest, he adds as he links his Arm in mine. Then on reaching Lombard Street he looked up at me: Where are we going, Nick?We are going Home, says I and pointed out to him the Church of St Mary Woolnoth with the Scaffolding upon it.This is no Home, Nick, at least not for a Live Man.History repeats itself as farce but this farce may grow into the blackest comedy.Is Dust immortal then, I ask’d him, so that we may see it blowing through the Centuries? …And in a feigned Voice he murmured, For Dust thou art and shalt to Dust return. Then he made a Sour face, but only to laugh the more.Evil is universal and eternal so it can’t be drowned even in the pernicious currents of time.