for Acrobat 9+ - Frank Egerton

From Blog to Book.
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2
Contents
1
2010
1.1
1.2
1.3
17
February . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
intro (2010-02-20 23:39) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
saturday (2010-02-21 00:03) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
sunday night (2010-02-21 22:00) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
monday night (2010-02-22 21:49) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18
tuesday (2010-02-23 22:31) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18
twitter (2010-02-24 12:27) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18
wednesday night (2010-02-24 22:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18
bussing it (2010-02-25 17:59) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18
metamorphosis (2010-02-26 08:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19
March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19
fragment (2010-03-02 08:23) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19
tardis (2010-03-04 20:36) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19
snort (2010-03-06 09:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20
monday (2010-03-08 19:23) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20
weekender (2010-03-12 19:33) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20
heading for ox (2010-03-13 09:25) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21
i remember, i remember (2010-03-16 23:35) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21
snippets (2010-03-21 22:30) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22
new bus ticket (2010-03-24 16:34) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22
new bus ticket 2 (2010-03-24 18:19) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22
blackwell’s, initiate and two former students (2010-03-24 19:31) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22
nature notes (2010-03-26 18:12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23
post... (2010-03-31 08:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
24
April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25
adlestrop, st nick’s and the fox (2010-04-03 16:44) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25
youwriteon and happy easter holidays! (2010-04-04 15:48) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25
binsey polar bears (2010-04-07 21:33) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
reedbed (2010-04-08 09:00) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
28
3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
4
st barnabas, northern lights, etc (2010-04-09 09:01) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
28
tory girl? (2010-04-09 15:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
29
potato planting (2010-04-11 17:50) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
29
plantation road bus stop (2010-04-13 18:38) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31
ramblings (2010-04-14 22:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31
leaders, wildfell, editorium, english pen and lasa (2010-04-15 23:01) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
32
witney (2010-04-18 09:19) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
32
all quiet on the allotment (2010-04-19 08:46) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
33
autofiction (2010-04-20 08:04) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
33
trimdon labour club (2010-04-21 08:48) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
33
downton abbey (2010-04-22 20:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
34
bus, canal, film, dog and kite (2010-04-23 23:24) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
36
faces of the countryside (2010-04-25 16:00) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
39
oxford in springtime (2010-04-30 20:15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40
May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
42
rum dos (2010-05-04 23:17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
42
what a gaggle (2010-05-08 20:51) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
44
lol (2010-05-09 20:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
44
ducklings (2010-05-11 23:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
46
sunday (2010-05-16 20:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
47
wio farewell (2010-05-21 20:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
47
ridging up (2010-05-23 20:14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
48
updates (2010-05-28 17:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
49
shirt race (2010-05-29 20:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
51
June . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
51
whitsun weekend bampton (2010-06-02 08:55) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
51
steamengine (2010-06-05 09:19) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
53
steamier still (2010-06-05 10:36) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
53
end of weekend (2010-06-06 22:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
54
syd, flag n things (2010-06-19 14:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
55
saturday (2010-06-26 19:40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
56
July . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
57
dame beryl bainbridge (2010-07-03 10:47) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
57
compasses, fonthill, beckford arms (2010-07-08 18:59) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
58
two walks to the trout (2010-07-13 17:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
60
gill & co (2010-07-28 08:39) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
62
August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
63
crack up (2010-08-02 07:45) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
63
reading nature (2010-08-03 08:41) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
63
invisible (2010-08-28 13:35) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
65
September . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
66
somerset (2010-09-22 21:39) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
66
batcombe, veg, initiate, invisible, lasa (2010-09-25 21:02) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
67
holmes, boom, old man’s beard etc (2010-09-29 23:01) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
69
October . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
70
toronto (2010-10-08 01:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
70
portrait room, humanities library, and gran baile? (2010-10-09 00:17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
72
can’t believe, village idiot, kensington market (what a trooper) (2010-10-16 22:25) . . . . . . . . . . . .
73
last of the summer veg (2010-10-17 20:38) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
75
jo thoenes, kate saunders, oxford street, kc, stephen (2010-10-24 20:38) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
75
demo (2010-10-30 23:46) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
77
1.10 November . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
78
lasa report, toronto memories, invisible weeks, initiate (2010-11-18 16:46) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
78
1.11 December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
80
snow, ice, things (2010-12-08 08:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
80
ice flowing, party season, nearly xmas (2010-12-17 08:35) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
82
views from the bus stop (2010-12-18 08:44) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
83
views from the bus (2010-12-18 14:08) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
85
snow walk (2010-12-19 23:07) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
86
holiday (2010-12-22 17:31) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
87
end of the cold war, humanism, friends, happy christmas (2010-12-24 22:12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
89
shifford walk (2010-12-27 00:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
90
kelmscott (2010-12-28 19:03) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
92
bull (2010-12-28 21:14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
93
happy new year! (2010-12-31 19:45) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
94
1.8
1.9
2
2011
2.1
2.2
95
January . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
95
espresso, rain, end of first week (2011-01-07 09:08) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
95
first day of spring (2011-01-12 07:59) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
96
snowdog (2011-01-18 22:27) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
97
oxford times interview, our book reviews online, oxford writer (2011-01-28 08:58) . . . . . . . . . . . .
97
February . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
99
bampton library read-in (2011-02-11 09:51) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
99
ora (2011-02-17 19:40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
100
jtns a year on, spring walk (2011-02-25 09:09) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
100
early bike ride, bampton church (2011-02-27 09:34) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
101
5
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
6
March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
102
bloomin spring (2011-03-15 08:34) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
102
west hanney (2011-03-18 21:48) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
104
bampton moon (2011-03-18 22:36) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
105
kelmscott spring walk (2011-03-20 22:27) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
105
fog, thames and time off (2011-03-25 17:25) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
106
dawn chorus, barn owl, 192, kingcups (2011-03-27 10:47) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
107
April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
108
sunrise over bampton (2011-04-02 08:37) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
108
embers, flames, mist, osr and julie (2011-04-03 09:12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
108
embers, flames, mist, osr, tadpoles and julie (2011-04-03 09:27) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
109
sedge (2011-04-06 08:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
110
dibber, spuds, eucalyptus and what the butler saw (2011-04-09 17:27) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
110
oxford lit fest, a book for all and none, sheep (2011-04-10 17:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
112
st frideswide’s square (2011-04-12 20:17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
113
sunrise, keble, downton (2011-04-13 20:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
114
yellow, green, blue (2011-04-15 07:48) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
115
cowslips (2011-04-17 13:40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
116
woodstock, blenheim rules, shifford insect lodge (2011-04-20 00:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
116
downton abbey, the wall, mr whicher (2011-04-20 16:13) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
118
happy easter, downton, kelmscott picnic, invisible (2011-04-24 11:39) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
119
bluebells, wild chervil and may, benjamin and iris, beryl and georgie (2011-04-30 13:19) . . . . . . . .
120
May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
121
honeysuckle, ed sheeran, candidate23, tracy chapman (2011-05-01 22:26) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
121
rain, barley, allotment, carbon (2011-05-08 17:23) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
122
parched (2011-05-15 19:57) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
123
brewery gate, st thomas’ (2011-05-20 22:31) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
123
strong winds, lime tree (2011-05-22 15:01) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
124
rose fall, morris, folk and woodstock (2011-05-25 22:35) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
125
shirt race, not, courgettes and cucumbers, peonies and the garden (2011-05-29 21:22) . . . . . . . . . .
125
June . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
127
folk, morris, fertility cake (2011-06-01 23:08) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
127
whitsun bank holiday morris dancing, bampton (2011-06-04 09:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
127
a book for all and none (2011-06-08 21:19) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
128
hogweed and hemlock? (2011-06-11 10:26) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
128
oxford canal bridge, nag’s head, yaffling (2011-06-14 19:24) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
130
wet morning in bampton, dmug, swindon viewpoint, john grierson, aclaiir (2011-06-18 10:05) . . . . .
130
bl, aclaiir, jack c, spitfire, sausage & mash (2011-06-20 23:25) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
131
rickety press, jericho (2011-06-22 19:31) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
132
radcliffe infirmary (2011-06-24 18:04) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
133
cara spuds and mange tout peas (2011-06-26 21:57) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
134
July . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
135
meadowsweet, willowherb, snail, partidge (2011-07-02 09:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
135
a week of sadness (2011-07-09 18:49) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
136
wild flowers (2011-07-10 11:09) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
137
weeding, minsters, golden courgette (2011-07-10 21:43) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
138
wiltshire (2011-07-15 13:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
139
wiltshire contd (2011-07-15 21:22) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
141
soaked, bye bye wiltshire, work (2011-07-16 10:44) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
142
richard webster (2011-07-23 21:00) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
144
autumn comes early? lords and ladies et al, the future, ambit (2011-07-30 10:51) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
145
August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
146
oxford, northmoor sheep, sunday (2011-08-06 18:37) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
146
time, ripening, mushroom risotto (2011-08-13 09:59) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
147
waterman’s arms, osney, now the punter (2011-08-14 15:43) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
148
bindweed, lewis, keith douglas (2011-08-21 16:18) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
149
change, time off, kite, witney etc (2011-08-27 18:38) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
150
chimney, shifford, duxford, tenfoot bridge (2011-08-30 21:05) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
151
September . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
152
himalayan balsam (2011-09-02 10:26) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
152
bell, oaks, alvescot, black bourton church, doll (2011-09-03 13:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
154
kennington literary festival (2011-09-03 23:15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
155
furniture, the past, forgiveness, new start (2011-09-06 19:27) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
155
swindon viewpoint (2011-09-06 20:19) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
157
the lock on kindle (2011-09-14 19:04) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
157
bleak, toadflax, wales, yorkshire, stories (2011-09-17 10:31) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
158
spuds, snow patrol, kasabian (2011-09-18 21:53) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
159
crystal lemon, three horseshoes, batcombe, wildcru (2011-09-25 12:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
160
2.10 October . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
162
harvest festival, that paris year (2011-10-01 10:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
162
building, kennington literary festival (2011-10-09 10:45) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
165
furniture, clowns, kennington, invisible, pinter, poem (2011-10-14 19:07) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
166
sunrise, mostly books, grubbing, patching and scarifying (2011-10-16 16:12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
167
digging, luxury uptake, football, che guevara, apex (2011-10-22 12:04) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
168
following keble, lucy’s dragon, lock, treasures, biztro (2011-10-29 14:28) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
170
2.11 November . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
171
2.7
2.8
2.9
7
3
cycling, oak, family rumbles, sparklers, mad dog (2011-11-05 10:10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
171
sun, lichen, hogweed?, new role (2011-11-13 13:09) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
173
embers, infinitas gracias, music to go, lie-in (2011-11-19 09:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
174
autumn colour, work, msts, kate b, siamese dream (2011-11-26 09:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
176
2.12 December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
178
wispy bits of mist, americano to go, xmas lights, mad dash (2011-12-02 18:25) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
178
dawn tree, busy, busy, end of term (2011-12-03 09:06) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
178
kilverts, llanthony, scary guy, man in the high castle, in proportion (2011-12-10 19:32) . . . . . . . . . .
179
hay, llanthony, black mountains, freddie (2011-12-11 20:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
180
bampton square, moon x 2, ice, speedway (2011-12-17 11:05) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
182
wood, twinges, xmas shopping (2011-12-22 12:58) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
183
willow leaves, cold, chimney meadows, duxford, pints, downton (2011-12-27 23:32) . . . . . . . . . .
185
sunny, better, badbury, great barn, plough, downton, shilton (2011-12-28 20:30) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
187
new year, new year’s eve, thanks (2011-12-31 15:29) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
189
2012
3.1
3.2
3.3
8
191
January . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
191
cycling, ailments, flea, 2012 (2012-01-01 17:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
191
shredding (2012-01-08 21:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
192
hedging (2012-01-08 22:11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
193
frost, moonlight, oclw, energy, new term (2012-01-14 12:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
194
dad (2012-01-20 23:05) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
196
hedging, part two (2012-01-22 22:28) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
197
thursday the twenty-sixth of january, little ouseburn (2012-01-29 22:19) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
198
February . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
199
another week, ice (2012-02-04 09:04) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
199
snow, saunter, wander, walk, catching up (2012-02-05 22:16) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
200
snowy start in bampton (2012-02-10 08:11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
202
bill heine, goridebus, papers, andrew, nelle davy, raúl, benedict, david (2012-02-12 22:07) . . . . . . .
203
warming, ice breaker, winter trap (2012-02-13 19:33) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
204
the difference a day makes (2012-02-19 21:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
205
aclaiir, paddington (2012-02-22 21:48) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
206
spring!, long winter, ageing, john nash, tyres-some (2012-02-26 11:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
207
March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
208
mist, st a’s, bampton, oxford canal (2012-03-02 19:06) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
208
that downton abbey time of year again (2012-03-03 13:44) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
210
life writing, party, vodka, cadiz constitution, calcroft lane home movie, helen r (2012-03-10 14:38) . . .
211
calcroft lane ii (2012-03-11 13:55) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
212
cranes, mist, filmscript, john frankenheimer (2012-03-12 22:40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
213
3.4
3.5
3.6
mist again (2012-03-15 08:58) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
213
rain, flowers, frogs, achy shoulders, filmscript, hollybush (2012-03-17 17:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
215
hockney, ebury wine bar, mercedes taxi (2012-03-18 23:07) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
217
frost, sunny morning, piers, drought and all (2012-03-19 22:05) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
218
spring flowers, filmscript, mst cw, podcast (2012-03-26 08:30) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
219
oxford canal, clematis, maggie the cat (2012-03-29 13:18) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
220
April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
221
party, assignments, clanfield tavern, brunch, patio, drought (2012-04-01 16:13) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
221
holiday, oilseed rape, drought, kelmscott, willow bark (2012-04-06 19:40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
222
allotment, easter, blackthorn; and then something really unexpected happens (2012-04-08 23:39) . . .
224
duxford, violets, shifford lock, tadpole bridge, perspective(?) (2012-04-09 23:28) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
225
sticky clay, sort out, flowering hedge, sunset boulevard (2012-04-10 20:01) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
227
gee’s, standlake lakes, woodpecker, kingfisher, weather! (2012-04-11 20:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
228
walk, drought, hollow tree, end of the holiday, writing (2012-04-15 21:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
229
aldermaston, stories, lustre, nano-tech, quince (2012-04-23 08:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
232
bridges, graffiti, port meadow, puny, tarkovsky (2012-04-24 22:53) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
233
mud, holiday payback, oclw, sf, st (2012-04-28 11:26) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
235
fb friend, wind and rain, cherry blossom, magnolia, weather (2012-04-29 21:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
237
May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
237
swan at radcot, cold ipa, spice, narrowboat, morris, red house (2012-05-01 22:52) . . . . . . . . . . . .
237
frozen, signs of spring, clematis, green alcanet etc, family biz!? (2012-05-06 00:24) . . . . . . . . . . . .
238
kind weather, spuds, edzell blues, highland burgundy reds, dibber, shallots and onions
(2012-05-06 17:00) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
239
bank holiday walk, new bridge, thunder, downpours, hophead, suits, back to work (2012-05-07 20:15)
241
moaty thing, awash, lasa, swan at radcot, robert gibbings (2012-05-12 23:58) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
241
wolvercote green, wio, reviewing the past, john wain, waterman’s arms (2012-05-17 20:41) . . . . . . .
243
freezing may, bluebells, sf, flying crows, golden gate, wierd (2012-05-20 20:29) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
244
san francisco (2012-05-22 18:40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
245
golden gate, alcatraz, sea lions, pacific breeze (2012-05-23 00:11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
246
two interiors, stanford, lasa launch (2012-05-24 05:44) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
247
sutter, marti, lineamientos, time passing, sf city hall (2012-05-26 06:53) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
249
sfmoma, photography in mexico, romance, iguanas, che, saying goodbye, nostalgia (2012-05-26 23:13)
250
show dogs, leaving sf, ace film (2012-05-27 18:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
251
(2012-05-28 23:12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
253
sea lions vid, back home, english pen’s: big writing for a small world (2012-05-28 23:35) . . . . . . . .
253
June . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
253
pruning, biking, lag, festivities, tons (2012-06-02 10:51) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
253
rain, bunting, walking, morris dancing (2012-06-03 23:01) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
255
kellogg: dialogue between rose solari and frank (of 2001) (2012-06-07 23:17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
256
9
3.7
3.8
3.9
10
(2012-06-10 22:08) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
258
oaks, oxfordshire cotswolds?, up and down dale, third novel (2012-06-10 22:44) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
259
rose solari’s a secret woman, chris andrews, warm friendship (2012-06-14 21:20) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
260
oxford canal, oclw, dr nicoletta demetriou, lawrence durrell, bitter lemons (2012-06-15 14:46) . . . . .
261
north york moors, kirby, burlington, pope, melbourne, nunnington, hound trail (2012-06-17 06:46) . .
263
decent bike ride, waterlogged allotment, cotton thistles, hedge and ditch, bunting, two great evenings
(2012-06-23 15:47) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
264
s1, al-andalus, aclaiir agm, seacourt tower, roots building, stowe, 18, filmscript (2012-06-28 21:51) . . .
266
runners, wigwams, rain, cycling, aclaiir, lie-in (2012-06-30 10:41) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
267
July . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
268
lie in, brandy bottle lilies, weeding, bell (2012-07-01 14:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
268
saturated, bistro, essay, shock, swan (2012-07-06 17:45) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
269
common aeshna, walking, reflecting (2012-07-09 19:21) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
270
wilts, rest, howard’s house, beckford arms, phoenix, poppies (2012-07-10 23:26) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
270
compasses lower chicksgrove, perspective, streetbooks (2012-07-11 17:41) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
272
drenched, autumnal, corsewall point, omg, newton faulkner, comments (2012-07-14 09:35) . . . . . . .
273
fresher air, sun!, black bourton green, more comments (2012-07-15 09:22) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
275
heron, lock, signs of the times (2012-07-16 21:01) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
275
sandwiches in the parks (2012-07-19 17:43) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
277
summer...?, cricket at worcester, yaffling, dinner at exeter, developing as a creative writer, new journey
(2012-07-21 14:18) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
279
borders, granddad, keble gaudy, 99 runs in 30 overs to beat... (2012-07-21 18:31) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
280
exeter, weeds, three courgettes, al fresco late breakfast, s1 (2012-07-22 21:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
281
walk, binsey, taylor, hollybush (2012-07-28 16:09) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
282
August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
284
meadowsweet, burnt, exeter summer school, new novel, italian courgettes, argh!, olympic opening
ceremony, frank (2012-08-04 08:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
284
rain, calcroft lane, jessica ennis, tears, narrative, economic gloom, john cantlie (2012-08-05 10:44) . . .
286
sushi, university parks, robin (2012-08-07 21:16) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
287
summer school, oers, allotment disaster, readings, firework display (2012-08-11 14:11) . . . . . . . . .
288
telegraph blog, trains, nell (2012-08-16 22:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
289
bark (birch?), parks, cycling, oppressive, oers (2012-08-18 10:21) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
290
hot, cherwell, ash, biztro (2012-08-19 12:43) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
292
autumnal, min-till, mad, furniture saga, jtns pics on google+, new lights (2012-08-25 10:11) . . . . . .
292
September . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
295
holiday, france, châlons (2012-09-03 00:17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
295
end of holiday, horseshoes, bell at langford, châlons, tournon, seguin, jaboulet (2012-09-05 22:29) . . .
296
energised, cousins from australia, churches, collobrières, sweet chestnuts, huge, huge thanks
(2012-09-09 10:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
300
hooky, plough, oers, keble gaudy, lost, spray, spuds (2012-09-15 19:12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
305
misty, refreshing, days off, cherwell boathouse, oers live, first fire of autumn? (2012-09-22 18:41) . . .
306
batcombe, sweet tooth, september sun, rain, reckless, assessor (2012-09-26 16:24) . . . . . . . . . . . .
308
michaelmas, anticipation, things to be done, a conscious englishman, a pint or two (2012-09-29 09:30)
311
3.10 October . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
312
oth week, downpours, mist, ace, streetbooks.co.uk, mellow, soft (2012-10-06 11:32) . . . . . . . . . . .
312
flooding, great brook, wet feet, wet fields (2012-10-07 21:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
313
oxford canal, a40, coal barges, snaky heron, rain (2012-10-11 22:53) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
314
frost, gang warfare, typesetting, editing, landscapes (2012-10-14 11:02) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
316
oxford canal, streetbooks lock, bampton post office raid, log fire, cathy x (2012-10-20 22:59) . . . . . .
318
lie-in, webs, oed word of the day, hotchi-witchi (2012-10-21 10:17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
319
marking finished, lie-in, warmer, blue trailer, mst blog, edward thomas’ oxford, wio 20th
(2012-10-28 15:17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
320
3.11 November . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
322
greylags, signet, running to catch up, family (1 unkown before now), hunger (2012-11-03 09:40) . . . .
322
rain, waterlogged fields, first log delivery, brazil, in trouble again (2012-11-04 21:55) . . . . . . . . . .
324
autumn leaves, aa gill, edward thomas, a conscious englishman by margaret keeping, streetbooks
(2012-11-11 17:07) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
325
trailer, autumn days, wio 20th, fox, snowdrops, tunes (2012-11-18 22:39) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
326
flooding, tredegar, edward thomas, insecurities, visconti, clair, such a strange experience
(2012-11-25 15:41) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
329
3.12 December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
332
assignments, frosty bampton, a conscious englishman, life-writing lunch, lincoln college, letters, end of
term (2012-12-03 10:21) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
332
rare walk (sad), turkey n all, ace, east oxford art & book fair (2012-12-08 14:13) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
335
frozen oxford canal, east oxford art & book fair, brian levison, yehuda amichai, fox at great barrington,
sir bradley (2012-12-16 23:21) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
337
soaked, flooding, logs, near-boiling, holiday, still work to do, moan, moan, moan (2012-12-22 12:16) .
340
first walk together in ages, bampton-downton, profumo, log and twig deer (2012-12-23 23:18) . . . . .
342
flooded farmland and allotments, morris and talbot, midnight mass, humanist, happy christmas!!!!
(2012-12-25 00:26) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
344
happy xmas!!; wreath, walks, pints, pheasants & rioja; more bampton-downton (2012-12-25 14:48) . .
346
goodnight, john mcgahern, moving forward?, contemplating the past, saying what you mean, happy
days! :-) (2012-12-25 23:49) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
347
rain is the new snow, happy swans! (2012-12-27 21:02) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
348
blenheim, henbane, woodman, frosty bells, downton, reflection, tim parks, ebooks, reading
(2012-12-28 23:23) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
349
biking, water still, friends round for drinks, t growing up...a bit (2012-12-30 17:44) . . . . . . . . . . . .
352
luminous moss on a cotswold wall, the ups and downs of 2012, looking forward to 2013, happy new
year!!!! (2012-12-31 22:05) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
352
11
4
2013
4.1
355
January . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
355
sunlight and blue sky, 2013 (2013-01-01 18:17) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
355
holiday, promise of spring, hedging (2013-01-04 20:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
356
back to work, forecast of snow, coal fire, oxford 0th week, fresh eyes (2013-01-12 22:19) . . . . . . . . .
358
snow, change opportunity and uncertainty, ebooks v ’real’ books, oxford english, a conscious englishman, margaret keeping, linda newbery (2013-01-20 22:48) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
358
4.2
thaw, a conscious englishman on sale, look inside, burns night, cairn o’mohr spring oak leaf wine
(2013-01-26 12:09) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
362
mud, hardy celandines, streetbooks on linkedin (2013-01-27 09:55) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
363
February . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
364
moon, crows and snowdrops, ribs, a conscious englishman, edward thomas, publishing my edward
thomas (2013-02-03 15:15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
364
a conscious englishman by margaret keeping published today (2013-02-07 13:03) . . . . . . . . . . . .
366
margaret keeping on the bill heine show, radio oxford; excellent reader reviews of a conscious englishman on amazon (2013-02-10 15:33) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
367
4.3
cycling, misty morning, catching up, moss, nests, ace reviewed, weekend (2013-02-16 11:29) . . . . . .
368
twickenham, old boys match, freezing, snowdrops, hedging (2013-02-24 15:36) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
370
March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
372
waterways, craft, grebes, the lock, picnics (2013-03-03 15:47) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
372
brrr!, almond blossom, king cups, guardian books blog, disputed land by tim pears, the next day
(2013-03-10 15:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
374
cold, wet, brightbox good but 3g useless, disputed land, a conscious englishman, maconochie, multitrack (2013-03-16 14:47) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
375
jtns ebook (2013-03-18 22:30) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
377
spring?, periwinkle, snowy churchyard, in pursuit of spring, spuds and onions, creative writing
(2013-03-24 12:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
378
willow wands, purity, regrowth, yellow flag, in pursuit of spring, edward thomas, a conscious englishman by margaret keeping, guardian books (2013-03-29 11:57) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
380
4.4
bitter wind, sun, in pursuit of spring, book reviews, richard jefferies, daffs and scillas (2013-03-30 18:08)
382
frosty morning, shropshire, lince, happy easter! (2013-03-31 22:32) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
383
April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
384
buckland marsh, two degrees, disputed land by tim pears, sweet tooth, ian mcewan (2013-04-01 14:58)
384
sun, reed bed (2013-04-02 20:24) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
386
refreshed, sweet tooth, guardian books blog, claire armitstead, margaret keeping’s a conscious englishman, easter discovery (2013-04-06 12:47) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
387
4.5
12
last day of holiday, grafton lock, kelmscott, invisible, tom and sarah (2013-04-07 21:39) . . . . . . . . .
388
warmer, frog spawn, busy, noughth week, uk web archive, e-legal deposit (2013-04-14 13:44) . . . . .
389
top of the garden, grrrr!, sweet tooth, nesting material, twists (2013-04-20 21:02) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
391
first week of term, learning from students, cold again, biztro, allotment, fur, tls review (2013-04-27 15:40)
392
May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
393
bank holiday, witney walk, s1, allotment, outside, historical novels review, wild flowers, mount owen
road (2013-05-06 13:30) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
393
changeable moods, history thesis fair, late spuds, conted trinity newsletter, horseshoes, cannock chase,
b, amok, lie in (2013-05-11 18:08) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
395
heavy cold..., moorhens, may landscape, writers greehouse, red nile - robert twigger, margaret keeping,
edward thomas (2013-05-19 13:00) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
398
4.6
out cycling again, bluebells, whitsun, mild, the national (2013-05-25 14:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
399
potatoes, late (2013-05-27 15:02) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
400
June . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
401
sunrise, under the weather, book launch missed, lunch with cousin (2013-06-01 16:36) . . . . . . . . .
401
feeling better, cold breeze, soft blue skies, presidential visit, valencourt books, assignments
(2013-06-08 23:54) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
402
dog walking, stillness, a fox, iain banks (2013-06-10 10:38) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
404
last week of term, lunches missed, laura marling, oxonian review, a conscious englishman, gabriel
roberts (2013-06-15 16:33) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
405
cycling, hay fever, aclaiir, e-books, lac garden party, preparing for guided retreat, supermoon
(2013-06-22 15:18) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
407
mst, academic year turns, peony, a girl is a half-formed thing by eimear mcbride, bobby "blue" bland,
nook (2013-06-29 10:36) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
409
4.7
July . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
410
allotment, ugdip readings, wingspan by jeremy hughes, moocs, oers, opera next, mount owen, ps nosee-ums (2013-07-06 11:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
410
4.8
day off, heatwave, andy murray, dancing tadpoles, blue and white crops, proper summer
(2013-07-08 12:37) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
412
trap grounds, lord of the flies, marking done, free-ish week, summer school, exeter college
(2013-07-13 11:57) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
413
compasses lower chicksgrove, beckford arms, oats wheat and barley, peaceful wiltshire
(2013-07-17 15:38) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
416
30c, more wiltshire pics, sublime, developing as a creative writer, opera next 16 (2013-07-20 13:54) . .
418
allotment, autumn king, first runners, summer school, narrow stone-walled winds, magic of sunlight
(2013-07-27 13:49) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
420
rain, first spuds, great brook, brandy bottle lilies (2013-07-28 14:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
421
August . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
423
harvest time, lords and ladies, barley, exeter college summer school, rewley’s 135th (2013-08-03 16:45)
423
end of summer school, can’t quite believe, lie-in, friend’s 90th (2013-08-09 16:59) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
424
(2013-08-16 22:47) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
425
best part of the day, post summer school, bill’s, a conscious englishman ebook, notting hill, walker
evans at moma, spider, moles (2013-08-17 20:48) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
425
to grow old like roy (2013-08-24 14:27) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
427
lots of sleep, wayfaring tree, guelder rose, flowering rush (2013-08-25 21:06) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
428
lovely walk, linseed, al fresco, penguin history of la (2013-08-27 20:43) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
430
redshank, chimney meadows, morris’ manor, posts revisited, more holiday reading, tales out of school
(2013-08-30 09:15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
431
13
4.9
September . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
434
trap grounds, graffiti, bedroom window, serge doubrovsky, autofiction, hero of herat, cuba
(2013-09-08 20:49) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
434
five alls, lifting spuds, gosford park, dog better, first log fire of autumn (2013-09-14 18:09) . . . . . . .
437
onions (2013-09-15 15:08) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
440
misty morning, mount owen, cucumbers and runner beans, oudce open day, a conscious englishman
(2013-09-21 10:09) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
441
three horseshoes, batcombe (2013-09-24 22:42) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
442
mst residence, allotment, memories, autumn (2013-09-28 23:25) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
443
digging (2013-09-29 21:13) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
445
4.10 October . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
445
promotion, mst, morris (2013-10-05 18:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
445
murky, josé, desktop, calming, digging?, 0th week (2013-10-12 13:06) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
446
full term, full swing, oxford, late lunch, hollybush, ramblings, cathy dreyer, finals, allotment
(2013-10-19 23:33) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
448
reviving weekend, autumn leaves, friend staying, kings of leon, london grammar, lou reed, osney sundays (2013-10-28 14:30) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
450
4.11 November . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14
452
ethereal skies, first frost, mowing the lawn, berkshire logs, biztro, swiss chard, breathing spaces
(2013-11-03 14:49) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
452
cultural evening, history in the making, jeremy hughes, wingspan (2013-11-05 21:04) . . . . . . . . . .
453
freeeezing, spoilt, what’s the tree?, old friend, eagle and child (2013-11-09 12:02) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
454
sunrise (2013-11-13 08:08) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
455
malcolm parkes (2013-11-16 12:58) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
456
malcolm parkes, punctuation (2013-11-16 15:38) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
458
time off (2013-11-19 23:11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
458
lovely walk, heavy rain (2013-11-20 20:48) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
460
jfk (2013-11-22 08:27) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
461
oak (2013-11-27 09:24) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
462
in oxford, tute, library, novella, icarus, lovely memories, shropshire (2013-11-30 08:47) . . . . . . . . .
463
4.12 December . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
464
up early, lime tree, oclw lunch, glasses, bike ride, christmas (2013-12-08 21:40) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
464
cycling, folly hill, harrowdown hill (2013-12-09 10:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
465
view from the bampton bus stop, mist, low light, wintry (2013-12-11 08:14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
466
(2013-12-15 12:58) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
467
stark, green, low light, roddy doyle’s the commitments (2013-12-17 09:35) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
468
happy christmas! (2013-12-20 21:24) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
469
happy new year!!!! (2013-12-31 23:14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
470
5
2014
5.1
5.2
471
January . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
471
flooded fields, gloomy weather, australia (2014-01-11 20:56) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
471
working in oxford, contrast to australia, film fest, fishing (2014-01-20 09:00) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
480
oz photos on flickr, lessing’s the golden notebook, nobel laureates, showing and telling, wingspan by
jeremy hughes, bs johnson (2014-01-25 19:46) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
494
February . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
503
ugh! graffiti, downton hallucinations, log fire, assignment marking (2014-02-01 15:57) . . . . . . . . .
503
breezy, 2007, ditch clearing, assignments, windows 8, (deer and kite), kerry young, open country, adlestrop, wychwood forest (2014-02-08 12:53) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
505
rain, high winds, 21st fiction from latin america, palabras errantes, weinrebe lecture, edward st aubyn,
hermione lee (2014-02-17 08:52) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
507
beautiful morning!, tutes, st barnabas church, digital humanities, knowledge exchange, hollybush witney (2014-02-22 10:44) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
509
5.3
5.4
March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
510
water subsiding, moss and lichens, stop-go spring, corrected edition of a conscious englishman, oclw
podcasts, birds’ nests (2014-03-03 08:50) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
510
warm sun, bees buzzing, more tutes, getting strength back, eagle and child, blackcurrant mild, sawlogs
(2014-03-08 09:10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
512
twickenham (2014-03-09 17:45) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
513
new blackberry, spring weather, oclw blog, weald snowdrops (2014-03-15 13:43) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
515
kingcups, cheering, life of tony benn, inspiring (2014-03-16 12:33) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
516
(2014-03-24 20:38) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
516
walks (2014-03-24 21:25) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
517
bright, misty, allotment, really warm, tables and chairs, novella (2014-03-29 18:34) . . . . . . . . . . . .
520
April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
522
fritillaries, john wain, where the rivers meet, waterman’s arms, hay fever, a conscious englishman,
cambridge quarterly (2014-04-06 16:06) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
522
5.5
canal-side blacksmith, william morris, allotment drying out, novella, a conscious englishman
(2014-04-13 15:16) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
524
bracket fungus, rac/rau cirencester, forestry finals, ace final read through, planting spuds, jtns 40k
(2014-04-18 16:14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
528
caterpillars, bright star (2014-04-20 19:55) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
529
belated happy easter!, wild fritillary (2014-04-22 20:00) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
530
thames valley, rain, downton abbey series five, way back in 2010 (2014-04-25 12:24) . . . . . . . . . . .
533
working late, week off, planting, quartet, cowslips, ace reprint with corrections (2014-04-28 08:57) . .
536
May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
537
working weekend, autumn king, cold start, sir robert taylor, digital icons, queen sofia, diary management (2014-05-03 17:01) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
537
may blossom, downpours, sowing, creative writing, term up-and-running, novella (2014-05-10 15:39)
541
ridging spuds, the poetry of tractor driving, l’étranger, instituto cervantes, aclaiir blog, new novella,
icarus, chapters 1-3 (2014-05-17 11:26) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
542
15
5.6
red campion, shorts, mite/might! (2014-05-18 09:45) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
548
soaked, flowers, lunch at gee’s, morris and folk, icarus, chapters 4-6 (2014-05-24 11:24) . . . . . . . . .
550
parks and cherwell, morris dancing, stanford george harrington photos online, icarus, chapters 7-8
(2014-05-31 09:45) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
558
June . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
563
walking from wolvercote, stone, bridge, teaching (2014-06-07 15:08) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
563
stowe, memories, reclaiming, sarte, nausea (2014-06-15 22:33) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
565
tree peony, aclaiir agm and seminar, cambridge university library, open access monograph publishing,
invisible on ora, allotment (2014-06-21 13:01) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
569
5.7
16
wolvercote, towpath, scything, haystacks, marking, guided retreat (2014-06-28 11:20) . . . . . . . . . .
571
July . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
574
heavy rain, tour de bampton-tour de yorkshire, guided retreat, sunny week (2014-07-05 09:39) . . . .
574
compasses, beckford, howard’s, more marking, digital humanities summer school (2014-07-12 18:51)
575
dhoxss, whizzing ideas, relaxing, water lily, water flask, old ways (2014-07-20 15:29) . . . . . . . . . .
578
dog-walking, thames valley, nft, lff, wonderful times, polanski at the rac, repulsion, spider
(2014-07-26 18:03) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
579
Chapter 1
2010
1.1
February
intro (2010-02-20 23:39)
Mosaic.
saturday (2010-02-21 00:03)
At noon across the street from our study-bedroom
There was the gentle but full sunlight and the daffodil stalks, six inches tall, ringing the plane trees.
Earlier, when the sun had barely risen, I found brittle ice on the pond and the frogs frisky beneath.
5 am starts this weekend, lots of assignments to mark.
Now it is night and I’m in front of a log fire, wood quick to burn since the ash was scooped out.
On the Chatsworth table, great aunt’s legacy, lies John Cowper Powys’ Maiden Castle,
Macdonald edition, 1966, typewritten review copy slip included;
I noticed this evening how the pages’ print is slightly blurred;
Still, a precious book, its first line sunrise.
sunday night (2010-02-21 22:00)
Getting up at 5 this morning was better than expected. Felt clear-headed, surprisingly, and excited to be up. The
radio progs were new–a bit religiousy but some weren’t. Fascinating bio of George Papandreou which included his
brother’s vivid memories of day soldiers stormed the family home when they were boys. Said to be traumatic–it
would be.
That sun rose well before 7 made all the difference to my mood during the rest of the day. Having said that, lighter
mornings all this week should have cheered me up but didn’t. Am aware that I’ve been moody...
Disappointed that Neil Spencer’s horoscopes for this week haven’t appeared on Guardian website all day. We can’t
all be clairvoyant!
Where does the time go, though?
Looking forward to Nora’s leaving do at Carluccio’s tomorrow night.
(Why does Window’s spellchecker always query ’website’!–you invented the flamin’ things...Practically :–))
17
monday night (2010-02-22 21:49)
On S1 to Witney, where I’ll get a cab home–no direct Bampton buses after 6 pm. Travel home is one of the trickier
aspects of living in west Ox when you’ve stayed in Oxford for the evening.
Falling asleep on the bus, sailing through Witney and ending up in Carterton is another. Typing might just keep me
awake.
Nora’s farewell party at Carluccio’s was fun. Had a couple of things off the set menu including what looked like a
really simple salad. It was DElicious! That lettuce and tomato could taste that good. Also always love the Peroni’s
you can’t get anywhere else–Red tonight. Was tempted by the ’vintage’, or whatever it’s called, but then remembered
it’s stonkingly strong and I have minutes to finish at work tomorrow morning...
Had really interesting chats with Argentinean and Polish colleagues, neither of whom I knew well before. It was a
really lovely evening and Nora seems amazingly happy about her job.
Witney approaching... Time for a zzz...
tuesday (2010-02-23 22:31)
Bedroom is like an ice-cave–without the pretty walls. Well, they are pretty but they don’t look like the walls of an
ice-cave. That’s where the analogy breaks down.
This time last week we had family to stay and ended up sleeping in front of the fire. Hadn’t been looking forward to
this but when it came to it, I really enjoyed myself. Tempted to throw another few logs on and crash there now.
Heartened to see that Oxfordshire county libraries have just ordered 3 copies of Invisible. Yay!
twitter (2010-02-24 12:27)
Having quick coffee in Taylor staff room and posting update on twitter ([1]http://www.twitter.com/frankegerton):
Gotta ditch some commitments, free up some time for my own work. Love twitter but when it’s the closest you get
to writing the next novel...
Outside, sun’s out–yeeeha!
1. http://www.twitter.com/frankegerton
wednesday night (2010-02-24 22:52)
Sausages are delicious, especially when the gravy’s lamb-shank (though the Heinz ketchup made them–sssh, don’t
tell Jess).
Watched the last few moments of Vanity Fair on DVD earlier–great until you viewed the bonus material and saw what
the ending might have been. Cinema one was fun and upbeat but alternative was moving and profound. Ah well,
Reese Witherspoon was brill in both.
Maybe it was the film that made me think of the big break up in my own family–some thirteen years ago now. Looking
back, the events that caused the breach were so sad and pointless and, as I’ve written elsewhere, wholly avoidable. I
am still astonished in particular at the absence of love then. I wonder what those involved thought they were doing?
Though I suppose nothing human beings do should surprise anybody!
Night.
bussing it (2010-02-25 17:59)
This morning I had to drop off a Puerto Rican cookery book at the Central Library and I was boiling in my heavy
overcoat when I got back to the Taylor. Things were looking up!
18
Now on 18 crawling along Woodstock Road (in between sudden leaps forward), damp, cold and shoe-horned into
my seat. Am I downhearted? Am I? Am I!
Sort of.
At least I can sit half-across my seat and its twin–it would truly be hell if I had to sit facing forward, knees against
my nostrils. Plus, the bus is now racing along A40 (which seems miraculously clear–don’t speak too soon!) and the
heating feels hotter.
So, after I finish tapping this out, I’ll plug in the earphones, select a fav track and listen to whatever Windows Media
chooses to shuffle my way–as I drift to sleep, dreaming of this afternoon’s Oracle financials training...
...I think I fancy Up the Junction by Squeeze. I remember buying it as a purple 45 when it came out: twice (first one
warped when left on Fiesta parcel shelf in the sun then the other got kidnapped because I was playing it so much and
driving everyone at Bledisloe Lodge up the wall–never to be seen again). Happy mems.
Peter Groves (2010-02-27 09:34:41)
I wish I knew where my copy of Up The Junction had got to ... but I do still have a pink, 12 inch, Cool for Cats.
frank (2010-03-02 22:28:17)
Cool for Cats–I remember falling for a girl called Jane to that.
Collector’s item.
metamorphosis (2010-02-26 08:56)
The other morning, while scrolling through twitter, I came across a post from my friend Caroline, who runs rentokil.com. She was saying to this woman that yes, she did agree that Rentokil would have had an adverse effect on
Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis... What!
...One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a
horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly
domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. After a while he noticed that there was a small red dish in the corner
of the room containing what looked like breadcrumbs. Yum, he thought. Slowly, and with the greatest difficulty, he
wrestled with the bedclothes, legs flailing until plop, he dropped to the floor. Undeterred, he scuttled to the little dish
and gobbled up its contents. Suddenly he felt queasy...
THE END
With apologies to Franz K, David Wyllie (translator) & [1]Project Gutenberg.
1. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm
1.2
March
fragment (2010-03-02 08:23)
...it’s a gleaming, sugared-grass morning
but its chill is gentle and when I went to the pond
its surface was just a soft skim of ice
and the eastern sky was blue foil at half six, if not before,
whereas only a week ago, it seems like, it was still dark at seven...
tardis (2010-03-04 20:36)
He looks through the window at the passing country,
at the hill in the distance where they last met,
19
its trees like lichen, purple and orange and emerald.
A screech owl flaps mechanically in the valley, stops short and swoops.
He thinks of another time, the first time, at her flat,
wishing he could rewrite it like a scene in one of his stories,
and that narrative could carry him to this parallel place:
She does not drink their bottle of wine the night before...
He brings food...
He does not doubt her, nor has reason to...
She doesn’t doubt him...
He types into his phone and when he stops
the road ahead is a tunnel through the night.
In front of the hill a screech owl flaps mechanically, stops short and swoops.
snort (2010-03-06 09:42)
Over breakfast, I read a disturbing Times [1]article about the jailing of a Porsche-addicted cocaine-dealing gangster
and Britain’s burgeoning love affair with the drug. From what the journalist says, you might be forgiven for thinking
that people are so busy snorting coke they don’t have time for anything else. (Maybe that’s true, maybe financial
meltdown was caused by everyone borrowing cash to fuel their habit. Not to mention paying for the nose refurbs.)
I have to admit I’ve only ever come across someone snorting coke once, and that was at a party over twenty-five years
ago. Which probably makes me sound like the judge who asked who the Beatles were. But I wonder if anyone else
has similar inexperience.
What I am addicted to, come to think of it, are articles about drug addicts, drug barons and the effects of drugs. Can’t
get enough of those.
On a happier note, there’s also a great-sounding [2]article on why owning a dog is good for you. As the coke dealer
starts his eight year sentence, bet he wishes he’d just gone out and bought a pooch.
1. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7052036.ece
2. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/men/article7045752.ece
monday (2010-03-08 19:23)
It was great to get away to Shropshire at the weekend, even if it was only for a few hours. As we drove out of
Oxfordshire into Gloucestershire, I suddenly realised I hadn’t left the county for yonks. The only drives I’ve done
since Xmas have been back and forths to Oxford.
Is it the getting away or the driving that’s important? Life’s ’never’ either or, so it’s got to be both. I suppose the point
I’m making is that you shouldn’t undervalue the effects of the drive. There’s a particular quality to the thoughts that
empty themselves out as you bat along, leaving somewhere, heading for somewhere else. They’re thoughts that have
been waiting, that couldn’t form before then. Laying-to-rest thoughts.
The hills round Oswestry were beautiful in the sunlight and there were loads of snowdrops out in the gardens. The
fields were quite yellowy-looking, though, because, it turned out, they’ve been under snow for weeks–it’s only just
thawed. Shropshire Alps, must’ve seemed.
Busy at Taylor, everyone keeping going till end of 8th week. After which comes? A whole lot of 9th week... But it is
an important psychological barrier. Library guides working party lasted 2 1/2 hours and ushered in yet another new
digital era.
weekender (2010-03-12 19:33)
Weekend. What weekend? Off to Taylor tomorrow for most of the day, then going through an extended essay on
Sunday. Well, a good weekend, actually. True, I can’t wait till next week and a short break but I love working at the
20
Taylor, in the main reading room at the enquiry desk, and working on essays and stories is like breathing, really.
I wonder what the light will be like in the Taylor tomorrow. Those huge windows are amazing–views of Oxford and
big skies, moods passing across the library, spilling, bursting, filtering.
I’ll go on a longish walk before I set off. It’s been fun exploring the countryside around the village again, since the
bike broke down irretrievably. Particularly in the twilight at 6, 6.30 am (though now astonishingly it’ll almost be
light): the shapes of hedgerows, flooded hollows, the far escarpment, inquisitive deer peering, screech owls soaring–
all emerging, muted, calm.
Next week, next week–I shall, with luck, buy a new bike, and be back cycling. It’ll be fun exploring my favourite
routes and seeing how things have changed over the last month.
Off to the Horse Shoe later for a pint or two of Peroni. FAB.
heading for ox (2010-03-13 09:25)
On my way to Oxford.
Just watched Squeeze Cool for Cats video on youtube mobile. Vid seems familiar, although I can’t be sure. Must’ve
seen it at the time, even if I can’t remember the pink vinyl 12" that Peter mentioned in his comment (see below).
The amazing thing about the vid is that it comes at the start of a Kenny Everett show, which kicks off with the Thames
TV logo then bounces into sequences of cartoons (so psychedelic) and wacky KE appearances as he introduces the
prog. Great. (I’ll post [1]link to this later).
Now listening to Sometimes it Snows in April by Prince. Had to switch off youtube because high-speed mob internet
cuts out round Wytham Hill.
As I was writing above, Prince faded out and Marianne Faithful got going with As Tears Go By. Can’t remember that
one when it came out. First heard it when holed up in a farm cottage near Chichester in the early 80s at New Year. As
soon as I got home I went to a record shop and scoured the catalogues. You could still order a 45 in those days.
Lovely walk this morning. But no pools–the fresh wind has licked them all dry.
Now in Ox, accompanied by Peter Gabriel and Games without Frontiers. (There’s a lot of new stuff on this machine,
honest. Shuffle’s just in yesteryear mode...)
OMG it’s Whiter Shade of Pale. Freaky.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsC0T0pKwfw
i remember, i remember (2010-03-16 23:35)
This afternoon at the LAC library I felt as if I was beginning to achieve something–for the first time since I started my
new job, back in September.
It was the simplest thing that made me feel that way. I was just taking batches of weeded books off the shelf and
marking their flyleaves in pencil so that I knew where each was destined. That this part of the weeding project had
been completed seemed like a small triumph.
Then I thought about my first library, which I set up many years ago.
As a boy I was a compulsive–and, I have to admit, pretentious–reader. (Balzac’s Black Sheep at ten... Did I understand
it? Only a little, I suppose...) By the time I was in the 5th form at prep school I had about fifty books and I added them
to the small collection that was kept in our classroom and was known as the Upper School Library. I got a notebook
from the stationery cupboard so I could keep track of who the books were lent to.
A lovely profession, librarianship, I have to say. I’m glad I ended up going into it.
Thinking about my little library reminded me of my friends at Heatherdown, including Andrew. He was not my best
friend but we got on well and he was in any case hard to ignore.
Did he use my library? Maybe, but I can’t remember him doing so at all. (Andrew and I vied for 11th and 12th place
all through our school careers and it must have seemed so odd to the masters, thinking about it, that I loved books so
much).
We started at the school on the same day, mum and dad and all the other parents lining up in James Edwards’ curiously
sterile white drawing-room to meet Andrew’s mum. My dad looking like a schoolboy–just like all the other dads,
whether banker or Marquis.
21
Rupert my cousin was there–his mum, Aunt Meg, had been, or still was, a lady-in-waiting.
Such a strange place, looking back, my prep school.
I remember Andrew, James S and me hanging from the hot pipes in the drying room like baby orangutans. We were
trying to square our story, having been reported to the headmaster. The energy we put into that; the scenarios we
created...
Not that we’d done anything serious. What we’d done was so innocent. Today, parents would laugh if they were
told.
Mosaic.
snippets (2010-03-21 22:30)
It was great being out on the new bike–rain or shine. I loved seeing the countryside again and felt so much healthier.
Realised how important cycling is to my fitness. Walking just ain’t the same. Today’s cycle was the best in terms of
weather and landscape–warm (car said 12° later), beautiful spring light, the grass greening up in the water meadows
near the Thames. I did the route that takes you along the Great Brook to Aston and then to Mount Owen via Lew lane
(from the top of Mount M you can see as far as Didcot power station and the Ridgeway). The Mojave went pretty well,
although 5th gear on the big cog jumps occasionally. A pain because it’s a useful gear when you need to catch your
breath. Physically, I felt ok most of the time, even on the long haul back from Oxford. The worst day was yesterday
when the sides of my knees ached for a bit after the first mile. Raising the height of the saddle helped.
Loved listening to Frank CB on Desert Island Discs. He’s such generous-hearted man. It was because he liked my
Oxbridge close reading paper that I got in–so I was told. When I met him years later he said he could still remember
that exam paper. I will always be grateful to him for the kind things he said about Invisible and for allowing me to
quote him on the cover. I know how much of his valuable time he gave up to read it. If I can track him down at the
Oxford Literary Festival, I’ll give him a copy.
I’ll be reading from Invisible at Blackwell’s on Wednesday sometime between 1 and 2 pm. It’ll be just a short reading–
3-4 pages with maybe the tardis poem thrown in at the end (see below). It’ll be fun to read again.
I’m concerned about YouWriteOn’s distribution to bookshops–the Anchor Book Club have been having problems
getting their 12 copies. This shouldn’t happen and I’ve emailed Ed at YWO about it. An incentive to get StreetBooks
edition out.
Very proud to be chair of WiO when I prepared the Oxford Literary Festival and Oxfringe 2010 pages for the society’s
website (see [1]http://www.writersinoxford.org).
Looking forward to Initiate preview at festival on Thursday 6 pm.
1. http://www.writersinoxford.org/
new bus ticket (2010-03-24 16:34)
New bus ticket, new start...
new bus ticket 2 (2010-03-24 18:19)
Yes, of course it was a monthly ticket. I wouldn’t get so excited about a single, would I? That really would stupid.
blackwell’s, initiate and two former students (2010-03-24 19:31)
Enjoyed reading at World Writers at Blackwell’s. It’s a fun, good-natured event that gives unpublished writers the
chance to read their work alongside published ones, including the writers in residence–this year, [1]Roma Tearne
22
and my colleague on the Oxford MSt course, [2]Jane Draycott. (Roma will also be taking up a week’s [3]residency at
Blackwell’s from 26th April-1st May.)
This year the Blackwell’s audience was particularly giving, I thought, and the overall effect of the event was of successive voices–each so different, each so thought-provoking. The World Writers at Blackwell’s festival series will
continue at the Marquee Christ Church tomorrow, Thursday 25th March, 7.15 pm-7.45 pm, and at Blackwell’s, 50
Broad Street, 1 pm-2 pm, Friday 26th and Saturday 27th March. Admission is free.
These events are the result of the unflagging determination of Rita Ricketts, the Blackwell’s organiser.
Rita and Jane are also colleagues on the editorial panel of the new creative writing anthology, Initiate, that will be
launching at the Sunday Times [4]Oxford Literary Festival tomorrow, Thursday 25th March, 6 pm. The event is billed
as follows and it’s a privilege to be involved:
A special preview of exciting new voices from Oxford’s MSt in Creative Writing, alongside established names such
as Tim Pears, David Constantine, Grevel Lindop, Fred D’Aguiar and Christina Koning, all appearing in the first
Blackwell/Kellogg College Centre for Creative Writing annual anthology, INITIATE (published in autumn 2010). The
readings (including by the winner of the A M Heath Prize for Fiction) will be introduced by Jon Stallworthy, Professor
Emeritus of English at the University of Oxford, and Dr Clare Morgan, Director of the MSt and co-editor of the
anthology with Rita Ricketts, Blackwell’s historian.
Meanwhile, today brought news of two former students. One, Liz Gifford, will be reading at Oxfringe’s [5]China
Evening on 31st March at the Malmaison Hotel , 7.15 pm. Liz will be reading from her book Into the River. I also
heard from Norma Sit, who sent me a link to a fascinating TV chat show [6]interview she did on channelnewsasia.
Today was great.
1.
2.
3.
4.
http://romatearne.com/
http://www.janedraycott.org.uk/
http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/editorial/browse/Fiction/Articles/roma_tearne.jsp
http://www.oxfordliteraryfestival.com/
5. http://oxfringe.com/programme/details/?show=86
6.
http://video2.channelnewsasia.com/cnavideos/multiplevideos_no_watermark.asp?skin=player1.swf&bgskin=
playerbackground.swf&filename=100324_ptm_normasit.flv&adfilebefore=cna%20video2.flv&adfileafter=&playmode=S
nature notes (2010-03-26 18:12)
[1]
Early start this morning, so I could drive into Oxford for my 8 am MSt tute at Rewley with time to spare for a double
espresso at Green’s cafe. It was amazingly light when I was eating breakfast. Loved sitting in the kitchen looking out
into the garden while munching toast and marmalade, no need of electric light, the door open.
April showers are here before the event, it seems. The air is warm and they will soon get the spring flowers moving.
The daffs that ring the plane trees in Broad Street are finally out now and when I was walking back to the park-andride this afternoon it looked like the buds on the horse chestnuts in front of St Frideswide’s church, Osney were about
23
to burst open. Those trees are always well before most others–although I’m sad to say I think it is because they are
stressed. Awful to imagine them being permanently under pressure for at least the last twenty-three years–I think it’s
some sort of strange fungus that they’ve got.
At the risk of sounding like a sadist, they do look great in the spring and early summer. It’s when they get black and
gummy later on that they’re sad.
A weekend of marking online assignments beckons.
Right now, though, my printer has just entered ’power saver mode’ and I think I’ll do the same.
(Meanwhile, photoed these larch roses in the Parks, Oxford yesterday. Jess and I used to go and look at the roses on
this tree when I was at Keble.)
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S6z5HU1HdLI/AAAAAAAAABo/l_PdY88FHA8/s1600/larch_roses-765607.jpg
post...
(2010-03-31 08:54)
On a bus tootling through west Oxfordshire, Kings of Leon rocking through phones. Flatlands, Thames Valley lands
glimpsed over high hedges, sheep nibbling roots scattered round their troughs, twenty-to-thirty swans devastating
a patch of spring corn. A landscape that has been familiar in its Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire manifestations for
thirty years.
Unusually, I don’t have my nose buried in a short story that I’m marking, nor in some other work-related document.
Yes, the assignments were returned last night and I am, at last, in post-teaching mode for a few weeks, after which...
And coming up is Easter, which I can’t wait for.
Post-festival too, although Oxfringe 2010 still has a long way to run (see [1]http://writersinoxford.org for WiO involvement).
Loved the tiny bit of the festival and fringe that I was involved in–the Blackwell’s reading, the Initiate launch (a terrific
event) and doing the WiO festival’n’fringe website pages. A huge thank you to Jane Bingham for organising the WiO
introducers this year.
Uh-oh Use Somebody’s just kicked off–not surprised it won that big US best humdinger of the year award.
Of course, I’d have liked to see more at the festival but work got in the way. Next year. Would have especially liked
to see Philip Pullman, who was everywhere, but had to content myself with an excellent profile of him on Radio 4 last
Sunday morning at 5.45 am and Bryan Appleyard’s interesting article in the Sunday Times.
I meet Philip every so often at WiO and Oxford-related events but can’t say I know him. He always knows he knows
me but doesn’t know where from. We meet, he asks me whether, say, I am reading at this year’s festival too (he
always over-promotes me), I explain that I’m editing the WiO newsletter or chairing the society but next time it’s just
the same. My happiest memory of him is of a hazy evening whisky tasting at his house that was led by the late drinks
writer Michael Jackson. I love the way Philip has kept up his involvement with WiO after his big (big? humongous!)
break. On the R4 profile it was said that he is a loyal person, which he is.
Nearly at Oxford.
Looking forward to working on StreetBooks this afternoon and the coming weeks
([2]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk). Not to mention the new novel.
1. http://writersinoxford.org/
2. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
24
1.3
April
adlestrop, st nick’s and the fox (2010-04-03 16:44)
[1]
Thanks again to Helen Peacocke for her book Paws Under the Table, 40 dog-friendly walks from Oxford to the
Cotswolds (Wychwood Press, ISBN 978 1 902279 35 0).
This time we drove to Lower Oddington, just west of Stow-on-the-Wold and did an hour-and-a-half walk via Adlestrop and Daylesford before downing a pint of Hooky at the Fox, a flagstoned, beamed and inglenooked foodie pub.
And, yes, I took a photocopy of the Edward Thomas’ poem Adlestrop with me and read it aloud to Jess and Tufty
near the disused station. (Copied from my prized Faber Collected Poems, 1945.)
We also visited St Nicholas’ church, Lower Oddington and saw the medieval doom painting that was restored early
last century (photo above).
Here is Aldlestrop:
Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.
The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name
And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.
And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and father, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S7dio4amxgI/AAAAAAAAABw/zFzD9UsK608/s1600/St_Nicholas_Lwr_
Oddington-738579.jpg
youwriteon and happy easter holidays!
(2010-04-04 15:48)
I mentioned on 21st March that I was concerned about the distribution of Invisible by YouWriteOn, the Arts Councilbacked publisher of the bridge edition of the novel. I’m pleased to say that the distribution problem has been sorted
out and I wish to thank Ed of YouWriteOn for resolving the matter so quickly and generously.
25
I was also interested to hear about the new plans for the company’s publishing programme that will be implemented
in two to three months time, as the result of increased Arts Council funding.
Enhancements to the programme will include:
• Sales of YouWriteOn titles direct from its website [1]http://www.youwriteon.com
• Opportunities for those whose books sell well to cross the bridge to mainstream publishing
• Better communication between the company and its authors
I remain enthusiastic about YouWriteOn’s bridge publishing concept and wish the company every success.
Happy Easter Holidays!
1. http://www.youwriteon.com/
Janine (2010-04-08 09:46:08)
Hi Frank
Is was interested in your endorsement of YouWriteOn. Do you think I should approach them with my Ring of Roses, if an agent
is not forthcoming? Janine
frank (2010-04-08 16:52:20)
Hi Janine,
Good to hear from you.
I think the decision to approach YouWriteOn should be taken carefully, after examining how the company’s revised scheme is
intended to work.
It’s important to consider whether the YouWriteOn approach is right for you and whether you believe you can make it work for
you.
YouWriteOn only arranges the printing and distribution of the book and while there may be some publicity resulting from the
inclusion of titles on the company’s website, all publicity and marketing is really up to you. (This state of affairs btw is actually
not that different from no-frills imprints being rolled out by big publishers.)
An excellent initial source of marketing advice is the Society of Authors’ Guide to Marketing Your Book (free to members, £2 to
non-members, http://www.societyofauthors.org/guides-and-articles).
The printing and distribution model YouWriteOn uses–the Lightning Source one–is very good and the pricing of the books is
extremely competitive for print on demand. The royalty deal is also reasonable, I would have said.
In future, though, it looks like there is going to be some sort of public ranking of YouWriteOn authors on the company’s website
and this won’t suit everyone. (A lucky few, however, will win mainstream publishing contracts as a result.)
Having said all the above, I would have thought YouWriteOn should only be considered if you have a specific purpose in
choosing the bridge publishing option or if a book fails to interest an agent or publisher.
I chose YouWriteOn because I wanted to make Invisible available in a bridge edition until I had time to launch the StreetBooks
one. YouWriteOn was attractive because under the company’s contract the author retains the rights to the book and the contract
can be terminated with one month’s notice.
But if you don’t have a specific purpose in wanting to publish your book in a bridge edition, or if a novel fails to interest an agent
or publisher, why is it worth making it available through a company like YouWriteOn? Mainstream publishing is in a state of
flux because of technological innovations such as pod, ebooks and the web, so firms are finding it difficult to spot which fiction
titles are going to sell. It is likely, therefore, that some authors are going to find audiences through alternative publishing models.
On the other hand, an author only has a chance of doing this if the book is well written, the writer really believes in it, and the
writer is prepared to put a lot of time, effort and creativity into marketing it.
Hope this helps.
Frank
26
binsey polar bears (2010-04-07 21:33)
[1]
[2]
This morning I walked to Binsey church (see photo, above, and [3]http://www.achurchnearyou.com/binsey-st-margaret), where we were married back in the nineties.
It was one of the rare mornings nowadays when I have the time to do an Oxford walk like that, heading from Summertown to the canal, across Port Meadow to the Perch and Binsey village. To get to the church you follow a lane–along
which I and my best man and ushers walked from the pub that far off day. It’s a magic part of Oxford that feels quite
out in the country, even though the ring road is half a mile away and the city an equal distance. As I walked through
the village–a hamlet really–a woman was sitting on her doorstep smoking a cigarette, the tiny front garden either side
of her already alive with colour.
The church is medieval and has no tower, only a low, narrow arch above the nave from which hang two bells. The
building is on the site where the patron saint of the city, Frideswide, founded her nunnery and beside it is her sacred
well (see photo). Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are said to have visited in the hope that the water would help
them conceive. This well was also made famous by Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland where it
is described as a ’treacle well’. In one of the legends of St Frideswide she escapes the attentions of an unwelcome
suitor, who she has blinded (quite a woman, Frideswide), by sailing off up the Thames to Bampton, which was then a
wilderness. Prophetic–the flight to Bampton–I like to think. There is also a story about her seeing masses of magpies
in a field near Osney and deciding on the strength of this to found an abbey (or some such). Well, I once saw some
sixty magpies in a field near Binsey... And no, I wasn’t on my way back from the Perch. And no, I didn’t decide to
found an abbey (or some such). Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to hearing the Front Row piece on Mark Haddon’s
play Polar Bears, which is on at the Donmar Warehouse until the end of May (which we taped–while we escaped to
the Bell at Langford). See [4]http://www.donmarwarehouse.com.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S7zsIzvVl-I/AAAAAAAAAB4/0mhvqKCmAn8/s1600/Binsey+Church-719282.jpg
27
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S7zsJWc4WLI/AAAAAAAAACA/BqB_25W7J9M/s1600/Treacle+Well-721076.jpg
3. http://www.achurchnearyou.com/binsey-st-margaret
4. http://www.donmarwarehouse.com/
reedbed (2010-04-08 09:00)
Amazing walk along Oxford canal this morning. Air fresh,
[1]
bright spring sunlight, ducks frisky.
Took this pic near Aristotle Lane–reedbed in between Victorian terraces and new housing development by railwayline.
Even fifteen years ago there used to be a mile or so of these bits of marsh and copse but most of them have now been
built over.
When you walked from Osney Island to Jericho, say, for a pint at the Harcourt Arms (one of the few city centre pubs
with real fires) it was like being in the countryside.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S72NoyeBz_I/AAAAAAAAACI/ZfkpnV5BTAs/s1600/Reedbed_N_Ox-762741.jpg
st barnabas, northern lights, etc (2010-04-09 09:01)
[1]
It’s been great having time to walk in the mornings this
week and not having to work on the bus and in cafes as well as at work.
I love Oxford for its hidden places and for all its history and literary associations. The above pic shows the Oxford
canal running through Jericho, which has plenty of literary associations.
At the far end on the left bank of the canal is the start of the boatyard that Philip Pullman has been fighting to save
from development (don’t know whether the campaigners have won or lost, though–anybody know?). Both Northern
28
Lights and Lyra’s Oxford feature Jericho.
The church tower is that of St Barnabas near to which lived Jude and his family in Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.
Oh, and towards the end of my novel The Lock, Gerald walks along this stretch of towpath to the grebe pool on Port
Meadow after he has learnt a lesson or two when visiting his daughter Alison on her barge.
Btw The Lock will be reissued next year by StreetBooks. Meanwhile, there’s a copy on Amazon UK going for £95. Fair
play to the seller but the price does seem excessive.
My wife said they’d probably got the decimal point wrong (hope she meant £9.50, not .95p).
RIP Malcolm McLaren–or should that be something like CBS (come back shouting).
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S77fLDFYUvI/AAAAAAAAACQ/EpunRsJa9Lc/s1600/St_B_n_boatyard-772317.
jpg
tory girl?
(2010-04-09 15:56)
[1]
Not, I take it, official Tory propaganda?
(Seen opposite St Edward’s School, Summertown, Oxford earlier. I was on the way from dentist to bus. Thought
maybe I was still coming round from an anaesthetic I hadn’t realised I’d had...)
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S79BN8-DptI/AAAAAAAAACY/itDnh_Y55Y0/s1600/Tory_poster_
Summertown-770656.jpg
potato planting (2010-04-11 17:50)
[1]
29
[2]
[3]
Spent some very happy hours on the allotment this
weekend–the first time I’ve been able to get up there this year. I’d hoped to start preparing the ground last weekend but it was still too wet. The soil’s Oxford clay, which takes a long time to dry out–and to warm up.
Mostly the ground was pretty easy to fork through, having been dug over last autumn. The severe winter really broke
down the clods.
For years we’ve been cleaning what was a very overgrown plot and this weekend I felt that all that hard work was
paying off–not much couch or bindweed about, save for near the paths. The bindweed will come up from deep down,
of course, but the topsoil if free of it. People who’ve had plots for years say we’ll never eradicate it.
This afternoon I planted our first rows of spuds, using an amazingly useful potato dibber that was given to us by our
friend Carol. It belonged to her father and I’ve never come across another one (see pics above). Planted Estima and
Kestrel. Will plant Cara and Charlotte next weekend, weather permitting.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S8H-fZymZ5I/AAAAAAAAACg/JTpiWIF60KY/s1600/Potato_ground-797062.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S8H-f0dzkHI/AAAAAAAAACo/6QmNbA15J5I/s1600/Potato_dibber-798487.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S8H-gNyY-4I/AAAAAAAAACw/CRVtgAno840/s1600/Potato_planting-799834.
jpg
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plantation road bus stop (2010-04-13 18:38)
[1]
Photo taken as I waited for bus nearly opposite Latin
American Centre. A view I’ve pondered since 2007.
When I started at LAC, I’d not long been made redundant at the Oxford Union, where I was cataloguer for several
years. I’d been very fortunate in having found a temporary two month post at the Geography Library before being
taken on to run the centre’s library as maternity leave cover.
LAC is a very friendly warm place and I was immediately made to feel welcome. The atmosphere is more like a
family home than an academic institution and was such a contrast to the formal Union. I’d been happy at the Union
but it is a strange, unreal sort of place, where people play up to a particularly competitive and abrasive Oxford role.
Being at LAC restored my humanity, I felt at the time–I could sense myself coming back to life.
I was really pleased to be able to return there as site librarian and subject consultant last September.
It’s a surprisingly busy place, though, and one always runs out of time. This afternoon was no exception.
The church in the picture, St Philip and St James, is now the Centre for Mission Studies. The building LAC occupies
was the original vicarage. Tony Benn proposed to his future wife while sitting on a bench beneath the spire. He
subsequently bought the bench for his garden.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S8SsfK7T8yI/AAAAAAAAAC4/Lfm0JsuNx34/s1600/plantation+road+bus+
stop-711669.jpg
ramblings (2010-04-14 22:56)
Been watching Tenant of Wildfell Hall on DVD in front of a suitably crackling log fire, hound at my feet–well, small
fluffy dog at my feet anyway. Don’t know the book but am now so gripped by TV version I just wish I had time to
read it. Love the decaying house on the moor Tara Fitzgerald rents.
David Cameron posters were being nailed to stakes as bus came into Aston this evening. The self-styled arrogant
bastard in hoodie and ripped jeans who was sitting next to me gave a snort–though not one filled with the fullthrottle derision I expected.
I didn’t snort but did feel... No, the point is I didn’t feel. Hardly a thing. The poster could have been promoting
anyone and I’d have had the same numb reaction. I suppose I’m just determined to ignore all the hype and vote for
the candidate I was going to support anyway. Not that I’m particularly inspired by that person. I’m certainly not
going to listen to the three-way debate tomorrow. I’ve never experienced election-apathy before.
Will I be voting for Dave? That would be telling.
Meanwhile, I can’t believe the online course will be staring next Monday. The relative calm of the vacation has been
fantastic.
Nice pint of Hooky at Bell at Langford this evening.
Have also been learning new type-setting tricks, which my friend Richard alerted me to.
Night.
31
leaders, wildfell, editorium, english pen and lasa (2010-04-15 23:01)
[1]
As I just mentioned on Twitter, I weakened and listened to a bit of the leaders’ debate (see
[2]http://www.twitter.com/frankegerton).
Before that we watched some more Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which was pretty harrowing. Really well done but Huntingdon’s alcoholism, mood swings and abuse of Helen were so disturbing.
I’ve also been mulling over the results of my recent typesetting experiments for the StreetBooks edition of Invisible.
The one I’m most excited about is that shown above–very clear, pleasing text, I feel.
Tomorrow afternoon I’m going to spend some time exploring the Editorium website and its resources for Word typesetters. A real enthusiast’s site ([3]http://www.editorium.com).
This morning the postman delivered a big letter from English PEN, which contained the excellent little publication
The Light of the Lights, an anthology of work produced during creative writing and reading workshops at the Migrants Resource Centre, London. Very nicely produced and inspiring.
The thinking behind the book is perhaps best summed up in a piece by Daljit Nagra:
’As someone from a minority community, I felt it even more urgent to speak about myself coming from a distinct, little
known community that resides in some pocket of England. I hope other new writers will consider their work as news
or a despatch from a particular world.’
ISBN 978-0-9564806-0-6. See also [4]http://www.englishpen.org.
Finally, I learnt this afternoon that I shall be going to the LASA International Congress in Toronto later this year. Yey!
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S8eNNGBynXI/AAAAAAAAADA/EHzBIirp-gg/s1600/Invisible_p1_StreetBooks_
proof-711701.jpg
2. http://www.twitter.com/frankegerton
3. http://www.editorium.com/
4. http://www.englishpen.org/
witney (2010-04-18 09:19)
David Cameron was apparently out and about in Witney today and when we were on the bus coming up the High
Street the boys at the back, who had been talking about ’shagging’, suddenly called out, ’There’s Dave,’ but whether
they meant a friend or Dave himself, I don’t know because the bus had suddenly lurched forward. The boys seemed
quite excited, so perhaps it was him. If so, he would have been in the same place as Count Tolstoy was when canvassing for UKIP yesterday–outside Waterstone’s. People looked quite bemused when the elegant count accosted
them. He was wearing what looked like an incredibly expensive tweed overcoat and was beaming rather too much
32
for comfort.
Today we were off to the Hollybush to meet our friends Jonathan and Anne for lunch. They had got the S1 from
Oxford. They were bringing birthday and Christmas presents from last year, which was lovely. We decided to switch
from our favourite table indoors to one outside because it was so sunny. The pub’s yard is overlooked by the old
stone buildings of the Wychwood brewery.
We all knew Chris Moss who founded the brewery. He lived on Osney a few doors down from us and was the most
wonderful man. Sadly he died of cancer in 2001, a few weeks after we moved to Bampton. I remember walking along
the footpath from Mill Green to Weald and hearing the carillon and thinking, ’Chris is dead’. I felt tears in my eyes
and this awful sense of loss as if a huge amount of energy had suddenly been drained from the world. I have never
before felt anything like that. The next morning Jonathan phoned to say that Chris had died at that time.
I mention Chris in the acknowledgements at the back of Invisible because the Tom character is partly inspired by his
brewing stories.
Now about to eat a shrimp chow mein from Mark’s Kitchen, accompanied by Brown Bros Tarrango.
all quiet on the allotment (2010-04-19 08:46)
Spent several happy and productive hours on the allotment over the weekend. Dug the rest of the potato area on
Saturday then planted Cara and Charlotte (salad variety) yesterday. The potato dibber has now been put away for another year. Also planted shallots and onions (Yellow Moon and Sturon, respectively)–the patch of ground I prepared
for these was amazingly easy to work and couch-free. The hard winter was a good friend when it broke down the
clods.
Apart from the occasional roar of a power-cultivator and a rotavator all was blissfully quiet. Brize Norton has been
brought to a standstill by the effects of the Icelandic volcano. For a few idyllic days living in the village really does
feel as peaceful as it should do, given how tucked away it is.
Trinity Term online creative writing course launches later today. In theory this should be less affected by cancelled
flights than face-to-face courses, although if people are stranded abroad they might not have full access to computers.
autofiction (2010-04-20 08:04)
It is a singular period. The time when he can climb the Bourbon Tower’s spiral staircase and step across the top of the
brick wall as if there are still floorboards. Oblivious to the drop, save for the times an image from a film flashes into
his head. For a moment he is in Kidnapped, the actor playing the character, camera mounted above, the well of the
tower even deeper than this one, rocks falling as he treads.
It wasn’t always like this, even though from the moment he realised that boys could climb out onto the tower’s roof,
he was fascinated, head spinning with an excitement that could never match the truth. For months, maybe even a
year, the feeling and its imagery existed like ideals–magical perfected expectations.
Before he found the courage to cross, he trod the steps up to the wall several times, more than once going part-way
down again before returning, willing himself to try. He took a step, then another, then was paralysed, cold, sweating,
legs trembling, his mind filled with his own stupidity, his pointlessness, the certainty that he both didn’t want to die
and wanted to reach the other side.
Just a year after leaving Stowe he returned to the tower and crossed again for the last time. It was a cold day but
sunny. The tower seemed smaller, his feet bigger. Stepping across took more courage than expected but was no big
deal. Falling, for that goal, didn’t seem worth it. He never crossed again.
trimdon labour club (2010-04-21 08:48)
There was a report from the Trimdon Labour Club on Radio 4 this morning, a place that was described as the epicentre
of New Labour. The piece brought memories of the excitement of the 1997 election. Everything really did seem new
and hopeful then.
33
I don’t think, though, that I had much clue about what New Labour was, or would become. For me, the ’New’ bit
just meant something like ’a fresh start’. I had memories of flawed but inspiring idealists like Tony Benn and Michael
Foot, and of decent pragmatists like Dennis Healey and Jim Callaghan. I had the ideologies of Victorian socialist
pioneers, like Marx and William Morris. Not that I am remotely a Marxist but I do feel that his and Morris’ writings
are society’s conscience.
I had my membership of the party too and the words on the back of the membership card that read like they might
mean things that Morris, et al, might approve of.
I had no idea that the ’New’ in New Labour would mean a party that was largely unrecognisable to anyone who
remembered ’old’ Labour when it was in power.
Not that the last 13 years have been bad for us personally. We have spent that time first coming to terms with my
family’s particular tragedy, then recovering from it, and house price inflation and low interest rates have helped us.
But hasn’t middle-class prosperity, welcome though it is, been bought at a high price? The gap between averagely
well-off and disadvantaged has burst open under New Labour (and it is this gap, more than the astonishing headlinegrabbing one between super rich and super poor, that is really significant, I suspect). ’Stability’, not least the illusion
of relative stability that has been created during this slump, has been propped up by a dishonest and irresponsible
national borrowing policy.
The empty tackiness of Brit Art and the terminal scuzziness of the expenses scandal are, it seems, just the surface
cracks in a building that is built on the shoddiest foundations.
downton abbey (2010-04-22 20:42)
[1]
[2]
34
[3]
[4]justthoughtsnstuff.com is the blog of novelist Frank Egerton. [5]www.frankegerton.com
Returned to Bampton this afternoon because I don’t start working with Stanford students until next Thursday. Beautiful day to be at home. Before tackling library and Writers in Oxford things (the latter being the forthcoming joint
WiO and Oxford branch of the Society of Authors party), I nipped round to the church square to check out the filming
that I’d been alerted to by someone on the bus.
ITV are making part of a new Julian Fellowes series called Downton Abbey, which is set in Edwardian England and
stars Dame Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville. The press release reads, ’The sun is rising behind Downton Abbey,
a great and splendid house in a great and splendid park. So secure does it appear, that it seems as if the way of life it
represents will last for another thousand years. It won’t.’
Well, be that as it may, I didn’t actually get to see Dame Maggie or the estimable Hugh but was intrigued by the extra
pubs and shops that had been created out of homes that used to be–well, pubs and shops, as it happens. There were
also numerous horse-drawn vehicles and ancient cars and lorries parked up. It was a kid’s dream.
Then there were the extras and masses of people, some in fluorescent coats, wielding mobiles or walkie-talkies. Nothing seemed very urgent, though, and it made me realise just how much standing about there is on a film set.
This evening, after I’d spent a couple of hours contributing to the online course, we drove over to Kelmscott for a
pint at the Plough, which opened last autumn after having been closed for two years. It was badly affected by the
disastrous floods of summer 2007 (200 homes in Bampton flooded). I have to say, the pub is fantastic (see below)–even
better than it was before. A nice drop of Brakspear’s too.
A fine place, in the light of yesterday’s post, to contemplate the legacy of the great William Morris whose manor is a
few hundred yards up the road.
[6]
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9Cf4bigR6I/AAAAAAAAADI/RAcdhYTxZeo/s1600/Downton_Abbey1.jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9CgFnfHlEI/AAAAAAAAADQ/qEzhohYCdBI/s1600/Downton_Abbey2.jpg
3. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9CgPln1zrI/AAAAAAAAADY/cmtlIieSpQc/s1600/Downton_Abbey3.jpg
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
35
5. http://www.frankegerton.com/
6. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9ClfVZbJUI/AAAAAAAAADg/RHMNUPvcKbc/s1600/Plough_Kelmscott.jpg
bus, canal, film, dog and kite (2010-04-23 23:24)
[1]
[2]justthoughtsnstuff.com is the blog of novelist Frank Egerton. [3]www.frankegerton.com
Today was the last time I’ll be coming into Oxford on the bus without work to do, for quite a while. It was the most
beautiful day on which to be just carried along. My gaze was fixed on the spring countryside as we tootled through
the lanes to Standlake and Northmoor and Bablock Hythe. The blackthorn was out in the hedges and in the gardens
there were all different kinds of cherry blossom and brightly coloured flowers. At one point we went past a pheasant
pecking at the drilled corn–his plumage was so painted and he really stood out against the red-grey earth.
At St Edwards school I got off and headed for the canal, which, as shown above, is now greening up, so that the
houses disappear and you almost can’t believe you’re in the town.
At one o’clock, I got a return bus, ate a Sainsbury’s sandwich (BLT), drank a bottle of San Pellegrino water and dozed,
despite the mid-day gorgeousness outside. I quite liked opening my eyes every now and again and catching drowsy
sight of sheep and lambs, a deer by a wood, a moated manor...
Later, during a break from the online course, I went round to the square to catch up on the Downton Abbey filming.
[4]
36
[5]
[6]
This time I actually saw some of the filming, which was great–just a snippet of a scene but somehow pretty mesmeric
as everyone went quiet and the actors wandered towards the church, speaking their, to us, inaudible lines. Then one
of them turned back and walked off in her elegant Edwardian tweed suit looking mightily miffed until the director
called cut. A dramatic moment, I daresay, in the finished movie.
Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t get a shot of this scene, even though I’d deliberately turned the sound off on the
camera. But I’d taken Tufty with me and just as the guy in the yellow jacket was telling everyone to be quiet Tufty
started whining. Quick as a flash, the guy in the yellow jacket produced a bag of dog biscuits, which he proceeded
to give to Tufty, making a big show of lifting his arm away and grimacing as Tufty grabbed them from him. ’Slowly,’
the guy whispered as Tufty wolfed another one down and sat up straight expecting yet another. Still, the biscuits–all
10 of them–kept him quiet.
On our way back, near the Manor, we saw a red kite soaring above the new cemetery. Kites started appearing around
here about a year ago and have become regular visitors ever since. They don’t seem as threatening and as solitary
as buzzards. I once saw one happily sharing some carrion with a pair of crows, which I doubt a buzzard would do.
The photo I took turned out like a spot-the-kite game (below), so I blew up the bit with the bird in, which isn’t much
better. For a great kite site, visit [7]http://www.redkites.co.uk.
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[8]
[9]
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9IVvyhLVSI/AAAAAAAAADo/_44NMShHunU/s1600/Oxford_canal.jpg
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
http://www.frankegerton.com/
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9IYW29XDdI/AAAAAAAAADw/lTHdXNuSsQc/s1600/Downton_Abbey4.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9IYiJxgeqI/AAAAAAAAAD4/_3ROwVVHYcg/s1600/Downton_Abbey5.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9IYsj4lEaI/AAAAAAAAAEA/Afuc8Ls78Ag/s1600/Downton_Abbey6.jpg
http://www.redkites.co.uk/
8. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9IbrE0BUuI/AAAAAAAAAEI/AjH9AGkXzQg/s1600/Red_kite1.jpg
9. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9IbzVmEhuI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/P-XBqRp-RUk/s1600/Red_kite.jpg
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faces of the countryside (2010-04-25 16:00)
[1]
[2]
[3]
I cycled this morning for the first time in a fortnight because I’ve been digging the allotment the last couple of weekends.
The countryside was looking really fresh after the rain last night, which was apparently heavy for about half an hour,
although I slept through it.
The oilseed rape is coming into flower between the Great Brook and Aston, the neighbouring village. It’s an odd but
quite startling and dramatic sight. The oily, itchy pollen hasn’t begun to fill the air yet.
39
Another thing that’s got going in a big way since I was last out on the bike is fly-tipping. There were lorry tyres in the
Great Brook and the pile of rubble and rubbish above in a gateway between Aston and Yelford. Whenever money is
tight fly-tipping increases.
Between Yelford and Lew I came across several clumps of cowslips and one of cowslips and bluebells (above).
It’s really nice to see cowslips, although I’m not sure whether these ones are wild or sown. The daffodils further along
the lane were definitely garden ones. I remember when I was a child lying down in the watermeadow at Tynings
Farm*, our off-lying holding, which was a sea of cowslips. In the years that followed cowslips and other wild flowers
disappeared as spraying crops became widespread.
When I got home and had breakfast there was a disturbing article in the Sunday Times about a new book called Silent
Summer, which is named after Rachel Carson’s seminal work on the effects of agricultural sprays that came out in
1962. The new book has a foreword by Sir David Attenborough and contributions from 40 British ecologists. The
Sunday Times sums up Silent Summer’s message as follows:
’The book describes the decline of 75 % of butterfly species, the near disappearance of many moths and similar reverses
for bees, flies and snails.
’Attenborough warns that such organisms make up the foundations of Britain’s ecosystems. "We tend to focus on the
bigger animals and ignore the smaller ones–but small creatures like these are the basis of our entire ecosystems and
they are disappearing faster than ever. That loss is transforming our wildlife and countryside," he said.’
The causes of the decline of these creatures include pesticides, population growth and intensive agriculture.
A chilling article.
For more info about the book, see [4]http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780 521519663.
My father eventually sold Tynings Farm to the property developer Gerald Ronson. It became his family home for a
time.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9RY9_aMhYI/AAAAAAAAAEY/UaTm7-w72WU/s1600/Oil_seed_rape-706845.jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9RY-VM49FI/AAAAAAAAAEg/VDuxvsNaxLE/s1600/Fly_tipping-709114.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9RY_H3XtOI/AAAAAAAAAEo/5kVYeXwmi5s/s1600/Cowslips_%26_
bluebells-711910.jpg
4. http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521519663
oxford in springtime (2010-04-30 20:15)
[1]
40
[2]
[3]
It’s been a mad week, with term taking off like a rocket. All the planning of tutorials, introductory meetings, supervision schedules and, at the libraries, readers flooding in through the doors as soon as they are opened.
The Easter vac suddenly seems eons away, though I am aware that it refreshed me more than I knew.
On Monday, at lunchtime, I bought a sandwich in the Covered Market and headed for Christ Church Meadow, only
to be stopped by a guy in a yellow fluorescent jacket. Yep, more filming. This time Any Human Heart, which novelist
William Boyd has adapted for TV himself, and is just one of the dramas commissioned by Channel 4 as part of a
new £20 million initiative. The story spans the twentieth century, as seen through the eyes of its protagonist, Logan
Mounstuart (played by Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen and Sam Claflin). The four-part story also stars Gillian
Anderson and Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall.
The shot I saw being filmed involved an actor pedalling along Merton Street on an ancient bike with a camera mounted
by the front wheel pointing towards him. He laboriously headed to Oriel Square then back again. For the return
journey onlookers were instructed to crouch down. As with Downton Abbey one of the intriguing things about
watching filming is seeing how niftily the illusion of a particular period is created in an otherwise very twenty-first
century setting. The scene will look to the camera as if it’s the 1920s but an inch to the right is a brand new Chrysler.
Yesterday, I walked along Queen’s Lane in the pouring rain to Stanford, Oxford. Beside New College I saw the
beautiful display of lilacs and cherries above. Robin Lane Fox’s planting, perhaps.
Today, I was very shocked to learn that my cousin Mark Egerton died five years ago. I couldn’t believe it. No one else
that I’m in contact with seems to have known. He had very much gone his own way and his death only came to light
in a proof of the Sutherland entry in the forthcoming Debrett’s.
I hadn’t seen Mark since 1974 but we were at prep school together and although he was a wild boy he was very kind
to me. As I don’t have brothers or sisters I felt special to be Egerton Minor to his Egerton Major.
41
I have thought of Mark quite a lot recently–my age, I suppose–and it seems so appallingly strange to have been
imagining him living in Spain when all the time he was dead.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9sscPkKxEI/AAAAAAAAAEw/dD-jmljxFAg/s1600/Any_Human_Heart1-760364.
jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9ssco_Xw4I/AAAAAAAAAE4/sYlQIDYdOZk/s1600/Any_Human_Heart2-761757.
jpg
3.
http:
//2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S9ssc3HlirI/AAAAAAAAAFA/-eE8PMbzS7A/s1600/Lilac_cherry_New_Col-763000.jpg
1.4
May
rum dos (2010-05-04 23:17)
[1]
[2]
42
[3]
Spent a really enjoyable evening at Oriel College over the weekend, dining at high table at a black tie do. Amazing
menu, sumptuously cooked. Loved in particular the puddings’ dining-room at the other end of a side quad from the
main hall, all astonishingly weighty silver, crystal chandeliers, cheese, fruit, claret and port. Apparently an austerity
menu following government cuts. Wonder what the old menu was like?
Cycled quite a lot over the weekend because it was too wet to garden. On Sunday I did a circuit that included the old
gated road west of Clanfield, now minus its gates and called Calcroft Lane. The steep hedges shown above will be
laden with blackberries come the autumn. The disused railway line (middle photo) was closed in the 60s as a result
of the Beeching cuts, although there is a rumour that if Brize Norton airfield had shut down a few years back (in the
end it was decided that Lyneham would close and Brize would stay open), Sir Richard Branson had designs on the
site for an international airport, linked to Oxford by a revamped branch line. Would have been very handy for us.
Talking of Sir Richard B, there was a nasty story about his, and my, old school, Stowe, at the weekend. Something to
do with a knife fight. What really caught my attention, though, in the Sunday Times piece about it was a reference
to a Facebook page called, Just because I went to Stowe doesn’t mean I’m stupid... The name picks up on the fact
that a lot of Stoics are supposed to be Eton and Harrow rejects. Many pupils probably do end up at Stowe because
they fail common entrance to somewhere else, although Stowe was my first choice. I quite like the humour behind
the Facebook site and am not surprised that it has over four hundred fans. Even so, I’m glad I went to Stowe. For
me the school’s heroes are creative people like the poet and glass engraver Laurence Whistler and the potter Alan
Caiger-Smith. (LW also wrote a poignant memoir about his marriage to the Jill Furse called The Initials in the Heart.)
Another
social
networking
site
that’s
been in the news is the whirlwind success story [4]http://www.thefitfinder.co.uk, which enables students at various universities, including Oxford, to post Twitter-style declarations of lust for someone they’ve seen in the library or
quad.
Tomorrow evening I’m off to my last Writers in Oxford committee meeting before I hand over to the next chair at the
AGM later in the month. I’ll be sad to go but work pressures are too great to be able to chair anymore. Two very fun,
happy and rewarding years.
Last of all, congratulations to my friend José Angel Rodriguez, whose book about the history of rum, Al Son del Ron,
is being published in Venezuela later this week.
Oh, and the third pic above? Kingcups in a ditch along the gated road. Another favourite childhood plant.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S-CdC7L9D0I/AAAAAAAAAFI/71Ax8lDhj30/s1600/Calcroft_Lane-766865.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S-CdDcXvZlI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/eNWWul8efQY/s1600/Old_railway-768750.jpg
3. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S-CdD__2F7I/AAAAAAAAAFY/3vF3fQ6ToVc/s1600/Kingcups-771191.jpg
4. http://www.thefitfinder.co.uk/
43
what a gaggle (2010-05-08 20:51)
Was just checking Facebook on my phone, Thursday morning, scrolling down, when I saw, ’We are off to Oxfordshire
for Saturday night. Anyone fancy a drink in the Morris Clown at about 6 pm?’
So off we went this evening to meet our friends Mark and Emily, who we haven’t seen for too long. It was wonderful
to spend an hour chatting. They used to be our near neighbours but moved to Dorset to run a pub called the European. Subsequently they bought the Gaggle of Geese at Buckland Newton–a Hardyesque name if ever there was one
([1]http://www.thegaggle.co.uk).
It’s the first time they’ve been away for three years and it was a shock to realise that so much time has passed since
we last saw them.
It was also fun to be in the Clown–for various reasons we haven’t been there for a while. Nice pint of Brakspear’s.
It’s been so cold in Bampton today. And wet. I got up at five, hoping the weather people had got it wrong and I’d be
able to fork through more ground on the allotment but no, it was raining... Had a brilliant but chilly cycle ride instead.
Countryside lush now, what with all the rain...
I was quite pleased with progress on the allotment a fortnight ago and thought that even if I missed a couple of weekends through bad weather all would be ok. Now I’m a tad worried. Come on sun, where are you?
Trying to push the election result from my mind. Hate all the uncertainty.
Needless to say the willowy UKIP-representing Count Tolstoy and the druidical Wessex Regionalist candidate failed
to unseat David Cameron in west Oxfordshire!
1. http://www.thegaggle.co.uk/
Niels (2010-05-08 21:44:20)
I saw somewhere [‘Have I Got News For You’?] that Tolstoy’s UKIP leaflet had the following printed on it with regard to
immigration policy:
"No-one admitted to UK unless unless they fluent in English"
lol (2010-05-09 20:20)
[1]
44
[2]
Cycled gated road this morning because I didn’t think allotment would be dry enough to fork through. In the end,
when I went up there in the afternoon, it was fine–if anything nearly too dry. Weird.
Things have really started to get going on the allotment over the last few days. Spuds are motoring and onions and
shallots are poking through. Still, it’s a lot slower up there, what with the Oxford clay and it being pretty exposed,
compared to the garden, where the light soil is much more sheltered. The garden veg is well ahead.
Came across loads of Jack-by-the-hedge along the gated road (see above pic, where it’s growing alongside wild clary,
I think–always get a bit muddled by those low blue-flowered plants). Jack-by-the-hedge looks so bright this time of
the year. Apparently you can use it in salads. See [3]http://www.naturessecretlarder.co.uk/wild-food-useful-plants/
jack-by-the-hedge-alliaria-petiolata.htm, which says:
LEAVES – the leaves make ideal sandwich fillers, and if the leaves are finely chopped and mixed with a little olive oil,
they make a refreshing and delicate salad dressing.
FLOWERS – the flower have a punchy flavour and can also be added to salads.
SEED PODS – for me the seed pods are best eaten as a wayside snack, and although have the same flavour as the rest
of the plant, they won’t make your breath smell as it would if you had eaten a clove of true garlic!
Not tried using J-b-t-h in salads myself, although on a related theme, Jess intends to make nettle soup this week...
Also saw a beautiful clump of white bells in amongst some nettles along the gated road–see other pic above.
Opened a bottle of Côtes-du-Roussillon last weekend and finished it off today. A Sainsbury’s M Chapoutier 2007. It
was as good as I remember C-d-R to be, only better. So packed with berry flavours, full (but not too so) and round.
You used to find C-d-R everywhere at one time but it was a casualty of the waning French wine industry in the
noughties. During the nineties it became our Sunday wine (just the ordinary Sainsbury’s version). It was a real treat.
Those Sundays the Classic Serial, Sunday dinner and C-d-R–were oases of happiness during those years of misery
and sadness for my family.
Listened to the Classic Serial today–Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie.
I met LL once, though I didn’t believe it. It was during my first year at Cirencester and one Saturday I got in the car
and drove through the lanes beyond Sapperton towards Stroud. I didn’t know where I was going but I ended up in a
pretty Cotswold village on the edge of a valley. I entered the pub, which was dark inside and flagged floored. When
I asked for my pint one of the old men asked me if I’d heard of Laurie Lee. I said yes, because we’d studied Cider
with Rosie at school. The man then pointed to another old chap sitting on a stool in the shadows and said, Well, this
is Laurie Lee. I thought he was having me on–people you studied at school were long dead. We chatted for a minute
of two before I went outside and drank my pint and smoked a couple of cigarettes and smiled to myself at the joke.
Lol.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S-cK_h6F3mI/AAAAAAAAAFg/gLhELi67IVw/s1600/Jack_by_the_hedge-729933.
jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S-cLAJMCoHI/AAAAAAAAAFo/C88O7g_qNTg/s1600/White_bells-732326.jpg
3. http://www.naturessecretlarder.co.uk/wild-food-useful-plants/jack-by-the-hedge-alliaria-petiolata.htm
cindy (2010-05-09 22:01:51)
I met Laurie Lee too, Frank. In fact I went to see him when I lived in Cirencester, and he invited me in and gave me a mug of
tea. I now live at the Stroud end of the Slad valley, and the Slad brook runs past the door. I often look up the valley when I’m
working, and think of him. I’d just finished my A levels when we met and was telling him of my ambition to write when he gave
45
me a very old fashioned look and said "You don’t need exams to be a writer." He was of course absolutely right.
Cindy
frank (2010-05-09 22:10:22)
After I’d finished studying (sorry, reading) English at Keble, I went to my cousin’s wedding, where I met the incoming Warden
of the college. He asked me what I was doing and I said trying to write fiction. Whereupon he told me that I’d have to forget
everything I’d learnt at Keble. Again, this was sound advice, although it was some time before I realised its wisdom. It took me a
while to let my characters speak as if they hadn’t studied English at Keble for a start.
ducklings (2010-05-11 23:20)
[1]
When I was walking along the Oxford canal this morning, I came across this little family–there is a fourth duckling
but he shot ahead.
Ducklings are such wilful little things, determinedly getting on with their lives.
Meanwhile, I’m glad the government is sorted (if that’s not too strong a word for what’s happened). It’s been a
surprisingly unsettling period.
I thought Gordon Brown’s speech outside Number Ten was moving, not least because Sarah Brown was standing
beside him–she seems very dignified and loving. Then when they and their boys set off down the street GB seemed
approachable in ways that he’s not seemed for a long time.
In fact his speech was gentle–and, dare I say it, humble. No, actually to call it humble is to devalue it. When he spoke,
he seemed warm and human. He came across as charismatic, I would have said.
A momentous day.
And in many other ways, enjoyable–a delicious, convivial lunch in Jericho. Thanks Malcolm.
Also got the flights, accommodation and congress registration sorted out for October, when I’ll be Toronto bound. A
privilege to be going.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S-nX4Yb5ZTI/AAAAAAAAAFw/2C96OZYuxY4/s1600/Ducks_on_Oxford_canal.jpg
frances farrer (2010-05-29 07:02:32)
Ducklings are completely cheering, please take some more pix before they grown up!
Gordon Brown: agree with all you said except about the word humble, which I think is a compliment.
What about the govt now? Still feeling optimistic?
frank (2010-05-29 13:34:15)
Thanks, Frances.
Well, in so far as the coalition is stable and might last rather than lead to a swift second election, I am optimistic. I also feel that
the Lib Dems do have a chance of curbing Tory excesses. I think the two parties should be given a chance. Which, of course, they
won’t be–on day two, someone on the Today programme said something like, ’The first cracks are beginning to appear in the
coalition...’
46
As far as policies are concerned, I feel that the abolition of HIPs is a good thing (nice idea but difficult to implement). Although I
found one of those single-sentence news items that iPM does rather sad in this context. From memory, it was, ’Feeling sorry for
my daughter, who invested £10,000 in training as a HIPs inspector.’
sunday (2010-05-16 20:32)
Had huge lie-in this morning. Was exhausted after yesterday’s teaching and general admin, which started at 7 am
and went on to 4 pm.
Mowed lawn then headed for allotment, once I surfaced. Spuds are showing on allotment, although some had been
touched by the frost. They’ll come back. Shallots and onion sets are slow. Always the way. One forgets how much
later the ground up there is compared to the garden at the house. Latter is free draining light soil over gravel, former
is dear old Oxford clay.
I went to a talk given by the local historian once, a fellow at Queen’s college, where the free draining village soil was
explained. Bampton’s church is a Minster, which means that it was a monastery church (during the Anglo-Saxon
period). The historian showed us a geological map of the area with the numerous A-S monasteries marked on it–
they, and their settlements, were all built on little outcrops of gravel amongst the Oxford clay. The founders of those
villages obviously knew what they were about.
Next week, weather permitting, I’ll do a bit more forking through then get the rest of the seeds planted.
Have now dug in the winter roots but came back with a big bag of spinach for Sunday lunch.
Although next week is supposed to be hot, it’s still been chilly today, so we had a log fire. Comforting–as was the
hock of ham and parsley sauce.
Tomorrow morning I’ll be writing my speech for the Writers in Oxford AGM on Wednesday. My farewell event. I’m
quite relieved to be standing down even though I’ve loved the last two years as chair. My working life has got so
busy over the past year, though, that I had to give something up to make room for home life and my writing. Starting
a new novel. Yey!
Hate to finish on a sad note, but when I walked along the Oxford canal on Friday morning there were three ducklings
left... Nature’s cruel.
wio farewell (2010-05-21 20:32)
On Wednesday, I stood down as chair of Writers in Oxford after two years. I was sad to do this but my life has
changed so much over the last couple of years that I can no longer devote enough time to the society.
I wish my successor, Peter Groves, who I have worked with on the committee, every success.
Here is an edited version of my farewell speech.
’As you will know by now, I am standing down as chair of the society at this meeting. While I would have liked to
continue for another year my professional life has changed significantly during 2009/10, leaving increasingly small
amounts of time for other things.
I hope that the last year has built on the hard work of the committee during my first year as chair and on the work of
my predecessor, Julie Summers.
The committee has continued to organise a full calendar of events that centre around the most popular of them all,
Drinks and Digressions. Thanks to all members who have hosted parties at their homes and put so much effort into
creating memorable evenings.
WiO visits to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, the History of Science Museum and the recently-reopened Ashmolean Museum have also proved highly popular.
There have been some terrific Topical Suppers led by WiO members, most recently Maggie Black and Renee Hirschon.
The committee is aware that some members feel that we should invite more visiting speakers to lead Topical Suppers
and this issue will be discussed, along with other events suggestions, towards the end of this meeting. I would say,
however, that during the economic uncertainties of the past 18 months, it has seemed sensible to keep money in
reserve. Now, though, may well be the time to loosen the purse strings.
47
At last year’s AGM I mentioned that we hoped to organise WiO readings at Borders, an initiative that grew out of
Cherry Mosteshar’s book fairs. I was delighted when Jane Robinson, Julie Summers and Nikki van der Gaag took
part in what was intended to be the first WiO evening of many. Sadly, this was not to be because Borders went into
administration–a terrible loss to us and to the city. I would like to extend thanks to Victor Glynn of Borders for his
help with running the first event and other WiO-related events and readings over the past couple of years. I hope
very much that he and the other members of staff who lost their jobs have found new positions.
I would like to thank Joy Hendry and Denise Cullington for their hard work in putting together the programmes of
events over the last year.
As in previous years WiO members were very much in evidence at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival and
Oxfringe 2010, both as speakers and as writer-minders. This year the writer-minder scheme was run by Jane Bingham
who put in a fantastic amount of effort–for which many, many thanks&
&During the latter part of 2009 WiO launched a new website, which was constructed by Andrew Chapman. Members
have been extremely complimentary about the new site and its features. Many thanks to Andrew for this and for
maintaining the site.
The society also has a Twitter page, which is a useful way of getting updates about forthcoming events. If you are on
Twitter, do check out this page and become a follower.
I would like to thank Dennis Hamley for the three entertaining and thought-provoking issues of the newsletter which
he has edited over the last year.
This year has seen two members retire from the committee, Andrew Chapman&and Rita Carter, who has made
an outstanding all-round contribution to the society. Her latest contribution being a terrific article for the current
newsletter. Rita was on the committee the last time I sat on the committee several years ago. Thank you so much Rita
for all you have done for WiO.
At the last AGM, I mentioned that I hoped to introduce a microfiction page on the new website and find ways of
involving WiO with the MSt in Creative Writing course on which I teach. Sadly, time prevented me from achieving
these goals but I hope they will be ideas that the committee will consider in future.
In a few minutes, the committee will stand for re-election and I would personally like to nominate Peter Groves as the
committee’s new chair. Peter was a member of the society at the very beginning and has been a consistent and very
energetic contributor to its continued development and success&
&So, my time as chair is almost over. I have loved chairing the society. It is the most fantastic group to be involved
with. Thanks for all the fun over the last couple of years. And especial thanks to the members of the committee for all
their support and hard work. It has been a privilege to work with you–members of the committee past and present.
Thank you.’
ridging up (2010-05-23 20:14)
[1]
48
[2]
It’s been a week, shall we say.
Some good things, such as the amazing Holguin gift to the Bodleian Latin American Centre Library, and the Writers
in Oxford AGM.
The latter was a positive, constructive event and I was thrilled to receive six bottles of wine as a leaving present.
Thanks to the committee for these and for the good wishes. Thanks also to members who have emailed, tweeted and
facebooked lovely messages.
Today I went up the allotment and ridged up our spuds (see above), put up the wigwams for the runners and raked
the ground that I’d cleaned. After a late breakfast I went back and planted beans, chard, pumpkins, carrots, New
Zealand spinach, beetroots and parsnips. Feels good to have got this done.
Working there was respite from the sad events of this week. I wish Mum a speedy recovery and hope we can sort out
everything else quickly and peacefully. I am grateful to my family, colleagues, students and above all Jess for their
support at this difficult time.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S_l_FkYbsrI/AAAAAAAAAF4/PjEbcSZhuwE/s1600/Ridging_up_b-798346.jpg
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updates (2010-05-28 17:42)
[1]
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[2]
[3]justthoughtsnstuff.com is the blog of novelist Frank Egerton. [4]www.frankegerton.com
The Downton Abbey film crew returned this week, setting up a mini funfair in the square below the church.
I assumed they would be filming during the day but just after I’d got off the bus back from work yesterday, I bumped
into my friend John. And he said they were doing night filming.
So off I went at ten-thirty or so to watch a few scenes. Couldn’t get too close and didn’t spot anyone famous, but the
set was great. The helter-skelter is apparently an authentic early twentieth century one–the last of its kind (but maybe
that’s a village myth). Then there was this extraordinary inflatable glowing sausage roll jigging about in the sky just
to the right of the church’s east window. A prop? No, some sort of helium filled lighting rig–intended to suggest
moonlight?
Anyway the crew seemed to be having to reshoot a few scenes and the buzz was that they might be back tonight.
Yesterday was supposed to be their last day in Bampton.
How appropriate to have a funfair in the little square. Not that people probably think of it as a square because it’s so
tiny. And yet it is certainly four-sided and was, according to the prof from Queen’s College, who knows about village
history, the original market square in the days when the church served an Anglo-Saxon monastery. (You can still see
some of the higgledy-piggledy Anglos-Saxon masonry inside the twelfth century tower.)
Meanwhile on the banks of the Oxford canal the duck family is growing up–and snoozing. Hard work, growing.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/S__1946-U-I/AAAAAAAAAGI/Rpb8KNAN7rA/s1600/duck_family-746844.jpg
2.
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3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
4. http://www.frankegerton.com/
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shirt race (2010-05-29 20:52)
[1]
Whitsun weekend is special in Bampton.
Morris dancers, folk singers and musicians come to the village from Friday onwards for the Morris festival on the
bank holiday. Bampton has an unbroken tradition of Morris dancing going back to the seventeenth century–or even
earlier.
The pubs stay open late and I love listening to the singers and musicians who start up when the mood takes them and
often sound like they have just stepped out of a Thomas Hardy novel. One of my favourite memories is of listening to
a folk oboist in the Elephant and Castle with James and Nathalie. Sadly the Elephant closed some years ago, although
the last landlords Pat and George are up this weekend from the Forest of Dean where they now live.
This evening was the Shirt Race, which has been held annually since the 1940s. There’s a children’s and an adult
version. The competitors push or drag their pram or float from refreshment table to refreshment table round the
village, grabbing a glass from each as they pass. Beer for the adults.
We went down to see the start by the Morris Clown. The picture shows the tail enders–at the beginning, that is. When
they got back to the pub they looked remarkably relaxed.
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1.5
June
whitsun weekend bampton (2010-06-02 08:55)
[1]
51
[2]
[3]
Had a great time at the Whitsun celebrations in Bampton. True, there was some travelling to be done, family to see–
which turned out to be an enriching and poignant experience–but there was still plenty of time left over to enjoy the
festivities.
Loved best of all going to the Morris Clown late on Sunday night and watching the musicians and singers. As usual
the way it all worked was someone would play a note then talk the others through the tune (often a nod and a word
was enough) before a few of got going on it. It might be just a couple of people who decided to play or nearly the
whole group, at others it was just someone singing unaccompanied.
What I found amazing, though, was how the drinkers kept drinking and chatting, as if the music were in the background. Well, it was but it was so much more than that. Here was this extraordinary event taking place in a pub on
a Whit Sunday, with talented singers playing fascinating instruments or singing narrative songs with their beautiful
voices. This was unaccountably special.
Thanks to Jamie Long ([4]http://www.myspace.com/jamielongmusic) and the others for a brilliant evening.
Thanks too to the Morris men and to friends C and S and E and A for the barbies.
1.
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jpg
4. http://www.myspace.com/jamielongmusic
52
steamengine (2010-06-05 09:19)
I was at my desk, where I’ll be spending most of this
[1]
weekend, when there was a toot-toot from the road.
I just managed to switch on the camera and catch this magnificent contraption as it trundled past.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/TAoJAr6rK0I/AAAAAAAAAG4/PRtJslnLS_E/s1600/steamengine_a-782048.jpg
steamier still (2010-06-05 10:36)
[1]
Got a bit of a rally going on here.
Room filled with smell of engine’s coal. Different from house coal–quite dry and nutty.
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end of weekend (2010-06-06 22:54)
[1]
[2]
Well, I saw the steam engines going to wherever and I saw
them head home.
It’s been a long working weekend and next week’s going to be as busy as this one. No respite until Oxford’s Trinity
term ends in a fortnight’s time. Having said that, the Oxford term is always an exhilarating collective endeavour,
which I wouldn’t have any other way.
And it wasn’t all work. Managed a trip to Shilton for a pint at the estimable Rose and Crown.
Btw duck family had grown even more last Friday.
1.
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june10-734078.jpg
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a-736166.jpg
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syd, flag n things (2010-06-19 14:56)
18th June
[1]
Every so often–once a year, say–I have this urge to listen to Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn. This morning
was one of those times.
Outside the bus windows the morning was bright enough to make you feel light and the west Oxfordshire countryside was on the cusp of wild beauty and rampant out of control wilderness.
The HTC was set to shuffle and I hit Astronomy, which was fine–good guitar vibes–as was the next. But then Syd
Barrett’s Matilda Mother kicked off and, yikes, the weirdness started.
There’s a moment in Invisible when Sarah says something like she feels that someone’s scratching their fingernails
across her mind. Well, Syd’s lyrics and the throbbing headache music felt like that.
I remember seeing a photo of Syd taken just before he died. A mild-looking late middle-aged man on a bicycle. The
bike had a wicker basket, if memory serves. He had a woolly scarf and gloves. Long gone were the brainstorms and
acid-induced ideas. But their legacy sure lives on.
Why do I return to those tracks? Well, sometimes–every three years, perhaps–you can find yourself in a relaxedenough oh-that’s-just-Syd-being-Syd mood to really enjoy a run of them. That’s the craic. That’s the high the mind
craves (Steady!). As screwed a yearning as Syd’s for the stuff that blighted his life. But safer, thankfully.
Continued, 19th June
Phew! Oxford term’s almost over and it’s left me drained but reasonably content. The reasonably refers to my selfdoubts and wish that I could’ve done better. The students I’ve worked with have been great, putting in admirable
amounts of effort.
Not that summer is going to be a breeze but I’m hoping to have a bit more time to tackle the weeds on the allotment,
plant some cucumber seedlings and so on. If I can remember where the allotment is.
I’ve also got to do some more work on the StreetBooks edition of Invisible, which is due out on Thursday 2nd September. Btw the Anchor Book Club discussion of Invisible has been rearranged, by mutual consent, for Monday 13th
September.
Meanwhile, on a Latin American theme, I was really pleased that the editor of Outline, the Bodleian newsletter, decided to publish both my pieces–one on the visit to the Bod of Marcelo Ebrard, Mayor of Mexico City (front page), the
other about the donation of 19th century Colombian newspapers to the Bodleian by Dr Alvaro Holguin, grandson of
President Carlos Holguin (the papers formed part of his private collection).
Btw went to the Latin American Centre summer party last night. Fantastic live music from the students! Thanks to
Elvira and David for organising the evening!
Which is about it for the mo. Apart from saying that I took the pic of the yellow flag yesterday opposite where Lucy’s
iron foundry used to be in Jericho.
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saturday (2010-06-26 19:40)
[1]
[2]
[3]
56
[4]
On allotment early this morning, cleaning ground for courgettes and late sowings of carrots, turnips and swede. THE
best time to be out and about today. A cool breeze to begin with that had dropped by 8 am when I headed back.
Worked this morning and early afternoon before driving to Plough at Kelmscott. Love that pub and village–an
exquisite middle-of-nowhere Thames valley place (with Wm Morris, Burden, Rossetti associations–wild).
Then home for late lunch in garden. (Pics above may not have displayed in order–the perils of posting from phone.)
Coolest place here is the shed. Amongst other things, the potato store. This year we’ve had home-grown spuds for
365 days. I collected the last of the 2009 harvest this morning from their hessian sack and tomorrow we’ll lift the first
of the 2010.
Steak supper later. Will maybe listen to Florence + the Machine after. Facebook friend posted about seeing F + t M
and Stranglers at Glastonbury today. Envy!
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/TCZLdKmRZpI/AAAAAAAAAHo/xPeX6LawqmA/s1600/garden3-700232.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/TCZLdvnvnsI/AAAAAAAAAHw/hTfMTtnwQQg/s1600/garden2-702218.jpg
3. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/TCZLeJEERJI/AAAAAAAAAH4/Ikf3FtqR_kI/s1600/garden1-704084.jpg
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PG (2010-06-27 16:00:56)
Lovely garden Frank! Last time we were out at Kelmscott the Plough was still being renovated, but I’m very tempted to go back
after reading your recommendation.
1.6
July
dame beryl bainbridge (2010-07-03 10:47)
Very sad to hear of the death of Dame Beryl Bainbridge. Here is a review I wrote of her hugely enjoyable and admirable novel Master Georgie. It was originally published in the Evening Standard on Monday 27 April 1998.
Beryl pulls off the perfect Crimea
Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge (Duckworth, £14.99)
Is Beryl Bainbridge incapable of disappointing her readers? With this historical novel, she has pulled off a scintillating hat trick. Its predecessors, The Birthday Boys and the Whitbread winner Every Man for Himself, focused on
two defining moments in 1912–painful blows to post-Victorian self-esteem: Captain Scott’s tragic expedition and the
sinking of the Titanic.
These are not naturally cheerful subjects. Nor, on the face of it, is the Crimean War against which this novel is set.
More than ever, Bainbridge embroils herself in historic failure and the stench of death. The plot should be dismal. It
concerns George Hardy, a Liverpool surgeon, and several members of his household who make an ill-fated humanitarian journey to Sebastopol. Yet this is far from a morbid book. On the contrary, the tone is irrepressibly vivacious.
Bainbridge embellishes her themes like a virtuoso. George, it turns out, is also an amateur photographer and the plot
is structured around this art-form and how it can be used to distort the truth. At the very least, as one of the narrators
57
observes: "It appears to hold reality hostage, and yet fails to snap thoughts in the head." Added to which, George
and other characters are incapable of taking a picture without tweaking the image (plus ça change). This discrepancy
between appearance and reality extends, with great wit and playfulness, to questions of who exactly each person is
and what they are up to.
And the characters themselves are splendid creations, especially those who take turns to narrate the different sections,
or photogenic "Plates" as they’re called. First, there is Myrtle, a spirited foundling, who has been brought up by the
Hardys and who, somehow without devaluing herself, is utterly devoted to George–cruelly unaware though he is;
next, the true object of his affections, Pompey Jones, a sort of amalgam of the Artful Dodger and an Angry Young
Man–assistant to a Roger Fenton-like war photographer; finally, the vain failed academic, Dr Potter, endearing when
you least expect it, and married to lustful Beatrice, George’s sister.
The first two Plates, set in Liverpool, show the Hardys to be one of those beguiling but rather gothic, almost protoAddams Family households found elsewhere in Bainbridge’s work. George’s over-possessive mother goes in for
china-throwing; the housekeeper likes beating children.
Once they are on their travels, the full complexity of each character emerges subtly through their responses to the new
locations and by the changes in narrative viewpoint. By almost subliminal suggestion, the reader ends up with a fascinating 3-D view of the private arrangements these people negotiate around surrogate motherhood and bisexuality.
The book’s approach to history is captivating, particularly when considered alongside the two earlier novels. In all
of them there is a vividly realised sense of an era coming to an end. What Bainbridge seems to be implying is not
only that the Victorian Age took a long time to die but that change is always a much slower process than we tend to
imagine.
This is a wonderful book: it delights in history and in the eternal vanities, foibles and eccentricities of human nature.
The ironic surface of its language is as teasingly ambiguous as shot silk. It is one of the most enjoyable novels I have
read in a long while.
compasses, fonthill, beckford arms (2010-07-08 18:59)
[1]
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[2]
[3]
[4]
59
[5]
Staying at the Compasses Inn, Lower Chicksgrove
(http://www.thecompassesinn.com), a favourite pub in beautiful south Wiltshire, approached by single-track roads
and blissfully quiet. It’s billed as a ’14th century thatched freehouse’. It’s also the Good Pub Guide Wiltshire Dining
Pub of the Year for the second time since 2008.
Had a great walk round Fonthill park this morning before lunch at the refurbished Beckford Arms
(http://www.beckfordarms.com). Excellent 6d Original and ham, duck egg and hand-cut chips.
Deep green space.
(Links probably won’t be live when posted from phone...)
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two walks to the trout (2010-07-13 17:54)
[1]
60
[2]
[3]
Last Friday we did the walk from Lower Chicksgrove to
Chilmark, via Fovant. It was along the track from Fovant that I took the photo above. I love looking down the valley
when you reach the trees. I love the contrasts–the light and shade, the cool after the hot. Though cool was relative
that day.
On Sunday we headed for the Trout at Tadpole Bridge for lunch. It was just after Christmas when I last did this
walk and the snow was thick on the ground. It was a bright sunny day then too and at times I was almost blinded
by the glare. The snow was dry–more Alpine than Oxfordshire–and when you kicked the surface you sent powder
skimmering. This time the land was parched, the corn nearly ripe.
As you approach the Trout I always think of the illustrator, author and publisher Robert Gibbings. In his books Sweet
Thames Run Softly and Till I End My Song he writes about visiting it in the forties and includes a woodcut of the
frontage. The land is flat and echoey between Rushy Lock and Tadpole, with big skies that can look brooding to
melancholy much of the year. The latter seems particularly so when you hear the cry of curlew from the meadows.
RG ran the Golden Cockerel Press and is an inspiration to all aspiring publishers.
Today it has rained and the garden and allotment must be feeling altogether more cheerful. The gardeners certainly
are because they don’t have to water and can go to the pub instead.
There is talk of potato blight on the allotment, though, which is worrying.
1.
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gill & co (2010-07-28 08:39)
I was really sad to read about the closure of Gill’s the
[1]
Oxford ironmonger (founded 1530!), which is due to happen next month. In fact, I wondered if the paper had made
a mistake. Sure enough, though, the ’to let’ sign is up outside the shop.
I first went to Gill’s in the summer of 1985. I was business managing a couple of theatre productions for Oxford Drama
Programmes (which was to become the Oxford School of Drama). One of them involved the audience being bussed
around Oxfordshire while watching the performance. The bus stopped occasionally and various events occurred.
One such event was an actor hurtling across Shotover hill on a Honda trike. A Honda dealer lent us the machine and
I tracked down a convenient shed behind a hedge where it could be stored. I needed a padlock–a big padlock–and
was told to go to Gill’s, which had everything.
I’ve been a regular there ever since, even after moving to Bampton.
True, the premises became a touch less old-fashioned a few years ago when it was refurbished but it remained special.
Darting down the ancient wind off the High Street to get to it has always had an element of time travel about it. To a
time that was less pre-packed and standardised than the present one.
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PG (2010-07-28 08:52:22)
Almost unbelievable. I too have art student memories of visiting Gills, and little old men who knew exactly what size of nail
you wanted just by description. It is completely shameful that it’s just being allowed to close like this, I seem to remember it is
Oxford’s oldest shop?
Mark McArthur-Christie (2010-07-28 08:55:52)
Ah - I shall miss Gill’s too. I managed to padlock my motorcycle helmet and kit in my panniers when I was playing tennis
at Merton last summer. Where on earth does one find bolt-croppers in Oxford on a Saturday? At Gill’s of course, along with
replacement padlocks and a bit of gentle ribbing for being so stupid.
62
1.7
August
crack up (2010-08-02 07:45)
The roads in west Oxfordshire are bad but this is ridicu[1]
lous. Seen yesterday near Aston when cycling. I wonder what happened.
Meanwhile, dark clouds teased us yesterday from time to time but apart from a few spots, no rain.
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reading nature (2010-08-03 08:41)
[1]
63
[2]
[3]
I’m due at the Oxford creative writing summer school
later this morning. I’ll be reading from both The Lock and Invisible and choosing the extracts has been fun.
Meanwhile, I’m hoping the Oxford bus will be on time so I can get off at Summertown and walk along the canal into
Jericho. The wild plants along the water’s edge are a mad tangle of leaf and stem and tendrils of elegantly ensnaring
bindweed.
It is a moment of insane overreaching before inevitable collapse. It is also a strangely beautiful time of profuse
weirdly-shaped fruits and flowers.
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invisible (2010-08-28 13:35)
[1]
The last few weeks have been hectic–not just because I’ve been putting the finishing touches to the StreetBooks paperback and Kindle editions of Invisible and coping with the family’s ups and downs but also because I’ve been doing
various library tasks in advance so that I can take a short holiday.
Btw the StreetBooks cover design for Invisible is the work of fellow member of Writers in Oxford and designer Andrew
Chapman ([2][email protected]). Thanks so much for that, Andrew. It’s terrific.
You can find out more about both editions at [3]http://www.frankegerton.com/talksand/publishing.html.
Two interesting articles about the effect of digital books, one from Boyd Tonkin in the Independent and the other from
Ursula Mackenzie, chair of the Trade Publishers Council, The Publishers Association, writing in the Guardian.
[4]http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/feature
s/boyd-tonkinthe-man-who-starved-literature-2063024.html [5]http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/27/digitale ra-publishers-not-defunct
I liked BT’s suggestion that universities should be planning joint degrees–landscape gardening and literary fiction,
for example–to prepare writers for the need to develop a portfolio of parallel careers in the new post-Kindle world.
Having said that, I think many writers (the majority, perhaps) have been doing this for years anyway.
1.
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jpg
2. mailto:[email protected]
3. http://www.frankegerton.com/talksand/publishing.html
4.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/
boyd-tonkin-the-man-who-starved-literature-2063024.html
5. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/27/digital-era-publishers-not-defunct
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1.8
September
somerset (2010-09-22 21:39)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Had a lovely three nights away at The Three Horseshoes,
Batcombe, Somerset ([4]http://www.thethreehorseshoesinn.co.uk). A great, friendly pub (with terrific beer, cider
and food) in a beautiful setting, with amazing walks–lots of old cart tracks and green lanes.
More photos to follow but for now some pics of wild flowers, including montbretia (orange flower), which I can’t
remember having seen anywhere else–though I’m told I once saw it in Scotland.
66
I hope to post more regularly again now. The last few months have seen the preparations for the StreetBooks edition
of Invisible–but also some very shocking family problems which have brought back some dreadful memories that I
thought were long gone. It brought back many of the feelings that I referred to on the Scrapbook page of my website
last year and which I thought I’d got over. How wrong one can be.
I think, though, that, with J’s help–and with that of her family–I’ve managed to get things into some sort of perspective
now. At the very least I realise that I can’t change certain members of my family, nor their perennially bizarre and
hurtful behaviour.
Nicer to think of wild flowers instead.
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4. http://www.thethreehorseshoesinn.co.uk/
batcombe, veg, initiate, invisible, lasa (2010-09-25 21:02)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Happy memories of Batcombe (see pics) and some rather
lovely weather today. Went to the Plough at Kelmscott this afternoon. A week ago we’d be sitting in the garden but
this time we were inside, as close to the wood burner as we could get. Good pint of Anniversary from the Lechlade
brewery (which has now established a second micro at the Radnor Arms, Coleshill).
Went to the allotment at first light to harvest–first opportunity to get up there since the mini-break. The courgettes
have slowed but I was really surprised by how many runner beans and cucumbers there were. If the weather holds
I’ll be lifting the spuds tomorrow morning. Rent day Monday evening.
The online course is well under way now and the MSt residence has started–tutes on Monday and Tuesday and the
official launch of the academic year on Tuesday evening at Kellogg. Meanwhile, the proofs of the MSt anthology,
Initiate, have arrived. I’m really pleased that sabon was chosen as the main font. The book will be published in early
November. It’s exciting to see how the decisions we made about the order of the pieces back in the spring look on the
page.
The StreetBooks edition of Invisible is now available as a Kindle ebook and the Search Inside function is already
available on Amazon for the paperback. Blackwell’s will be selling advance copies from next week and I’m due to be
interviewed on BBC Oxford’s Jo in the Afternoon programme on Thursday 21st October. I’m to discuss the book and
StreetBooks and something of my journey through life (currently thinking about what to include on the advance info
sheet the producer has requested).
Can’t quite believe I’m off to Toronto in just over a week’s time. The Latin American Studies Association programme
looks amazing.
Wondering if the Horse Shoe will be screening Downton Abbey, episode one tomorrow night. Hope so as we don’t
have a telly.
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holmes, boom, old man’s beard etc (2010-09-29 23:01)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Watching Sherlock Holmes–Robert Downey Jr is God.
Meanwhile, on a serious note, I was sad to read of the death of Holly Eley in the Times yesterday. About ten years
ago when I’d lost confidence in my abilities as a critic, she sent me a series of about seven or eight seemingly random
non-fiction books to review for the TLS, which by their very difference from the fiction I’d been writing about for
years quite refreshed me. The last was the estimable She Moves Through the Boom, about what seemed then to be
the Irish economic miracle.
How this reviewing came about was itself quite random. I phoned the TLS and got Holly. I explained that I wanted
to speak to Lindsay Duguid about reviewing fiction. Holly talked to me about my work and when I asked her when
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Lindsay would be back, she said something like, ’I think I’d like you to write for me.’ Two days later a parcel of four
books arrived. We never met but I have always been grateful to her.
Went to the readings at the end of the first MSt residence of the 2010/11 year last night. Really enjoyed the students’
work and that of the guest author, Tim Pears.
Funnily enough we’d been talking about In the Place of the Fallen Leaves when we were staying in Somerset. We’d
been wondering about cider-heads and what it was about the drink that caused all the trouble. It was nice to see Tim
again and he settled the point.
I thought the pieces he read from his new novel were very interesting. I know his early work, having reviewed both
In a Land of Plenty and A Revolution of the Sun but this was different from those. There was a measured simplicity
to his prose last night, which one suspects only comes with time.
Talking of Somerset, the above pics are the last of the holiday ones I’ll post.
As far as Invisible is concerned, I’m really pleased that Blackwell is now stocking it.
Last weekend btw was partly spent working on an unusual Latin American subject request that involved researching
the Mayan prophesy about cataclysmic events on 21st December 2012 and the problem of correlating the Mayan and
Gregorian calendars. I had to research the subject and produce a short essay. I love my job!
Ho-hum, I can’t work out whether SW is winding me up for some strange reason. Time will tell, I suppose. Which is
where I shall end.
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1.9
October
toronto (2010-10-08 01:52)
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[2]
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Arrived in Toronto the day before yesterday for the Latin American Studies Association congress, which is being held
at the Sheraton and Hilton. Was really exciting to see the first signs of Canada–lots of tiny islands–just north of Goose
Bay.
Staying at the Holiday Inn on Bloor myself, which is in the heart of the University quarter. Very buzzy and full of life,
this area of town. Good pubs, cafes and restaurants, plus a mass of museums and theatres, it seems like.
I’ve settled on Overeasy for breakfast and Hemingway’s for dinner–latter washed down with a pint or two of
Tankhouse, a dark red hoppy bitter.
The half-hour walk to the congress takes me through Queen’s Park with it’s amazing squirrels–most of which have
glossy black coats (some even have white paint stripes down their tails). What an amazing sight they are. I had no
idea there were such squirrels.
Downtown Toronto is pretty impressive, especially at night. The towerblocks are like light sculptures.
A couple of coincidences. On the flight out I was sitting next to an Irish guy who now lives in Canada. It turned out
that his brother is best mates with the guy who owns Hamilton’s bar in Leenane–a favourite pub. It was good to chat
about Galway and about Canada. Then, yesterday, as I was setting off for the conference, I caught sight of someone
heading into a shop out of the corner of my eye. There was something about her. ’It can’t be,’ I thought. But it was–a
friend from Osney days, over here to talk at another conference. She’s staying at the same hotel and goes back on the
same flight. Weirdly wonderful.
As well as attending the conference, I’m teaching online and marking.
It’s good to have a lot to do, to be honest. No matter how exciting a new city is, there are always gaps that ordinarily
you struggle to fill.
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portrait room, humanities library, and gran baile?
(2010-10-09 00:17)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Getting up early to go to the 7 am Gale presentation in the portrait room of the Law Library of Upper Canada was a
bit of a shock to the system (not to mention the brain), although the walk downtown in the dark was magical, especially going through Queen’s Park (all squirrels sound asleep, the sensible things). The Law Library is a magnificent
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Georgian-style building opposite the Sheraton–all oak panelling, chandeliers and, well, portraits. Thanks to GaleCengage Learning for the breakfast and coffee.
I really like the juxtaposition of old buildings and new in Toronto, especially in the university quarter, which I was
shown round yesterday by my former colleague Miguel, a very experienced Hispanic subject specialist based at the
humanities library. (He had faith in my abilities when he was in Oxford, for which I am eternally grateful.) The library
itself has all the features that British libraries are only now beginning to aspire to–the banks of computers for readers,
the provision of both informal and formal study space, cafes that help to make libraries not just places where you
read but popular social venues, and 24/7 opening.
Some great events at the Congress earlier–including a moving documentary about the migration of Cuban farmers to
the cities. It was clear how much the farmers loved the land and way of life and how let down they felt by centralised
agricultural marketing schemes.
Tonight there is the Gran Baile at the Sheraton from 10.30 until the small hours. I’d like to go but am not sure I’ll still
be awake then. We’ll see.
If I do go, my route will take me past the Royal Ontario Museum, above, which somehow looks even more of a
disaster-zone than it must do usually, what with the building works and bollards on the opposite side of the street.
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can’t believe, village idiot, kensington market (what a trooper) (2010-10-16 22:25)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Toronto seems like a dream. I can’t believe I was really
there. Maybe if I’d had a day or two’s rest after returning, the experience would seem less unreal but as it was I had
just four hours sleep after getting home before the alarm went and a busy week started.
More marking, First Week of Oxford’s full term and lots of extras, including more Initiate editing (which is, though,
looking very good–launches on Thursday 18th November at Blackwell, Broad Street).
This time last Saturday, I was eating my last Toronto supper in the Duke of York pub, after attending the final day at
LASA and spending a couple of hours exploring something of the city. I’d been told I should visit Kensington market
because I would love the atmosphere.
On my way I stopped off at the Village Idiot pub (or L’idiot du village), which is opposite the Art Gallery of Toronto,
at the start of a fascinating oldy-worldy quarter that includes China Town. Amongst the newish buildings are a lot of
Victorian-looking terraces. Nearly all the buildings, old and new, are pretty battered. Wherever you see shops selling
Artist’s Material you know you’re onto a winner.
It was good to have a pint of London Pride at the Idiot (served better than in some UK pubs), although I did resist
the triple-distilled Belgian Delirium Tremens (8.5 %). Bar staff wore T-shirts with the slogan, ’A good pub couldn’t
function without an idiot!’
Kensington market was like I imagine the King’s Road to have been in the 60s. The tatty Isuzu Trooper cruising past,
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds blaring out, said it all.
Happy memories!
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last of the summer veg (2010-10-17 20:38)
[1]
A surprisingly sharp frost this morning.
When I went to the allotment to pull up the bean, courgette and cucumber plants I wasn’t expecting to harvest any
summer veg. And yet, as the picture above shows, there were some runners and cues left.
That was a lovely surprise.
Carrots looking good although those are pretty much the THREE turnips! Not a good year for turnips, beetroots or
swedes (despite lots of watering)–though the parsnips look OK.
Every year’s a challenge...
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jo thoenes, kate saunders, oxford street, kc, stephen (2010-10-24 20:38)
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[2]
[3]
On Thursday I appeared on BBC Oxford’s Jo in the Afternoon programme, talking about Invisible and the big chunk of my life that I’ve lived in Oxford and Oxfordshire.
I was a bit nervous before I entered the studio but was immediately put at my ease by Jo Thoenes. It was fascinating
seeing how she produced the programme as it went along while developing the interview and making me feel very
much at home.
One of the things we talked about both before and during the interview was an incident years ago when I met the
descendant of one of the characters in DH Lawrence’s The White Peacock.
My girlfriend at that time was studying English at Nottingham University and I used to visit her a lot when I was
studying agriculture at Cirencester. We used to go and explore the places DH Lawrence used in his novels, as described in a lovely little book called The Country of My Heart.
One afternoon we went to a churchyard beside a huge mansion which featured in his first novel. It was really exciting
to see things like the flight of steps from church to terrace that were so vivid in the novel (glimpsed by moonlight in
the book, if I remember rightly).
Anyway by then the house was a football academy and you couldn’t visit, only look at it from the churchyard. When
we were there we became aware of a man standing nearby. We got talking to him and he told us that his family used
to own the big house. He looked as though he’d fallen on hard times because his clothes were frayed, although he
was wearing gold cufflinks with his family crest on them. He invited us back to his ’new’ house for tea.
Well, the new house was pretty big too and there were Stubbs paintings on the walls and beautiful furniture. We
talked to him and his wife for an hour of so. It turned out that his grandfather had been the squire in The White
Peacock. This character had been criticised by Lawrence and his descendant was keen to set the record straight,
revealing lots of stories about ’nasty’ Mr Lawrence in the process.
Lawrence, incidentally, had particularly objected to the fact that the squire had fenced off the rabbit warrens on the
estate and stopped the miners from snaring a free meal.
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From what I remember, the rabbits were killed by the gamekeeper and sent by train to London for their meat and fur.
I think Lawrence thought this mean-spirited. The squire, like his real-life counterpart, was, of course, the mine-owner.
If you’d like to listen to the interview, it’s available on the iPlayer till Wednesday and my piece starts 19 min, 10 sec
into the programme: [4]http://bbc.in/9A2nlZ.
I was thrilled that Invisible got a favourable review in the Times yesterday from Kate Saunders. The web version is
behind the News International paywall: [5]http://bit.ly/aTBvVt. But the best bit is: "This is Posy Simmonds territory;
we’re among fretful middle-class types who take themselves very seriously and make an enormous meal of every bit
of slap-and-tickle. That these people are bearable company is entirely down to the author’s lively wit and acute
understanding of the emotional landscape."
Canada seems long ago now, although I have such happy memories of Toronto–including my last supper there at the
Duke of York and of Oxford Street (which looked as if it were in... Oxford).
Yesterday, I went to Stephen Wall’s memorial service at Keble college chapel. Stephen was the man who interviewed
me when I was applying to the college to read English and was my tutor when I was an undergraduate there. I owe
him so much. He gave me an opportunity that transformed my life.
The service was secular, as Stephen must have wanted. Family and colleagues talked about their memories of him
and read from his fiction and his criticism. I had not realised that one of those who spoke, Val Cunningham, had
been one of his first Keble students. Neither did I realise that the brilliant critic Ian Hamilton had also been taught by
Stephen. What an influential man Stephen was.
It is appropriate, perhaps, that Posy Simmonds is mentioned in the Times review of Invisble. It was Stephen who
introduced me to her work. I remember vividly him telling me about Tesoddit and chuckling.
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5. http://bit.ly/aTBvVt
demo (2010-10-30 23:46)
[1]
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[2]
As I came out of the Stanford Centre, opposite Magdalen,
last week, a stream of good-natured protesters ambled past. They had fluorescent home-made placards with felt tip
anti-government and save the arts slogans on them.
I’d not been aware of any protests before apart from the anti-vivisection ones on Parks Road.
Stupid not to think there wouldn’t be protests really.
It still surprised me, though, and taking these two photos reminded me of demos years ago, when Mrs T came to
power–and before. I remember taking photos of people on Solidarity gatherings in Nottingham city centre when I
had aspirations to be a smudger.
There is a feeling of disquiet, which is both unsettling and energising.
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1.10
November
lasa report, toronto memories, invisible weeks, initiate (2010-11-18 16:46)
[1]
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[2]
[3]
Last weekend I wrote the report on my trip to Canada that
is a requirement of the funding. Writing this brought back happy memories of the conference and the city. I’m now
posting what are my very last pictures!
I was bowled over by the size of everything in Toronto, whether it was a ’street’ like Spadina or my hotel room which
was as large as the ground floor of our house. I loved the weird thing in Toronto airport that involved jets of water
powering plastic cubes round a glass tank.
But my favourite memory of my last hours in Canada was a fleeting one and there was no time for pictures. I was
on the bus from Bloore to Pearson, which was crammed full with people heading for work–at five-thirty on Sunday
morning. I dozed for a while and when I woke up we were stopped at some traffic lights and there it was. A sign:
Resurrection Road. I wanted to live on a street called that! Number 3, obviously. Frank Egerton, 3 Resurrection
Road...
One final memory, though, was waiting for the bus outside the Holiday Inn. This taxi passed then circled back then
round again and drew up. The driver asked me if I wanted him to take me to the airport. I asked how much. $60. I
said no, he offered $50 then asked me if I knew what the bus fair was. I didn’t so he came down to $40. I was tempted
but still said no. He drove off. Well, when the bus came the fare was $3.50.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of teaching and one or two Invisible promotional things. Most fun of all
was my talk to Writers in Oxford about digital publishing at the Victoria Arms, Marston. The event was really lovely.
It was great to see old friends and the pub has a terrific atmosphere, not to mention excellent beer and food. I did a
talk, PowerPoint presentation and reading from Invisible.
To start with, though, it looked like the PowerPoint wasn’t going to happen. There was a fancy laptop projector but
no screen... Fortunately the pub came to the rescue with a tablecloth.
Tonight I’m off to Blackwell’s for the launch of Initiate, the anthology of work by last year’s MSt graduates and
professional writers associated with the course. I’ve been on the editorial panel that’s been working on the project for
just under a year. I can’t wait to see the finished book!
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1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/TOVZaapp4pI/AAAAAAAAAMo/1E7Bq47unK0/s1600/spadina-748270.jpg
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1.11
December
snow, ice, things (2010-12-08 08:42)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
The last ten days of freezing conditions have been such a
shock. Somehow you don’t expect weather like this until after Christmas. The day the big freeze started, I was all set
to spend Friday afternoon digging the allotment. I couldn’t believe it when I got off the bus back from Oxford and
found the ground in Bampton was frozen solid.
One very sad thing has been losing several frogs. We’ve been melting holes in the ice with a coffee maker before it
gets light to let in air and then keeping these ice-free throughout the day. All seemed well till the incredibly severe
frost on Thursday night. On Friday morning two frogs were dead and more have died since. I don’t understand why.
Is it the cold or is it some illness brought on by the cold? Melting holes in the ice like this has worked in past years.
You might lose one or two frogs but never this many.
Meanwhile, on a selfish note, I’m hoping that there will be a thaw round Christmas time so we can lift the carrots,
swede and parsnips.
Teaching is winding up now and I’m looking forward to a nice break before the mad fortnight of launching the online
courses and marking diploma assignments from 10th January...2011. Can’t believe it’s nearly 2011. For some reason
2011 seems so much further into the ’new’ century than 2010.
I was interviewed by the Oxford Times about Invisible and StreetBooks the other day. I don’t know whether I said
anything interesting–or embarrassing. I just remember feeling numb with cold. Not sure when the piece is coming
out.
This morning on the radio there was the usual ’on this day’ feature at 5.40 and one of the events was the shooting of
John Lennon. I remember driving to Chestall to see Belinda and Radio 1 being wall-to-wall John Lennon songs. It
was very cold that year too. It doesn’t seem long ago at all. Yikes!
This morning they played this clip from his last interview in which he said how safe he felt walking the New York
streets. Maybe they play this clip every year but I don’t remember hearing it before.
On Monday it was the Latin American Centre Christmas party. It was great to get together with everyone. Lovely
atmosphere, as always. Quite a few parties coming up, which I’m really looking forward to.
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ice flowing, party season, nearly xmas (2010-12-17 08:35)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Spent the weekend in Hay on Wye. It was good to get
away for a few days–during term it’s Oxford, Oxford. Great city but it’s nice to rediscover favourite not-Oxford
places.
Saw swans grazing a field of roots on the first day’s walking. It was strange how some suddenly started striding into
flight and then another group. The line creaked round in a broad circle before a few curved back to the field, landing
in almost the same place they’d started from. The others headed off along the river then banked inland, white kites
running against the slate sky.
Also saw a broad ribbon of ice flowing down the Wye off the Warren. The slabs were tight-packed up to the weir then
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a loose and orderly file, save for when one or two got snagged on branches or an islet. In the middle of them one time
was a football, looking out of place but cheerful somehow.
The Sunday was beautiful sunshine and clear reviving air.
In Oxford it’s party time this week. It’s great to catch up with old friends and spend time with colleagues. Wednesday
night was the Taylor dinner at the University Club–a warm, lovely evening. Today it’s the St Antony’s drinks and
lunch, followed by the librarian in charge’s party at the Taylor. Then... Well then I’m at work tomorrow... Will have
to pace myself.
This morning the Nokia shuffle has turned up rather more Star Sailor than is comfortable. I remember one moody
winter lying in front of the fire nights and near-drowning in Star Sailor’s complimenting melancholy. Well, that was
then. Now the music’s a bit of pain to be quite honest. And mannered–once you can see how music’s done; when it’s
all just sound and form and no emotion, it’s had it. Ah, what’s this, Distant Dreamer? Phew!
So, nearly Xmas. So looking forward to the break!
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Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2010-12-17 10:14:43)
Have a good Christmas and thank you for keeping this expat aware of England’s charm!
frank (2010-12-18 09:29:09)
Thanks, Rupert. Today’s snowy charms would be many were it not for travelling! Biggest fear is being marooned in Oxford...
You too have a good Christmas!
views from the bus stop (2010-12-18 08:44)
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[3]
Two great parties yesterday.
Now on the bus to Witney which is tootling through some distinctly snowy–getting snowier–west Oxfordshire countryside. I’ll change at Witney for Oxford. With luck I’ll get there in time for a quick coffee at Green’s before opening
up the Taylor for 10.
Took these pics while waiting at the bus stop at the top of our road in Bampton.
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views from the bus (2010-12-18 14:08)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Well, my morning at the library was pretty short. When
the snow grew really heavy, I was allowed to go home because I had furthest to go–thanks a million guys.
At the bus queue all the talk was of the service being suspended but then an S1 loomed into the top of George Street
and a back seat on the top deck is where I’ve been for the last two-and-a-half hours.
Nice atmosphere on the bus, though. Everyone patient, friendly. That slightly nervous sense of AN adventure too.
The crawl to Botley was SO slow, then we were flying (everything’s relative) on the back road to Eynsham (where
these pics were taken). Now stuck on A40...
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Still, a midwinter chance to chat on Facebook–haven’t done that for years, feels like.
Yikes! The snow here is DEEP!
Writing to the accompaniment of Thom Yorke’s Harrowdown Hill btw.
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snow walk (2010-12-19 23:07)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Lovely walk in the snow earlier.
The sun broke through and for a time you could feel its warmth.
Now it’s night and even though the log fire is as hot as it gets there is still a chill in the room.
The cold makes me feel really sleepy!
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holiday (2010-12-22 17:31)
[1]
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[2]
[3]
Yesterday I finished pretty much all the work I had to do
before the Christmas and New Year holiday. It took less time than I expected and it was great to start the break early.
This morning I had a lie-in till 6.30 before walking round the village once it got light (see pics above). It was so strange
not having to think about work. Also, I haven’t done the walk I did for so long–maybe a year? Awesome.
One of the things I want to do this holiday is read–read for fun. A book I picked out was The White Peacock by DH
Lawrence, which I read in about 1980, then sometime in the 90s. It feels about the right time to look at it again. It was
really strange but I did notice a lot of new bits when I tried the first chapter. It was as if I’d never read it before in my
life. Uh-oh. Ageing process not going quite according to plan...
Meanwhile, headed for Oxford earlier to do Christmas shopping. Roads so much better. Oxford relatively quiet, I
would say.
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2Bfrog-782191.jpg
3. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/TRI3GQkilUI/AAAAAAAAAPI/zWYzetnxPzA/s1600/bampton%2Bchickens-784441.
jpg
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end of the cold war, humanism, friends, happy christmas (2010-12-24 22:12)
[1]
[2]
[3]
We went on a lovely walk this afternoon in the snow.
There are a lot of green lanes near the village and it’s easy to imagine you’re catching glimpses of how the landscape
looked in previous centuries.
There is also what remains of RAF Bampton Castle–shown in two of the above pics. Now the buildings have been
turned into business units and only a couple of the installation’s steel towers are left. But when we moved here ten
years ago, the place was still a cold war listening station. There were armed sentries, giant pylons and porcupine
fields bristling with rows of little masts. Then it was decommissioned, over night it seemed like, and diggers worked
late into the evening, eerily clandestine, dismantling everything.
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On the way home this afternoon, we called in at the Morris Clown and saw friends, which was lovely. Excellent
Christmas Bonus on handpump too.
At home, listening to the radio, I heard a news item about the Pope’s broadcast on the Today programme earlier,
which I missed. David Starkey was on talking about the Rationalist Association.
I have to say that I have a lot of time for the RA and its magazine The New Humanist. I first came across it–and its
fellow Humanist publication, The Freethinker–amongst the piles of magazines in the graduate common room at the
Bodleian in the early nineties. Someone, I don’t know who, used to put them out for people. Reading them was a
life-changing event. Magazines that contained articles written from a point of view that I’d felt but not been able to
express myself.
At the same time as I discovered these mags, my parents moved to a cottage not far away from my old junior school
in Gloucestershire. I walked sometimes beyond the Roman Camp to the church above the school. Years before I’d
played Joseph in the nativity play to Sally M’s Mary. Sally’s dad was Egyptian and she was dark and very pretty. She
was kind too and I was in love with her, of course. I remember the evening light in the church one time in the nineties
and how magical it seemed. It put me in touch with the poetry of religion and how I’d felt about it as a child.
For a time, in the nineties, there was a Humanist programme at Westminster College, Oxford, and I considered
applying to do a masters in the subject. I explained that I saw myself as a Christian Humanist and the people running
the programme seemed to be interested in what I wanted to research.
Despite thinking of myself as a Humanist, the Christian part mentioned above remains important to me, because, I
suppose that was the tradition I was brought up with. During the difficult family times during the nineteen-nineties
I prayed. And recently, when old sadnesses have resurfaced, I sometimes stop at St Barnabas on my walk into work
and pray–often using a Catholic prayer book, which I bought years ago at Worth Abbey when I was visiting a friend
who was part of the lay community.
Are, I wonder, my religious-humanist views confused, post-modern, dilettante or just muddled-normal?
Well, tonight, rather than midnight mass, it’s off to the Horse Shoe for the bawdy christo-pagan mummers play. The
Bampton mummers have been performing the same play–with topical additions–since the mid-nineteenth century.
It’s great!
Later, by the fire at home, I’ll think of friends and wish them a very happy Christmas.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/TRUcBCmOW8I/AAAAAAAAAPU/eNLWHcaEimY/s1600/green%2Blane%2Bin%2Bsnow%
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shifford walk (2010-12-27 00:42)
[1]
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[2]
[3]
Surprisingly chipper today after long, long Christmas day.
Went to Morris Clown at lunchtime yesterday, which was, as usual, great.
Today, the temperature didn’t get above freezing, although we had a wonderful walk from Tadpole Bridge to the weir
to the south of Shifford Lock.
Just after the bridge (above), half-way along, we met a friend and watched a barn owl working Chimney Meadows
nature reserve.
A feature of the nature reserve–and other stretches of the Thames hereabouts (frozen over in parts, incidentally)–are
the World War II pillboxes. These seem so out of place now–brutal concrete polygons with mean gun-slits–but there
must have been a strategic reason for them years ago.
After the walk we had a pint at the Trout at Tadpole, a pub which was immortalised by the brilliant travel writer and
illustrator, Robert Gibbings. I think he would still recognise the place, though some walls have been knocked out and
the intimacy he describes has gone.
Later, at home, we watched more of Downton Abbey–so gripping! It’s amazing but my blog got masses of hits during
the broadcast of the series, because of one or two of my photos, but I’ve not seen the programme because we don’t
have a TV. Terrific to catch up. The village streets seem really spacious–no cars parked in them.
1.
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2.
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kelmscott (2010-12-28 19:03)
[1]
[2]
[3]
An enjoyable late walk to the west of Kelmscott–starting
and ending at the Plough; passing the manor; turning onto the Thames path; heading to Eaton weir (no sign of the
old flash weir that used to be there up to the 1930s, nor of the inn that was destroyed by fire–’in tragic circumstances’
according to the National Trail Guide–just some rather picturesque moorings and a warehouse); then to Buscot lock;
up to the Lechlade road and back to Kelmscott for a pint of Marston spiced ale.
The light was fading, even at 3 pm, and there was a mist from the melting snow–this was yesterday. The snow, though,
was still very much there, in contrast to today, when, in Bampton at least, all but the deeper traces have gone.
The roads to Kelmscott hadn’t been salted and were treacherous despite winter tyres. These tyres are especially good
92
when it’s icy but the slush seems to clog them and they slip a bit. There was one abandoned car with its bonnet
smashed in and at the pub people talked about other accidents over Christmas.
William Morris’ manor was all shut up. I tried to take a photo over the wall but all I got were shrubs with one or
two glimpses of the building behind. In the paddock before you got to the manor there was giant bull–red Devon,
perhaps. It seemed placid enough.
It was when the Downton Abbey filming started that I last posted a photo of the Plough. That was over six months
ago and it was spring. In a way it seems a lifetime away because it was then that I was phoned about family problems
that I’d no inkling of before then. Over the summer and into autumn the news got worse and worse–unbelievably so.
There was a flare-up over Christmas, as is always said to be the way at this time of year. Some people are their own
worst enemies–and I suppose one will never change them, no matter how much one hopes they might change. So sad
to think of someone so wilfully isolated and destructive.
Now off to drinks at a house we’ve always wanted to see inside. How nosy!
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GplcXcfHRW8/TRo1YsL0QxI/AAAAAAAAAQE/MyNUQUxVo6M/s1600/eaton%2Bweir-733962.jpg
2.
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2B10-737089.jpg
Anita (2010-12-31 20:13:03)
I would love to see Kelmscott, but I believe it’s not easy to do that!
frank (2010-12-31 20:29:02)
Well, it’s open on just one or two days a week during the summer. You can find out about it on the Society of Antiquaries website
(I think). Well worth a visit.
bull (2010-12-28 21:14)
[1]
Our new friends’ house was darker than expected and
there was no sound of guests enjoying themselves. But then the door was thick.
We rang the bell, which mercifully didn’t work. A tiptoe round the side and a peep in the kitchen confirmed that no
party was being held tonight.
Back home, after wandering through the village all dressed up, we looked at the invitation. Yep, tomorrow night. I
blame all these bank holidays. No idea what day of the week it is.
Meanwhile, in response to a request, here is the bull.
Hoping for my first bike ride in ages tomorrow.
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1.
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jpg
happy new year!
(2010-12-31 19:45)
[1]
Well, according to our local MP, David Cameron, the road
ahead is a tad uncertain. At least the bike’s ready, even if I’m not!
Happy New Year!!!
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Anita (2010-12-31 20:10:40)
Happy New Year, and happy Writing, Frank!
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Chapter 2
2011
2.1
January
espresso, rain, end of first week (2011-01-07 09:08)
[1]
see everybody and talk about the holidays.
Nearly the end of the first week back at work. Great to
But what a morning! The heaviest rain I’ve seen for ages with these huge puddles along the kerbs, which buses and
drivers just thump through. When I walked along St Giles’ just now this black Golf screamed down the side lane and
soaked three people. Don’t get me started.
Meanwhile, in Greens now, sipping a single espresso (the doubles start when the year gets really hectic–next week
probably). Jazz-funk in the background, warm atmosphere...
Yeah, this week’s been OK.
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first day of spring (2011-01-12 07:59)
[1]
[2]
[3]
First day of spring might be a bit of an exaggeration but
last Sunday was the first time I’d felt that spring was in the air since the new year began with the Winter Solstice. (No,
I’m not a Pagan but taking the solstice as the end of the old year and beginning of the new does seem good sense.
Perhaps I am a Pagan.)
The sunlight on Sunday was just that bit richer than it has been and when you were out of the wind there was real
warmth in the sun. Even when you were in the wind there was something not so defeating about the cold.
I went for a long cycle ride down towards the Thames, along the Great Brook (into which all the streams in the valley
flow before it reaches the Thames at Shifford Lock) and round to Mount Owen (road, telegraph poles and valley,
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above).
The photo of the trees and water shows an unusual feature that always looks as if it’s the remains of an old moat,
although there is nothing to suggest it is on the OS map. I did read, though, in the Victoria County History that the
Romans settled close to the Thames and not where the present village stands. Somehow moat and Roman settlements
got all mixed together in my imagination and were then stirred into the little story about the Leper’s Tower towards
the end of Invisible. (The leper bit, incidentally came from a tale about Roche Rock in Cornwall, told to me by a family
friend when I was a boy.)
The other photo shows a reed bed that the local thatcher grows. Nowadays relatively few houses in Bampton are
thatched but many more used to be in previous centuries. Our little terrace replaced a row of thatched tenements,
with earth floors and deep roofs that came down to a low stone wall. The rebuilding took place in the 1880s–late
compared to many parts of the country. But then Bampton time does seem different to time in the rest of the world.
1.
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snowdog (2011-01-18 22:27)
[EMBED]
Bright and beautiful day. Colder too, although it’s now hard to remember what it was like when it snowed before
Christmas.
As a reminder, here’s the dog.
oxford times interview, our book reviews online, oxford writer (2011-01-28 08:58)
[1]
over the last fortnight.
One or two new pieces have been published about Invisible and StreetBooks
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Yesterday, the interview I did with Gill Oliver of the Oxford Times came out ([2]http://bit.ly/eSC4ZP) and
earlier in the week an interesting review of Invisible appeared on the Our Book Reviews Online website
([3]http://bit.ly/dKrXkc). The piece was entitled Dark Romance, which I liked.
There were also three articles in the January issue of the Oxford Writer (newsletter of Writers in Oxford:
[4]http://www.writersinoxford.org) that mentioned Invisible and StreetBooks.
The first, in the Book News and Reviews section, drew attention to the ’beautiful cover’ (above), which was designed
by my friend Andrew Chapman (also a member of WiO). The piece concluded: ’A story of love, the forging and
loosening of relationships and a strong sense of place pervade Invisible and its inner nature has been beautifully
caught in Andrew’s cover.’
The other two articles–a report on my talk to WiO, Bespoke Publishing, the Way Forward?, and the front page story,
Making Our Own Luck–were linked.
In the former, Dennis Hamley wrote:
’Frank looked back eight years, when he was planning his second novel Invisible, and an encounter with an established novelist who told him, "You are a writer. Publishers are publishers."
’Frank strongly disagreed, realising that he wanted to be a writer-publisher, and started the long process of setting up
his own small press. So began a long apprenticeship in learning new technology, through visits to the London Book
Fair, The Bookseller and papers on the Web...
’Retrenchment by the big publishers has long passed a reasonable level and the number of new ways to find publication, helped by the new technology, has burgeoned.’
As a novelist and a tutor of creative writing I am fascinated by the opportunities that new technologies, such as
e-books and print on demand, offer writers.
The lead article in the Oxford Writer drew on my talk and those by other members, including Andrew Chapman and
Mary Cavanagh, to start a debate among the membership on the possibility of collective publishing–for both new
work and back-list titles.
This debate is timely and one that I shall watch with great interest.
1.
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jpg
2. http://bit.ly/eSC4ZP
3. http://bit.ly/dKrXkc
4. http://www.writersinoxford.org/
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2.2
February
bampton library read-in (2011-02-11 09:51)
[1]
I was honoured to be asked to take part in the read-in last Saturday at Bampton library, one of 20 that Oxfordshire
County Council wants to close.
Supporters gathered in the Market Square before walking along Rosemary Lane to the seventeenth-century building
that houses the library and meeting room. The building, along with the neighbouring houses and cottages, featured
in the recent TV series Downton Abbey.
Kirsty Young started the event off by expressing wholehearted support for the read-in and saying how much libraries
had meant to her when she was a child.
The read-in took place in the library meeting room and people dropped by throughout the morning to listen to the
invited authors or to read a favourite poem or a passage from a cherished book. Meanwhile the library itself was
open for business. Many books were borrowed and new members signed up.
Kirsty Young began the readings with a children’s story and was great with the kids.
The guest writers included local authors Mary Hoffman (a veteran supporter of save-library campaigns), Linda Newbery, Candida Lycett Green, David Wiseman and Spooks writer Richard McBrian.
It was lovely to see Candida Lycett Green. In 2002 I reviewed her wonderful book Over the Hills and Far Away for
the TLS. The book combines a celebration of the English countryside with memories of her father and mother, Sir John
and Lady Betjeman. Candida wrote the book after making a journey through parts of England on horseback to raise
money for a cancer charity–she had not long before been treated for breast cancer.
My readings were a short extract from Invisible about the rural landscape around Bampton and a poem by the Cuban
writer and journalist Yndamiro Restano called Prison. Restano was imprisoned in the early 1990s for what he had
written. The poem was taken from the anthology Another Sky, which is published in association with English PEN
([2]http://www.englishpen.org), the organisation that campaigns for writers of conscience who are imprisoned or
censored around the world.
I wanted to make the point that freedom of speech and an appreciation of how vital books are to our wellbeing, our
education and to our culture are supposed to be prized in this country and how incomprehensible it is that libraries
are being targeted for closure.
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2Bread-in-741364.jpg
2. http://www.englishpen.org/
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ora (2011-02-17 19:40)
[1]
A copy of the uncut and unedited version of Invisible is now part of the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA).
If you want to view the file, follow the QR code above on your mobile phone or head for
[2]http://tinyurl.com/6ffu598.
The text in the archive is the self-same that I completed on the 24th April 2006. As I wrote the first draft during the
preceding years, I edited what I had written each day when I got back home from working as a cataloguer at the
Oxford Union Library. The original material would be typed into a Sharp organiser (most of the first draft) or an HTC
Vario (the last couple of chapters) while I travelled on the 18 Bampton to Oxford bus.
During 2006/07 I rewrote the whole first draft and eventually decided to cut about 10,000 words–after having discussed the typescript with Keiren Phelan of Arts Council South East and Frank Cottrell Boyce. Although I think
cutting was the right choice, it’s nice to have the chance to make the uncut version available.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_cbsLhyc0Yk/TV12tmCCRNI/AAAAAAAAARg/019eoGCoX9w/s1600/Invisible_ORA.png
2. http://tinyurl.com/6ffu598
jtns a year on, spring walk (2011-02-25 09:09)
[1]
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[2]
Enjoyed strolling along the Oxford canal just now.
There was a warm south-west breeze and as I walked it was as if I slipped spring over my head like a sweater and
wore it for a while.
justthoughtsnstuff.com is btw a year old now. Thanks for following!
Don’t approve of picking snowdrops but liked the arrangement.
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early bike ride, bampton church (2011-02-27 09:34)
[1]
Went cycling at 6 this morning–needed to be out early because I’ve lots of work to do today. Up to 4 pm anyway,
when I can relax.
Surprisingly sharp air frost, although it thawed quickly and there was no ice on the frog pond. There are several frogs
in the pond btw, which is nice to see after many animals died during the bitter snows over Christmas. Some of the
frogs survived in the pond, others are newcomers–frogs are on the move in the gardens at the back of our terrace.
Above is a picture of Bampton’s 12th century church, which has been re-roofed over the last two years. The pitches
above the choir (nearest end) were still being done when Downton Abbey was filmed and there was a very unEdwardian-looking plastic canopy over them–see [2]pic from last spring. I can’t remember what the film makers did
about blocking the canopy out in the film–maybe they slotted in a digital image of that half of the church. I’ll have to
check our DVD.
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Now, at 9 am, it is surprisingly sunny and springlike outside. The weather forecasters seem to have got their predictions wrong.
Over breakfast I read Peter Kemp’s review of Justin Cartwright’s new novel [3]Other People’s Money in the Sunday
Times. The novel charts the desperate struggles of crooked financiers and politicians to cover up a failing investment
bank. Sounds a great read.
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2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2010/04/returned-to-bampton-this-afternoon.html
3.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Other-Peoples-Money-Justin-Cartwright/dp/1408803887/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=
1298798767&sr=8-5
2.3
March
bloomin spring (2011-03-15 08:34)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
to Oxford. I have time to look at the spring landscape.
It’s a change not to be reading students’ work on the bus
At Standlake, the meadows by the river Windrush have a fine mist over them, which makes the grass seem even more
green than in the sun.
Beyond Northmoor, looking towards the Thames, the mist has turned to fog and the escarpment below Appleton is
hidden.
Although much of this year has been dry and not too cold the memory of the snows round Christmas lasts and it
seems a relief to feel the days getting warmer. It feels like it’s been a long winter. Not one that has left me feeling
depleted, as some do, but as if I have been in a state of walking hibernation.
Yesterday lunchtime, I had to drop a letter off at Stanford and went via Queen’s Lane. As I rounded one of the sharp
bends I suddenly realised that the air above me was alive with buzzing. Masses of tiny bees hovered round the buds
of one of the New College trees.
Returning along the High Street, I was excited to see the cherry outside St Mary’s, the University Church in flower. I
missed it last year. This time it seems earlier than usual.
Meanwhile, in Bampton the daffs that ring the bases of the line of limes in our street are out.
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west hanney (2011-03-18 21:48)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Long lie-in. Such a treat on a Friday.
Had a Times Eat Out for £5 lunch at the Plough, West Hanney–a great little pub in a beautiful village. Now in
Oxfordshire but before the boundary changes in the 1970s in West Berkshire. Definitely has a West Berks feel–red
brick, thatch, dark beamed bar. Delicious lightly malty Vale Brewery Best on handpump.
Lovely walk after lunch, which we first did in late summer last year. Much more stark this time, walking south of the
village: a deep field of spring corn, a brake of skeletal trees and the Ridgeway beyond.
The return journey is by a green lane, fallen burdock along its route, fresh grass growing up, a clump of wild-ish
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daffodils.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gZS0SOnG_SU/TYPUNSCFUbI/AAAAAAAAASU/EE5vIs5tRnA/s1600/west%2Bhanney%
2Bchurch-773080.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m34VDyeZCNU/TYPUNyBjGbI/AAAAAAAAASc/YrY8eFG4wrw/s1600/west%2Bhanney%2Bos%
2Bmap-775058.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HTTnWRlvang/TYPUOTM_-aI/AAAAAAAAASk/K9ah1Irm_E0/s1600/lane%252C%2Bwest%2B%
2Bhanney-776637.jpg
bampton moon (2011-03-18 22:36)
[1]
By-the-by a beautiful nearly full moon this evening.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wQZkP26pnu4/TYPeyjfhsgI/AAAAAAAAASs/76rA3r5mfQU/s1600/bampton%2Bmoon-781697
kelmscott spring walk (2011-03-20 22:27)
[1]
Did the Kelmscott circular walk this afternoon–the one
that takes you by the Thames to Buscot Lock and back along the Lechlade road. The last time we did it was during
the snows in between Christmas and New Year (see post, Tuesday 28th December 2010).
This time, the sun was shining and the land was fresh and new. The banks of the Thames between to boatyard, above,
and the lock are lined with reeds.
Sat out in the garden at the Plough. Good pint of Lechlade Thames Tickler.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QpxITI-u3Xw/TYZ_2KGZr4I/AAAAAAAAAS0/pkfrCxdTSf4/s1600/boatyard%2Bnear%
2Bkelmscott-782869.jpg
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fog, thames and time off (2011-03-25 17:25)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Love this weather. Such a surprise.
Had to be in Oxford for 8 am MSt meeting this morning, so drove rather than bussed it. Stopped to take a couple of
pics from Tadpole Bridge looking east along the Thames into the fog and sun.
By the time I crossed the Thames again–on foot over Osney Bridge–the fog had lifted and the city was hotting up.
Great to have afternoon off yesterday and today. I say ’off’ but there have been masses of catch-up things to do. Fun,
though. Off to dig on allotment shortly.
1.
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https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-x28UNaOcIdQ/TYzNreuMgMI/AAAAAAAAATI/zBs8iZJZZxI/s1600/thames%252C+
tadpole+b.jpg
2.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-BNau2JpSqFw/TYzN-CmBAgI/AAAAAAAAATM/bXeGattBF58/s1600/thames%252C+
tadpole+c.jpg
3.
https:
//lh6.googleusercontent.com/-YEEScU2eZb8/TYzOJyvWk-I/AAAAAAAAATQ/lHNAayTG45U/s1600/thames%252C+osney+b.jpg
dawn chorus, barn owl, 192, kingcups (2011-03-27 10:47)
[1]
[2]
Up early this morning because there were assignments to go through.
Went out onto the lawn with a cup of tea to enjoy the twilight. Only to be deafened by the dawn chorus. Retreated to
tranquillity of kitchen.
But not before being stunned into complete immobility by the sight of a barn owl perched on our neighbour’s fence.
Then a particularly loud-voiced sparrow struck up and the owl morphed into a fluffy body and a very feline profile
with pointy ears scowling to the left. Can’t win em all.
Talking of double-takes, I was surprised to see in one entry on 192.com that the people who sold us the house ten
years ago are still here, living with us. I wonder where they are.
After the owl-cat incident I cycled for an hour, coming back along the gated road, where these two pics were taken.
I was especially excited to see the kingcups, which cheered an otherwise fetid-looking ditch, whose surface was stirred
by disturbing bubbly burps as I approached.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3QPZYqqiQmY/TY8DWSk2sOI/AAAAAAAAATU/vKUl0hFgg_4/s1600/oak+n+daffs%252C+
calcroft+lane.jpg
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2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3QHtu4C5uvc/TY8DqPY2uPI/AAAAAAAAATY/OdgJvIUQvjo/s1600/kingcups%252C+calcroft+
lane.jpg
2.4
April
sunrise over bampton (2011-04-02 08:37)
[1]
Up early. Still surprised by how dark it is when I set off cycling at 6 since the clocks went forward. Extra evening light
is great, though.
Was returning to Bampton just as the sun rose behind the church–its spire a tiny needle in the pic above.
More assignments to go through today.
Earlier in the week I went to the leaving do for my boss at the Taylor. Sad she’s leaving–I owe her a lot–but what a
terrific party! So nice to catch up with old friends and drink wine in beautiful neo-classical surroundings.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B20NgEZFvnY/TZbQJfa9PgI/AAAAAAAAATc/WTjfFuj1gKI/s1600/sunrise+behind+bampton+
church.jpg
embers, flames, mist, osr and julie (2011-04-03 09:12)
[1]
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LuwjHtyOikA/TZgsSFIE65I/AAAAAAAAATg/IZvHWx4tB4s/s1600/early+morning+fire.jpg
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embers, flames, mist, osr, tadpoles and julie (2011-04-03 09:27)
[1]
[2]
I love it when you come downstairs on some mornings and the logs in the fireplace look dead but when you start
sweeping the grate you realise there are still embers and once you’ve pushed the logs together you soon have a fire
that takes the chill off the room.
Not that it felt particularly chilly in the house or garden this morning. It was only when I was cycling away from the
village that it was cold. Out in the lanes it was near freezing and the air nipped at my thumbs. There was a mist too
hovering above the fields, including the one above. Oilseed rape just coming into flower.
Tadpoles in our pond btw.
Meanwhile over breakfast I read a lovely review of [3]When the Children Came Home in the Sunday Times, the new oral
history book by my friend and predecessor as chair of Writers in Oxford, Julie Summers.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-37yYTBM8qDw/TZgs563X4iI/AAAAAAAAATk/EImAkUnzGAI/s1600/early+morning+fire.jpg
2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VyrAo8e6uKc/TZgtIHQKDLI/AAAAAAAAATo/AHaOulIT_JQ/s1600/sun%252C+mist+and+oilseed.
jpg
3.
http:
//www.amazon.co.uk/When-Children-Came-Home-Evacuees/dp/1847377254/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301819052&sr=8-1
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sedge (2011-04-06 08:52)
[1]
Hottest day of the year coming up–so they say.
Lovely walk along the Oxford canal this morning, certainly.
Can’t help thinking sedge is a much neglected plant.
Meanwhile sipping espresso (single) before work at the Woodstock Road Deli. Delicious.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_0HfJdF_9z8/TZwcYrPtt0I/AAAAAAAAATs/gJfRniEU0C4/s1600/sedge%2Bby%2Boxford%
2Bcanal-713553.jpg
dibber, spuds, eucalyptus and what the butler saw (2011-04-09 17:27)
[1]
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[2]
It’s that time of year again.
Went up to allotment early, dug the last bit of spud ground and planted eleven rows.
Cara, Charlotte, Estima and Kestrel.
The sunny weather has been a gift as far as preparing the soil has been concerned. Plus not having to concentrate on
Writers in Oxford literary festival things has meant I can get on with digging in late March/early April for the first
time in, what, seven years?
Funnily enough we met up with our friends Carol and Steve last night–it was Carol who gave us the brilliant potato
dibber in the photos. It belonged to her dad.
We shared a table with them at a rehearsed reading of Joe Orton’s play What the Butler Saw at the village hall. Such
a wacky play. And very nicely done–produced by neighbour Trevor Milne-Day.
Was intrigued by how strongly the shadow of the eucalyptus came out in the more general photo.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kK-NiKHKlHI/TaCKIUxD62I/AAAAAAAAAT0/so70UZN74VE/s1600/allotment%252C%2Bspring%
2B11-752759.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6vFbhT-Ud2o/TaCKI7QuUKI/AAAAAAAAAT8/woX_1QtedRw/s1600/dibber%2Band%
2Bkestrel-754494.jpg
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2011-04-09 18:40:56)
Plot to the left looks as if true enthusiasts have been at work!
Never try to keep up with allotment neighbours. ;-(
frank (2011-04-09 20:44:21)
Yes, absolutely. That’s Matthew’s plot, who is very much the ’Father’ of the allotments and who has helped out with the loan of a
rotavator when time ran out in the past. He is also a wonderful Morris musician and historian!
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oxford lit fest, a book for all and none, sheep (2011-04-10 17:20)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Went to the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival yesterday to hear my MSt in Creative Writing boss, Clare Morgan,
talk about her forthcoming novel, [4]A Book for All and None (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 978-0-297-86373-1).
She was appearing with Catherine Hall and Simon Lelic and the event was chaired by Rachel Hore.
An enjoyable hour of readings and discussions about writing, editing, writing about historical figures and the importance of a sense of place in fiction.
Getting to the event meant a lot of running in sweltering heat. The Park & Ride bus dropped me in a completely
different place to where I’d been expecting, with only minutes to go before the event started. When did they change
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the route!
Bought a copy of Clare’s book, which has its official launch in June.
First lie-in for a few weeks this morning. Cycle before late breakfast. Liked bucolic scene by moat-looking thing down
by Tadpole Bridge, which I photographed last on what felt like the first day of spring at the start of the year.
1.
http:
//1.bp.blogspot.com/-lWeYASXKm3k/TaHZ2dpsJLI/AAAAAAAAAUE/WEg5H-mUfBY/s1600/ox%2Blit%2Bfest%2Bb-796549.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mc1vYD7agxs/TaHZ2i-ggiI/AAAAAAAAAUM/lvF3OQQvMOc/s1600/sheep%2Bnear%2Btadpole%
2Bbridge-797940.jpg
3.
http:
//1.bp.blogspot.com/-w3ns4jy06aI/TaHZ2-fCddI/AAAAAAAAAUU/ncc38g11nOE/s1600/ox%2Blit%2Bfest%2Ba-799220.jpg
4.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-All-None-Clare-Morgan/dp/0297863738/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=
1302721522&sr=1-1
st frideswide’s square (2011-04-12 20:17)
[1]
On the bus on the way home.
Went to colleague’s leaving do at the Divinity School, which was fun. Good luck, Jayne! Lovely to see, amongst other
old friends, Helen, who used to work at the Bod and who we knew when we lived on Osney.
Also went to a former diploma student’s book launch in north Oxford. Look out for [2]The Partridge and the Pelican
by Rachel Crowther, Hookline Books, ISBN 9780956517791.
Hoped to hear Rachel read but had to leave before she had time to do so–too busy signing books. Can’t be bad!
Beautiful sunset over St Frideswide’s Square and the Said Business School when I started typing. Slightly melancholy
in a chilly-tingly sort of way, it has to be said.
Now going through Eynsham listening to Zane Lowe’s album of the week from Fleet Foxes. Gorgeous music.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LqQIYaxcPdM/TaSmIRW5l4I/AAAAAAAAAUc/Hg3kZnl6Q8U/s1600/said%2Bbusiness%
2Bschool-763769.jpg
2.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Partridge-Pelican-Rachel-Crowther/dp/095651779X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=
1302721420&sr=8-1
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sunrise, keble, downton (2011-04-13 20:20)
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]justthoughtsnstuff.com is the blog of novelist Frank Egerton. [5]www.frankegerton.com
Brilliant sky over the end of the garden this morning as I was sipping my tea.
Not long to go now before I get some days off–yippee. Feeling like I need a break.
Had a lovely lunch at Keble during which I talked newsletters, which was fascinating. Loved being in the fellows
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dining-room for, I think, the first time since the finalists’ supper back in ’88.
Strange things have been happening south of the church in Bampton today. A postbox has replaced the dog-poo bin
by the library. This can only mean one thing: filming of Downton Abbey Series Two is about to kick off.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qDGt21dEvpc/TaX1DU9z4tI/AAAAAAAAAUk/E-2JCIKHvzw/s1600/garden+dawn.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PTiO_ti5hN0/TaX1LzQEb9I/AAAAAAAAAUo/Cd5emZKpuwM/s1600/keble+in+april+b.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N_QUz2AkUQE/TaX1kNF9akI/AAAAAAAAAUs/xKphD5a8HVc/s1600/downton+post+box.jpg
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
5. http://www.frankegerton.com/
Anonymous (2011-04-14 22:06:38)
Where do the comments go?
Best Lola.
yellow, green, blue (2011-04-15 07:48)
[1]
[2]
Not into work till 10.30 this morning, so went cycling.
Took these pics along Calcroft Lane, aka the gated road (only the gates fell to bits ages ago).
The Thames floodplain is so wide round Bampton. Reminds me of the landscapes in those Hungarian films with
unpronouncable names I used to watch at the NFT back in the late 70s.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5YTkMrvXzQs/TafoXFChRAI/AAAAAAAAAU0/kr0lAOJV5jA/s1600/osr%252C+gated+road.jpg
2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h8Km4K9BIz0/TafoPLbJ0GI/AAAAAAAAAUw/lHHYqyYV6Rw/s1600/osr+and+kingcups.jpg
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cowslips (2011-04-17 13:40)
[1]
I mentioned in a [2]post last year that I have a memory of lying in a watermeadow on Tynings Farm when I was a boy
and staring into the cowslips that grew so thickly across the whole field. (I also remember watching people skating
on the same field after the floods froze over one winter.)
You so rarely see wild cowslips in any great number nowadays but today when I was cycling I came across a broad
verge with a fair number of them growing on it. Lovely to see!
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FubnsVlnn_k/TareBlXr89I/AAAAAAAAAU4/61Kd6O9wX3c/s1600/cowslips.jpg
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2010/04/faces-of-countryside.html
woodstock, blenheim rules, shifford insect lodge (2011-04-20 00:32)
[1]
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[2]
[3]
Stayed in Woodstock last night. Had supper at a pub that was an intriguing mix of traditional English and downtown
midwest USA.
Tried to get into Blenheim grounds this morning to do walk we did years ago. But when Jess showed her RHS card
she was told that ’Blenheim rules’ mean that only the RHS member can enter the grounds for free. The second person
has to pay over £11.
Decided to return to Bampton and have a drink in the garden at the Trout at Tadpole, then walk to Shifford lock.
Not before, though, calling in at the Woodstock Bookshop ([4]http://www.woodstockbookshop.co.uk) to ask if they
would be interested in stocking Invisible. Rachel Phipps said yes, which is great!
On the way to the bookshop we passed Brotherton’s, where I used to work as barman back in the 80s.
Along the Thames path to Shifford, we saw a swallow, some reed buntings and a cormorant, and heard some reed
warblers. Loved the bulrushes above and the fascinating insect lodge at Shifford lock.
Extraordinarily hot today–certainly didn’t feel like April.
A terrific day–though spoilt at various times by the never-ending family problems.
Some behind-the-scenes photos of Downton Abbey filming tomorrow.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ak7SELkt5tc/Ta4bnHDVJQI/AAAAAAAAAVM/uziHJbKLCrA/s1600/woodstock%2Bdiner-763069.
jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4gtmdKApG4o/Ta4blBqcVEI/AAAAAAAAAU8/yekQzFKBdaA/s1600/late%2Bbulrushes-754962.
jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fsgOAVE_ntQ/Ta4blltmpnI/AAAAAAAAAVE/WgTkR7DDgwo/s1600/shifford%2Binsect%
2Blodge-757680.jpg
4. http://www.woodstockbookshop.co.uk/
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downton abbey, the wall, mr whicher (2011-04-20 16:13)
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]justthoughtsnstuff.com is the blog of novelist Frank Egerton. [5]www.frankegerton.com
Well, the Downton Abbey filming is over for the time being.
This time a beautiful red charabanc was unloaded from the back of an artic–the series being fascinating not just for its
stars and plot but for its vehicles and set decoration.
One major event that got people in Bampton wondering recently was the collapse of a substantial section of stone
wall. Sadly it fell on top of our friends’ car and caused a lot of damage but I have to confess that my next thought after
being concerned for our friends was what were the film-makers going to do now. What the film-makers did appears
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in one the photos above, though one wouldn’t have known there had been any problems once the prop was put up.
Amazing to see streets clear of cars, which are usually bumper-to-bumper.
An old man told me once how he could remember when the first car started being parked in our street and how it
had been the only one for several years.
Meanwhile, another film shot partly in Bampton, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, goes out on ITV at 9 pm, Easter
Monday.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C4__35Rq9ig/Ta7x37C5ipI/AAAAAAAAAVU/ikhiuEVASdM/s1600/downton+abbey+11+a.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pW5TFtqA5os/Ta7yLD67pdI/AAAAAAAAAVY/79At78CN9Ng/s1600/downton+abbey+11+b.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1O0l6BqaK7Q/Ta7yaAqIOeI/AAAAAAAAAVc/1WWMjXhkClE/s1600/downton+abbey+11+c.jpg
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
5. http://www.frankegerton.com/
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2011-04-21 06:59:39)
The electric tricycle fits in very well! ;-)
happy easter, downton, kelmscott picnic, invisible (2011-04-24 11:39)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
[4]justthoughtsnstuff.com is the blog of novelist Frank Egerton. [5]www.frankegerton.com
Happy Easter!
Bampton continues to enjoy amazingly sunny weather. The last couple of nights, after midnight, I’ve sat out on our
tiny patio and read in the light from the kitchen window, every now and then sipping wine or gazing at the stars. I
can’t ever remember an April like this.
We had a great picnic on the banks of the Thames just below William Morris’ manor at Kelmscott on Good Friday. Not
far, in fact, from where the two main characters in Invisible picnic and argue. Fortunately, life didn’t imitate fiction.
Meanwhile, the Downton Abbey sets have been packed up for a bit and the wonderful red charabanc–seen from the
churchyard above–has been loaded onto its artic and driven home.
Enjoy today–and the bank holiday, if you’re in the UK!
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uQz2JX_cGQQ/TbP5_5AurLI/AAAAAAAAAVg/t2Fak6ys4EU/s1600/downton+abbey+11+d.jpg
2.
3.
4.
5.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HxJUAXXNmno/TbP6JH94_MI/AAAAAAAAAVk/BUA6I0RO75g/s1600/downton+abbey+11+e.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tJ9RYyHVhSs/TbP6VQeALMI/AAAAAAAAAVo/LX66QYL6djI/s1600/downton+abbey+11+f.jpg
http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
http://www.frankegerton.com/
bluebells, wild chervil and may, benjamin and iris, beryl and georgie (2011-04-30 13:19)
[1]
Only a short working week but I felt I really needed to get out on the bike this morning.
Saw this lovely patch of bluebells on the verge towards Black Bourton–framed by wild chervil (Cow Parsley) and
may blossom. Is it my imagination or are the verges round Bampton richer in wild flowers than they used to be?
I remember going to an Arvon writers retreat in deepest Devon at Totleigh Barton not long after we’d moved to
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Bampton. The Devon verges were stuffed with wild flowers and I thought, Why aren’t ours like that?
There’s a theory that long-dormant wild flower seeds will come back once the council and the farmers stop spraying
insecticides and herbicides so much. Maybe it’s true.
Read an interesting article in the Times today about depression by the psychotherapist Benjamin Fry. When he himself
suffered depression after a financial crisis, Fry found that not only his own expertise but that of fellow professionals
was of no help. I was struck by these lines, ’I tried another expensive psychiatrist, a leader in his field. He thought
that I woke up early because in the Stone Age my weakness would have required me to get up before other predators
to find easy kills.I began to realise that no one knew anything, yet everyone had an opinion.’ [My italics.] That sentence
in italics reminded me of the conclusion one reaches at the end of Iris Murdoch’s A Fairly Honourable Defeat. When
somebody we know goes through a crisis, so many of us–me included–have an opinion but often don’t really work
hard enough at thinking about what is really appropriate for the person. For Fry, real help was found at the Mellody
House clinic in Arizona.
Was pleased that Master Georgie won the [2]Best of Beryl Booker. Voted for this title myself. Not just because some
of my words used to appear on the back cover (maybe still do) but because it is such a fine novel. (I posted my
[3]Evening Standard review of the book to justthoughtsnstuff.com last year, when Dame Beryl Bainbridge died.)
I had to go to work yesterday, so missed the wedding. Did check out the balcony scene later online, though (the best
bit?). I was surprised by how little interest there seemed to be in celebrating in Oxford, Witney and Bampton.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-II1_FBVFrnk/Tbv3SGXY6MI/AAAAAAAAAVs/jCcgpaCjJ2g/s1600/bluebells%252C+wild+
chervil%252C+may.jpg
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/19/beryl-bainbridge-best-of-beryl-booker
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2010/07/dame-beryl-bainbridge.html
Anita Mathias (2011-05-10 09:35:10)
Cow Parsley? I have been calling it Queen Anne’s Lace. Is it the same thing, or have I been mis-identifying it.
frank (2011-05-10 22:52:10)
A lot of people call it Queen Anne’s Lace, although I think that QAL used to refer to wild carrot rather than wild chervil–the
former having a denser flower head with a tiny magenta spot in the middle. Having said that, meanings change and as so many
people call wild chervil QAL, perhaps that is what it is now!
2.5
May
honeysuckle, ed sheeran, candidate23, tracy chapman (2011-05-01 22:26)
[1]
Wild honeysuckle out along Calcroft Lane (the gated road). This is too early! You’d expect to see it in June or July,
surely.
Still, it is very beautiful.
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Made our way to the Victoria at Eastleach Turville in deepest south Cotswolds earlier–excellent Arkell’s Royal Wedding.
A couple of music recommendations: [2]Ed Sheeran–album coming out in September–and the young band [3]Candidate23.
Also, phenomenal that Tracy Chapman’s in the charts again.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RhZzQWP6_UY/Tb3OMTX24TI/AAAAAAAAAVw/qHq7WSEqto0/s1600/wild+honeysuckle.jpg
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/zanelowe/2011/04/hottest_record_-_ed_sheeran_-.html
3. http://www.candidate23.com/
rain, barley, allotment, carbon (2011-05-08 17:23)
[1]
I didn’t think the scud on Friday night that forced us into
the Horse Shoe from the beer garden would come to anything. It seemed to have passed by the time the pint of IPA
had been drunk and we were on our way home. It was a pleasant surprise to be woken by a downpour in the middle
of the night that continued off and on well into Saturday. More rain last night too.
I can’t remember when it last rained. Tufty certainly seemed bemused by it. He’d forgotten how much he enjoys
splashing about in it and hid in the bedroom when Jess wanted to take him for a walk.
Rain is great for the garden and really helped the spuds grow beyond the vicious frost mid-week that burnt their
leaves.
Beautiful cloudy skies, although the rain and the high winds that accompanied it have taken much of the blossom
from the trees and the countryside is suddenly early-June green. Loved the barley, trees and big sky in the pic above,
when I was cycling along the gated road this morning.
Had a good hour or so on the allotment after a late breakfast. Another hour and the ground will all have been
prepared. The rain has cheered up not just spuds but last year’s chard and this year’s shallots and onions. Hopefully
the seeds I planted ten days ago will be through soon too.
Downloaded what Nokia described as a recommended software upgrade yesterday. As promised new phone features
duly appeared. What disappeared though was the pre-loaded carbon black background I like. Had to go to the Ovi
store and pay £3 to get it back. Nice work Nokia.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X0dwtKPp4gU/TcbD02IsloI/AAAAAAAAAV0/3YwA25wWPAw/s1600/barley%252C%2Bnr%
2Bbroadwell-790450.jpg
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parched (2011-05-15 19:57)
[1]
Ridged up spuds on allotment yesterday and put up runner bean wigwams today. No sign of seeds I sowed three
weeks ago coming through. Ground warm but as dry anything. Still, tilled earth looks nice–apart from bindweed,
which I pulled this afternoon. Fistfuls.
Enjoyed cycling this morning. The meadows along the Great Brook from the Isle of Wight bridge, though, are parched
now. The water level in the Great Brook is low, as it is in the strange semi-circular ’moat’ at the far end of the first field
up from the bridge. Compare this view with that of a [2]few weeks ago and at the [3]start of the year.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LbBuKpz_IHY/TdAfQoIcNnI/AAAAAAAAAV8/zqeikGYYuGE/s1600/low+water+level.jpg
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/04/oxford-lit-fest-book-for-all-and-none.html
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/01/first-day-of-spring.html
Kathryn (2011-05-16 15:20:47)
It’s not just me facing a bean famine then? One out of 12 popped his head up, got eaten by a snail, and the rest haven’t bothered.
I’ve got tomatoes, two cayenne peppers, one round courgette and a cobnut squash. ’Tis looking a bit bare.
brewery gate, st thomas’ (2011-05-20 22:31)
[1]
I was sad to see the old Brewery Gate pub boarded up when walking through St Thomas’ in Oxford earlier in the
week. From the for sale sign it looks as if it is being sold for development–residential, most likely.
The sale marks the end of the Morrell’s Brewery story for me. When I first moved to Osney Island, a little further to
the west of St Thomas’, the brewery was still working and the smell of the malt wafting across Park End and Hythe
123
Bridge Streets was always a delight when heading into town to the libraries on brewing days. The Brewery Gate was,
as its name suggests, by the Morrell’s gate, with its elaborate iron arch, and was the brewery pub.
For a time in the nineties we used to walk over there on Saturday nights for a pint or two quite often and it was always
a place we visited every now and then during all the fourteen years we lived on the Island.
I can remember one afternoon years ago when I’d submitted a review for a paper and I went to the Gate for a drink to
celebrate. I sat in a corner, enjoyed the bitter and read a few Llewellyn Powys stories from a first edition I’d bought.
The last time I visited was to attend a meeting about the Oxford fringe festival. The pub was different from what I
remembered–dark and crowded with people speaking over a wining mike and stand-up going on in a corner. Fun,
though.
It’s strange to think that for much of the time we were on Osney, St Thomas’ had virtually no residential property and
yet the pub still seemed to do a good trade. Now all the old offices and businesses–even the brewery itself–have been
redeveloped as flats. The area is teaming with people, yet the pub shuts down.
I remember doing some research into the plans for redeveloping St Thomas’ at the county library yonks ago. Places
like Fisher Row had been condemned and the families moved out to estates on the edge of town during the mid-1950s
but then the scheme had ground to a halt for almost fifty years while the council, I suppose, resolved various issues.
I’m not sure what the sticking point was but what surprised me was that the council drew up the original plans for
condemning the houses and redeveloping the area during the Second World War. So odd to think of all those urban
renewal debates and all that town planning going on while the bombs fell on less fortunate cities.
I remember talking to my friend Bill who used to deliver the papers on Osney about what it was like growing up on
Fisher Row during the forties and fifties. He told me about how he and the other children had eagerly awaited the
baker putting out the big jam tins after he’d filled cakes and doughnuts. The baker would always leave some jam for
the kids as a treat. Bill loved it there, I think.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H7_gHHRJIBo/Tdbdx1KMFiI/AAAAAAAAAWA/F0V5--x6AIw/s1600/brewery%2Bgate-711073.jpg
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2011-05-21 06:52:14)
Egerton,
With such a display of nostalgia, the proverbial "cusp" is behind you! ;-(
frank (2011-05-21 08:38:29)
I hope not!!
strong winds, lime tree (2011-05-22 15:01)
[EMBED]
It was hard work cycling this morning. Strongest winds for a few years. I got blown back, though, which was nice.
Record time between Clanfield and Bampton, pedalling furiously in 21st gear. Scary at times.
I’ve been watching the lime at the end of our garden as it gets blown about. Rather beautiful. Video shows it in some
middlingly strong gusts.
124
rose fall, morris, folk and woodstock (2011-05-25 22:35)
[1]
The winds have died down but not before a rose and catoneaster half-collapsed at the far end of the garden. Fighting
your way under the rose when trying to get to the shed is entertaining–and painful if you misjudge things.
The coming weekend sees the annual Morris dancing and folk music festival in Bampton. As always I’m looking
forward to hearing the musicians in the pubs on Saturday and Sunday nights. Oh, and there’ll be the Great Original
Shirt Race on Saturday evening.
Took the above photo in Woodstock yesterday.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LHwJhWOljL8/Td1sQNlimNI/AAAAAAAAAWI/sLVuF4Q5PC0/s1600/lane%252C+woodstock%252C+
oxfordshire.jpg
shirt race, not, courgettes and cucumbers, peonies and the garden (2011-05-29 21:22)
[1]
125
[2]
[3]
The Bampton Morris dancing and folk weekend is in full swing. Sadly, though, I fell asleep and missed the Shirt Race,
so no pics of the Downton Abbey rig that Keith on the allotments told me about. Ah well.
Hoping to stay awake for a bit of folk music down the pubs this evening.
Meanwhile, planted out cucumber and courgette seedlings on the allotment this afternoon. I forked through the
places where I was going to plant them to a fork’s depth and made dishes in the soil so the seedlings were below the
surface and protected from the wind. The wind is relentless and has sucked nearly all the moisture out of the ground
since the rains on Thursday.
I’m sad to say that usually I struggle to cultivate the plot because my times up there are limited to when I have gaps in
my work schedule and usually when I’m free it’s raining. As a result I’m usually still battling away by now. This year,
getting up on the allotment has been no problem, what with all the dry weather. So, usually, it’s chaos but productive
chaos. This year it’s a well-tended desert.
Here are some pics of Jess’ garden instead.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JfUgmegU9Qw/TeKl_cka7FI/AAAAAAAAAWM/hyGEO4Ox77A/s1600/peonies.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DCva4QPPAIs/TeKmOho0G5I/AAAAAAAAAWQ/THLfOG0beas/s1600/path+and+veg.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0faNqbJ_SME/TeKmatpd-dI/AAAAAAAAAWU/vW_SUbXNjNo/s1600/silver.jpg
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2.6
June
folk, morris, fertility cake (2011-06-01 23:08)
[1]
[2]
Didn’t go out on Saturday for the late sessions–too tired.
Made it to see some music on Sunday night, though, and enjoyed the Morris dancing on Monday Bank Holiday.
Loved the way the Morris dancers kept going despite the rain, while spectators huddled under umbrellas and nibbled
barbecue food. (And downed the odd glass, I dare say.)
It was great to catch up with old friends and have a couple of days off in the village.
Nibbled some crumbs of fertility cake at one gathering. The elderly baker of this cake suggested it was land that
would benefit from the eating, not the eater of the cake. So, the allotment will be springing to life.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G3FlPwZRo4Y/Tea2Chl84LI/AAAAAAAAAWo/FNxeVMoh_M0/s1600/diddly+dee.jpg
2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BMflihXb5SI/Tea2HpuqRGI/AAAAAAAAAWs/qzt39JPoqRk/s1600/morris+dancing+11.jpg
whitsun bank holiday morris dancing, bampton (2011-06-04 09:42)
[EMBED]
Here’s a short video of some Morris dancing in Bampton square last Monday.
It was edited in-camera (or should that be, in-phone) and the sound’s a bit jumpy. Still, it gives you a glimpse of the
day’s festivities. The heavy rain had stopped at this point–about 5.30 in the afternoon.
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a book for all and none (2011-06-08 21:19)
Finished my online teaching in the Upper Reading Room
[1]
of the Bodleian at 6.30 and headed for a pint at the Turf. Pub packed with joyous finalists.
Then on to Blackwell and the launch of my colleague (that should read boss) Clare Morgan’s first novel, A Book for
All and None.
I’ve not seen that many people at Blackwell for a launch for a long while. A great evening catching up with old friends
and meeting new people, and listening to Clare’s reading. That included that very long sentence that nevertheless
hangs together and makes perfect sense. Nicely read.
A why-didn’t-I-think-of-that book, I have to say.
Now on the bus home. Bright, frosty-looking sky to the west. Frost in mid-June? That’s what they say, come Friday
morning.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C5wVWBy7wM4/Te_ZVsU2WeI/AAAAAAAAAW0/NusR_n60ElY/s1600/a%2Bbook%2Bfor%2Ball%
2Band%2Bnone-773187.jpg
hogweed and hemlock?
[1]
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(2011-06-11 10:26)
[2]
[3]
Went cycling early because I’ve got a fair amount of work to get through today–until 4 pm, that is, when we’ll head
down the pub. Where else?
We’ve had some rain over the last couple of days, which is helping the garden and the allotment to pick up. I dare say
the field crops will benefit, although I suspect they need far more rain than we are likely to get, if the yields are to be
any good.
Many of the hedgerow plants have gone over and the countryside looks a uniform unhealthy-seeming green, increasingly pocked with burnt up patches. Only a few poppies add colour. Apart that is from hogweed and other members
of the carrot family. These are doing quite well, as ever. I love the pinky-tinged top to some of the hogweed umbels
and the way these flower heads unpack themselves–first two pics above. I think the photos really do show hogweed,
although it is so difficult to tell with this family of plants. If someone knows better, let me know. And is the last pic
hemlock? I thought so. Whatever the plant is, though, it’s excelled itself. Nine foot tall, on a patch of waste ground
just below Cowleaze Corner as you head towards the village from Clanfield.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XJTXOG2DOxk/TfMvdiHh0cI/AAAAAAAAAW4/bNKvB5MFZmk/s1600/cow+parsley+1.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tCpisAVqX5w/TfMvpSPVxSI/AAAAAAAAAW8/_cjTt4310lc/s1600/cow+parsley+2.jpg
3. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-36mvNgfqTbw/TfMvzbD64_I/AAAAAAAAAXA/2kJGEUyrNCU/s1600/hemlock.jpg
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oxford canal bridge, nag’s head, yaffling (2011-06-14 19:24)
[1]
Walked along the Oxford canal this morning from North Oxford (the excellently named [2]Elizabeth Jennings Way)
to the very end, opposite the pub that I always think of as the Nag’s Head. A favourite pub when I first moved out of
Keble to the flat on Osney Island.
The bridge in the photo is the last before the final arm of the canal. It curves over the narrow lock that leads into the
system of Thames streams that flow on past Fisher Row, the old brewery and the castle, before rejoining the river.
The bridge featured in my first novel The Lock and is also opposite Worcester College cricket ground–the only one in
Oxford inside a college boundary. Happy memories of playing in Simon Hiscock’s team; of hearing a woodpecker
yaffling in the late afternoon; of drinking beer into the evening on the pavilion verandah. (I have to say that I was
more there for the yaffling and beer rather than being an asset to the team.)
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-84gW40iQQWc/TfehUeGsYwI/AAAAAAAAAXE/wW3En09eaHs/s1600/oxford+canal+bridge.jpg
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2001/oct/31/guardianobituaries.books
wet morning in bampton, dmug, swindon viewpoint, john grierson, aclaiir (2011-06-18 10:05)
[EMBED]
Enjoyed cycling this morning, despite it being grey after overnight rain. It’s been a long week, what with one thing
and another.
The rain started in west Oxfordshire on Thursday and has kept going off and on ever since. Right on cue for the
ripening barley. It said on Radio 4’s Farming Today this morning that we might see the worst harvest for thirty years
after the drought and now the untimely downpours. I have to say the crops do look sick, even when they’re turning
and should be at their best.
Had the bright idea of filming as I cycled back through the village–blame it on the Digital Media Users Group meeting
I attended yesterday. This was the second meeting and both it and the first were excellent. The group is a low-key
but really inspiring initiative. One of yesterday’s speakers was a colleague who produced the terrific website for the
Bodleian Libraries’ [1]Shelley’s Ghost exhibition.
Years ago I did a Super 8 course at Swindon college of further education and some camera work for Swindon Viewpoint community TV, and I still love the idea of playing around with film. I wrote a script for Swindon Viewpoint
based at four locations: the church in Cirencester, the market in the main street, the Crown pub and the bingo hall. It
was about commerce and booze and how the church remained serene but empty. It was supposed to be a homage to
the documentary film maker [2]John Grierson, whose work I’d got into at a retrospective at the Nation Film Theatre.
Sadly–or perhaps fortunately, for the channel’s subscribers–the film was never made. When I turned up to discuss
the shooting schedule, the guys were packing up. The channel had fallen victim to Mrs T’s cuts. Axed overnight.
Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to attending my first [3]ACLAIIR AGM next week at the BL (Advisory Council on
Latin American and Iberian Information Resources). Early start, though. Help.
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I was feeling refreshed and reasonably fit when I got home after cycling–until I listened to the soundtrack on the
video. Talk about last gasp ;-)
1. http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
2. http://www.griersontrust.org/john-grierson.html
3. http://aclaiir.wordpress.com/
Anonymous (2011-09-05 22:44:23)
Hi Frank, Great story! There are lots of things that did get made and plenty that probably shouldn’t have over at
www.swindonviewpoint.com.
bl, aclaiir, jack c, spitfire, sausage & mash (2011-06-20 23:25)
[1]
[2]
131
[3]
London is wet and on the X90 it’s sweltering.
Had a great day at the ACLAIIR AGM at the British Library, though. Everyone was so welcoming and the talks were
really interesting. The only disappointment was getting to the BL after the library tour had started. Just how early do
you have to get up to make King’s Cross by 9:30 am? Earlier than 4.30, obviously.
Realised, as the coach reached the city, that I haven’t been to London for a fair few years. Although it’s not been quite
as long a gap as Jack on the Island meant when he told me in the late 90s that he’d not been to London for a ’year or
two, boy’. Turned out his last visit was in 1945 when he was demobbed.
Had a pint of Spitfire and a plate of sausage and mash for supper.
Now, a snooze.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5p6FUD7IN8U/Tf_I72JqMVI/AAAAAAAAAXM/UwB88kLtVQc/s1600/bl%2Broofscape-750582.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KFb_kRSJ5IA/Tf_I8ez9MRI/AAAAAAAAAXU/cSR6cQqQstc/s1600/man%2Bwith%2Bcompasses%
2Bbl-752778.jpg
3. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-owcglNhXYVg/Tf_I850JOkI/AAAAAAAAAXc/7Yc57Cdp21g/s1600/st%2Bpancras-754230.jpg
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2011-06-21 06:58:51)
After much puzzlement, wondering what games device the X90 is, like Jack I have been away too long, an inter-village charabanc!
rickety press, jericho (2011-06-22 19:31)
[1]
This morning, I was pleased to see that what used to be the Radcliffe Arms in Jericho is reopening as an Arkells’ pub
called the Rickety Press (where did that name come from!).
The Radcliffe closed some time ago and I feared the premises would end up residential.
132
Not that I’d been in the Radcliffe for a while–the Harcourt Arms a couple of hundred yards away had become our
Jericho pub–but I have happy memories of going there in the 80s, when working on the Moving Mystery Theatre
project for Oxford Drama Programmes. In fact most of my salary for that project (which I business managed) got
spent in the Radcliffe (on food as well!).
I also remember a really warm chat in the front bar with Jackie C the morning after Rob Russell’s stag night.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gfIntaJ_jo8/TgI2JTW99TI/AAAAAAAAAXk/DV4IHoKSTVQ/s1600/rickety%2Bpress%252C%
2Bjericho-780523.jpg
radcliffe infirmary (2011-06-24 18:04)
[1]
This morning, as I walked from the Latin American Centre towards St Giles, it looked as if someone had done a
Christo on the Radcliffe Infirmary–Christo himself, perhaps?
Prosaically, it seems the wrapping is merely the latest phase of Oxford University’s project to restore the 1770 building
before it becomes home to the Humanities Divisional Office, two Bodleian Libraries’ collections and a Faculty in 2012
(see the project [2]website and live [3]webcam).
It will be interesting to see the building when the wrapping is taken off.
By the time I moved to Oxford the Infirmary had ceased to be the city’s main hospital–the new [4]JR having opened
in 1979–though I do remember being brought to the Infirmary from Stowe after breaking my arm during a judo competition. For some reason I’d decided not to wait for the minibus to take me back to the school after the competition,
having retired early, and walked the two or three miles home. The arm didn’t hurt that much until the evening. I
didn’t sleep a wink in the sick-room that night.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cVciK-OOtAo/TgS-ULzQXOI/AAAAAAAAAXo/fJGbaVDJQTM/s1600/radcliffe+infirmary.jpg
2. http://www.ox.ac.uk/roq/radcliffe_infirmary.html
3. http://m.ox.ac.uk/webcams/roq-construction/
4. http://www.oxfordradcliffe.nhs.uk/aboutus/history/jr%20history.aspx
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cara spuds and mange tout peas (2011-06-26 21:57)
[1]
[2]
Into Oxford early for MSt tutes. Very rewarding.
Then back home to do some gardening.
I had a coffee at Caffe Nero before the tutes–all my usual coffee places being shut at around 8 am on a Sunday. And
very nice CN was too. Delicious coffee and a great ambience.
Oxford was so quiet at that time.
It was also quite cool. I was not prepared for the wall of heat that hit me when I left Rewley House after my second
tute.
Back home, I mowed the lawn then watered the allotment, before lifting our first potatoes. Two roots of Cara. Smallish
spuds but a better size, and more numerous, than I was expecting.
Jess harvested her first mange touts in the garden at the cottage too.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H1qMQ6yDZTs/TgedzCyiEPI/AAAAAAAAAXw/UuZsHwCsfM0/s1600/cara%2Bspuds-795992.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VeliaYkaAos/TgedzWBpNWI/AAAAAAAAAX4/I3B5sLepHAU/s1600/mangetout%2Bpeas-797266.
jpg
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2.7
July
meadowsweet, willowherb, snail, partidge (2011-07-02 09:32)
[1]
[2]
[3]
First cycle for a couple of weeks. Missed out last weekend because I was working at the Taylor on Saturday and
teaching on Sunday.
Calcroft Lane, aka the gated road, is alive with wild flowers again. Just after where the gates used to be, I came across
frothy meadowsweet, water mint and almost-in-flower hemp agrimony, amongst other plants, growing in a shallow
stream. A few minutes later, a stand of rosebay willowherb.
135
I wasn’t alone this morning on the bike. The snail is quite well-travelled now.
Before seeing all the plants, a partridge flew up from the verge. I was so excited. In Oxford we never saw partridges
and only came across them when we were away walking. I love the delicate flight and this morning noticed how
vibrant the orange markings on the bird’s fanned tail were.
Then I realised that what I was really thinking about, and could actually taste, was roast partridge. At the Trout at
Tadpole, say, by the log-burner, accompanied by a glass of their delicious Fleurie.
I was appalled by my carnivorous nature.
When do they start shooting partridge?
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-icZE0zGHVeY/Tg7TwRZQqGI/AAAAAAAAAX8/qtgYFxHNLXM/s1600/meadowsweet+etc.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HQvAtIPlVSo/Tg7T-m-Aw0I/AAAAAAAAAYA/K0bF7EI0C5g/s1600/willowherb.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eyCeBsAgjlM/Tg7UGpgQ6dI/AAAAAAAAAYE/xwQhVxPC3qU/s1600/well-travelled+snail.jpg
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2011-07-02 15:46:55)
You are now distributed through G+.
Surprisingly no "smutty schoolboy" remarks made on the name!
a week of sadness (2011-07-09 18:49)
[1]
It has been a week of sadness.
Three friends died this week.
The catastrophic events that have overtaken my family during the last year came to a head this week.
Although I have great sympathy for those who are in trouble, I have had serious concerns about what they were doing
for many years. I once wrote an essay explaining what I thought was going wrong and how it might be put right. I
have described that essay as an act of love. The essay was largely ignored.
As I said to somebody recently, the way that essay was received made me feel like the boy in the story of the emperor’s
new clothes.
[23.01.12 and 03.02.12: In the light of recent sad events I have decided to rewrite parts of the above post. I have kept
a copy of the original post.]
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3-uq1SvPoB0/Thinj3-iFGI/AAAAAAAAAYI/kaeMGehUn2M/s1600/ripe+corn+%2526+meadow+
cranesbill.jpg
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2011-07-10 07:29:36)
What an absolute stinker of a week, hopefully Sunday will see productivity at allotment.
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frank (2011-07-10 08:33:44)
Indeed, a bike ride through beautiful west Oxfordshire, followed by time spent weeding the allotment and digging a root or two
of spuds will be therapeutic.
wild flowers (2011-07-10 11:09)
[1]
[2]
[3]
I enjoyed cycling this morning.
The rain is holding off, so I should get some weeding done on the allotment.
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The wild flowers, above, were beautiful to see and therapeutic.
Not 100 % sure what the yellow flowers are. Lady’s bedstraw?
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VSJR5lek6Cc/Thl7pYN955I/AAAAAAAAAYQ/Gkye-SNKubA/s1600/meadowsweet%2Band%
2Bpurple%2Bvetch-700999.jpg
2.
http:
//3.bp.blogspot.com/-uaYDFN8-UHk/Thl7p_1ARRI/AAAAAAAAAYY/udfELGA2qRA/s1600/lady%2527s%2Bbedstraw-702577.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DFsc260bUts/Thl7qK7fNdI/AAAAAAAAAYg/LnA49poBsbE/s1600/teasels-703746.jpg
Anonymous (2012-09-23 03:23:07)
Incredible! This blog looks exactly like my old one!
It’s on a totally different subject but it has pretty much the same layout and design. Wonderful choice of colors!
My web page: [1]smo services
1. http://www.semazing.ch/
weeding, minsters, golden courgette (2011-07-10 21:43)
[1]
[2]
138
[3]
I had an enjoyable couple of hours weeding on the allotment.
Focused on the runner beans, which I’d let get horrifically overgrown due to pressures of work keeping me away
from the plot.
It’s amazing how late the runners are–as indeed are all the veg on the allotment. Compared to Jess’ crops in the
garden at the cottage, they look so behind. The plot is all Oxford clay, whereas the garden is over gravel and is much,
much earlier ground.
It was interesting to see a geological map at a meeting in the village hall a few years ago, that showed where the
monasteries in this part of the Thames Valley had been founded during the late Anglo-Saxon period. Bampton church
is one of the remaining minster churches. You can still see the Anglo-Saxon stonework in the base of the tower above
the crossing. The geological map showed that the monasteries and their settlements were built on small free-draining
gravel outcrops in the midst of the Oxford clay.
Harvested first round golden courgette.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zdj2GohZlwQ/ThoL-gkAyrI/AAAAAAAAAYk/lqVxSmlYULI/s1600/runner+beans+and+chard.
jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YOLxIVUVMEI/ThoMJSqykQI/AAAAAAAAAYo/YVfx7AsDWjc/s1600/round+yellow+courgette.
jpg
3. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ObzklsS_0bI/ThoMYMsjzcI/AAAAAAAAAYs/xGm1JfTF-2M/s1600/peas+and+cornflowers.jpg
wiltshire (2011-07-15 13:32)
[1]
139
[2]
[3]
Great to be staying at the Compasses, Lower Chicksgrove, Wiltshire (just north of the River Nadder, above). It’s only
a short trip away from Oxfordshire but Wilts is such a different county–different stone, different landscape.
Woke this morning at 5 as usual but fell into a deep sleep sometime around 6.30. So nice to catch up on sleep and to
get the last few months in some kind of perspective.
Delicious white Côtes du Roussillon with lunch–have only had red before.
(Also above, Teffont Evias–church and manor.)
[Posting these from Oxfordshire–internet connection in Lower Chicksgrove couldn’t handle pics.]
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5xbtINfrzKs/TiA0job3PJI/AAAAAAAAAY0/xwCC37Kn2E4/s1600/teffont%2Bevias-751649.
jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p9x3wpYwhXg/TiA0kj_PnQI/AAAAAAAAAY8/5w3WunjnPnM/s1600/wilts%2Bgreen%2Blane%
2Bc-755572.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UE02zk7Jmyc/TiA0lvZKjII/AAAAAAAAAZE/F-vFTDEUEi8/s1600/river%2Bnadder-760195.jpg
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wiltshire contd (2011-07-15 21:22)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Loved our walks through the green lanes, along the chalk tracks and through the beautiful villages near Lower Chicksgrove.
Yesterday we had lunch at Howard’s House, a very charmingly discrete hotel in Teffont Evias. Discrete because although there is a sign for it on the street this almsot looks as if it belonged to a place that has long-since closed down
before becoming a private house. And it feels exactly as if you have the run of someone’s private house. An understatedly grand private house, with a beautiful terrace set around a pond–just the place for two ramblers in wellies
plus lively fluffy dog.
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At the Compasses, one of the times I like best is wandering up the hill to the fields beyond the village after supper.
Yesterday this was made special by the full moon. The walk helped me forget the sadness of last week for a time.
1.
http:
//1.bp.blogspot.com/-uw4v_WDIs7g/TiCiEcLlqII/AAAAAAAAAZc/9V-UgFxoazU/s1600/tufty%2Bin%2Bwilts-788639.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-49aiVsMjzt0/TiCiDhZ46dI/AAAAAAAAAZM/xtQwubSVi1c/s1600/from%2Bthe%2Bterrace%
252C%2Bhoward%2527s%2Bhouse%2Bhotel-785551.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D3QreDYX3Ic/TiCiD8-8FGI/AAAAAAAAAZU/k2SLOLMUPxQ/s1600/moon%2Bsouth%2Bof%
2Blower%2Bchicksgrove-787168.jpg
soaked, bye bye wiltshire, work (2011-07-16 10:44)
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
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[5]
[6]
Got soaked cycling this morning. Heaviest rain I can remember for a long while. We were lucky to get all that
sunshine in Wiltshire.
A weekend of work ahead.
Meanwhile, here are the last of the Wiltshire photos.
The two church exteriors are [7]St Margaret of Antioch, Chilmark (top) and [8]St Edward, King of the West Saxons,
Teffont Magna.
The latter is a lovely little church. It has fragments of a Saxon cross set into the south wall and it is believed that there
has been a place of worship in the village since Saxon times. The present building dates from the 13th century and
consists of an all-in-one nave and chancel. The interior is distinguished by Victorian box pews, which according to
the guidebook indicate that the church ’could be very cold and the sermons long’. The church’s name sounds ancient
but interestingly dates back to only 1965. Before that the church had no dedication.
Now, to work.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2iuUzB1ObxE/TiFWXcwUyWI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/6ksoEjiVb40/s1600/st+margaret%2527s%252C+
chilmark.jpg
2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4Nf_VM1NZBw/TiFWiZf6kUI/AAAAAAAAAaU/mUP14ah6w6s/s1600/wilts+green+lane+b.jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hxGdGmMsBGo/TiFW2OPLWFI/AAAAAAAAAac/Po20Q6HBXDo/s1600/st+edward%2527s%252C+
teffont+magna.jpg
4. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aPhXk0Ct02k/TiFXAJdlroI/AAAAAAAAAag/hScMbtHMkqY/s1600/wilts+green+lane+a.jpg
5. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v4ZoLcYMRH4/TiFWrbNpzgI/AAAAAAAAAaY/JMkpqsF0y20/s1600/church+window.jpg
6. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O-yTeQd1A4s/TiFXJjcrZuI/AAAAAAAAAak/wG3Qm8IttBg/s1600/organ+pipes.jpg
7. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-320298-church-of-st-margaret-of-antioch-chilmar
8. http://www.teffont.com/index.php/our-churches/teffont-magna-church
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richard webster (2011-07-23 21:00)
[1]
I went to a memorial service for my friend Richard Webster this afternoon at St Barnabas church in the Jericho quarter
of Oxford (above).
I will always be indebted to Richard for his advice about typesetting and publishing when I set up StreetBooks last
year.
Richard was a long-standing member of Writers in Oxford (WiO) and my memory of how he welcomed me when I
first joined some ten years ago seems similar to those of colleagues. He was such a staunch believer in the society and
was fascinated by people, giving them so much of his time.
In his professional life as a writer he was also a champion of a number of people who were either falsely accused
of crimes or imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. A man at his memorial said that he had told Richard that
he valued going to prison because if he had not done so he would never have met a man like him. I’ve tried to
paraphrase what the man said and perhaps in doing so I have made it trite. If so, I can only apologise. What he
said was profoundly moving. Among others who spoke were a recently retired MP who had chaired a parliamentary
committee to which Richard had given decisive evidence and a QC who had successfully defended Richard over a
New Statesman article he had written.
One of the remarkable things about the memorial was how little of what Richard did many members of WiO knew.
He was a wonderfully warm friend and colleague but not one to boast by any means.
As a former chair of WiO, I have to confess that I was aware of Richard’s directness. His passionate belief in the society
meant that he could on occasion ask difficult and penetrating questions. Yet he was never a person to put you down.
He wanted to raise issues, yes, but was never happier than when you made your point back. What he wanted was
honest, robust debate. People said today that he never made you feel diminished by his incisive comments. Rather
you were left with the feeling of being enriched by the discussion he provoked. That was certainly my experience.
For the last couple of years, as readers of this blog will know, I’ve been getting off the 18 bus at St Edward’s School, if
I’m in good time on my way to work, and cutting down to the canal before walking to Jericho and on into town. At
the back of Hayfield Road I have on occasion come across Richard standing at the end of his garden on the opposite
bank or having breakfast and he has smiled his unforgettable smile–so surprised to see me there, the first time this
happened–and we have chatted for a while. Every time I walk this way, even in winter, I have wondered whether he
will be there. Whenever he has been it has been such fun to see him. Now I know he will never be there again.
Finally, I remember Richard quoting at a WiO committee meeting (as was fitting for the author of an excellent book
on Freud): ’Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar.’
Richard Mortimer Webster, [2]http://richardwebster.net.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hmgnan54t2w/TislV06oD3I/AAAAAAAAAao/1q9i0iSK75k/s1600/st+barnabas.jpg
2. http://richardwebster.net/
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autumn comes early? lords and ladies et al, the future, ambit (2011-07-30 10:51)
[1]
[2]
[3]
The talk in the garden at the Horse Shoe last night was the early arrival of autumn.
This week, the quality of sunlight changed. The strength is still there but the light is a mellower egg-yolk yellow. The
days are noticeably shorter too. At 5 am on Friday the view of the garden from the kitchen was that of night-time.
Autumn reds are appearing–poppies, harvested with the corn, are giving way to lords and ladies and apples that
people swear are weeks early. The first blackberries are ripe and intensely sharp.
Sometimes this week, the sky has been lead-lidded and the muffled world has been comforting. Whether dour or
autumn-sunny, it has been a good week for healing. For catching one’s breath, contemplating the past and then
145
looking to the future.
Meanwhile, I was excited to learn that a former student, Paul Sweeten, has a short story entitled Prodigy in the latest
issue of [4]Ambit magazine (on sale, first floor, Blackwell, if you’re in Oxford).
A morning of marking and final summer school preparations ahead.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vTMAa3bMxfk/TjPL0OwETSI/AAAAAAAAAas/N14KmrxySJk/s1600/lords+and+ladies%252C+
black+bourton.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sp7AYKDXM9Y/TjPMDDlJ-WI/AAAAAAAAAaw/shOmSTCZZGM/s1600/july+apples%252C+bampton.
jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uwt8W1kI-Kk/TjPMMu4roRI/AAAAAAAAAa0/ktLTBVXh3ac/s1600/wheat%252C+near+kencot.
jpg
4. http://www.ambitmagazine.co.uk/
2.8
August
oxford, northmoor sheep, sunday (2011-08-06 18:37)
[1]
Working in Oxford today.
Earlier in the week, the bus pulled up in the middle of Northmoor as a flock of sheep were driven through the village.
No contest.
Meanwhile, now sipping wine and contemplating a free Sunday. No, I can’t believe that either.
Have a good weekend.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3hYWl8zzhrg/Tj18I6YlPPI/AAAAAAAAAa8/27paGWVb1IQ/s1600/northmoor%2Bsheep-721434.
jpg
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time, ripening, mushroom risotto (2011-08-13 09:59)
[1]
[2]
The creative writing [3]summer school seminar series I’m teaching at Exeter College, Oxford is about to enter its third
and final week. Colleagues said the time would pass quickly and it has. It’s whizzed by. Not least because the group
is a great one to work with.
Talking of time passing fast, we’re off to a 60th birthday party this weekend. Was it ten years ago that our friend was
fifty? I suppose it must be. Help!
The weather was wet and overcast this morning when I went cycling, adding to the landscape’s already autumnal
look. Most fields are now cut and many have been cultivated. The hawthorn berries are full and the crab apple trees
laden with fruit.
Another year is ripening.
Meanwhile, had lunch with two colleagues yesterday at [4]Branca in Walton Street, Oxford. By chance we all wanted
the mushroom risotto, which was simple and delicious. We also had great fun chatting.
1.
2.
3.
4.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_ZJEYnv4y68/TkYwFxZsK4I/AAAAAAAAAbE/_oEZtc6QM2g/s1600/crab+apples.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VPHDpN-xxW8/TkYv8vJlqCI/AAAAAAAAAbA/_m8dLZYaRps/s1600/hawthorn+berries.jpg
http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/details.php?id=W800-36
http://www.branca-restaurants.com/
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waterman’s arms, osney, now the punter (2011-08-14 15:43)
[1]
Had great fun at our friend’s 60th birthday party last night. It was held at [2]The Punter on Osney Island.
When we lived on the Island this Thames-side pub was called The Waterman’s Arms, which had been its name for
over a hundred years. I still can’t get used to the new name. Where are the punts? I did see someone attempting to
punt on this stretch years ago but the water is too deep.
I’d not been into the pub since it was taken over. I have to say that the name apart the pub is excellent. The interior
is upmarket now but the changes have been sympathetically done, so that you still get a sense of the rooms as they
once were. The food was delicious.
A fictional incarnation of the pub featured in John Wain’s wonderful [3]Where the Rivers Meet trilogy which follows
the fortunes of the landlord’s two sons before the Second World War. One son gets a job at the newly-opened Cowley
car factory and the other wins a place to study at the University before becoming a don.
The pub also appeared in my first novel The Lock, which rather amazingly ended up being published by John Wain’s
son Will.
In this scene, two Oxford dons, Gerald and Jonathan meet at the Narrow Boat, as the pub is called in the book.
Jonathan soon reveals that he saw Gerald at the pub on an earlier occasion with Alex, with whom he is having an
affair.
Half an hour later Jonathan and Gerald were sitting out in the yard at the back of the pub.
When Gerald had found Jonathan, who had been sitting up at the bar chatting to the landlord, they had gone through
the brief ritual of offering to buy the first round. On this occasion the ritual was briefer than usual, with Gerald
capitulating rapidly, which surprised Jonathan, and then proclaiming that he would go outside into the yard and
sort out a table. Jonathan found him sitting at the table nearest the street by the low wall that gave onto the Thames.
When he arrived Gerald was sitting with his legs either side of the bench staring at the river and the islet in front of
the house on the opposite bank, a fact which, under the circumstances made Jonathan feel irrationally guilty...
...Gerald inclined his head slightly. The expression he adopted was, perhaps, that of someone who is thinking, though
his stare seemed curiously placid, even vacant.
Would you like to go for a walk?’ Jonathan asked.
He gave a snort of surprise and furrowed his brow.
No.’
It’s probably nothing, but some friends of mine have recently bought the house over the river there.’
So?’
I’ve been helping them out with their garden.’
Gerald smiled. Sounds very unlikely.’
About a month ago I was there and I happened to look across at the pub.’
Gerald bent his head forward, took hold of the rim of his glass between his thumb and forefinger and gave it a little
twist, twice. Then he tossed his head back and stared at Jonathan as if he was standing above him looking down.
Jonathan noticed how the skin over the purple smudge below his right eye had begun to pulse, though whether this
was from a vein or from a nervous tick, he could not tell.
And you saw me here,’ said Gerald. His head came forward again a fraction.
Yes.’
And I was with Alexandra Thorpe.’
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Yes. As I said it’s probably nothing.’
What did you have in mind?’
There are other things as well that made me think there might be something in it.’
He sensed that Gerald was trying to get out of something and this made him, suddenly, angry.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jJa2P9yqsKQ/TkfSga9C4wI/AAAAAAAAAbI/ZSP4i9fLbzM/s1600/waterman%2527s+arms%252C+
osney+island.jpg
2. http://www.thepunteroxford.co.uk/
3.
http:
//www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Rivers-Meet-Coronet-Books/dp/0340506083/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313332435&sr=8-1
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2011-08-14 16:57:24)
Back to the allotment please ;-)
Just looked through your tweet-line, the "four fork" saga has started well..........
bindweed, lewis, keith douglas (2011-08-21 16:18)
[1]
[2]
Bindweed flowers always seem to me to be really pretty. It’s a shame that the plant is so pernicious and impossible to
eradicate. It thrives on our allotment and tries to twine its way round every plant. No matter how much I pull it up
or dig it out, it’s always back with a vengeance within a week or two. Digging it out is, of course, a joke–its roots go
down for miles.
I saw these flowers along the gated road when cycling this morning. At least they are several miles from the allotment.
Enjoyed the end of Summer School dinner in Exeter College hall on Friday night. Great food and company. When
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I got to Exeter an episode of Lewis was being filmed in the quad. Judging from the number of forensics people
whatever happened inside staircase four looked grim. A surreal moment occurred as the Summer School tutors and
students headed to the fellows’ garden for the reception. We had to make our way through a whole load of actors
pretending to be tutors and students. Who was who?
During the speeches Professor Jon Stallworthy read a wonderful poem entitled Oxford by [3]Keith Douglas. I’d never
heard it before but will certainly be seeking it out.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zEkbqdwwPvU/TlEdfXY-fwI/AAAAAAAAAbM/0gY3NSLTfiE/s1600/bindweed+a.jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sSsKOBiVexo/TlEdnOEb24I/AAAAAAAAAbQ/O5Z61nLP1uw/s1600/bindweed+b.jpg
3. http://www.poemhunter.com/keith-douglas/
change, time off, kite, witney etc (2011-08-27 18:38)
[1]
[2]
Two photos of scenes that first appeared in this blog earlier in the year. The top photo shows a recently cultivated
field–the picture of the [3]ripening corn that stood here was posted just a few weeks ago. The [4]oak in the lower
picture was originally photographed back in March–its bare branches looking like a representation of a brain against
the white sky.
The oak stands about two-thirds the way along the gated road towards Broadwell. Oaks are said to indicate good
soils. They are noticeably absent from Bampton and the surrounding countryside–only one or two in Hayway Lane
about half a mile from Rushey Lock.
The photos above show the changing landscape. Up to now, this summer, I’ve felt somewhat bewildered by the rate
at which things have been changing. I’ve been so busy with the libraries and teaching that I’ve lost touch with the
allotment and garden, beyond picking veg and mowing the lawn. I’ve not walked my favourite walks for months.
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Cycling has kept me sane.
Now, though, I’m taking almost a fortnight off. It’s great to stop for a bit. Particularly at this time of year–a time when
the countryside seems to slow for a while and take stock. But perhaps I’m projecting the rhythm of my life onto the
year!
Be that as it may, it’s great to be on holiday. Today when cycling, a red kite flew across the road near Kencot, just after
I’d taken the photo above. It was pursued by a crow and was so close it was amazing to be able to see all its plumage
and how big a bird it is–its body, as well as its wingspan. The kites that were released in the Chilterns many years ago
only appeared as far west as here the year before last but have become an increasingly common sight.
Jess’ mum came to stay on Thursday. Visit to [5]Witney Museum yesterday afternoon–a great social history museum–
then a late lunch at the [6]Hollybush (excellent that you can eat there all day), and a delicious supper at the [7]Bell at
Langford (thanks Jess’ mum).
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-khJUk7SXbfs/Tljlbhq2YMI/AAAAAAAAAbU/Da0749ScLns/s1600/autumn+view%252C+kencot.
jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pa2uF1v-jWw/TljlnNjSxqI/AAAAAAAAAbY/CRwYbZeShbU/s1600/oak+and+sun.jpg
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/07/autumn-comes-early-lords-and-ladies-et.html
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/03/dawn-chorus-barn-owl-192-kingcups.html
5. http://www.witney.net/witney-and-district-museum.htm
6. http://www.hollybushwitney.co.uk/
7. http://bellatlangford.co.uk/
chimney, shifford, duxford, tenfoot bridge (2011-08-30 21:05)
[1]
[2]
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Had a lovely walk today along the Thames from Tadpole Bridge, via Chimney Meadows, to Shifford Lock. The first
part was familiar but instead of turning back at the lock we crossed the river and continued on and round to the
beautiful hamlet of Duxford and back along the other bank to Tenfoot Bridge (above) and the last mile or so of the
usual walk.
Duxford was a surprise–an idyllic Berkshire stone farmhouse with red brick surrounds to the windows (the hamlet
would have been in Berkshire before the boundary changes in the 1970s) and a handful of cottages, three of them the
tall narrow Thames Valley thatched kind that are similar to those that appear in a junk-shop watercolour we have
of cottages in North Hinksey by J Allen Shuffrey. (Shuffrey was part of a Witney blanket-making family named in
one of the Witney Museum exhibits we saw last week. He specialised in Oxfordshire landscapes and architectural
paintings.)
The walk was an antidote to the impending visit to claim my one or two childhood pieces from the mass of furniture
that has to be sold. More on this, I dare say, over the coming week or so.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eV6wCLU6lc8/Tl08J1peUvI/AAAAAAAAAbc/Bj8z8DbWWeg/s1600/dead+tree+by+thames.jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rUOG22-nPuI/Tl08RzWaK_I/AAAAAAAAAbg/4guep9zxn6Y/s1600/tenfoot+bridge.jpg
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2011-08-31 07:28:27)
A good segue into Autumn.
https://plus.google.com/100146646232137568790/posts/NSRuMhi9swT
2.9
September
himalayan balsam (2011-09-02 10:26)
[1]
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[2]
[3]
I was amazed by how much [4]Himalayan Balsam there was along the banks of the Thames between Tadpole Bridge
and Shifford Lock earlier in the week.
Some stands were over six foot tall and in places the plants were several yards deep.
On the plus side, the flowers are beautiful and bees love them. At this time of year the air is filled with the plant’s
heavy scent–dry and herby–and occasionally you can hear the click-click of the seed pods firing across the bank and
river.
But what used grow here? I can’t help think these aggressive plants are drowning out older species.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XROUAYlfiGM/TmCeEps_tFI/AAAAAAAAAbk/QE4WF620HC4/s1600/himalayan+balsam+a.jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oLLTHT1a9MU/TmCeQhajxvI/AAAAAAAAAbo/QnKFRUtDdxk/s1600/himalayan+balsam+b.jpg
3. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MHwSsSQnHiY/TmCegwbRjzI/AAAAAAAAAbs/pVwJwVHBG4k/s1600/himalayan+balsam+c.jpg
4. http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=480
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bell, oaks, alvescot, black bourton church, doll (2011-09-03 13:32)
[1]
[2]
[3]
We walked from Bampton to Langford yesterday for a delicious lunch at the [4]Bell. Amazing weather and scenery.
A lot of oaks to the east of Broadwell, though some seemed to be dead or dying. Signs of [5]acute oak decline disease
or some other problem?
I’d never realised how beautiful the lower part of Alvescot village was–it’s almost like a separate Cotswold hamlet.
Also visited [6]Black Bourton church for the first time. Charming medieval building with great thirteenth century
wall paintings, described in the guidebook as visual aids to the Bible stories, which I rather liked.
Saw the slightly disturbing clown doll by the old mill steam below the church.
154
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OfmSmnTqMXo/TmIPZXYaubI/AAAAAAAAAbw/3H7qX2a6a6k/s1600/oak+near+broadwell.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U2VIAtxCsn4/TmIPikZfxjI/AAAAAAAAAb0/d_S9Da-JkX8/s1600/black+bourton+church.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ApdmxpxauW0/TmIPv5NnGjI/AAAAAAAAAb4/oP1i09LOT2c/s1600/doll%252C+black+bourton.
jpg
4. http://bellatlangford.co.uk/
5. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/newsrele.nsf/AllByUNID/54C6BFC2DDC5BEFF80257727003981E6
6. http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/black-bourton-church
kennington literary festival (2011-09-03 23:15)
Kennington Literary Festival [1]programme just out. I’ll be reading from Invisible on Saturday 15th October, 1.40 pm.
1. http://frankegerton.com/images/KenningtonLiteraryFestivalProgramme_2011.pdf
furniture, the past, forgiveness, new start (2011-09-06 19:27)
[1]
[2]
Later this month I shall travel to a warehouse in which the furniture and personal possessions I grew up with are
stored. I was away in Shropshire when these things were put there. I was working on a farm, doing my year’s
practical before agricultural college. I have not seen the furniture and possessions since I left for Shropshire. That was
nearly thirty-four years ago.
155
At the warehouse I will identify the few items that were in my childhood bedroom. These will be saved, the rest will
be sold.
During my recent holiday I have thought about the past and about what the trip to the warehouse will be like. I
cannot imagine what it will be like.
A family’s whole culture obliterated–by what? By a strange way of thinking that robbed time of its meaning and
caused incredible mental distress. What happened went against, it seems to me, all the usual norms of good sense,
humanity and compassion.
I have thought of the essay I wrote for my cousin in 1998, in which I tried to outline my concerns about what was
happening and what it had been like to live with the pain for so many years. The essay resulted from insights I gained
into what was happening after I wrote a simple letter to a lawyer on another subject. The past suddenly started to
fall into place. As I said to someone recently, I felt like a cult member emerging from years of isolation. I saw the past
very differently. The essay was therapy, a cry for help and, it has to be stressed, an act of love. As I have said during
talks about the origins of my second novel, which is partly about writing therapy, you do not spend so much time
trying to get at the truth of a situation if you do not care about the people involved. I still love the people at the centre
of this tragedy. They should have been protected against themselves.
I have thought over the past weeks of those who were there to protect my interests–amiable but hapless men, who I
am sure never meant things to turn out this way.
I have thought about forgiveness. I approach this from the standpoint of a religious humanist, not as I was once, a
Christian. Forgiveness is, I believe, something that will come with the passing of the seasons, as death is followed by
rebirth, the cycle that defines the world in which we live. Forgiveness is not something that can be forced.
I am aware that there are others, like me, who have decided not to make a claim in respect of what has happened, even
though they have suffered financial loss and unhappiness. I also know that others who have claimed have suffered a
great deal–materially and emotionally. I sympathise with both groups of people.
I have to say I do not understand how a bank (HSBC) could allow a debt to escalate so much that it destroyed their
client–destroyed not just them but, as I have said, a whole family culture–as well as damaging many others. (Not
good for the bank’s shareholders either.) I suppose things in the banking world have changed in the last couple of
years. I hope very much that is the case and that other families will be spared this kind of distress in future.
I think of my great-grandfathers who I never met but who entrusted so much to future generations. I am pleased that
I managed to save a small part of their legacies and, I hope, do some good with it.
I am grateful for the support I have received over this last year from members of my family, from Jess’ family and
from colleagues at the University. Above all I am grateful for Jess’ love and support.
Later this month I shall travel to a warehouse in which the furniture and personal possessions I grew up with are
stored. After that I shall start the rest of my life.
[23.01.12 and 03.02.12: In the light of recent sad events I have decided to rewrite parts of the above post. I have kept
a copy of the original post.]
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EfW4d_uiMvw/TmZjtQ6mJ4I/AAAAAAAAAb8/-Y8EWbXNuLI/s1600/sloes.jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BhQwsnFpsMQ/TmZj6f1uBeI/AAAAAAAAAcA/lE3Km6geWdA/s1600/bullace.jpg
Sophie (2011-09-06 20:25:27)
Very moving to read Frank, thinking of you and hoping it all goes ok.
Sophie x
frank (2011-09-06 21:14:37)
Thanks very much, Sophie. That’s much appreciated. x
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2011-09-13 06:25:44)
Family, always a difficult subject, with each member creating their own translation of the transition of time.
Obviously you have moved on and now for the future chapters in your life.
frank (2011-09-13 22:27:11)
Thanks, Rupert. As you say, I have moved on and am looking to the future!
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swindon viewpoint (2011-09-06 20:19)
[1]
On a lighter note, I was excited to read a comment made recently on my [2]post mentioning Swindon Viewpoint
community TV. It turns out that there is a Swindon Viewpoint website, [3]www.swindonviewpoint.com.
I was fascinated by the project’s long [4]history and was really pleased to learn that the project continued after the
cable TV funding ran out in 1980.
Terrific!
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZvRLhXmzu94/TmZwMnONhII/AAAAAAAAAcE/FXHwYo8czx4/s1600/swindon+viewpoint.jpg
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/06/wet-morning-in-bampton-dmug-swindon.html
3. http://www.swindonviewpoint.com/
4. http://www.swindonviewpoint.com/history
the lock on kindle (2011-09-14 19:04)
[1]
Today sees the republication of my first novel The Lock as a Kindle ebook from [2]StreetBooks.
The ebook is available from [3]amazon.co.uk, [4]amazon.com and [5]amazon.de.
That the novel should come out on Kindle seems appropriate given that it first appeared as an ebook back in 2001,
two years before it was published in paperback. It went on to be shortlisted for the Independent e-Book Awards in
Santa Barbara in 2002.
Regular readers of this blog might recognise the [6]photo on which the Kindle cover is based, which appeared here in
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June.
The cover shows the last lock on the Oxford Canal before it comes to an abrupt halt at the city centre. The lock and
bridge appear in the closing chapters of the novel when Gerald, an unfaithful Oxford don, is on his way to try and
make things up with his younger daughter Alison, who lives on a narrowboat called Civil Liberty.
’He marched up, round, over and down the S of the beautiful wrought-iron bridge crossing the last lock. From the
top he could see the green roof and purple side of Civil Liberty. As before there was a column of smoke rising from
its stack. The smoke went straight up then spread out horizontally as if it had reached an invisible ceiling.
’The mist was clearer around the canal – just a low bed of it above the channel – but the landscape, the glimpses of
dead water, the frosted grass, the bare trees, looked bleaker and colder than by the grebe pool. But Gerald could feel
nothing of the cold anymore.’
To the left of the bridge on the cover, you can see the last section of the canal which follows the western boundary of
Worcester College. It was on this part of the canal that a friend called Lizzie used to moor her barge and it was she
who told me all about what it was like to live on a narrowboat when I was researching the novel.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BnH5VD7bBzY/TnDrea-6TrI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/AidJiLqwokY/s1600/Untitled.jpg
2. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
3. http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Lock-ebook/dp/B005MU9URC/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1316020869&sr=8-8
4. http://www.amazon.com/The-Lock-ebook/dp/B005MU9URC/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1316020891&sr=8-5
5. http://www.amazon.de/The-Lock-ebook/dp/B005MU9URC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1316021396&sr=8-4
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/06/oxford-canal-bridge-nags-head-yaffling.html
bleak, toadflax, wales, yorkshire, stories (2011-09-17 10:31)
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The landscape looked harsh and bleak when I set off cycling this morning, especially to the east, thick cloud dulling
the rising sun.
A few miles in, though, the light picked up and I saw a patch of toadflax by Kencot. Toadflax has been plentiful this
year. Cheerful flowers.
I’d intended to lift spuds on the allotment this morning but the potato sacks aren’t dry yet after I washed them on
Thursday. Not that I’ll need that many sacks. I dug some Cara last weekend and while the potatoes themselves were
great–firm textured and delicious–the yield was poor. The dry start to the summer didn’t help. Still, the spuds should
be OK in the ground for a couple weeks before the keel slugs start munching them.
When I got home from cycling I was sad to read about the deaths of the four miners in south Wales.
It’s a hundred years since my ancestors left Tredegar in the Rhonda for a new life but my mum passed down the
old stories about my grandfather when he was a boy and what it was like in the mining villages when she visited
Great-Granny Thomas during the thirties. Those stories are part of me somehow, just like the ones my dad told me
about growing up in Yorkshire.
I’m grateful for those stories. They are a part of the family culture that withstands life’s upsets. A part of me will
always be Welsh, will always be Yorkshire, however imaginary that might seem.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JNPvgH2PHKQ/TnRgAn2bieI/AAAAAAAAAcU/F29SqfV8etw/s1600/stark+september+bampton.
jpg
2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cz9puQjunt4/TnRgF74YiaI/AAAAAAAAAcY/Gqktx2ge62I/s1600/toadflax.jpg
spuds, snow patrol, kasabian (2011-09-18 21:53)
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[4]
Lifted spuds this morning (planted [5]9th April). Weather was better than forecast and sacks were dry, although the
moment I’d dug the last root there was a light shower that soon turned heavy and was quickly followed by another
and another.
Still, this afternoon the wind had dried the spuds and I was able to bag them up. A better yield than expected. The
four varieties should keep us going until the late spring–as long as the mice don’t get them.
Potatoes are quite cheap and there isn’t much of a saving in growing one’s own, if any, but the pleasure of heading to
the garden shed in the depths of winter and bringing back stored spuds is great.
The four varieties–shown above–are Charlotte, Cara, Kestrel and Estima.
Meanwhile, didn’t really go for One Direction but loved Snow Patrol’s Called Out in the Dark and Kasabian’s Days
Are Forgotten.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SH1Cz13Z6_A/TnZMwHeNNQI/AAAAAAAAAcc/baosWZ3kJf8/s1600/charlotte.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uFMmNCu2LKA/TnZM7upo7fI/AAAAAAAAAcg/uNWA4L86PO0/s1600/cara.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QpFP2pZlEXw/TnZNHBWV4xI/AAAAAAAAAck/4yjtmlTUkZU/s1600/kestrel.jpg
4. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FvQWSaaS5WQ/TnZNVNlANaI/AAAAAAAAAco/NthtVwHog6M/s1600/estima.jpg
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/04/dibber-spuds-eucalyptus-and-what-butler.html
crystal lemon, three horseshoes, batcombe, wildcru (2011-09-25 12:32)
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[3]
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Instead of cycling this morning, I went up to the allotment to do some digging and tidying. Taking advantage of the
dry weather. Came back with lots of spinach, much of it self-set, some courgettes, a patty-pan squash, a round yellow
cucumber (Crystal Lemon), some runner beans and carrots. Well, that should probably read ’the’ carrot. Not a good
year for carrots on our allotment...
Got back yesterday from a short break in Somerset. We stayed at the [7]Three Horseshoes in Batcombe, just southwest of Frome. A very relaxing place to be, with good food, four delicious farm ciders and beautiful surrounding
countryside to walk in (photos above).
Meanwhile, I was sad to read in the Times about a report from Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research
Unit (WildCru), which suggests that red squirrels could be extinct within twenty years and that hedgehog and Scottish wildcat populations are falling rapidly (only 400 wildcats are left and hedgehog numbers have fallen from 30m
plus in the 1950s to ’well under 1m now’).
The decline of the hedgehogs is blamed on ’pesticides and the destruction of the hedgerows and rough land on which
they depend. Dormice and harvest mice have also been hit.’
The Times also reports that the ’destruction of habitat is affecting not just animals but the rural economy too, because
it creates a monotonous countryside devoid of wildlife that discourages the walkers, birdwatchers and other recreational users whose spending is key to rural prosperity.’
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To underline the importance of recreational users to the rural economy, the Times article points to the profits from
farming amounting to £4.4 billion, whereas rural tourism ’generates sums estimated at between £70 billion and £80
billion a year across Britain.’
The [8]report should be available on WildCru’s website but when I tried to access it the link was broken.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yFdpP-UkLnM/Tn8IFUQRNHI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/XyJ-sR3OLzM/s1600/oak%252C+green%2527s+
combe%252C+somerset+a.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NrB7PqjhucY/Tn8HjArsotI/AAAAAAAAAdE/DvD_1uMzfLo/s1600/oak%252C+green%2527s+
combe%252C+somerset+b.jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cABvr6chnRA/Tn8H862OGlI/AAAAAAAAAdM/wCMwpWNBBJc/s1600/cattle%252C+green%2527s+
combe%252C+somerset.jpg
4.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aXgJdAL-9fc/Tn8Hw-NiZgI/AAAAAAAAAdI/zP1XqsLONuo/s1600/old+man%2527s+beard+
%2526+honeysuckle+berries.jpg
5.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eH2EJmRv4Kk/Tn8INfhm2xI/AAAAAAAAAdU/aJ_8267jUcA/s1600/organ+pipes+and+mirror%
252C+somerset.jpg
6.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SyRpuLYrEYo/Tn8IWjUITtI/AAAAAAAAAdY/Fgau1eUM6Q4/s1600/stained+glass%252C+
somerset+%25281%2529.jpg
7. http://www.thethreehorseshoesinn.co.uk/
8. http://www.wildcru.org/publications/research-detail/?theme=&project_id=835
2.10
October
harvest festival, that paris year (2011-10-01 10:20)
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Busy at the library, what with the start of the Oxford term coming up–0th Week from Sunday.
Thank goodness for those days away in Somerset.
Headed for the allotment at 7.30 am before the temperature rose–and this is the first day of October!
Did an hour’s digging and some picking. Everything is slowing now, despite the weather. I’ll probably take down
the runner bean wigwams tomorrow (you can just glimpse their tops in the second-from-bottom photo and the base
of one is shown in the photo above that–some lush self-set Swiss chard is growing amongst the runners). Then, next
week, I’ll grub up the courgette and squash plants before digging the area over, and that will be more or less that for
the winter, apart from the occasional harvest of the few remaining crops–chard, carrots and beetroot. Though in store
are potatoes, onions and shallots.
It’s been difficult to find enough time to do the allotment justice but great fun when I have got up there.
Meanwhile, a publisher friend in the States has a new Kindle ebook out: That Paris Year by Joanna Biggar: [11]UK,
[12]US, [13]DE.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wj9LKuKrMWk/TobTvXo57cI/AAAAAAAAAdc/hwfdaWIi2Zs/s1600/sunrise+over+allotments.
jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7iKdj2ixMjI/TobT8S3Yg3I/AAAAAAAAAdg/fKARM9NLuEE/s1600/last+year%2527s+carrots.
jpg
3. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3G2chyTfuRc/TobUIbBDuDI/AAAAAAAAAdk/nQV9b28LNPg/s1600/chard.jpg
4. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PgSCAayb7Fo/TobUVMvFdPI/AAAAAAAAAdo/MGAcNn7PQE0/s1600/carrots%252C+autumn+king.
jpg
5. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8FZbGYybNPo/TobUfUasuVI/AAAAAAAAAds/5LvvkgY7Hkg/s1600/winter+squash.jpg
6. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qeCaEN6RhF4/TobUpk45pKI/AAAAAAAAAdw/en_QvhaKdWo/s1600/onion+squash.jpg
7.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Xrh0dtCYO7c/TobU0RHva5I/AAAAAAAAAd0/MNW-PIibtqg/s1600/round+golden+courgette.
jpg
8.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-38W4QgrSNnQ/TobVAwiI-_I/AAAAAAAAAd4/cAYhudWkeQQ/s1600/swiss+chard+and+runner+
beans.jpg
9. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DevR6gR4p8c/TobVNr7UvzI/AAAAAAAAAd8/vtHbHGJC9T8/s1600/rubbish+heap+and+wigwams.
jpg
10. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nJWLHBxVUaM/TobVYt4Sm8I/AAAAAAAAAeA/syZTqD4IYpU/s1600/allotment+shed.jpg
11.
http:
//www.amazon.co.uk/That-Paris-Year-ebook/dp/B004BSGFHE/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317460395&sr=1-2
12. http://www.amazon.com/That-Paris-Year-ebook/dp/B004BSGFHE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317460586&sr=8-2
13. http://www.amazon.de/That-Paris-Year-ebook/dp/B004BSGFHE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317460633&sr=8-2
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2011-10-01 14:48:41)
https://plus.google.com/100146646232137568790/posts/dJSAcQtAjxF
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frank (2011-10-01 14:51:56)
Many thanks!
building, kennington literary festival (2011-10-09 10:45)
[1]
As I walk between the Bodleian Latin American Centre Library and the Taylor Institution Library, I pass three University building sites–St Antony’s, St Anne’s and the one glimpsed in the photo (where the old Radcliffe Infirmary is
being redeveloped–see post of [2]24th June–and work on the so-called Radcliffe Observatory Quarter is beginning–
observatory is on the right). The city-centre end of the Woodstock Road is alive with lorries coming and going, cranes
and piling rigs, not to mention mud and dust.
Alarm went off early this morning as there is a mountain of marking to do. Cycling woke me up, although the morning is distinctly grey. Warm, though. A surprise after yesterday, when we had our first log fire since, I think, May.
Looking forward to reading from Invisible at the [3]Kennington Literary Festival next Saturday, which is previewed
in this week’s [4]Oxford Times.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vTJsy2yJZkg/TpFXGDfob-I/AAAAAAAAAf0/tV15pld9y-Y/s1600/radcliffe+observatory+
and+cranes.jpg
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/06/radcliffe-infirmary.html
3. http://frankegerton.com/images/KenningtonLiteraryFestivalProgramme_2011.pdf
4. http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/9286665.Kennington_Literary_Festival/
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furniture, clowns, kennington, invisible, pinter, poem (2011-10-14 19:07)
[1]
Well, today was the day we visited the warehouse where the family furniture was stored (see [2]post of 6th September
2011).
This was the strangest of days because I had not seen these things since January 1978. Another life away.
I have to say that the experience was made bearable because of the kindness of the three people who were there to
help.
I cannot describe what it was like to see all those things–in containers stretching as far as the eye could see, almost–
that I grew up with and that I had been told were in store for just six months.
However, as I wrote a month or so ago, I am now starting the rest of my life. In the short term, I am looking forward
to the [3]Kennington Literary Festival tomorrow and reading from [4]Invisible.
I would now like to add a poem. This week, when I was thinking about what was going to happen today, I thought
back to what I was doing around the time that the furniture went into storage in 1978. I remembered a poem I’d
written in my last year at Stowe that got published in the school magazine. I tried finding the poem in the online
database of the school magazine but the site was down for maintenance. Oddly, though, a copy of the magazine with
the poem in was on the top of a teachest when we were looking through the containers today. It was only thing I
was allowed to take away today and I’ve scanned it for this post. I remember, in 1977, being chuffed, not because of
the poem itself, but because it was the first time that the word ’shit’ had been published in the school magazine. The
word appeared in a quote from Harold Pinter’s diaries–how could the school authorities refuse? (Kids, eh?) I should
also say the poem was a love poem. (I didn’t get the girl.)
Here’s the poem. (The photo above btw was taken on my bike ride this morning.)
Le Monde et La Fille
Undulating waves of emerald green
Flow beneath me, Tiber bound.
From an amber dolphin fountain-made
Glistening pearls ascend the purple sky.
As dusk envelopes beauty
A crouching temple I approach.
Up wide mosaic steps I glide
Through oak portals to the heart.
Central stands an incense pyre
Whose every golden tongue is echoed
By shadows dancing on white marble.
From the labours of Hercules
Sculpted parapet on high
My eye descends a rainbow of design.
In a corner a heap of books,
Knowledge and experience:
"Expende Hannibalem: quot libras in duce summo invenies?"
Dear Diary: in the city,
Filth and degeneration,
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Grey paper-strewn streets,
Dried-up fountains of concrete
"rubbish shit scratch dung poison".
Le monde, Le monde,
My paragon unchanged by time
Je t’aime beaucoup.
Carpe diem.
[23.01.12 and 03.02.12: In the light of recent sad events I have decided to rewrite parts of the above post. I have kept
a copy of the original.]
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r9x98GMKOFo/Tph0IolSLJI/AAAAAAAAAf4/bpDGxFF8D6g/s1600/sunrise+over+bampton+
october+2011.jpg
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/09/furniture-past-forgiveness-new-start.html
3. http://frankegerton.com/images/KenningtonLiteraryFestivalProgramme_2011.pdf
4. http://www.frankegerton.com/invisible.html
sunrise, mostly books, grubbing, patching and scarifying (2011-10-16 16:12)
[1]
Good cycle early yesterday morning. Another dramatic sunrise.
Loved reading at the Kennington Literary Festival in the afternoon. Thanks to Sylvia Vetta for inviting me. Good to
meet Mark Thornton from [2]Mostly Books, Abingdon at long last, who was running the festival bookshop.
Today was a gardening day–taking advantage of the extraordinary hot weather.
Burning the big heap of couch and other weeds on the allotment, then taking down the runner bean wigwams and
grubbing up the courgette plants, before digging over half that side of the plot.
Patching the felt roof of the shed this afternoon. Back at the house it was mowing the lawn then scarifying and spiking
it. Great fun.
Now for a pint.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ph2o8QeCzbE/Tprx0bcp9SI/AAAAAAAAAgA/9859K74kRFk/s1600/sunrise+over+clanfield+
road.jpg
2. http://mostly-books.co.uk/
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digging, luxury uptake, football, che guevara, apex (2011-10-22 12:04)
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Up to the allotment early. Dug over the last bit–although there are a few yards in front of the compost bins that I
turned in September, which could do with going over again because the hot weather has made the couch sprout. I’ll
see. It wouldn’t be a disaster if I couldn’t dig this corner again before the inevitable November rains (the allotment,
being on Oxford clay, holds water and some parts, including the area with the couch, soon become quicksand). I say
’the inevitable November rains’ but what happened to the inevitable October ones?
I also spread some of the ash from the rubbish heap fire over the ground I was digging. That part had some ash on
it a couple of years ago. Hope I’m not overdoing things. I have a dim memory of Mr Wiseman, our plant husbandry
lecturer at Cirencester, talking about ’luxury uptake of potash’. Not sure if this was good or bad and how it came
about. Fingers crossed.
The area to the right of the ash heap, by the way, is left as couch nowadays because the eucalyptus that overshadows
it (the tree’s on our neighbour’s plot) has rendered it pretty much useless for growing anything else. I think the trees
leach goodness out or maybe change the pH of the soil. Anyway, they’re quite selfish, eucalyptuses–though I do like
the tree being there. The only tree on the whole allotment site. Sometimes in late spring or summer, when you’ve
been working hard, it’s nice to step under the tree’s shade and cool down.
The first shed picture shows the patched roof pitch–it’ll do, I reckon–whereas the second one shows the felt I put on
the other pitch last autumn.
Earlier in the week, I went for a walk in the University Parks in Oxford after my lunchtime sandwich. Some students
were playing football and as I passed, the ball came bouncing towards me. I tried to ignore it but none of the players
were chasing after it. Clearly they were hoping that I might kick it back. I felt the coercion of their gazes and decided
that I couldn’t just walk on. But then memories of school football started filling my brain and I could hear the
sickening thud of a mis-kick, and see the ball either leaping into the air and thudding to a standstill a yard away, or
else bananaing into an impenetrable clump of bushes. What was I doing even trying this? And when I kicked this
ball I was actually looking at the impenetrable clump of bushes off to the side in full anticipation of disaster. Doc
Marten connected with plastic. The ball curved gracefully up and flew towards the students. Amazing! Cries of
thanks followed and someone punched the air with what looked like a Che Guevara salute.
I wondered what they thought. Some middle aged office worker in his blue overcoat reliving the glittering football
career of his boyhood? No, they’d seen the apex of my footballing career!
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4.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fh1oPWUiFUc/TqKVvybZ6XI/AAAAAAAAAgY/HXT7Tjqy1hM/s1600/dug+ground+oct+11.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jr-c84Mb26w/TqKV93nGKJI/AAAAAAAAAgg/h1nJE1mzHSs/s1600/spade+and+shed+oct+11.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YooOe4UscKs/TqKWNTZnqEI/AAAAAAAAAgo/VhgDAkGgLag/s1600/ash+oct+11.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iv_Hu_7-H3Q/TqKWbNcngnI/AAAAAAAAAgw/P6eNnwgdCe0/s1600/allotment+eucalyptus.jpg
5. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oGnmrmMIPsU/TqKWkg8kTNI/AAAAAAAAAg4/BYYZVpqEoVk/s1600/patched+felt+oct+11.jpg
6. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rYCq7-9eEL0/TqKWtCAZviI/AAAAAAAAAhA/HDijAIo-qbg/s1600/new+felt+oct+11.jpg
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following keble, lucy’s dragon, lock, treasures, biztro (2011-10-29 14:28)
[1]
[2]
[3]
When I walked down the Oxford canal yesterday morning, I followed a [4]College Cruisers narrowboat named Keble–
strangely comforting and appropriate on a somewhat bleak misty day, I thought, given that I was an undergraduate
at Keble. The things that keep me amused!
Following a narrowboat, you realise at what a gentle pace these boats travel. I’d catch up with Keble then stop to
take a picture. The boat would glide off round the next bend but when I started walking, I’d soon catch it up again.
Hopefully, the three photos above give a sense of the urban canalside environment in Oxford. Some stretches are rural
enough for you to imagine you’re in the countryside, especially in summer when the foliage is thick, while others are
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more like Docklands in London.
The big–and to my mind rather successful–development shown in the bottom pic stands on the site of the old [5]Lucy’s
iron works, which I remember from not that long ago (honest). When we lived in Oxford I used to walk the opposite
bank in summer and every once in a while the kilns would be lit, glowing in the twilight, fans roaring like dragons
and heat belching across the water. It was a dramatic sight that felt like it belonged in another age.
On the College Cruisers’ [6]website by the way, Keble is described as, ’Our most compact boat. Cosy, comfortable
and a must if you are looking for a few days away with the one you love!’ Which sounds great, I have to say. Ironic,
though, that the boat is the smallest, given the vastness of the college it’s named after.
I have to admit that although I set scenes in [7]The Lock on a narrowboat and have had supper with friends on their
barge, I’ve never travelled on one. Perhaps a short break on Keble will be a good way to start. Serendipity.
Meanwhile, today I had to make an unexpected trip into Oxford to give a tour of the Bodleian to the Brazilian Minster
of Justice and his party. It was a pleasure not just to talk about the library but to have the chance of spending time
in the Divinity School, Convocation and Duke Humfrey’s with the autumn sunlight streaming through the traceried
windows. After the tour we visited the fabulous [8]Bodleian Treasures exhibition. A must see. Great website too!
Meanwhile a new brasserie opens up in Bampton today called [9]Biztro. There’s an open/taster day there this afternoon and evening. Will check it out later.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-igTTuoqdaEQ/Tqvzm9hrw-I/AAAAAAAAAiI/2ZdL2JXzM9M/s1600/oxford+canal%252C+keble+a.
jpg
2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gaCq6WnmxqE/Tqvzv-VfWFI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/VdxeXtvWXR4/s1600/oxford+canal%252C+keble+b.
jpg
3. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m6fHwwYfAPg/Tqvz3Uipt0I/AAAAAAAAAiY/RidAErEimp4/s1600/oxford+canal%252C+keble+c.
jpg
4. http://www.collegecruisers.com/
5. http://pstalker.com/echo/sk_lucys.html
6. http://www.collegecruisers.com/narrowboat_hire.html
7. http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Lock-ebook/dp/B005MU9URC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1319893693&sr=8-2
8. http://treasures.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
9. http://biztro.co.uk/
2.11
November
cycling, oak, family rumbles, sparklers, mad dog (2011-11-05 10:10)
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Cycled earlier this morning. First time for a couple of weeks due to marking, the Brazilian visit last weekend and one
or two other commitments.
The countryside had changed–and it was also considerably darker than before.
After the false autumns of the late summer, autumn really does seem to be here, although the hot weather fools you
into thinking that we can’t possibly be into November yet.
Good autumn colour this morning, once the sun rose. Including the leaning oak off Calcroft Lane that I photographed
earlier in the year ([4]27th August and [5]27th March).
Working today till 3 pm but after that I’ll be able to relax. I’m taking on some interesting new library duties in
December and am due to meet the people I’ll be working with next week, so want to be fresh for that.
Meanwhile the family stuff rumbles on–mercifully in the background now. What an utter waste of time that is–and
has been for the last thirty-plus years.
Enough of that. Just checked the sparkler supply–plenty there for some fun. They were talking on the radio this
morning about dogs cowering under the furniture on Bonfire Night. Our dog tries to jump up and grab fizzing
sparklers out of your hand and has to be restrained. As you light the garden fireworks and leg it back to the house,
he’s straining at the lead to tear off and pounce. Mad boy.
Church btw is the one at neighbouring village of Broadwell.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6PRXVEZzQfQ/TrT7CpXj3aI/AAAAAAAAAkM/aPGVe29fkxU/s1600/broadwell+church+a.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g77gxnKiu_o/TrT7LYlPH-I/AAAAAAAAAkU/u0WCl4Wop1M/s1600/autumn+oak.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ep0n_vQkZCQ/TrT7U04-cZI/AAAAAAAAAkc/l5GTH5XdywY/s1600/calcroft+lane.jpg
http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/08/change-time-off-kite-witney-etc.html
http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/03/dawn-chorus-barn-owl-192-kingcups.html
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Kathryn (2011-11-05 10:49:33)
Our dog goes out and barks at the fireworks till he’s bored; don’t think he’s actually frightened. Everyone has something like that
in their family, people disagreeing over things they can barely remember. Really not a lot you can do if someone’s determined to
be right at all costs.
frank (2011-11-05 11:34:58)
Thanks, Kathryn. Families, eh! Hope you’re having a good weekend.
sun, lichen, hogweed?, new role (2011-11-13 13:09)
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[2]
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Awoke to amazing sunny autumn day. Such a welcome day after this week’s run of miserable gloom, during which
the night hardly seemed to lift.
Loved the way the lichens on the willows along the Great Brook were lit up on the bare branches. Still some flowers
out, though, like the hogweed above on which bees and flies gathered. (If indeed it is a hogweed.)
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Tiring but fulfilling week–so much going on in all the different areas of my working life. Started new library role too,
which was really exciting.
Today, however, is a day of fun and rest. Which is great!
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m8J5EUJYO9s/Tr_B9cI4RpI/AAAAAAAAAko/P-r8h2kCx3k/s1600/willow+nov+11.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lb-InpNCSRw/Tr_CNc_wZ2I/AAAAAAAAAkw/FWq8j579CDw/s1600/willow+%2526+lichen+a.jpg
3. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CwUSLlCHSks/Tr_CdqgT58I/AAAAAAAAAk4/-EHKbwbkcJs/s1600/willow+%2526+lichen+b.jpg
4. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uQ7i752RugA/Tr_CqcYmJlI/AAAAAAAAAlA/8Aj5M5AWYyY/s1600/hogweed_maybe.jpg
embers, infinitas gracias, music to go, lie-in (2011-11-19 09:56)
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Before I went cycling, I swept the grate, as I always do early in the morning, and the remnants of log glowed orange
and red, and smouldered, and gave off heat that warmed my fingers in the now cold room. As I put my cycling jacket
on, an owl hooted outside in the garden. In the countryside there was a light mist and in the sky a slice of moon. Soon
the sun rose and on the way back, along Calcroft Lane, there were lots of creamy flowers still out, most sheltering in
the ditch by the road. Dandelion, those hogweedy things I mentioned last time, yarrow and meadowsweet are the
ones shown above. Although it felt considerably cooler it was still warm–about six or seven degrees C. Strange year.
In the garden a late Mexican canna lily has just gone over and the frogs are hopping about in the flower beds.
It’s been a busy week. A highlight was a trip to the British Library for a meeting and a visit afterwards to a wonderful exhibition at the Wellcome Collection called Infinitas Gracias: Mexican Miracle Paintings. (I love by the way the
Wellcome Collection’s subtitle: "A free destination of the incurably curious".) As the exhibition’s [5]website says,
"Mexican votives are small paintings, usually executed on tin roof tiles or small plaques, depicting the moment of
personal humility when an individual asks a saint for help and is delivered from disaster and sometimes death.
’Infinitas Gracias’ will feature over 100 votive paintings drawn from five collections held by museums in and around
Mexico City and two sanctuaries located in mining communities in the Bajío region to the north: the city of Guanajuato
and the distant mountain town of Real de Catorce. Together with images, news reports, photographs, devotional
artefacts, film and interviews, the exhibition will illustrate the depth of the votive tradition in Mexico."
The paintings ranged in sophistication from professional to childlike representations of people and livestock but all
told little stories about the individuals, families and ways of life. It was also fascinating to see how things changed
over the two hundred years covered by the exhibits–horses and carriages giving way to cars and buses and so on.
There was also an extraordinary wall of modern ad hoc votives done on photocopying machines or scribbled on
polystyrene plates, carrying on the tradition in new, incredibly personal and moving ways.
Meanwhile, I’ve decided to delete most of the music from my phone–after backing it up, of course. I’ve been assembling this collection for over five years and now I want a change. I’ll keep the most recent stuff and one or two old
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favourites and start again. Good feeling.
Looking forward to a lie-in tomorrow.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hOrA9MreFqY/Tsd8QdnLMKI/AAAAAAAAAlY/0N_0xa5x0Tw/s1600/dandylion.jpg
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http:
//4.bp.blogspot.com/-_0WepnQs2jM/Tsd8bRKDBLI/AAAAAAAAAlg/3PZDnWbl3Xs/s1600/another+hogweed%252C+maybe.jpg
3. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--eJsNjBEUdk/Tsd8mlx0ALI/AAAAAAAAAlo/msbgUetKZgE/s1600/november+yarrow.jpg
4. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vIgXxaene-A/Tsd8xYGgjbI/AAAAAAAAAlw/0gzBF3qVaHA/s1600/meadowsweet+in+ditch.jpg
5. http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/infinitas-gracias.aspx
autumn colour, work, msts, kate b, siamese dream (2011-11-26 09:20)
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Into Oxford early this morning. Saturday duty–crops up every so often.
Drawn to the colours of graffiti in the now quite bare and bleak autumn cityscape. Curious, the effect of the plants
growing over it and the leaves framing the top one. It must be a pain to clean off, though, and I would hate it if
someone spray-painted my house or a beloved building.
Nearly the end of the Oxford term and as usual it is going to the wire. So much to do. Mostly satisfying work,
however.
Was really nice to get lovely emails from the two people I supervised on the MSt last year. Hope we’ll hear more of
them in the future.
Great Kate Bush [5]interview on Radio 4’s Front Row during the week. Made me guilty that I exited her songs from
my phone last Sunday... Also loved Zane Lowe’s Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream ’Masterpiece’ [6]feature.
OK, a Green’s regular Americano downed, and I’m off to work. (Looking forward to late lunch at [7]Hollybush,
Witney.)
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FtCyxh02CTw/TtCtlXtaOkI/AAAAAAAAAqw/gseW8WaCNSw/s1600/graffiti+a.JPG
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aGb_97z711A/TtCuQR-NXKI/AAAAAAAAAq4/fxGyNMpvSBg/s1600/graffiti+b.JPG
3. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k0BmqVk9iPk/TtCux8pmyCI/AAAAAAAAArA/SsSm-QLa4IQ/s1600/graffiti+c.JPG
4. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vxkIm6uLbqk/TtCvSeMALcI/AAAAAAAAArI/lxlUD3UJkMs/s1600/graffiti+d.JPG
5.
http:
//www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b010vxyv/Front_Row_Kate_Bush_in_a_rare_interview_and_John_Cleese_reviewed/
6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/zanelowe/masterpieces/2011/thesmashingpumpkins_siamesedream/
7. http://www.hollybushwitney.co.uk/
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2.12
December
wispy bits of mist, americano to go, xmas lights, mad dash (2011-12-02 18:25)
[1]
Frosty start to the day. Seasonal. With atmospheric wispy bits of mist above the canal. Not as visible in the photo as
they seemed to be in real life, sadly.
Meanwhile, St Giles’ was blocked off by the time I was heading to collect my regular Americano to go from Green’s.
Preparations were underway for an Xmas fair coinciding with turning on the lights. Throughout the day the sound
system got tested–lots of muffled noises of the ’one-two, one-two’ kind reached my office, interspersed with sudden
irruptions of music that shattered the peace before stopping dead.
It was only when I was saying to a colleague at 5 pm that I had to catch my bus that it occurred to me that my bus
was not going to be travelling through St Giles’. A speedwalk up Woodstock Road left me collapsing but at least I’m
now on my bus.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1sdaPC4s3QA/TtkYTJ1cSeI/AAAAAAAAArY/GWzs4825GKM/s1600/oxford%2Bcanal%2B2%2Bdec%
2B11-779293.jpg
dawn tree, busy, busy, end of term (2011-12-03 09:06)
[1]
Photographed this scene back in late [2]July, when the tree was surrounded by ripening corn. Took another pic a
[3]month later after the field had been harvested and cultivated. Today it looked stark against the breaking dawn.
This is actually a relatively high point in our flat landscape and the land in the background falls and you can see all
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the way to the escarpment beyond the Thames Valley.
Enjoyed cycling this morning–much warmer today and it was good to exercise the busy week out of my head...In
preparation for a busy weekend continuing to mark assignments.
On Thursday, I did both my last tutorial of the term and the final seminar in my undergraduate diploma long fiction
series. Loved doing these–I was working with great people–but I’m still pleased to be heading towards next Thursday,
when I can take things a bit easier. Everyone at the University seems to have working harder than ever this autumn.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SSB1BcJUT_M/Ttsu57G5SwI/AAAAAAAAArw/bNl82ag-r94/s1600/dawn+tree%252C+kencot+b.
jpg
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/07/autumn-comes-early-lords-and-ladies-et.html
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/08/change-time-off-kite-witney-etc.html
kilverts, llanthony, scary guy, man in the high castle, in proportion (2011-12-10 19:32)
[1]
[2]
Staying at [3]Kilverts in Hay-on-Wye. Great to get away for a few days. Amazing walk above Llanthony Priory
earlier–I’ll post some pics over the next day or two.
Met the [4]Scary Guy in the bar last night, Interesting conversation.
Love the new Hay Xmas decs and the fairy-land look they give the old buildings.
Restrained book buying–just one, apart from presents: A Berkley Medallion edition of The Man in the High Castle by
Philip K Dick (1974).
The term was SO busy and this is the first time I’ve had to catch up with myself for ages. Work over the last few
months has taken my mind off the family business but this did start entering my head when we first arrived here. I’m
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pleased that I’ve managed to keep it all in proportion. I guess that although the last year or so has been horrific, it
wasn’t that unexpected and I got over the worst experiences about fifteen years ago. I’m OK.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9l-RgkiaE8w/TuOzCRxMC2I/AAAAAAAAAr8/94dIwl8echw/s1600/decs%252C+hay-on-wye.JPG
2.
http:
//4.bp.blogspot.com/-4JPh2wDiGeQ/TuOzkPb86cI/AAAAAAAAAsE/y8G-l31nOYY/s1600/fruiterers%252C+hay-on-wye.JPG
3. http://www.kilverts.co.uk/
4. http://www.thescaryguy.com/
hay, llanthony, black mountains, freddie (2011-12-11 20:32)
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Well, as I said we had a great time walking near Hay-on-Wye.
A good place to forget the sadder bits of the year and think of the future.
Generally the weather was terrific, especially yesterday when we headed for Llanthony and the walking we used to
enjoy when we stayed at the [10]Priory years ago. The pub is built into these fantastic ruins in the bottom of this
valley in the middle of the Black Mountains. The only surprise was when we went to the pub for a half of cider after
our walk–only to to discover that dogs were banned.
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Meanwhile, some lovely times spent in Hay at [11]Kilvert’s, where Freddie and Tufty got on very well. Feel really
relaxed after the break.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mz_BFEuLHl8/TuUTv3I_cJI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/YzUP2NoNoSo/s1600/near+hay.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UDkJ0uj_5KI/TuUT3bpSjzI/AAAAAAAAAsY/pycOMnzJQo8/s1600/hill+near+hay.jpg
3. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n3LDFGpfHNo/TuUT_O_bXXI/AAAAAAAAAsg/lusmomA912Q/s1600/rainbow%252C+hay.jpg
4.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TVwj-6UJAMo/TuUUKzUSdkI/AAAAAAAAAso/tgQjXqqQB00/s1600/stream%252C+hay-on-wye.
jpg
5. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5cRe6byMxTY/TuUUUjo85SI/AAAAAAAAAsw/tpSeguuVty0/s1600/dead+trees%252C+llanthony.
jpg
6. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CQwVNx1VXgY/TuUUaYzPp9I/AAAAAAAAAs4/Oh7BuVioTuw/s1600/tufty+above+llanthony.jpg
7. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YyjjILoyoPQ/TuUUiIr7A5I/AAAAAAAAAtA/xXdLv9-K5ag/s1600/hill+above+llanthony.jpg
8. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A4HIzR1IHtk/TuUUqjLUnTI/AAAAAAAAAtI/Wti7o5joyO0/s1600/chequerboard+fields+near+
longtown.jpg
9.
http:
//2.bp.blogspot.com/-uO2bbXp9Gzo/TuUU0LEJsDI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/TUukl2f_i_A/s1600/llanthony+priory+and+valley.jpg
10. http://www.heritagepubs.org.uk/pubs/regional-inventory-pubguide.asp?County=&PubID=9036
11. http://www.kilverts.co.uk/
bampton square, moon x 2, ice, speedway (2011-12-17 11:05)
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Cold start this morning. The first time the frog pond has frozen over this year, I think.
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Stopped by the village square, just after setting off on my bike ride, to take pictures of the Xmas tree. As I was doing
so, the bus I usually catch during the week arrived. I was pleased not to be heading to Oxford today. (You might
notice the two moons in the photo of the bus–I’ve always said Bampton was special. Actually, I don’t think either of
them is the moon–don’t know what they are. Spooky.)
Cycling was OK on the main roads but I have to confess to taking a tumble at the junction of the Broadwell to
Langford road and Calcroft lane (aka the gated road). The bike skittered on down the carriageway like machines do
in speedway crashes, with me following behind. Amazingly, I was lucky and fell pretty well. There wasn’t much
damage, apart from a bit of bruising, the chain slipping off the bike and the headlamp not working (though this came
back to life when I got home). I was surprised the headlamp survived because it exploded into two halves, the bulb
unit and the batteries. I was fortunate that I was about half-way round the ride when the accident happened, so was
able to regain my confidence. I started down the gated road very cautiously but it wasn’t as bad as I expected and
once it began to rain the ice melted. Funnily enough it was the pavements in the village that stayed icy–nearly came
a cropper when I parked up the bike and headed to the newsagent.
It’s been a hectic week at work on occasions and I’m looking forward to time off at Xmas and the New Year.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nmE4o00UuoA/TuxkPh8hncI/AAAAAAAAAto/kVi-blvzAZo/s1600/bampton+xmas+tree+2011+b.
jpg
2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SAFnKz_gw1A/TuxkWa1mcnI/AAAAAAAAAtw/rjnlO9lyK7g/s1600/bampton+square%252C+xmas+
2011.jpg
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2011-12-17 14:34:35)
Merry Christmas to you and your family Frank.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100146646232137568790/posts/9PYZVp8Yent
frank (2011-12-17 14:41:22)
Thanks! And a Very Happy Xmas and a Great New Year to you!
wood, twinges, xmas shopping (2011-12-22 12:58)
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[2]
[3]
I thought the 21st December was the shortest day but according to Radio 4 it’s the 22nd this time (I hadn’t realised the
date changed from year to year). Yesterday certainly felt like it was the shortest–dark, murky, cold and miserable. It
was nice to be home (now on holiday), although catching up on my final work-related chores was draining. I wanted
to get them done but also just wanted to stop. The last straw was my tax return and the mad scrabbling for receipts
and payslips this entails. By the end of the day I was sickening for a cold, felt exhausted and was suffering aches,
pains and twinges from the bike accident at the weekend.
But today is a different story–the sun’s out, spring is in the air (with a bit of imagination) and I’m about to go Christmas
shopping. Cold hasn’t come to much either.
One nice thing yesterday was the Christmas log delivery. I love trundling the barrows of logs up the path and building
the stack in the woodshed (an old privy). Meanwhile the leaflessness of the garden throws emphasis onto the textures
of brick and timber and rusted metal. Photos taken today, of course–the camera wouldn’t have worked yesterday it
was so dark.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N9bv6oEuDtw/UTyjo5_OIDI/AAAAAAAACls/Xga7KtTgOJM/s1600/woodshed+a.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C1XSwjKTyA0/UTyjw5qu3CI/AAAAAAAACl8/9hu2KKUUOi4/s1600/woodshed+b.jpg
3. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--25Pdmp1d7A/UTyjvqSBerI/AAAAAAAACl0/ygUciYY72Ag/s1600/woodshed+c.jpg
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willow leaves, cold, chimney meadows, duxford, pints, downton (2011-12-27 23:32)
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Well, Christmas has come and gone–the day, that is. Fortunately the holiday continues and will do till next Monday.
Back to work on the Tuesday but I’m not thinking about that.
Did the walk we last did in [9]August today–Tadpole Bridge, Chimney Meadows, Shifford Lock, Duxford and Buckland Marsh. We also did the first half of this walk [10]last year when the land was covered with snow. Such a contrast
this winter–twelve degrees centigrade, a willow in leaf (second photo from top) and another in bud (third from top).
I had the proverbial ’stinking cold’ and the walk was intended to help get the heart and lungs going in order to get
rid of it. Not sure if it’s worked but hopefully tomorrow the full effects will be felt.
Chimney Meadows are a rare group of ancient grassland fields which escaped modern agricultural methods and have
a long and fascinating history–see both the [11]BBOWT and [12]Natural England websites (the Chimney Meadows–A
Historical Perspective [13]PDF on the former is especially fascinating). There are also a number of WWII pillboxes on
the wetter parts of the meadows, which are more like marsh than grassland. A couple of stoutly built wooden bridges
lead off the meadows over the Thames–the lower one for pedestrians, the upper one for farm vehicles (shown above).
Duxford is mostly made up of a handful of tall thatched-roofed cottages. Thatch used to be much more used round
here than it is now. Our row of late-Victorian terraces replaced old tenements that had low walls (to about five feet)
steep thatched roofs and earth floors.
Coming back through Buckland Marsh, we followed one of the deep ditches that used to be the chief means of draining the land in the Bampton area for farming during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A visitor during the
latter century described the area as the Bampton [14]polderlands. Most of the ditches have been filled in now, although some, together with a few of the sluice gates that controlled the flow of water, still remain.
After the walk we headed for a local pub, where we drank Bath cider (Jess) and Dartmoor ale (me) and opened the
last of our Xmas cards.
Returned home for a late lunch and another instalment of Downton Abbey Series Two, which was partly filmed here
in the spring ([15]13th, [16]20th and [17]24th April).
1.
http:
//3.bp.blogspot.com/-sWc5OR-yFOI/UTyiROaAXmI/AAAAAAAACks/SGDsP9Dbd2c/s1600/thames,+near+tadpole+bridge.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LcV7IDMXp8M/UTyiboRbt_I/AAAAAAAACk0/FVzc8mALSX0/s1600/willow+in+leaf,+27+
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december+2011.jpg
3. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i_b6y8qhiYE/UTyikOJsK6I/AAAAAAAAClE/V4HSOXIa54k/s1600/willow+buds,+27+december+
2011.jpg
4. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fcXqqNWn-fM/UTyieZfuhUI/AAAAAAAACk8/Wc62alUgqMk/s1600/chimney+meadows.jpg
5.
http:
//2.bp.blogspot.com/-1ext4PiyC1c/UTyioO_sTVI/AAAAAAAAClM/Df1gTPVE1ZA/s1600/pillbox+on+chimney+meadows.jpg
6. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MzfN0DqN0-g/UTyioQrvqdI/AAAAAAAAClQ/_KHT7zkTjJk/s1600/bridge+near+shifford+lock.
jpg
7. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pmueElPtiQk/UTyivHfLj_I/AAAAAAAAClg/7_pQe7b0lTc/s1600/deep+ditch+buckland+marsh.
jpg
8. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pSaLH6HTwCA/UTyiuxjH-GI/AAAAAAAAClc/ACnYHR2WQJo/s1600/pints+and+fire.jpg
9. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/08/chimney-shifford-duxford-tenfoot-bridge.html
10. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2010/12/shifford-walk.html
11. http://www.bbowt.org.uk/content.asp?did=23539
12. http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designatedareas/nnr/1006035.aspx
13. http://www.bbowt.org.uk/do_download.asp?did=26350
14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polder
15. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/04/sunrise-keble-downton.html
16. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/04/downton-abbey-wall-mr-whicher.html
17. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/04/happy-easter-downton-kelmscott-picnic.html
sunny, better, badbury, great barn, plough, downton, shilton (2011-12-28 20:30)
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Unexpectedly sunny day. Cold much better.
After a late breakfast, we headed to Iron Age [5]Badbury Hill beyond Faringdon, from where we walked to
[6]Coleshill (church shown above) and then to Great Coxwell, with its amazing old [7]barn. (The Badbury Hill in
my photo, by the way, doesn’t look half as dramatic as it is in reality.)
The only new thing on the horizon was the wind farm below Coleshill–I’d glimpsed this from the road before now
but not seen it clearly (it’s way bigger than it looks in the pic).
On our way home we stopped off at the Plough at Kelmscott.
More Downton Abbey Series Two during lunch–hadn’t realised that some filming had also been done at Shilton, a
favourite nearby village (the [8]charabanc drives through the ford, ostensibly at Kirkbymoorside, and stops by the
pub where Mr Bates is working).
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-db9Kxw_1RGk/UTyhjEWRCAI/AAAAAAAACkM/eFPN4kbXlt4/s1600/badbury+hill.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ie6I6t-EDMI/UTyhqc62O9I/AAAAAAAACkU/eppCeiAPbsg/s1600/coleshill+church.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FfHCBmrfmso/UTyhqvfCZ1I/AAAAAAAACkc/9MllqqvWw-o/s1600/wind+farm+near+coleshill.
jpg
4. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vLpJ9SNr7m8/UTyhsyifn8I/AAAAAAAACkk/XX1BJmA-Ax8/s1600/great+coxwell+barn.jpg
5.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-buscot_coleshill/w-buscot-wildlife/
w-buscot-woods/w-buscot-woods-badbury.htm
6. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-buscot_coleshill
7. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-greatcoxwellbarn
8. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/04/happy-easter-downton-kelmscott-picnic.html
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new year, new year’s eve, thanks (2011-12-31 15:29)
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Happy New Year!!! readers, friends and family who’ve already started 2012!!!
Enjoy tonight’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, everyone else!!!
Thanks for reading jtns in 2011!!!
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MTPl_oG1ww8/UTyd9Y1WrfI/AAAAAAAACjk/f6x30tdD5ew/s1600/candle+and+glasses.jpg
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Chapter 3
2012
3.1
January
cycling, ailments, flea, 2012 (2012-01-01 17:54)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Good to cycle this morning–very refreshing.
Feeling much better now–my cold has pretty well gone and problems with my left foot that flared up, painfully, the
day after our Badbury walk, have almost subsided.
(Incidentally, it was during the first morning on which my cold was noticeably better that the foot trouble started–I
couldn’t believe it. Minor ailments have just about spanned the whole holiday but come Tuesday, I shall be as fit as a
flea...in time to go back to work.)
Meanwhile I was looking at my New Year [4]post for last year, which was rather gloomy-looking and downbeat about
the future. Listening to the news on the radio today, the outlook for 2012 is much worse, but speaking personally I
can’t imagine that this year will surpass 2011 in terms of family unhappiness and shock. I certainly hope not. Having
said that, 2011 was also marked by love and friendship that more than counteracted the sadness, which I am very
grateful for.
I’m looking to the future now.
Have a great 2012!
(Pics taken in Jess’ garden 1st January 2012–from top: cavolo nero, hebe, winter salads.)
1.
2.
3.
4.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9AwjWk-YocI/UN4J_Sg7zgI/AAAAAAAACOw/4VYUJ4o6dnQ/s1600/cavolo+nero.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XWvPN7e6frc/UN4KNuXoqMI/AAAAAAAACO4/l948_oYN-6A/s1600/hebe.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xytONhOgTY4/UN4KW1T_HaI/AAAAAAAACP0/vT2Q6pH7QJY/s1600/winter+salad.jpg
http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2010/12/happy-new-year.html
shredding (2012-01-08 21:42)
[EMBED]
When our dog was a puppy, Jess used to give him cardboard boxes to play with, which he tore to pieces.
He’d not attacked a box for years before last Monday, when we were opening our last presents, but within a few
minutes the sitting room floor was covered in debris. What had been in the box? A paper shredder.
Anonymous (2012-08-16 12:13:05)
Our dog did the same with the post and newpapers we would come back to a front door of [1]shredded paper all over the place.
1. http://theshreddingalliance.co.uk/advantages/
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hedging (2012-01-08 22:11)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Loved seeing some traditional hedging this morning when I went cycling.
There are a few people in the village who keep the art alive even though most farmers use flail trimmers that might
do the job quick but which over a number of years create gappy boundaries full of cramped out and diseased trees.
The hedge above will be stock-proof and the plants will be reinvigorated by the pleaching and laying.
I remember Percy Curtis hedgelaying on the farm when I was boy. I remember the smell of the fires he lit to burn the
thinnings he’d taken out. He worked steadily all day, dressed in a suit, waistcoat and collarless shirt. Another world.
It was another world for those times too really.
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On my desk I have a small white penknife with two narrow blades that Percy used when rabitting. I’ve opened letters
and sharpened pencils with it for nearly forty years now. A treasured possession.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yHF7jOyEQig/TwoOPNCVtgI/AAAAAAAAAxA/BQs8pvvYPTY/s1600/hedging+a.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fnT1NpwPxh0/TwoOaDR3LDI/AAAAAAAAAxI/jT_SDBamq6E/s1600/hedging+b.jpg
3. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-COc_QlSGK6s/TwoOk0JCFFI/AAAAAAAAAxQ/fYtCeYF83n4/s1600/hedging+c.jpg
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2012-01-09 06:11:39)
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100146646232137568790/posts/frnT6jev4UU
Yes Frank I know, responding soon :-(
frost, moonlight, oclw, energy, new term (2012-01-14 12:20)
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
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[5]
[6]
Quite a surprise to look out of the bedroom window and see the garden white with frost in the moonlight early this
morning. A shock too as soon as I stepped outside to make holes in the ice on the frog pond. I’d forgotten how you
have to tap extra reserves of energy when it’s cold. Cycling was beautiful but hard going to begin with. (I delayed
setting off until the sun was well up in order to try and avoid further accidents.)
It’s been a better week as far as getting back to work is concerned. I feel I’ve done some productive things.
Mid-week, a friend emailed some information about lectures organised by the [7]Oxford Centre for Life-Writing
(OCLW), based at Wolfson College. She expected that I knew about the lectures already but sent the details just in
case. I didn’t know there was an OCLW, let alone that there were lectures. The series and the centre look fascinating–
not least because I have become increasingly interested in life-writing since doing this blog (which I think of as a kind
of real-time life-writing).
Meanwhile, the online creative writing course I teach has started and assignments from students on another course
have arrived for marking. Walking along Broad Street in Oxford yesterday afternoon, I could feel the excitement and
energy generated by the return of the students and the start of the new term.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-noCXBGngk8A/TxFlGo1sJFI/AAAAAAAAAxc/ZvUymxmKQVY/s1600/frosty+cavolo+nero.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CbCNpRn0ik4/TxFlVxXnidI/AAAAAAAAAxk/OH2bXQucxaY/s1600/frosty+hebe.jpg
3. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b5zEzPozO5s/TxFlfBzaSGI/AAAAAAAAAxs/Wul56XF7JIw/s1600/frosty+honeysuckle.jpg
4. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o37s4YRlcdc/TxFlpaq3XGI/AAAAAAAAAx0/M3JsLQs4o8M/s1600/frosty+ivy.jpg
5. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JvnkiI1K0hY/TxFl07uHwPI/AAAAAAAAAx8/gxAqyQnDL9U/s1600/frosty+rabbits%2527+ears.
jpg
6. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Vo-B2SAhwlM/TxFmDHEpisI/AAAAAAAAAyE/oC8CJGrcowY/s1600/frosty+shrub.jpg
7. http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2012-01-15 18:04:01)
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100146646232137568790/posts/i5hqyxUpGA4
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dad (2012-01-20 23:05)
[1]
It has been a very sad week. My dad died on Tuesday.
I saw him a few days before. We were all there as a family once again and for me I found that love had hollowed
out a space in which to breath and when it was pulled free it filled our world.
On the morning after he died, I saw that the fire we lit when we got back from the hospital was still glowing and
I put a log on the embers and kept the fire going throughout the day.
I remember how we all loved sitting by the fire when I was boy.
When my dad judged I was old enough we went to the farmyard and he showed me how to split wood.
1.
jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lwb9Q_hlUkg/TxnyFUjBhzI/AAAAAAAAAyU/Qp2pG-X_ceA/s1600/log+fire%252C+18.01.12.
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2012-01-21 05:19:38)
Keep the memories alive.
frank (2012-01-21 07:03:00)
Thanks, Rupert. Much appreciated.
Hannah T (2012-01-21 09:00:27)
All my love Frank. My great grandma died this week too and it does make you realise who and what are important in your life.
Am sending a huge hug. x
frank (2012-01-21 09:20:01)
Thanks very much for sending love, Hannah, and for the huge hug. So sorry to hear about your great grandma. I’m sending a
huge hug to you too. You’re right about realising what’s important. I see too little of friends, for a start. It would be good to meet
up. x
Niels (2012-01-29 22:33:31)
Frank, I am sorry to read this. If you ever feel like a get-together/chat after work, just let me know! Best thoughts, Niels
frank (2012-01-30 07:48:22)
Thanks very much, Niels. That’s kind and is much appreciated. Yes, it would be good to meet up.
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hedging, part two (2012-01-22 22:28)
[1]
[2]
Very strong winds today. Made cycling tough–although I was pleased to have gone out there when I got back.
The light was beautiful. Really springlike.
Took these pics earlier in the week when I came across some more hedging–near Broadwell. The scene at the top–laid
hedge, cuttings drawn into a pile and burnt–could have come straight from my childhood. Lovely to see hedges being
laid in the traditional way in many different places round here.
The bottom photo is of an overgrown hedge near the one that has been laid. The pic shows what happens when a
hedge is allowed to go wild. You end up with a lot of spindly poles and bushy thorns that eventually crowd each
other out and lead to the death of the hedge. For a time this might be good for insects but in the end you’ll get windthrow–the poles being blown into the field or road–and the death of the hedge. The hedge will no longer be stock
proof and in all probability will end up being grubbed up.
I think my dad would have loved seeing lots of hedges being laid in the traditional way.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-awz8qA2bweQ/TxyKsw5rsvI/AAAAAAAAAyg/vN8mv5QFg48/s1600/laid+hedge+near+broadwell.
jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VlyGmY2BroY/TxyK2pYgQXI/AAAAAAAAAyo/lgZSyllRsKg/s1600/overgrown+hedge+near+
broadwell.jpg
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thursday the twenty-sixth of january, little ouseburn (2012-01-29 22:19)
[1]
Dad’s funeral took place on Thursday.
He wanted to be buried in the Meysey-Thompson plot behind the [2]Thompson Mausoleum in Little Ouseburn,
Yorkshire–near Harrogate.
Dad’s mum’s family had lived at Kirby Hall, Little Ouseburn, until 1919 and the mausoleum had been where members
of the family had been buried up until 1910. I’m not quite sure why burials in the mausoleum stopped but from the
First World War onwards the family members were buried in the plot. The earliest graves in the plot are those of
Dad’s grandfather, Lord Knaresborough, his wife and their son, Claude.
Claude was killed in the First World War and as a result his father decided to sell the hall and estate. All rather
Downton Abbey. The hall was subsequently demolished. Only the entrance gates, the stable block and two lodges
remain.
Dad provided information about the family’s history when money was being raised to restore the mausoleum. Dad
loved genealogy.
At the service, the reading I chose and read was taken from the Song of Solomon, chapter two verses eight to thirteen.
The vicar asked me why I chose this reading. I have to confess that I started out trying to find a reading by googling
funeral texts. It was when I saw the first lines of this reading that I remembered it from studying English at Keble.
From what I remember the text had been referred to by a writer in the medieval or Renaissance period that I had been
studying. The words seemed wholly appropriate to a gentle, loving man who adored the countryside.
The service, led by Father Parkin, was a lovely warm, enriching one. I was grateful to Father Parkin for reading the
tribute to Dad that I had written–I could not have read this myself–and was very moved by the reminiscences of
Dad’s army friend Jo.
In the graveyard, the spring sun shone.
Here is the text from the Song of Solomon.
8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows,
shewing himself through the lattice.
10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our
land;
13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my
fair one, and come away.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Jk6rg-oQFtA/TyXCcfgUlEI/AAAAAAAAAy4/7XwqOTrl1cc/s1600/thompson+mausoleum,
+little+ouseburn.jpg
2. http://www.yorkconservationtrust.org/littleouseburn-mausoleum.html
Anne Mcdonnell (2012-01-30 18:09:16)
My heart goes out to you Frank. I feel for you enormously at this time.... loosing a parent is full of such deep emotional
turmoil......
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Your fathers resting place appears to be rather beautiful, a place for you to return for contemplation in years to come.
Sending huge love from a very old friend.
Anne xx
frank (2012-01-30 19:25:58)
Thanks, Anne. It’s lovely to hear from you, even though the circumstances are sad. Yes, a difficult time emotionally. But, as you
say, the place where Dad is buried is beautiful-a good place to return to and I’m pleased he is where he wanted to be. Lots of love
to all of you, Frank x And thanks so much for your friendship, Anne. It does go back a long time, doesn’t it.
3.2
February
another week, ice (2012-02-04 09:04)
[1]
[2]
Another week.
Actually, it has been a better one than the last two. How it could fail to be?
Work has helped–the tasks and routines–although thoughts and feelings have caught up with me, often when least
expected.
The support of family, friends and colleagues has been amazing.
Meanwhile, the frog pond froze over at the beginning of the week and the ice has been getting thicker each day. This
morning was SO cold! Lots of trips to the top of the garden with the Zanzibar six-cup coffee maker to melt holes in
the ice to help the frogs get some air. They seem pretty torpid but appear to be doing well.
The outlook is rising temperatures–though with these will come the snow...
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Saw the ducks, above, on the frozen-over Oxford canal on Thursday when walking to work. The other pic shows ice
on the inside of our bedroom window. (The bedroom isn’t heated in the belief that this is healthy. Not sure that’s
quite true just at the mo.)
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YUUE2mijIGI/TyzyHzvQwSI/AAAAAAAAAzE/4wtLL1E8vhU/s1600/ducks+on+ice,+oxford.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OxxWHfE73bo/TyzyPZepfOI/AAAAAAAAAzM/f1pfRWZn8CM/s1600/icy+window+pane,+bampton.
jpg
snow, saunter, wander, walk, catching up (2012-02-05 22:16)
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[2]
[3]
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[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
The snow came as forecast yesterday afternoon. Today it looked pretty before near enough melting away by evening.
The sky was overcast and the landscape seemed smoky for most of the day. The sun burst through briefly at about
three.
Tufty loved the snow, including a saunter along the freshly whitened pavements to the Horse Shoe last night and a
wander round the village at about midnight. We all had a great walk this morning.
The hazel catkins in the Millennium Wood, shown above, emerged during the warm spell in mid January. Some
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appear to have been burnt by the cold but most look alright. Meanwhile the recent frosts have helped to break down
the ground on the allotment. Only some chard and beetroot remain to be harvested–though the spuds, onions and
challottes in store are holding up.
Felt exhausted yesterday afternoon and at times today. I think the reality of the last couple of weeks is catching up
with me.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a19Vskyl-Ys/Ty74q6rkD5I/AAAAAAAAAzY/yYQLtay74rw/s1600/hayway+lane,+snow+2012.
jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4qY6WJULEFE/Ty741EJ__6I/AAAAAAAAAzg/uKCTD5Myvcs/s1600/tufty,+snow+2102.jpg
3. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JEeRcyiRddQ/Ty75ClxKhVI/AAAAAAAAAzo/lKCmH0XkwaY/s1600/hedge+and+oak,+snow+2012.
jpg
4. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C25Qyt5eWOs/Ty75M8sKxRI/AAAAAAAAAzw/90E--LzAg-g/s1600/oak,+snow+2012.jpg
5. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VbkjHgU_Nn8/Ty75YRC5u9I/AAAAAAAAAz4/ZKtRoJudNHQ/s1600/hedge,+snow+2012.jpg
6.
http:
//2.bp.blogspot.com/-RDFvrjwluC4/Ty75ljY2t3I/AAAAAAAAA0A/sLzexCCpoO0/s1600/millennium+wood,+snow+2012.jpg
7. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Oo06P7kfpz0/Ty75xVAX3zI/AAAAAAAAA0I/N79duhpZXeo/s1600/catkins,+snow+2012.jpg
8. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8sbUtnDmQiw/Ty75762khJI/AAAAAAAAA0Q/IHzrwCNNomc/s1600/allotment,+snow+2012.jpg
9. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ccLyulWTuiY/Ty76EvYzZaI/AAAAAAAAA0Y/PeyA3LZTC8k/s1600/chard,+snow+2012.jpg
snowy start in bampton (2012-02-10 08:11)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Overnight snow doesn’t seem to have been too heavy.
Temperature has risen too–though it is set to plummet again tonight.
RH Buses posted a message on their website at midnight saying their services would run–though delays were
possible–and sure enough the 18 to Oxford turned up, only fifteen minutes late. The main roads are clear but some
snow remains on the lanes.
It’s been a busy, tiring week but the snow is pretty and cheering. Looking forward to a lie-in tomorrow.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qx-7NpAYtro/TzTRO2dHtWI/AAAAAAAAA0o/JTaTfwWyiYo/s1600/snowbampton%2B12b-798395.
jpg
2.
http:
//2.bp.blogspot.com/-jMVrCok078I/TzTRPcIiirI/AAAAAAAAA00/EmWGhV6yTmM/s1600/snowbampton%2B12%2Bc-700706.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AOoq6DaCdPQ/TzTRPxU9MkI/AAAAAAAAA1A/nnB_v0o9ANk/s1600/snowbampton%2B12a-702662.
jpg
bill heine, goridebus, papers, andrew, nelle davy, raúl, benedict, david (2012-02-12 22:07)
[1]
An interesting and enjoyable start to the day, appearing on the Bill Heine programme on BBC Oxford.
I and another guest Danny Douglas were on during the first hour of the show, discussing news stories we picked out
in the Sunday papers.
I’d not met Bill before, although I’ve come across him from time to time during my years in Oxford. He’s the guy
with the [2]shark embedded in the roof of his terraced house in Headington.
I first saw Bill when I was queuing to see Duncan Campbell’s banned [3]Zircon spy satellite film at the Not the Moulin
Rouge cinema, which Bill owned. I’d cycled up Headington Hill from Keble on a cold night in 1987, eager to see what
all the fuss was about and to be part of the controversy. Before we were let in, Bill sauntered up and posed for the
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cameras.
More recently I saw Bill at the Kennington Literary Festival last October, where he was reading from his book, [4]Hunting the Shark. I was at the event reading from [5]Invisible–though not in the main hall, where Bill was.
The other guest on today’s programme, Danny, has a community transport company called Go Ride, which is running
a new evening and Sunday bus service between Watlington and Oxford and is applying for Big Society funding (see
[6]www.goridebus.co.uk).
During the programme we talked about a number of issues, including:
• The tragic death of Whitney Houston
• The state of publishing in the era of the e-book
• Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s plan to coax brewers into lowering the strength of beers in an attempt to
reduce binge drinking–part of the government’s sensible drinking campaign
• The rise of internet dating, which now accounts for one-in-five UK relationships (as the Sunday Times piece put
it: "Once derided as the resort of the romantically inept, online dating has lost its stigma..."
• Nelle Davy’s debut novel, [7]The Legacy of Eden, written while working as a PA at literary agent PFD, which is
set on a farm in Iowa and is a reimagining of Robert Graves’ I Claudius
• Raúl Castro’s reforms in Cuba, including oil exploration, mass tourism, private enterprise and organised religion
(Pope Benedict XVI visits the island next month)
• David Miliband’s six-point plan to reduce the number of long-term unemployed young people.
If you’d like to listen to the programme, it’s on the [8]iPlayer till next Sunday.
1.
http:
//4.bp.blogspot.com/-VaMBb2nITLQ/TzfaYiqvo9I/AAAAAAAAA1M/LpQnhqRQmGI/s1600/bill+heine%252C+bbc+oxford.jpg
2. http://www.headington.org.uk/shark/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zircon_affair
4. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hunting-Shark-Behind-Unsuspecting-Suburban/dp/0956740529/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=
1329082370&sr=8-1
5.
6.
7.
8.
http://www.frankegerton.com/invisible.html
http://www.goridebus.co.uk/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Legacy-Eden-Nelle-Davy/dp/1848450931/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329083918&sr=8-1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d7tf/episodes/player
warming, ice breaker, winter trap (2012-02-13 19:33)
[1]
It looks like the cold spell is over, though it is taking a
while for the ice to melt. It was breaking up on the Oxford Canal ealier, at least.
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Some mornings last week, the house stayed cold, even though the central heating had been on for hours. Saturday
morning was bad, despite the sun.
I think I got fed up with the cold because the days are lengthening now and I felt the year should be opening up.
Instead the cold just made me feel trapped by winter.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OgEbJeugumQ/TzlmeXkdWaI/AAAAAAAAA1k/VgQsCnFK3f0/s1600/ice%2Bbreaks%2Bup%252C%
2Boxford%2Bcanal%252C%2Bfeb%2B2012-747850.jpg
the difference a day makes (2012-02-19 21:52)
[1]
[2]
Readers of this blog will have seen this tree [3]before in various guises. These two photos were taken just over a day
apart. The upper one yesterday, when the morning was bleak and cold and grey, the other this morning, when the
sun was shining and it was a beautiful spring day.
I like this view even though the photos I take don’t really do it justice. You can just make out the escarpment on the
other side of the Thames Valley in the top picture. The tree stands at a relatively high point for this part of Oxfordshire
and you can see how the land falls away into the valley itself about a mile beyond the tree before rising again another
mile further on. The view here has a depth to it and a sense of geographical relief that is rare round Bampton.
Went to the [4]Rose and Crown, North Parade, Oxford yesterday and then to the [5]Cherwell Boathouse restaurant,
where we had a delicious meal, saw a kingfisher zipping from perch to perch and reminisced about the times when
we’d eaten at the restaurant before over the last twenty-six years. About the punting trips to the Victoria Arms and
about our wedding breakfast after the service at Binsey.
It was a long and busy week last week. I think I’ve just about managed to catch up on some rest before the next one
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starts. It’s strange how thoughts of the past have been barging into my mind, though. How the family got into the
mess it got in recently and of better times when Dad was in his prime.
1.
http:
//4.bp.blogspot.com/-1dbzLGz9W9M/T0Fhkd51TcI/AAAAAAAAA1w/GaM72a_f9X8/s1600/tree-bleak+spring+day+2012.jpg
2.
http:
//4.bp.blogspot.com/-e3EW7APdi20/T0FhsrlwgAI/AAAAAAAAA14/dAbx6hpyG9Q/s1600/tree-sunny+spring+day+2012.jpg
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2011/12/dawn-tree-busy-busy-end-of-term.html
4. http://www.rose-n-crown.com/
5. http://www.cherwellboathouse.co.uk/
aclaiir, paddington (2012-02-22 21:48)
[1]
[2]
Enjoyed attending the committee meeting of ACLAIIR (Advisory Council on Latin American and Iberian Information
Resources) at the BL (British Library) today. Oh, you didn’t realise that librarians liked acronyms.
A lovely journey up and a great meeting. Looking forward to the AGM in Oxford in the summer.
I liked catching trains to and from Paddington, which has been my London station all my life. I remember Dad and
I on my first train journey when I must have been about 8 or 9, not long after the Badminton branch line had been
axed, so we had to travel from Kemble station. The trip to Hamleys and seeing all the conjuring tricks they sold was
amazing.
I was a little thrown by the fact that Swindon appeared on the list of stations on the train I was sitting on this evening
but realised my mistake. The train would have got me home at one time in my life but not today.
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1.
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jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pz9DHKJ3ZM8/T0VY40cidLI/AAAAAAAAA2Q/6S_snTHseAM/s1600/paddington,+feb+2012+b.
jpg
spring!, long winter, ageing, john nash, tyres-some (2012-02-26 11:20)
[1]
[2]
[3]
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Amazing morning!
Had breakfast with the door to the garden open, after a lovely cycle ride through west Oxfordshire.
Got up early because I have a lot of work to do, writing up comments on assignments. Loved seeing how soon the
daylight came–well before seven. And the evenings are light at six still. This last winter shouldn’t have seemed so
long (the 2010/11 one was way harsher) but it did to me. I think I aged several years.
But on a day like today, all is forgotten.
Photographed the patch of snowdrops in Black Bourton, the neighbouring village, and took the picture of the new
ditch along the newly-laid hedge off Calcroft Lane (aka the Gated Road–the one without the gates) on my way home.
The latter view made me think of [4]John Nash’s work. I spent many, many hours staring at the illustrations in [5]John
Nash: ’The delighted eye’ by Allen Freer during the mid-to-late nineties and the early two-thousands. He is one of my
favourite artists, if not my favourite. His views of often out-of-the-way corners of countryside, almost overlooked
places, are magical and timeless.
Then there were the tyres along Calcroft Lane. Sad.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gen0CQLvlUg/T0oA9N7pkZI/AAAAAAAAA2c/sfDB_FAYaXw/s1600/snowdrops,+black+bourton+
2012.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kzzmn-eQZHc/T0oBHd6xxBI/AAAAAAAAA2k/x1-MwAf1wxk/s1600/spring+ditch,+calcroft+
lane+2012.jpg
3.
http:
//4.bp.blogspot.com/-_pP2O07dl6k/T0oBZK8c5vI/AAAAAAAAA2s/EMuaZt-R6uM/s1600/tyres,+calcroft+lane+2012.jpg
4.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=john+nash+artist&hl=en&prmd=imvnso&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=
Lw9KT5rSDOrb0QWC2-SMDg&sqi=2&ved=0CGIQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=713
5. http://www.pallantbookshop.com/books/details/john_nash_the_delighted_eye
3.3
March
mist, st a’s, bampton, oxford canal (2012-03-02 19:06)
[1]
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[2]
[3]
Misty start yesterday and today. Only yesterday, the sun had burnt the mist off by twelve and what followed was a
gorgeous spring afternoon.
Had a delicious lunch with colleagues at St Antony’s, the sun streaming into the hall.
Discovered over coffee that the mansion that became the hall of residence I lived in for a year when I was at Cirencester had not only once been owned by relatives of one of the colleagues but had been built from stone salvaged after
another of her family’s houses was demolished south of Birmingham.
I remember sharing what must have been one of the mansion’s grand front bedrooms with two fellow students,
Richard and Adrian. The high-ceilinged room was very cold in winter and once I came back from lectures to find that
Richard had torn away the hardboard that covered the big fireplace and was lolling in front of a blazing log fire.
Sadly, the mist today hasn’t lifted. The scenses above–taken in Bampton and along the Oxford canal–were atmospheric, certainly, but also capped the day. A cap that fitted the day and the day wore it. Until now, oddly, when all
of a sudden the sun is lighting up the stone on the other side of St Giles’, as I take my break... Maybe the bus journey
home will be beautiful.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hzkr2Yz9RL8/T1EY2U7bkxI/AAAAAAAAA24/Xebbe28HvMY/s1600/bampton,+mist+mar+2012.
jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uHXMz3sdwvU/T1EZEWt4nrI/AAAAAAAAA3A/wKslDAgDZmk/s1600/misty+copse,+oxford+
canal+mar+2012.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TGZlZqv9fno/T1EZNBkX7XI/AAAAAAAAA3I/cr_hREMc4UU/s1600/oxford+canal,+jericho,
+mist+mar+2012.jpg
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that downton abbey time of year again (2012-03-03 13:44)
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
If I’m not mistaken the Downton Abbey filmcrew have arrived in Bampton early this year.
This could be to shoot scenes against more wintry-looking backgrounds before returning in the spring proper. (Was it
just me who thought that Downton and its environs looked remarkably early-summerish throughout the last series,
no matter what time of year the script said it was?)
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The back streets of Bampton (those mean back streets) are today decked out with bunting, though filming is taking
place well out of range of cameraphones in the churchyard and church itself. (You can just catch sight of some
becassocked actors by the church in the fourth photo down.) There is a wedding, apparently, though whose it could
be escapes me.
Long lenses were out in force.
Meanwhile, what started as a very wintry morning when I went cycling has turned out to be rather fine. I have to say
I’m a little tired after a couple of busy weeks and weekends. Just an hour or so more of work to do then I can relax
(and head off for pint). Log delivery–the last of the season, I suspect–tomorrow.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eikVGE8YWN4/T1IcPhS5FGI/AAAAAAAAA3U/_y4cFVd32UY/s1600/downton+abbey+12+a.jpg
2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TJqTFz3gZRo/T1IcdWFbM_I/AAAAAAAAA3c/EMFEFGLDiDI/s1600/downton+abbey+12+b.jpg
3. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w9uxp8XKb0M/T1Icn91pH3I/AAAAAAAAA3k/MIIjAJEo1Uk/s1600/downton+abbey+12+c.jpg
4. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7uTM_6TscA0/T1Icz2jTEdI/AAAAAAAAA3s/opmy2Qb70Zg/s1600/downton+abbey+12+d.jpg
5. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M7iVhwfkEbo/T1Ic9Nb-mCI/AAAAAAAAA30/FTiiCFlarQ4/s1600/downton+abbey+12+e.jpg
life writing, party, vodka, cadiz constitution, calcroft lane home movie, helen r (2012-03-10 14:38)
[1]
[EMBED]
It’s been a busy week with lots happening at work.
Though there have also been, I’m pleased to say, cultural and social things. On Tuesday, I went to an inspiring talk at
Wolfson College that rounded off the [2]Oxford Centre for Life Writing’s Hilary series of [3]events. Dr Olivia Smith
from St John’s spoke about John Locke in an informal dining-room setting, the spring sunlight streaming in, as we ate
our sandwich-and-fruit lunch and listened. (At one point, I was distracted by a long-tailed tit that repeatedly flew at
one of the panels in the vast concrete-mullioned window and pecked, apparently in disbelief, at the glass. Mercifully,
the flights were carefully judged and gentle and the bird didn’t seem to harm itself.)
The talk touched on areas of life writing that seemed to have a direct bearing on the novel I’m working on at present.
I was particularly interested in what was termed ’aggregation versus disaggregation’. Here are the relevant notes:
’Tendency to split different parts of a life up in modern biographies...Whereas perhaps in earlier times things were
more mixed up. More like the diary approach–Bridget Jones talking about booze and fags one minute, more serious things the next. More realistic perhaps? (Post modern, maybe?) Shandyan. A wish to not tie things up too
tightly...Compartmentalism–and people not letting you into vulnerable areas of their life. Coping with life today
leads to more fragmentation and compartmentalisation...Do novels often seek to rationalise or unify people’s lives?
A simplification? A tidying up?’
Compartmentalisation, fragmentation and the way people modify their behaviour in different areas of their increasingly complex lives are all themes that I’m exploring in the novel.
I was glad to be able to attend the lunch and talk, having missed all the evening lectures in the series, despite promising myself I would attend every one of them at the start of the year. I shall have to do better in Trinity.
On Thursday I had another delicious and convivial lunch at St Antony’s and in the evening went to a staff party that
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was hosted by a colleague in her lovely house in Temple Cowley. Everyone was very relaxed and the atmosphere was
great. My colleague is Russian and produced some vodka at one point which she was keen everyone should down in
one. A bracing experience–that made me realise it must be twenty years since I last drank vodka.
Yesterday, I attended the [4]Colloquium on the Cadiz Constitution of 1812, which was held at the Taylor Institution
and was part-organised by a colleague. The event was sponsored by the [5]Instituto Cervantes and there should be
a film of some of it on the institute’s [6]TV channel pages shortly. What struck me most about the event was the
clarity and vividness of the speakers’ talks. That given by Sir John Elliott was of particular interest to me because he
discussed the roles played by Spaniards from Latin America during the promulgation of the constitution and how the
freedoms the constitution attempted to enshrine were the same ones that were rapidly leading to the disintegration
of the Spanish Empire.
After the talks we all went through to a terrific exhibition, organised by my colleague, of books associated with the
constitution held in Oxford libraries, including [7]José Maria Blanco White’s personal copy of the constitution’s text.
The exhibition was formally opened by the Spanish Ambassador, Carles Casajuana, before things were rounded off
with a wine reception.
Meanwhile, the day was warming up when I went cycling earlier and now there is bright sun. The daffodils planted
round the trees is Bamton and neighbouring villages are coming into flower. Those in the photo are at Black Bourton.
I also took the little video of part of Calcroft Lane during the cycle ride. It shows–in rather home-movie style–such
things as the heavy farm machinery that gets put in front of gateways to prevent fly-tipping, the bridge over the old
Oxford branchline, the [8]hedging I’ve been talking about recently and the way that the landscape opens out, as you
near Clanfield, onto Thames Valley, which is especially wide round here–stretching for one-to-two miles.
Is Calcroft Lane good telly? Probably not but it keeps me amused.
Good to hear my friend Helen Rappaport on [9]Radio 4 this morning, discussing Victoria and Albert.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uQDCp5F4nVQ/T1ssYd5Uv6I/AAAAAAAAA4U/myZLzrrzHEw/s1600/daffodils,+black+bourton+
mar+2012+a3.jpg
2. http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing
3. http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing/events
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
http://londres.cervantes.es/FichasCultura/Ficha80382_22_2.htm
http://londres.cervantes.es/en/default.shtm
http://cervantestv.es/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Blanco_White
http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.com/2012/01/hedging-part-two.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017gn37
calcroft lane ii (2012-03-11 13:55)
[EMBED]
Today the sun is shining–the hottest day of the year, it feels like–and Calcroft Lane is a very different place.
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cranes, mist, filmscript, john frankenheimer (2012-03-12 22:40)
[1]
Misty start to the day–and if the journey home from Witney is anything to go by, it’ll be another misty night.
Loved the way the cranes on the Radcliffe Infirmary Quarter site almost disappeared in the mist.
Starting work on a short filmscript today. Fascinating project.
Meanwhile, watching The Manchurian Candidate [2]remake on DVD. Strong performances from Denzel Washington,
Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber and John Voight but still a pale shadow of the John Frankenheimer [3]original. There’s a
great YouTube [4]interview with JF btw.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jhkefqn9sbY/T15uVqSMy2I/AAAAAAAAA4g/HqBSIq5fbpI/s1600/cranes,+oxford+mar+2012+c.
jpg
2. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368008/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate_(1962_film)
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnEXeBBJ8vI
mist again (2012-03-15 08:58)
[1]
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[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Day off today–from Oxford-based work, at least.
Had intended to cycle but the fog was so thick that I decided to go for a walk instead. This was the first time I’d
walked the fields surrounding the village on a weekday morning for ages. Just how long it’s been was brought home
to me by the fact that I didn’t recognise any of the dog walkers (the mist wasn’t THAT thick).
So far, the day’s pace has been lovely. I’ll be working on the filmscript later, though.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jo-FrlER1Ug/T2GnUtC3sDI/AAAAAAAAA4s/cms4b1Na3RU/s1600/bampton+church,+mist+mar+
2012+a.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3z1dkht9_oo/T2GneIcmsRI/AAAAAAAAA40/OyIAHQ8FRbQ/s1600/gate+near+bampton,+mist+
mar+2012.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zgxWqM49dO8/T2GnlFSJDmI/AAAAAAAAA48/QfL_SF5Ea9I/s1600/bampton+church,+mist+mar+
2012+b.jpg
4.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D6aQBzzuezw/T2GnvBaS4SI/AAAAAAAAA5E/jefnYpwviyo/s1600/bridge+near+bampton,
+mist+mar+2102.jpg
5. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zkbanE2xgyA/T2Gn2fQQRPI/AAAAAAAAA5M/6D0i3cdCJxQ/s1600/bampton+church,+mist+mar+
2012+c.jpg
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rain, flowers, frogs, achy shoulders, filmscript, hollybush (2012-03-17 17:54)
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
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[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
When I got up it was raining, though later the sun came through.
Took these photos in the garden at about 7.15 am. If you click on the pond (puddle) one you should be able to make
out some of the masses of frogs that live there. Amorous times there just at the minute.
Loved getting out on the bike after what was a busy week. Lots of typing, what with one thing and another, to the
point of making my shoulders ache. So, what do I do to relax–I type a blog.
Meanwhile the online course comes to an end this weekend, which is sad because it’s been great fun working with
the students. I’m also starting on the next stage of the short filmscript.
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Took a break by heading off to Witney on the 19 bus for lunch at the Hollybush. Signs in the pub suggest it’s pushing
its [11]Twitter account.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2N1Y0D6MYog/T2RVR5dAzRI/AAAAAAAAA5c/JmF-yA1XdA0/s1600/primroses,+bampton+mar+
2012.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dMQrbL1JXek/T2RVb3NJXUI/AAAAAAAAA5k/B2LJYUZZT9E/s1600/violets,+bampton+mar+2012.
jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U8sUKg3qzko/T2RVl2lFD1I/AAAAAAAAA5s/iBcgvKOJ_eU/s1600/hyacinth.jpg
4. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-idKsMYVUHu8/T2RVwvxiSJI/AAAAAAAAA50/cnmIH6bbJRg/s1600/cavolo+nero,+bampton+mar+
2012.jpg
5.
http:
//4.bp.blogspot.com/-1oICPizYuHo/T2RV7OTotMI/AAAAAAAAA58/i6E-9C0gYAY/s1600/narcissi,+bampton+mar+2012.jpg
6. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P55FUZmfh7A/T2RWCJBpLeI/AAAAAAAAA6E/MuMltcXnQSI/s1600/frog+puddle,+bampton+2012.
jpg
7.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PAf4CxxFpso/T2RWMcDCsjI/AAAAAAAAA6M/NDvCtE5VIqs/s1600/hellebore,+bampton+mar+
2012.jpg
8. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jMe43vpWRlg/T2RWhX-ThjI/AAAAAAAAA6c/V_i_CP4P480/s1600/ivy,+bampton+mar+2012.jpg
9.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1JfQLfOjj7Q/T2RWXG-Wk9I/AAAAAAAAA6U/z8j3aQ3B63E/s1600/pulmonaria,+bampton+mar+
2012.jpg
10.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cEk1lwVZbnQ/T2RWsBlL5wI/AAAAAAAAA6k/bOVEqUET5bc/s1600/wheelbarrow,+bampton+
mar+2012.jpg
11. https://twitter.com/#!/TheHollybush1
hockney, ebury wine bar, mercedes taxi (2012-03-18 23:07)
[1]
Went to the [2]David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy earlier.
Huge and overwhelming but well worth the visit. Particularly liked the fourth gallery which contains Yorkshire
landscapes ’painted directly from observation’ in 2004-2005. Several of these reminded me of John Nash’s work (see
my ’spring!, long winter, ageing, john nash, tyres-some’ [3]post of 26th February).
My favourite image, though, was in the next gallery, Tunnels, and was entitled [4]Winter Tunnel with Snow (it was
also reminiscent of Nash). The painting evoked scenes I’ve seen over the years in other contexts (see this [5]post, for
example) and was remarkably vivid both close up and from a distance. In fact you noticed different things depending
on the distance–the shadows on the snow were especially striking from the other side of the gallery.
Also loved the videos that Hockney made (using a curious rig of nine HD cameras fixed to a Jeep)–both the ones of
hedgerows and woods and the lovely ones of dancers–and the sketchpads and iPads (for more on Hockney and iPad
drawings, follow these [6]BBC and [7]Louisiana Museum links).
After the exhibition I was treated to a delicious lunch at the [8]Ebury Wine Bar, an old favourite that was as good as
ever.
Travelled in a Mercedes taxi too. I’m sufficiently non-London savvy to have wondered if you could actually hail one
217
of these cabs (there weren’t such things the last time I flagged down a London taxi). Indeed, sitting in the back of the
cab I was trying to remember the last time I did travel in a London taxi...
Oh dear!
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m-5U4oqQ6uw/T2ZBzGaoMEI/AAAAAAAAA6w/p-exCgWlLYA/s1600/royal+academy,+mar+2012.
jpg
2. http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/hockney/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/spring-long-winter-ageing-john-nash.html
4. http://sexualityinart.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/david-hockney-winter-tunnel-with-snow-march-2006.jpg
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/end-of-cold-war-humanism-friends-happy.html
6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11666162
7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jabJKtqK0k
8. http://eburyrestaurant.co.uk/
frost, sunny morning, piers, drought and all (2012-03-19 22:05)
[1]
[2]
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A frost this morning. While there was no ice on the frog pond, the lawn and garden were white.
A beautiful cycle ride–I was at home today, on leave.
Fascinated in particular by the reflection of the water against the piers of the bridge over the Great Brook near Chimney. Amazing how low the water is in the brook, though. Drought and all.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c62gQ55nCrA/T2cMA2nxkII/AAAAAAAAA68/sjArZwcE4ns/s1600/clump,+near+tadpole+
bridge+mar+2012.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yLMGdSV29j4/T2cUl9cPCCI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/Nn98tkjR-js/s1600/bridge+over+great+brook,
+near+chimney+mar+2012+a.jpg
spring flowers, filmscript, mst cw, podcast (2012-03-26 08:30)
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
New phone, new camera.
Great to see so much blossom and so many spring flowers coming out. The magnolia, above top, was in neighbouring
219
village of Alvescot and the white violets and gorgeous kingcups were along Calcroft Lane (aka the gated road). The
cherry is by the entrance to Bampton Library (aka [5]Downton Cottage Hospital).
Yesterday, when these photos were taken, was beautiful–first brunch on patio.
Finished the dialogue for the short filmscript last week. A fascinating experience–many thanks to [6]James Lawes for
giving me the opportunity to work on that.
Meanwhile, lovely to hear from friend from Keble days, who got in touch out of the blue. I haven’t seen her since the
late 80s but hope to meet soon and catch up.
The [7]MSt in Creative Writing residence took place over the weekend. Enjoyed seeing students and colleagues again.
A novelty was being filmed for course podcast. Each person only had 30 seconds to say their bit but that proved
challenging–tripped over my words, take one; dried, take two; take three, OK.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ORWbS2PvVps/T28sQ__CWMI/AAAAAAAAA7c/8e5WpVmQFQY/s1600/magnolia,+alvescot+mar+
2012.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oyyst2QDxUs/T28sdObaeiI/AAAAAAAAA7k/BgLwiLHAf38/s1600/white+violets,+calcroft+
lane,+mar+2012.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TImVSUVbzC8/T28smzsWvCI/AAAAAAAAA7s/mZLiGVeuFbk/s1600/kingcups+by+calcroft+
lane,+mar+2012.jpg
4.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Sj8zlJmAsc/T28s1mh8LWI/AAAAAAAAA70/IQp6UzDshY8/s1600/cherry+by+bampton+
library,+mar+2012.jpg
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/that-downton-abbey-time-of-year-again.html
6. http://www.pretzelfilms.com/agency/james-lawes/
7. http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/details.php?id=65
oxford canal, clematis, maggie the cat (2012-03-29 13:18)
[1]
I haven’t had time to walk by the Oxford Canal on my way to work for a couple of weeks. It was great to take that
route this morning.
The canal has changed. Suddenly the towpath is bright green and there are wild flowers everywhere. Not that I think
the clematis above is wild–a garden escape, more like. Still beautiful, though.
Later, walked from the centre of town to a training session at offices beyond Osney Island. Always good to revisit the
Island.
Meanwhile, watched DVD of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) this week. True, there are some dated bits but mostly
it’s such compelling viewing. There are moments that are spellbinding–and these aren’t confined to Paul Newman
and Elizabeth Taylor’s performances. What is striking is the strength of all the performances, each character having
outstanding scenes.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-863xbIohW5k/T3RTN9TqMQI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/8DHDx4LO0Wk/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FY2xlbWF0aXMgKGdhcmRlbiBlc2NhcGUsIG1heWJlKSwgb3hmb3JkIGNhbmFsIG1hciAyMDEyLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%
253D-741900
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3.4
April
party, assignments, clanfield tavern, brunch, patio, drought (2012-04-01 16:13)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Went to a party in Oxford last night. It was Jim’s sixty-fifth and Jill’s retirement. Lovely to see old friends from Osney
Island.
The rest of the weekend has been spent marking assignments. Now off for a pint at the [4]Clanfield Tavern.
Another amazing day. Unexpected, though, given what the online BBC weather forecast said earlier in the week.
Sunday brunch on the patio again.
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Meanwhile, there’s still a lot happening in the west Oxfordshire countryside. The magnolia flower is showing traces
of burn resulting from last night’s frost. The background to the horse-chestnut bud pic is a reminder that it is only the
end of March/beginning of April, after all.
For those who subscribe to the Sunday Times, there was a disturbing article today on the possible effects of the
drought on wildlife, entitled [5]Drought threatens birds and bees. The article begins:
"BRITAIN’S drought is threatening to topple millions of trees, destroy populations of wetland birds and wipe out the
insects that form the base of the food chain, say government conservation advisers...
"Even though it is only the beginning of April...key breeding areas for wetland wading birds such as redshank, curlew
and lapwing have dried out. These are often dependent on winter flooding to replenish their moisture levels but this
year the floods have failed in many areas..."
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4fOiYHygoDQ/T3hcFKmoP1I/AAAAAAAAA8g/8fmS4w0yLOw/s1600/magnolia,+alvescot+april+
2012.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SO6xoIa5KtU/T3hcST6L_UI/AAAAAAAAA8o/bewFo31g0QA/s1600/horse+chestnut+bud,+near+
bampton+april+2012.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jEc6cj1HIcA/T3hceFK4xoI/AAAAAAAAA8w/zpUJF7TupCk/s1600/pussy+willow,+near+
bampton+april+2012.jpg
4. http://www.thegoodpubguide.co.uk/pub/view/Clanfield-Tavern-OX18-2RG
5. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Environment/article1007176.ece
holiday, oilseed rape, drought, kelmscott, willow bark (2012-04-06 19:40)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Can’t quite believe it’s Easter yet. Not least because it’s holiday-time. The whole of next week off.
I’m not quite so shattered as I was at the start of the Xmas holiday but then the work schedule in Michaelmas Term
was mad. I’m pleased I rationalised things a little for Hilary.
Dad’s death was, of course, something that I could never have prepared for. It’s not just the fact that he is dead that
has been so shocking but the way his death acts on my mind and how all the awfulness of the past however many
years is now suddenly put into relief–or should that be perspective. I’m not sure. In any event, I’ve started to write
about life from 1988 onwards, which is so far, an unsettling, though therapeutic activity. It is something, come what
come may, that I feel is necessary.
The holiday got off to a lovely start with a drinks party here last night. A low key but warm and enlivening evening.
This morning was unexpectedly sunny. I mowed the lawn before I set off on my cycle ride–how late I was in doing
this, this year. Most people mowed their lawn for the first time two or three weeks ago.
Cycling was great–sometimes cycling involves being relaxed in quite a disciplined, forced way because it’s time
snatched from a busy schedule. But today felt luxurious. In the countryside around the village, a lot of winter oilseed
rape is coming into flower. A striking but still, I feel, a synthetic-looking crop, somehow. Maybe my view of it is
because I can remember it first appearing in the landscape. When I was a boy, a yellow field meant a mustard crop
and was very rarely seen.
The middle photo above, shows that rather strange moaty pond down by the Thames near Tadpole bridge. Regular
readers of this blog might recall other photos of this feature last year–see [4]12th January 2011, [5]10th April 2011,
and [6]15th May 2011. If you click on the above photo, I think it’s clear that the water level is low now and reflects
the severity of the drought that has led to the hosepipe ban. The land generally round here looks like it’s not doing
well–struggling, I would say.
After a late breakfast we headed for Kelmscott for a walk and a pint of Hooky at the Plough. The bark of a huge
willow near William Morris’s manor is shown above.
When we got home, we watched the last few minutes of Four Weddings and Funeral on DVD (ace film) and the start
of Sunset Boulevard. I remember we were allowed to watch the start of the latter film when I was at Heatherdown
in about 1970. We were all sitting in the old library in our dressing gowns on a spring evening but had to go to the
dormitories after about three-quarters of an hour. I’ve wanted to know what happened ever since but have never got
round to finding out. I still don’t know but hopefully over the next few days I will.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dzkP13uxD8U/T37rPFLGu5I/AAAAAAAAA9c/b31C3D36ZYo/s1600/oilseed+rape+near+lew,
+oxfordshire+april+2012+b.jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4ouK4cofaYo/T37rYnyfzLI/AAAAAAAAA9k/b70zKxBLtrg/s1600/’moat’+pond+near+tadpole+
bridge+april+2012.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cGdwIkbUVpo/T38W31Y0hnI/AAAAAAAAA9w/LTqi9UXFa1A/s1600/willow+bark+near+
kelmscott+april+2012.jpg
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/first-day-of-spring.html
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/oxford-lit-fest-book-for-all-and-none.html
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/parched.html
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allotment, easter, blackthorn; and then something really unexpected happens (2012-04-08 23:39)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Easter. Holiday. So pleased to have the week off.
Weather forecast isn’t good, though.
Meanwhile, today was the first time I’ve managed to get up to the allotment this year, apart from taking peelings to
the compost heap. I managed to fork through a couple of yards of the first strip. The soil is shaking out beautifully
but I was aware that I’m unlikely to be up there again until next weekend because of the rain. Still , as Des said, the
land needs rain.
Looking forward to relaxing and doing not much at all, therefore. Already feeling tons better than on Thursday.
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Have redesigned [4]frankegerton.com. Comments welcome.
Happy Easter!!
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f3gdieoo8TQ/T4IOTb7lCiI/AAAAAAAAA98/hDHlto2uf_I/s1600/blackthorn+near+black+
bourton+april+2012+a.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gf1eTu0wTkk/T4IOd2SGgNI/AAAAAAAAA-E/WnCSjRfDn0Q/s1600/blackthorn+near+black+
bourton+april+2012+b.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8rk2wpQe0Fo/T4IOk8qo-MI/AAAAAAAAA-M/xkIuipsl7HE/s1600/the+tree+near+kencot+
with+yellow+box+april+2012.jpg
4. http://frankegerton.com/
duxford, violets, shifford lock, tadpole bridge, perspective(?)
(2012-04-09 23:28)
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[2]
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[3]
[4]
[5]
A great walk to Duxford and Shifford Lock and back to Tadpole Bridge this morning.
The water-level in the arm of the Thames that passes near Duxford was higher than expected at the ford just to the
north of the village, although it was low compared with the winter.
Violets were out in between the ford and the lock.
On the way back we passed through Chimney Meadows–see [6]post of 27th December 2011 for more detailed information about this nature reserve. The land here–and generally on the walk–seemed quite parched and ’late’, despite
the intermittent light rain, and (as is the case from time to time throughout the year) somewhat melancholy. An atmosphere that was added to by the haunting cry of curlews, which have recently returned to breed.
Glad to have the rest of the week off. The period of getting family matters into perspective continues. Nature helps.
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1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eWwNwCwfNUA/T4NYQzlasEI/AAAAAAAAA-c/bEBFTCaubZc/s1600/ford+near+duxford%252C+
oxfordshire+april+2012.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r8vEYRtVZC4/T4NYb9KUNII/AAAAAAAAA-k/rzmKvpotFsk/s1600/violets+near+duxford%
252C+oxfordshire+april+2012.jpg
3. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2rVzPELNYwo/T4NY0Nh3AtI/AAAAAAAAA-0/hUMiHm_vtZc/s1600/blackthorn+near+shifford+
lock+april+2012+b.jpg
4. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i9-0lj-fqMA/T4NZlukfiAI/AAAAAAAAA_M/7qn6DnDHZRA/s1600/thames+south+of+shifford+
lock+april+2012.jpg
5.
http:
//4.bp.blogspot.com/-8YwV1vd_PlE/T4NY9Idp8II/AAAAAAAAA-8/hn3h29BdyRo/s1600/chimney+meadows+april+2012+a.jpg
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/willow-leaves-cold-chimney-meadows.html
Anonymous (2012-04-10 12:14:52)
Hi Frank. Nice new makeover. Beautiful photos. Thanks for insights and observations on flora and fauna and matters of the
human heart. Time to come clean tho’ ... I have enjoyed your postings for some time! Best wishes. Orla (a bygone student).
frank (2012-04-10 12:22:09)
Great to hear from you Orla. Hope all’s well with you!
sticky clay, sort out, flowering hedge, sunset boulevard (2012-04-10 20:01)
[1]
Attempts to fork through the potato strip on the allotment were thwarted by overnight rain. The clay soil was sticky
when I went up there at 11 and more rain during the next hour put paid to gardening altogether.
Beautiful light though when the sun broke through, although the day never warmed up.
Went through carrier bags of papers which have been sitting under the bed for ages and found that most were hopelessly out of date and just gathering dust. Still quite a few bags left, even so, not to mention the ones under the spare
bed.
Meanwhile, when I gave up gardening and took off on the bike, I found the recently laid hedge was flowering and in
leaf–above. A strange sight, really, when you look at the bases of the stems and see that they’re all nearly cut through.
Finished watching Sunset Boulevard–fantastic theatre and suspension of disbelief.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Osu6GIw7pZc/T4QlJZG91xI/AAAAAAAAA_c/42LW4V9OnXM/s1600/laid+hedge+in+leaf+and+
flower,+near+lew+april+2012.jpg
Anonymous (2012-04-11 09:33:03)
Frank, I hope it is ok to comment, if occasionally. The blog reminds me so much of Ireland ... the hand made hedges, the wide
open meadows and beautiful trees, the mists and morning light, the inevitable but necessary rain, and most importantly, the love
for the land. I watched John B. Kean’s ’The Field’ last night. Chilling stuff, indeed. Orla.
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gee’s, standlake lakes, woodpecker, kingfisher, weather!
(2012-04-11 20:54)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Great lunch with colleagues at Gee’s restaurant in Oxford. Sunlight streamed into the conservatory; the food was
delicious; talking and sharing the meal together was great fun.
On the way home I met Jess and Tufty at Standlake and walked to Old Shifford via the Windrush path (which is
decorated with mosaics–above).
I’d not walked around the lakes here since windsurfing days in the mid-1980s. I’d forgotten how exotic the lakes can
look sometimes.
The promised rain held off, apart from one or two brief showers. A day when I could have been on the allotment,
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therefore. Wonder what tomorrow will be like!
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jm644FR-zLs/T4XZQYhFumI/AAAAAAAAA_s/OaVT5WiOGGo/s1600/gravel+pit+lake,
+standlake+april+2012.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6ZYzlfipWXs/T4XZajOKh9I/AAAAAAAAA_0/zPdsPD1hzb0/s1600/woodpecker+mosaic,
+windrush+walk,+standlake+april+2012.jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aFh5pLOovlE/T4XZjrGQIqI/AAAAAAAAA_8/ZAAQI8Y5Pcc/s1600/kingfisher+mosaic,
+windrush+walk,+standlake+april+2012.jpg
walk, drought, hollow tree, end of the holiday, writing (2012-04-15 21:56)
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[3]
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[6]
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A lovely day which began with a walk into the Thames Valley then back round to Weald, Ham Court, the Plantation
and the fields to the north of the village, which are bounded by the Shill and Highmoor brooks.
I’d not done much of this walk for several months and it was great to revisit places including the water meadows near
the Thames in between the Sharney and Burroway brooks where the curlew come to nest. (The fourth and fifth photos
from top show the Sharney Brook, which is low now, though not as low as the ditch shown immediately above them.
This ditch is usually full until the middle of summer and often never dries out. The drought is certainly happening
round here.)
Meanwhile, was fascinated by the hollow willow in the line of the old hedge along the green lane from the Burroway
Brook to Weald. I wonder what happened to it–struck by lightening possibly?
The oilseed rape is full out around the village.
I can’t believe the holiday is almost over but feel very refreshed by it. I’ve also enjoyed writing about the past couple
of decades during the week. I’ve learned a lot from that and will continue exploring these experiences in writing over
the next week. Also looking forward to working on another short filmscript and reading a novel draft about a First
World War poet for StreetBooks.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QkJ7-QdE8hs/T4reR0XlueI/AAAAAAAABBc/e8hw5NiorTU/s1600/thames+valley+east+of+
bampton%252C+april+2012.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oUo1Q5OUNn8/T4redLFHT6I/AAAAAAAABBk/v7Khk_t-RIQ/s1600/dry+ditch+east+of+
bampton%252C+april+2012+a.jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CCOKCPAlIvA/T4req21_AaI/AAAAAAAABBs/PQmPxfmcNtg/s1600/dry+ditch+east+of+
bampton%252C+april+2012+b.jpg
4.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bhJQflWvSPI/T4re05OiY9I/AAAAAAAABB0/b8X4cJGL1-Y/s1600/sharney+brook+near+
bampton%252C+april+2012.jpg
5.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o9zAmylXAgI/T4re_uW555I/AAAAAAAABB8/-OzIx7vLmcE/s1600/bridge+over+sharney+
brook+near+bamptoon%252C+april+2012.jpg
6. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-idnm1F8_fJk/T4rfIvMhexI/AAAAAAAABCE/khTudrDSSNI/s1600/hollow+willow+near+weald%
231
252C+april+2012+a.jpg
7.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oW7HoVf-6CA/T4rfPKCBO8I/AAAAAAAABCM/qrdvc5V2Xkk/s1600/oilseed+rape+near+ham+
court+weald%252C+april+2012.jpg
aldermaston, stories, lustre, nano-tech, quince (2012-04-23 08:52)
[1]
yesterday.
Had lunch with Alan and Charlotte at near Aldermaston
Fantastic drive between Wantage and the A34, cross-country, particularly on the way back when the view from Farnborough was even more dramatic than usual, April showers swinging over the Thames Valley like chain curtains.
Farnborough is the highest point on the Berkshire Downs and the view is said to be the one Hardy had in mind
when, in Jude the Obscure, Jude sees Christminster, shimmering in the valley, for the first time.
Alan was at school with Dad. He founded the wonderful Aldermaston Pottery, a fictional version of which features
in Invisible.
The pace of our time at Alan and Charlotte’s home was gentle and relaxing and the conversation stimulating and
fun. Lots of wonderful stories about people and trips to different parts of the world with exhibitions of lustre pottery.
Loved hearing about the three Umbrian lustre towns and Alan and Charlotte’s trip to one of them for a recent lecture.
(The importance of the ancient lustre technique to current nano-technology research was a revelation.)
At one point talk turned to the subject of theatre critics. Alan told us about a friend, one of whose plays had been
savaged. The friend had lamented, ’Don’t they understand how hard it is to write even a bad play.’
Before leaving with a dozen bantam eggs, we went into Alan and Charlotte’s garden and looked at the old apple
trees and the quince that was coming into blossom and is shown above.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7HTi9p7i2O8/T5UKn-LNGFI/AAAAAAAABCo/kBiyYu7H6Mw/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FcXVpbmNlIGZsb3dlcnMsIHNoYWxmb3JkIGFwcmlsIDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-746058
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bridges, graffiti, port meadow, puny, tarkovsky (2012-04-24 22:53)
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[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
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[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
Had a great walk on Saturday, which I’ve not had time to write about since.
I had to work in Oxford on Saturday, starting at 10 but because there is no 8 am bus from Bampton, I had to get the 7,
so had plenty of time in hand when I got to the top of the Woodstock Road before 8.
Loved walking down the canal then along Aristotle Lane and over the railway onto Port Meadow.
Funny doing this walk because it follows the melancholy path that the Oxford don Gerald takes when things are
unravelling for him in my first novel The Lock. His walk in turn echoes one that his wife Elizabeth took when she was
puzzling over his strange behaviour–he was having an affair with one of his graduate students. Graffiti features on
the steel bridges over the railway line in the novel and the real ones are still covered with spray paint even now, over
a decade on. Yet the images are new and refreshed.
Port Meadow remains its wonderful huge romantic, tragic, uplifting, louring self. On this occasion, quite wonderfully
spacious and lit up.
As I walked I contemplated the 20k word piece I’ve written recently about what I went through between 1988 and
the present within the family. I wrote this during the week I had off after Easter and had completed the revisions the
night before my walk. My head was still buzzing that morning–trying to comprehend the enormity of the suffering
that had passed during those many years and which was suddenly being made more-or-less portable through the
writing of it. Suddenly made puny through the writing of it. The cruelty of others suddenly rendered in its proper
234
proportion for the first time in over two decades.
It was a beautiful and strange walk that Saturday morning.
Finished off with the Tarkovsky-like underworld beneath the last bridge before the station that I crossed through on
my way back to the city.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DeYyxgYdwyU/T5cbvYQC4sI/AAAAAAAABC8/BaEeq9nb_8o/s1600/bridge+over+railway,
+oxford+april+2012.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z6PG7JlAHeQ/T5myyqlMrxI/AAAAAAAABEI/rKqppREpy6g/s1600/graffiti,+port+meadow,
+oxford+april+2012+a.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NDUVDUDOYfI/T5ccDUuE_1I/AAAAAAAABDM/EVejzP5m8tI/s1600/port+meadow,+oxford+
april+2012+a.jpg
4.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UsJO3RI71yw/T5ccJ4fWX6I/AAAAAAAABDU/XLGyhaZVclw/s1600/port+meadow,+oxford+
april+2012+b.jpg
5.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d65KkXRPwVk/T5ccPjWy-mI/AAAAAAAABDc/kTlasy3gI6g/s1600/port+meadow,+oxford+
april+2012+c.jpg
6.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2WibLU5MBTM/T5ccWJ3iUtI/AAAAAAAABDk/4sP9vQce2vA/s1600/port+meadow,+oxford+
april+2012+d.jpg
7.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nv7x-i8YI9o/T5ccdgI-KcI/AAAAAAAABDs/yGEauIkQV00/s1600/port+meadow,+oxford+
april+2012+e.jpg
8. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v7i-4-NQLLc/T5ccoFxc42I/AAAAAAAABD0/GXR1S08G_Y8/s1600/thames+south+of+fiddler’
s+island,+oxford+april+2012.jpg
9.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d1nfiOezW80/T5ccwOZgVbI/AAAAAAAABD8/u9iidlymOGI/s1600/underneath+the+railway+
bridge,+oxford+station+april+2012.jpg
mud, holiday payback, oclw, sf, st (2012-04-28 11:26)
[1]
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[2]
[3]
Hum. The allotment remains no further forward than at the end of the week after Easter.
Whenever I’ve had a free moment it’s been raining or the ground hasn’t had time to dry out.
The scenes in the countryside have gone from drought to huge puddles and acres of mud. Presumably forecasters are
right, though, when they say that the rain isn’t soaking into the ground but running off the fields into the ditches and
streams.
Today was, I thought, supposed to be pretty fine–no sign of this yet.
I’ve enjoyed this week. The one before was a rush, catching up after the holiday–the wages of taking a holiday are
the dozens and dozens of emails in one’s inbox when one gets back.
Sadly, no time to go to the first Trinity event at the Oxford Centre for Life Writing (OCLW)–though I hope very much
to go to [4]some in May and June.
Online course started this week and other teaching commitments are kicking off.
Looking forward to going to San Francisco for [5]LASA at the end of next month.
(Earlier in the week we watched Tim Burton’s [6]Sweeney Todd on DVD–love Tim Burton’s work but this one was a
bit too gruesome for me...)
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wwFJmilS6Hs/T5vBRQiby3I/AAAAAAAABEc/OStGkZRt42Q/s1600/mud+and+oilseed+rape+
near+broadwell+april+2012+a.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6CpzswLPtP4/T5vBY3cst5I/AAAAAAAABEk/x5176B0eGww/s1600/mud+and+oilseed+rape+
near+broadwell+april+2012+b.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KHNuqgVNbBE/T5vBg2TJw9I/AAAAAAAABEs/WL9CEFAul1I/s1600/mud+and+oilseed+rape+
near+broadwell+april+2012+c.jpg
4. http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing/events
5. http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/eng
6. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408236
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fb friend, wind and rain, cherry blossom, magnolia, weather (2012-04-29 21:56)
[1]
Earlier on Facebook a friend talked about how the overnight rain had pelted off all the blossom on a beloved cherry
tree in her garden.
It was with this in mind that I took the above photo of the ground beneath the lovely magnolia by the bus stop in
Alvescot when I was out on my bike ride. At the start of the month I photographed the tree’s beautiful [2]flowers that
had survived a hard frost the night before. They did well to stay fresh throughout nearly the whole month. But last
night’s wind and rain caused havoc throughout west Oxfordshire, it seems. All part of nature’s pattern, I dare say but
the devastation felt unduly vicious and depressing somehow, this morning. It had taken all the will I could muster to
get out there on the bike. As I pedalled into the wind, which appeared to come at me no matter the direction I was
headed, I was confronted by leaves and blossom and twigs strewn across the lanes. In places there were branches
down and along the gated road two trees had been felled.
Such a strange year–though they always are in the UK. Nothing is ever as you expect, as far as the weather is concerned!
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QHQMJEY0zrc/T52mVy6xSOI/AAAAAAAABE4/kHTmVwPXMk4/s1600/magnolia+petals,
+alvescot+april+2012.jpg
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/party-assignments-clanfield-tavern.html
3.5
May
swan at radcot, cold ipa, spice, narrowboat, morris, red house (2012-05-01 22:52)
[1]
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Met friends at the [2]Swan at Radcot this evening. A great pint of Green King IPA, chilled smoothflow version–’great’
to my great surprise (not something I would try usually). Actually thought it tasted better than the ordinary. GK
IPA’s got a full enough flavour to withstand the cold–in fact the chilling seems to bring out its spiciness. Loved the
new-look bar at the Swan too–though it’s been like it for about a year, so they said.
Afterwards we visited our friends’ narrowboat, which isn’t going anywhere just now because of the high water level.
Wonderful, standing in the boat and staring out at the river which, because of the perspective, seems almost at the
windowsill. As we left, the mist was rising on the meadows.
A better end to the day, as far as the weather was concerned. This morning it was odd seeing the Morris dancers in
front of St John’s–and later in the Ashmolean courtyard (the first time the dancing has happened there, it seems)–in
the pouring rain. Well done them for their perseverance.
Really enjoyed listening to the Mark Haddon interview on Radio 4’s [3]Front Row this evening–he was talking about
his new novel [4]The Red House, which is due out later this month.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xmfgifUY41E/T6BOtZkPNxI/AAAAAAAABFI/W-N6jdCK640/s1600/narrowboat+and+mist,
+radcot+may+2012.jpg
2. http://www.swanhotelradcot.co.uk/
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01gvq3q
4. http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Red-House-Mark-Haddon/dp/0224096400/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335908824&sr=8-3
frozen, signs of spring, clematis, green alcanet etc, family biz!?
(2012-05-06 00:24)
[1]
[2]
Last Saturday, drenched. This one, frozen. What’s going on!?
Good cycle ride, though, once I got going. Signs of spring, even if it felt like the middle of winter. Loved the clematis
238
and green alcanet by the above garden wall by Kencot and the cowslips and red dead nettle along Calcroft Lane (aka
the gated road–the one without the gates).
Busy week–whenever isn’t it? But a satisfying one. Felt I’d got some things done in the end.
Must say the essay I wrote about the sad family biz has been a ’good thing’–has helped to put a lot of things into
perspective and has been pretty therapeutic. Looking back at what happened systematically, you think how the hell
did everybody get taken in? There’s a study in group dynamics there–that should keep a researcher or two going for
years!
Pleased to have a couple of days off for the bank holiday. Feel I need it.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FCk0kf7-yyk/T6ThZNoaBVI/AAAAAAAABF4/x6O7f6_JyGQ/s1600/clematis+and+green+
alcanet,+kencot+may+2012.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rfc4aFEEMs8/T6ThiLBWjzI/AAAAAAAABGA/UcRivaSPYR4/s1600/cowslips+and+red+dead+
nettle,+kencot+may+2012.jpg
kind weather, spuds, edzell blues, highland burgundy reds, dibber, shallots and onions
(2012-05-06 17:00)
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[2]
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[3]
Weather has been kind the past couple of days, so I was at last able to get onto the allotment and plant the spuds.
I prepared the ground when I had a week off after Easter but have had to wait three weeks for a break in the rain to
coincide with some time off.
Spuds have gone in much later than usual. In 2010 planting started on [4]11th April and last year I put in the lot on
[5]9th April... But, as Keith said this morning, ’They’ll catch up.’ Hope so.
The varieties this year are Desiree, Estima, Kestrel and Maris Peer. I also put in a row each of Edzell Blue and Highland
Burgundy Red, which we haven’t grown for years. When we stayed in Comrie back in the 90s we used to visit Mrs
MacLean and order a selection of unusual varieties which would arrive by post in the spring. She grew well over a
hundred different kinds.
The Edzell Blues are the nearest ones in the bottom photo and the Highland Burgundy Reds, the ones at the back.
The wonderful old potato dibber had its annual outing.
Also managed to get in our shallots (Red Sun) and onions (Sturon and Stuttgarter)–again very late.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zu84US9_it8/T6abusuf12I/AAAAAAAABGU/iO_FTsKTGIw/s1600/estima+seed+potatoes+and+
dibber,+may+2012.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SuvK4oqzkNE/T6abiKJXNuI/AAAAAAAABGM/0n4rJblgNQE/s1600/maris+peer+seed+potatoes+
and+dibber,+may+2012.jpg
3. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KqCIAyrCndI/T6ab8ahesgI/AAAAAAAABGc/j5XMxvkIcrM/s1600/edzell+blue+and+highland+
burgundy+red+seed+potatoes,+may+2012.jpg
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/potato-planting.html
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/dibber-spuds-eucalyptus-and-what-butler.html
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bank holiday walk, new bridge, thunder, downpours, hophead, suits, back to work
(2012-05-07 20:15)
We went on a great walk this morning. There was no
[1]
chance of any allotmenting, so headed for the green lanes and the water meadows by the Thames.
We’re lucky round us because styles and bridges are well kept. Don’t know who’s built this new bridge over the
Sharney Brook, just to the north of the fields where the curlew nest, but it’s much appreciated. Farmer or council?
Later, after some pretty spectacular thunderstorms and downpours, we headed for the Bell at Standlake for a pint
of Dark Star Hophead. Back home, lazed in front of the fire.
Before the pub, spent a little time putting away Dad’s suits and overcoats, which have come back from the dry
cleaners. Bit sad.
Back to work tomorrow.
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moaty thing, awash, lasa, swan at radcot, robert gibbings (2012-05-12 23:58)
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[2]
[3]
Loved seeing the sun today–and feeling its warmth.
Great cycle ride early-ish this morning. A lot of water lying on the meadows down by the Thames. The weird moaty
thing near Tadpole Bridge that I said back on [4]6th April was drying out like never before is suddenly awash. The
water is also out on the Great Brook lane. Not quite as deep as it was a few years ago during the floods but I wouldn’t
expect to see water there at all at this time of year. (The water-level during the floods was too high to cycle through,
though I did try–and got very wet feet!)
Busy week, as always, just now. Rewarding, though. Next week there’s a lot going on too, including preparations for
my trip to San Francisco and the [5]LASA conference.
Meanwhile, hoping to be able to fork through more ground on the allotment tomorrow.
Had a drink at the Swan at Radcot Bridge earlier and caught sight of our friends with the narrowboat on the opposite
bank. They still can’t move on to Oxford because the currents are too dangerous. Had good fun catching up over a
pint.
Talked in part about Robert Gibbings and his books, [6]Sweet Thames Run Softly and [7]Till I End My Song. About his
anecdotes about the Thames hereabouts in the thirties and his wonderful [8]woodcuts done for his Golden Cockerel
Press.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dODNomz0I1w/T67B3YpngPI/AAAAAAAABG4/uVg5NOY5ew8/s1600/the+moaty+thing,+near+
tadpole+bridge+may+2012+a.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QoD0UzdJ0R0/T67CL7xDMsI/AAAAAAAABHI/QceOBa_o00A/s1600/the+moaty+thing,+near+
tadpole+bridge+may+2012+b.jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eFBNDCJsbsI/T67CUy73zJI/AAAAAAAABHQ/quvpobL0u0E/s1600/water+over+the+road,
+near+tadpole+bridge+may+2012.jpg
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/holiday-oilseed-rape-drought-kelmscott.html
5. http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/
6. http://caughtbytheriver.net/2011/10/sweet-thames-run-softly/
7. http://caughtbytheriver.net/2009/09/till-i-end-my-song/
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8.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=robert+gibbings&hl=en&rlz=1C1FDUM_enGB475GB475&prmd=imvnso&tbm=
isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=wOeuT4XeAuyX0QXEwICtCQ&ved=0CH8QsAQ&biw=1280&bih=713
Anonymous (2012-05-14 19:52:45)
Yes. Frank. I’m the one you thought rubbish.
Best wishes wishes in th US of A @ LA.
Look forward to next book.
Orla
frank (2012-05-14 20:33:54)
As you very well know, I most certainly didn’t think you were rubbish!
Thanks for the good wishes! Hope all is well with you and the writing!
Anonymous (2012-05-16 09:54:23)
Hello, Frank. I’m way out of line here. I do apologise. Regards, Orla.
wolvercote green, wio, reviewing the past, john wain, waterman’s arms (2012-05-17 20:41)
[1]
This was the view across Wolvercote Green from the entrance to the Plough on Tuesday night.
I’d gone there to attend the Writers in Oxford (WiO) AGM–the first I’d been to since standing down as chair in [2]2010.
It was lovely to see old friends, catch up on what the society is doing and chat about writing and this and that. The
evening brought back memories and added to the sense I have at the moment of reviewing the past, somehow. Not
sure why I am doing it–I can’t help it, I guess–but I am aware that this is what is happening.
Oxford is in any case so full of overlapping memories and connections. [3]John Wain, the novelist and Oxford Professor of Poetry, lived on Wolvercote Green for many years and he regularly used to walk down the canal that runs
past the village to the Thames and on to Osney, where he would drink at one of his favourite pubs, [4]The Waterman’s Arms (now, the Punter...though the water running by is really too deep for punting). The pub features in my
novel The Lock (as the Narrow Boat) and was one of the key settings in John Wain’s wonderful Where the Rivers Meet
trilogy. It was John’s son Will who published The Lock under his Smaller Sky Books imprint in 2001 (ebook) and 2003
(paperback). Memories, connections...
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Etm9EfWxk6c/T7VQvjVtjdI/AAAAAAAABHo/eVc-zse4fs8/s1600/wolvercote+green+may+2012.
jpg
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/wio-farewell.html
243
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wain
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/watermans-arms-osney-now-punter.html
freezing may, bluebells, sf, flying crows, golden gate, wierd (2012-05-20 20:29)
[1]
[2]
Good to get out into the countryside on the bike this morning, even though it was freezing. Where did our summer
go?
Still, much beauty to be seen this week–including the May blossom on the Oxford Canal and the bluebells on the
verge of the Black Bourton road, above.
Feel a bit weird about going to San Francisco tomorrow for the LASA congress. I’ve only moved about 20 miles along
the Thames Valley over the last 30 or so years, as the crow flies, and haven’t been abroad much in that time, apart
from Scotland and Ireland, so this impending long flight seems a bit strange.
Still I’ve been reading about the place and was particularly interested in the Independent [3]article that my boss Ruth
sent me the link to yesterday–I’ll be in SF for the Golden Gate 75th celebrations, it seems, next Saturday.
Also looking forward to meeting my cousin Nathan on Tuesday over there.
I guess the next time I post will be from the west coast of the States. How odd.
1.
http:
//4.bp.blogspot.com/-XLI4gIFz4Gg/T7kZ9-Zg9GI/AAAAAAAABH4/niKGf-nRjuI/s1600/may,+oxford+canal+may+2012.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qPJ2fO1Ma_k/T7kaIHgZaxI/AAAAAAAABIA/1_Vd-x67EWg/s1600/bluebells+near+black+
bourton+may+2012.jpg
3. http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/48-hours-in/48-hours-in-san-francisco-7764058.html
244
san francisco (2012-05-22 18:40)
[1]
not too much.
Well, got to San Francisco. Still a bit jet lagged, though
Great flight over, made all the more fun by lovely person, Tonia, I sat next to. Being able to chat the flight away
was great–in between typing library work into my mobile. Also watched The Iron Lady. Astonishing performance
from Meryl Streep, it goes without saying, although it was weird seeing the set pieces like the rubbish piling up in
the streets in the late seventies, the footage of the Falklands’ War and the Poll Tax riots. Flying tends to prompt me to
look back over my life in any case and this time I had the panorama of those crucial decades’ news reports rolling by
too.
Beginning to work out where things are in the centre of town, hopefully, and looking forward to meeting cousin
Nathan at 6 this evening.
Enjoying poached egg and sausage breakfast just now–very spicy and herby sausage btw. Then I’ll get down to
some more library work and online teaching.
Sunny here, though a colleague has emailed to say it’s 25C in Oxford. Don’t think it’s that here...
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ofCov4Isb9k/T7vP0b8-dXI/AAAAAAAABIU/H1aGUkiM0VM/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FY2l2aWMgY2VudHJlLCBzYW4gZnJhbmNpc2NvIG1heSAyMDEyLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-796514
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
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golden gate, alcatraz, sea lions, pacific breeze (2012-05-23 00:11)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Francisco Bay and Pier 39.
An after work wander through Chinatown led to San
First glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge (75 years old this Saturday) and Alcatraz Island. Wondered what all the
deep barks were, then realised it was the sea lions! A friend had mentioned these but I’d forgotten exactly where they
were. As I stared at the Golden Gate they were behind me, basking and occasionally squabbling on huge wooden
pontoons.
Great to see them–and great to spend some time by the sea for a bit. Refreshing breeze. Searing light, though, off
246
the water–glad I brought my shades.
–
Visit
[4]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[5]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2RxL9Hd_oN8/T7weWU7SVaI/AAAAAAAABIk/RxTMOLF6p9I/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2FuIGZyYW5jaXNjbyBiYXksIGd1bGwgJiBhbGNhdHJheiwgbWF5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-700593
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k6zrylx0Lys/T7weW8V9ovI/AAAAAAAABIw/tXLnIqADSGs/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FcGllciAzOSBzZWEgbGlvbnMsIHNhbiBmcmFuY2lzY28sIG1heSAyMDEyLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-702665
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LYWE0AMCzGw/T7weXf9WckI/AAAAAAAABI8/KlouCkIPPGw/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FZm9yYmVzIGlzbGFuZCwgc2FuIGZyYW5jaXNjbywgbWF5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-704514
4. http://frankegerton.com/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
two interiors, stanford, lasa launch (2012-05-24 05:44)
[1]
[2]
247
[3]
Met fellow SALALM (US Latin American librarians association) members and caught a train to Palo Alto for a visit to Stanford.
This was a real treat, not least because I used to teach students on the Stanford in Oxford programme.
Was struck by the vast sense of space, how beautifully kept everything was–both outside and inside–and how welcome we were made to feel. Great to discuss library business and to learn how similar the challenges are on both
sides of the Atlantic.
Meanwhile, back in SF, LASA XXX launched this evening. An astonishingly full programme over the next three
days!
–
Visit
[4]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[5]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MMbX-2F5eL0/T72831V7cRI/AAAAAAAABJU/BIjgjjyTcRE/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FdHVubmVsLCBzdG9ja3Rvbiwgc2FuIGZyYW5jaXNjbywgbWF5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-718835
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YkAUJfR7m0Q/T7284U4JmeI/AAAAAAAABJg/Up7DTb05F0A/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc3RhbmZvcmQgY2h1cmNoLCBtYXkgMjAxMi5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-720713
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--F04jkrnM3k/T7284zMFB9I/AAAAAAAABJs/67_y01-US9M/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FZ2FyZGVuIG9mIGVkZW4sIHN0YW5mb3JkIGNodXJjaCwgbWF5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-722549
4. http://frankegerton.com/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
248
sutter, marti, lineamientos, time passing, sf city hall (2012-05-26 06:53)
[1]
Sitting in the Sutter Pub on Taylor, after a day at the LASA
Congress. A pint of Sierra Nevada IPA is going down well and a house special burger is on the way. The four TV
screens, each showing a different channel make the solo widescreen in Bampton pubs look a bit tame but apart from
that, this is a pretty authentic US take on the pub theme. Very warm and welcoming.
Saw a great film late this afternoon: Marti, el ojo del canario, directed by Fernando Perez. As the LASA programme
says:
’The formative years of Cuban national hero Jose Marti are explored in a historical epic set during the 1890s in colonial
Havana. The film follows "El Apostol" from the age of nine to seventeen, as he experiences firsthand the often brutal
inequalities of Spanish colonial rule, feels the fire of injustice rise within him, and navigates personal conflict with his
Spanish father.’
The film was compelling from a historical point of view but also from the point of view of its portrayal of conflicts
within a family. You could really understand Marti’s determination to affirm his Cuban identity but equally you sympathised with the plight of his father and mother as their family got dragged into the terrifying consequences of their
son’s political activism.
Meanwhile, a great panel earlier examined the fascinating economic changes going on in contemporary Cuba: What
does the future hold for Cuba?: the Lineamientos, guidelines for economic change in Cuba, (approved, April 18, 2011)
and Cuba’s VI congress. Lots of info and food for thought during this panel discussion, some of it contradictory.
Check out an intriguing blog, written by one of the speakers: [2]thecubabug.blogspot.com.
Can’t quite believe how fast my time in SF is passing.
Pic btw if City Hall, just up the road from where I am staying.
–
Visit
[3]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[4]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rAMq661a-hk/T8BwboCQ4FI/AAAAAAAABJ8/Vz24gwSLCw0/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2FuIGZyYW5jaXNjbyBjaXR5IGhhbGwsIG1heSAyMDEyLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-757488
2. http://thecubabug.blogspot.com/
3. http://frankegerton.com/
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
249
sfmoma, photography in mexico, romance, iguanas, che, saying goodbye, nostalgia
(2012-05-26 23:13)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Visited SFMOMA this morning to see the Mexico in Photography exhibition that by happy coincidence is on just
round the corner from the LASA congress.
The exhibition has been assembled from photos held by SFMOMA and covers the 1920s to the present. From wonderful patterned images influenced by European 1920s photographers to edgily poignant aerial shots of contemporary
Mexico City and the attempts by Mexicans to cross the desert to the US.
Highlights included the work of Tina Modotti and Edward Watson who lived and worked together in Mexico in the
250
20s (how romantic is that); Manuel Alvarez Bravo (especially Diego Rivera pintando un mural, 1930s); Manuel Carrillo’s extraordinary image of a vast pack of wild dogs, 1975 (thought I could spot Tufty’s cousin a few times removed
in that one); the photos of Rodrigo Moya, icluding Che melancolico, La Habana, Cuba, 1964; Graciela Iturbide’s images of festivals–for example, Nuestra Senora de las iguanas (woman wearing an amazing hat made of iguanas!); and
Oscar Fernando Gomez’s wonderfully quirky colour shots from the 2000s.
Last visit to the book fair followed. Bought, amongst other titles, Remembering Che: my life with Che Guevara
by Che’s widow, Aleida March, new out from Ocean Press and already well received. Sad to be saying goodbye to
SALALM friends who have been so welcoming.
Seeing the Chilean film, Nostalgia de la luz later–which is about memory, astronomy and archaeology, amongst other
things.
–
Visit
[4]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[5]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FNO8Ak1-yNs/T8FWdycno_I/AAAAAAAABKQ/7P0dF2Qhp_M/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2Ztb21hLCBtYXkgMjAxMiBhLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-747163
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TJAW1wnjJHM/T8FWeVyg_oI/AAAAAAAABKc/UrsLFdnYGgs/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2Ztb21hLCBtYXkgMjAxMiBiLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-748742
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m10-JvZJZNg/T8FWek5BKPI/AAAAAAAABKo/QOFqLrxriF0/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2Ztb21hLCBtYXkgMjAxMiBjLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-750180
4. http://frankegerton.com/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
show dogs, leaving sf, ace film (2012-05-27 18:32)
[1]
251
[2]
[3]
Having breakfast at Show Dogs on Market (coffee,
poached egg and spicy sausage) before checking out of the hotel and heading for the airport.
Sad to be leaving–loved the LASA Congress and the city. Looking forward to being home too, though.
Grey, overcast sky today and chilly.
Some last photos of SF from yesterday. The cityscape one looks a bit spotty, having been taken through a window at
SFMOMA (tut-tut).
Chilean film Nostalgia de la luz was amazing btw–beautifully filmed and very moving, juxtaposing meditations
on astronomy and archaeology and memories of people imprisoned in one of Pinochet’s concentration camps in the
Atacama desert, as well as film of the women who still dig in the desert, hoping to find the remains of their loved
ones who disappeared during the dictatorship.
–
Visit
[4]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[5]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3tqvw4iYZGw/T8JlU67qHfI/AAAAAAAABK8/iWhYNDdB4FM/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2FuIGZyYW5jaXNjbyBiYXksIGdvbGRlbiBnYXRlIGluIGZhciBkaXN0YW5jZSwgbWF5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-786239
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q7FD-VOJuik/T8JlVU9VekI/AAAAAAAABLI/lqwmc4Z18v4/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2FuIGZyYW5jaXNjbyBmcm9tIHNmbW9tYSwgbWF5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-788264
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5nRtP4kyrCA/T8JlWjPjkxI/AAAAAAAABLU/sO8S2Srf2p0/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FY2h1cmNoLCBzYW4gZnJhbmNpc2NvIG1hcnJpb3R0IG1hcnF1aXMgaW4gYmFja2dyb3VuZCwgbWF5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%
252
253D-790527
4. http://frankegerton.com/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
(2012-05-28 23:12)
sea lions vid, back home, english pen’s: big writing for a small world (2012-05-28 23:35)
[EMBED]
Forgot about this video of the sea lions.
Now back home–to find the excellent English PEN publication, [1]Big Writing for a Small World, waiting for me. It
features poems and prose from adult refugees from centres across the UK.
I’m a little puzzled about how non-English PEN members can get a copy–presumably from the society direct. Anyway,
the ISBN is 978-0-9564806-7-5. Well worth tracking down. Actually, just found [2]Scribd online copy!
1. http://www.englishpen.org/new-communities-new-books/
2. http://www.scribd.com/englishpen/d/91810547-Big-Writing-For-A-Small-World
3.6
June
pruning, biking, lag, festivities, tons (2012-06-02 10:51)
[1]
253
[2]
[3]
Great to get out on the bike earlier, despite it being a misty-grey morning.
Took longer than expected to get the bike from the shed–had to prune back rambling rose and philadelphus that had
grown over garden path beforehand.
I’ve not been up to the allotment since returning from the US but will try to do something there later. The overnight
rain hasn’t helped my chances of working the ground, though. Meanwhile, I’m hoping that the spuds, shallots and
onions have grown as much as everything in the garden. (I imagine the weeds have not been slow in coming forward
either...)
Feeling less tired today but have been very surprised by the effects of jet lag, which I’ve never experienced before.
Disorientating, apart from anything else.
Well, Bampton is gearing up for the Shirt Race, the Morris dancing on Monday and the various street parties on
Tuesday. The folk musicians will be in the pubs throughout.
Surprised when cycling btw by the difference between Bampton and Clanfield, as far as bunting is concerned. Tons
in Bampton but not much at all in Clanfield–north end, at least.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SVKoWRsfbdw/T8neE3Ml4wI/AAAAAAAABLk/X4PhD29ncgM/s1600/campion+and+poppy,+near+
black+bourton+june2012.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wYAgwdx0HPM/T8neNEWEywI/AAAAAAAABLs/WnfiJMP-D8c/s1600/dog+roses,+near+bampton+
june+2012.jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p-hnUokrOVI/T8neVi6pZ3I/AAAAAAAABL4/-P8_YoyWLEM/s1600/horse+chestnut+flower,
+near+bampton+june+2012.jpg
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rain, bunting, walking, morris dancing (2012-06-03 23:01)
[1]
[2]
How well rain and bunting go together, the wet ensuring that the flags don’t flap about too much.
And today was wet! Had a lovely walk, though–completely drenched after about ten minutes but it was warm and
just great to be out in the countryside.
Looking forward to the Morris dancing tomorrow. The dancers go from house to house and we’ll catch up with them
for breakfast at some friends’ and for a late lunch at other friends’. It’s looking like it’ll be dry tomorrow. Let’s hope.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t7wQBkOaPI4/T8vcO-bFvAI/AAAAAAAABMI/nVteXuzWLcs/s1600/cattle,+thames+valley,
+near+rushy+lock+june+2012.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gb4a8PuVKus/T8vcY-F0DVI/AAAAAAAABMQ/reJ3UMSsBIM/s1600/flags+and+bunting,+broad+
street,+bampton,+queen’s+diamond+jubilee+june+2012.jpg
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kellogg: dialogue between rose solari and frank (of 2001) (2012-06-07 23:17)
[1]
Spent a very enjoyable hour or so at Kellogg College, listening to [2]Rose Solari’s seminar.
A fascinating talk containing memorable phrases–some of which are recorded below (though I haven’t done full justice to the talk in my brief notes, I realise, but nevertheless I hope they will be of interest).
I had only read one of the four novels Rose discussed, The Leto Bundle by Marina Warner. As a supplement to Rose’s
talk, I reproduce after my notes my review of this novel, which was published in the FT on the weekend of May
19/May 20 2001.
–
Rose Solari, Kellogg College Centre for Creative Writing, Trinity Term Seminar: Navigating Time: Narrative Structure
and Believability in the Contemporary Multiple Time-Frame Novel
Rose’s new novel–[3]A Secret Woman
Novel with multiple timelines and narrators.
This kind of novel challenges reader’s expectations of how narrative will progess. Also demands multiple narrative
voices.
Vivid continuous dream–[4]John Gardner (ref?). Novel has to do this, despite dotting about. Rose rates Gardner [as
have other writers I admire].
The Photograph by Penelope Lively:
Discovery of revelatory object. Followed by journey of exploration. Re-evaluation of relationships. 3rd person omniscient.
Underworld by Don DeLillo:
Revelatory object, multiple timeframes. Two narrators. Lively looks at small community; DeLillo looks at US society
over last 50 years. Switch between 50s and 90s.
The Leto Bundle by Marina Warner (see FT review below):
Multiple narrators. Magical object–bundle of papyri.
Stone Virgin by Barry Unsworth:
Character’s encounter with statue changes him. All above books involve a quest.
A Secret Woman by Rose: 12th century mystic–story told by Louise, whose Mum was fascinated by the mystic. Louise
finds object through which she can relate to her mother, and which her mother valued. Quest. Louise comes up
against resistance–in herself and others. Leads to Louise herself having visions, in London, where her mum came to
live (Louise US, practical modern woman).
Each book contains one significant death NB. Death opens doors in time–when we are grieving. Louise’s search for
her mum. When we grieve we become porous, and we become more receptive to the holes between time periods.
Exploring these ideas was part of the reason Rose wrote the novel.
Questions
Atonement by Ian McEwan–attempts to rearrange the past.
Continual fascination with parents, regardless of how we got on with them. Death, though, often reveals how little
we knew them.
Clare–narrative structure and dream/believability: influence on this of bereavement; Rose–leads to vividness of perception; Clare–exploration of this by the writer is part of the cross-threading of the of the narrative timeframes.
Ref Adrienne Rich’s article, ’Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman.’ Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte. New
York : Norton & Co., 2001.
Reference to Rose having to write 100 lines of poetry to get the first line. Similar process to finding the music of
256
Louise’s voice–her time signature.
Rose’s novel contains nothing that Louise couldn’t see, apart from two interludes. Rose avoids moments when the
author seems to be winking at the reader behind the character’s back.
Rather a wonderful anecdote from the novel about Louise realising how wrong she got her mother, having read a
document written by her mother.
–
Mother of all myths
THE LETO BUNDLE
by Marina Warner
Chatto £16.99, 408 pages
It is almost 10 years since Marina Warner’s last novel, Indigo, was published. However, time has not dimmed the
sparkle of her imaginative engagement with potentially "difficult" areas such as mythology, the child’s emotional
quest for a lost parent, the plight of society’s dispossessed, and the notion that the past is "prologue" to the present.
These stimulating themes are interwoven with a vivid portrait of 1990s Albion, which is in part a satirical version of
Britain. It is also a place about which Warner is surprisingly optimistic.
The novel begins with a protest at Albion’s National Museum. According to the police the protesters are a gaggle of
"women who’re just lost for something to believe in", "failed economic migrants" and "urban flotsam". For Warner it is
precisely these groups which have something vital to say about our current spiritual malaise: the state of "permanent
internal exile".
Their spokesperson is Kim McQuy, a primary school teacher in a run-down quarter of Enoch, the nation’s capital.
Born in the 1970s in Tirzah, a kind of time-displaced Sarajevo, he was given up by his mother to a civil servant and his
wife who had gone there to rescue an orphan. Although he is close to his adoptive parents, his early background has
conspired with his temperament to drive him first into political activism and then to near-obsession with the Greek
goddess Leto, whose mummified remains are held in the museum.
With the help of one of the curators, he starts researching the Victorian translations of papyri and other documents
which make up the Leto Bundle. It is through these fragments, which alternate with Kim’s narrative, that Warner
draws us into the magical story of Leto, a Titaness, and a fascinating debate about the nature of mythology.
When we first encounter Leto she has just been expelled from Olympus by Zeus’s jealous consort, Hera - after he
has pursued Leto in the guise of a swan and impregnated her with twins, Phoebe and Phoebus. Her initial delight
at their hatching with human forms (albeit without navels) soon gives way to concern for their safety in their barren
surroundings, until a wise she-wolf teaches her the art of survival.
Back in the present, Kim discovers a medieval text which appears to show that Leto was reborn in Syria at the time
of the crusades. With his website about her beginning to attract interest, including that of "agitprop edge" folk singer
Gramercy Poule, he next comes across a sailor’s deposition describing Leto’s appearance on board a Victorian ship.
To the reader’s astonishment, Leto’s penultimate incarnation is in 1970s Tirzah, where she is forced to make a painful
moral choice about her son’s fate.
There is a sense of Warner debating with Christian mythology throughout. She has expressed the view elsewhere
that while she is drawn to traditional representations of the Virgin Mary, she finds them deeply unsatisfactory. To an
extent her portrayal of Leto suggests an alternative Marian mythology. It seems significant that at the outset of the
book Leto rejects the fable of the pelican. Following the birth of her twins she remembers her wet nurse telling her
how the bird pecks its breast and feeds its young with its blood - but Leto decides that a weakened or dead mother is
"no good to anyone".
Marina Warner’s Leto is presented not as a goddess or saint but as a diminutive human being, who has been stripped
of everything but the most fundamental instincts. She is a survivor with strong maternal feelings, and when she resorts to prostitution to earn money for her children we are asked to sympathise with her: she is more Mary Magdalene
than Virgin.
For Kim, Hortense and Gramercy the conundrum of the Leto myth is how they might use history to liberate themselves from the past. Warner explores this in relation to various issues: Britain’s Imperialist heritage, multicultural
Britain under New Labour and the value of eclectic New Age ideas when compared with rationalism. While Kim’s
unexpected fate emphasises some of the worst aspects of modern life, the book’s overall tone suggests that Warner is
hopeful that new ways of seeing can be found and that we shall create a better, and more feminine, society.
Frank Egerton
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-An4Q98pyB40/T9EhQiaOfbI/AAAAAAAABMg/rk8hvkjJ1rU/s1600/rose+solari+website+june+
2012.jpg
2. http://rosesolari.com/
3.
http:
257
//www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Woman-Novel-Rose-Solari/dp/0982625197/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339106826&sr=8-1
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gardner_(American_writer)
(2012-06-10 22:08)
[1]
[2]
There are few oaks in and and around Bampton. As I think I’ve said, this is supposed to mean that the soils are
poor. It’s difficult to tell the truth of this because fertilisers compensate nowadays. Oaks are found nevertheless along
Hayway Lane and towards Brize Norton and the Cotswolds. The two oaks above are on the Bampton-Brize road and
Mount Owen Road respectively.
This morning I spent an hour or so on the allotment–weeding mostly because the clay was too wet to fork through–
before I headed off for a quick cycle along the Brize road and back to Bampton via Lew and Mount Owen. The ride
reminded me of how the oaks start to the north of the village as one nears the edge of the Cotswolds. (The reference
in tourist brochures to Bampton being in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds are, it always seems to me, a recent invention
and somewhat spurious.)
Even so it was fun to be cycling along roads that gave an approximation of going up and down dale for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, I’ve been writing up comments on assignments for much of the weekend and thinking about ’this and
that’. It’s been a bit of a restless time since getting back from San Francisco. I’ve also been putting the finishing touches
to the planning for my third novel. This is based on something I wrote over twenty years ago. At first I tried simply
recasting the original in a more contemporary setting but have come to realise that this is a waste of time–having
’wasted’ a considerable amount of time doing so. At least this learning process h
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5YRDKfj6-wI/T9RgjWaf02I/AAAAAAAABMw/bxM3bpHObFA/s1600/oak,+near+bampton+june+
2012.jpg
258
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iTHkdJAr-Xw/T9Rgs6IYanI/AAAAAAAABM4/6dA29ie-D-s/s1600/oak,+mount+owen+road,
+near+bampton+june+2012.jpg
oaks, oxfordshire cotswolds?, up and down dale, third novel (2012-06-10 22:44)
[1]
[2]
There are few oaks in and and around Bampton. As I think I’ve said, this is supposed to mean that the soils are
poor. It’s difficult to tell the truth of this because fertilisers compensate nowadays. Oaks are found nevertheless along
Hayway Lane to the south and towards Brize Norton to the north. The two oaks above are off the Bampton-Brize
road and Mount Owen Road respectively–both north of the village.
This morning I spent an hour or so working on the allotment–weeding mostly because the clay was still too wet
to fork through–before a quick cycle along the Brize road and back to Bampton via Lew and Mount Owen. The
ride reminded me of how the oaks start as one nears the southern edge of the Cotswolds. (The references in tourist
brochures to Bampton actually being in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds are, it always seems to me, a recent invention and
somewhat spurious.)
Even so it was fun to be cycling along roads that gave an approximation of going up and down dale for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, I’ve been writing up comments on assignments for much of the weekend and thinking about ’this and
that’. It’s been a bit of a restless time since getting back from San Francisco.
I’ve also been putting the finishing touches to the planning of my third novel. The plot is based on something I wrote
over twenty years ago. At first I tried to simply recast the original in a more contemporary setting but have come
to realise that this is a waste of time–having ’wasted’ a considerable amount of time doing so. Subsequently, I have
come up with something new that incorporates one or two aspects of the original but which has nevertheless changed
a great deal and which reflects where I am as a writer in 2012. The process has been protracted and at times painful,
although I am very pleased to have reached the point of beginning the real writing!
259
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5YRDKfj6-wI/T9RgjWaf02I/AAAAAAAABMw/bxM3bpHObFA/s1600/oak,+near+bampton+june+
2012.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iTHkdJAr-Xw/T9Rgs6IYanI/AAAAAAAABM4/6dA29ie-D-s/s1600/oak,+mount+owen+road,
+near+bampton+june+2012.jpg
rose solari’s a secret woman, chris andrews, warm friendship (2012-06-14 21:20)
[1]
Just heading out of Oxford on the S1 after going to the
launch of my friend Rose Solari’s novel A Secret Woman (Alan Squire Publishing in association with Sante Fe Writers
Project, Chris Andrews Publications Ltd, and Left Coast Writers–now there’s a challenge for a former library cataloguer!). See also my 7th June post below.
A great evening, held at the Old Bank Hotel. Three beautifully written excerpts read by Rose in the aptly-named
Gallery Room, which was en-studiod by Chris Andrews’ magical photos of Oxford and its environs.
Lovely to see so many old friends too.
A warm evening after a cold and progressively wintry day. What happened to that heatwave friends taunted me
with when I was in San Francisco!
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hH7MiS1rRyI/T9pH-6vZBvI/AAAAAAAABNM/maywixHf69Y/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fcm9zZSBzb2xhcmkgcmVhZGluZyBmcm9tIGEgc2VjcmV0IHdvbWFuLCBvbGQgYmFuayBob3RlbCwgb3hmb3JkLCAxNHRoIGp1bmUgMjAxMi5qcGc%
253D%253F%253D-738420
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
260
oxford canal, oclw, dr nicoletta demetriou, lawrence durrell, bitter lemons (2012-06-15 14:46)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Went to another literary event earlier in the week–the Life-Writing Lunch at Wolfson that was led by Dr Nicoletta
Demetriou from St Antony’s College. A terrific talk followed by a fascinating discussion. I only hope my notes below
do the event justice.
(The photos btw were taken along the Oxford canal this morning.)
Oxford
Centre
for Life-Writing lunch, Wolfson College, Tuesday 12th June 2012 (see [4]www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing)
’The OCLW is delighted to welcome Dr Nicoletta Demetriou (Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford)
261
as speaker at this term’s Life-Writing Lunch: Dr Demetriou will be exploring the ways in which biography can sometimes turn into autobiography, taking the lead from her biographical work on Lawrence Durrell (whose centenary is
celebrated this year) and his years spent in Cyprus.
...The choice of a biogrpahical subject is, in a sense, an autobiographical one. (Reference to Biography: A Very Short
Introduction by Hermione Lee (OUP, 2009): ’No such thing as a purely objective treatment.’ (sic))
Ref: experiences shared between writer and subject–examples of when it is hard to escape subjectivity.
But what if the biographical subject is a hate figure–a terrorist, for example? Subjectivity enters work in ways other
than sympathy: ’We’ as authors would end up, perhaps, bringing our outrage at atrocities to the text.
’We’ write from a position–but concession that end product might not be autobiographical, as such. [See question
about impersonal academic biography below.]
NOTE: Nice reference to writer being ’invisibly present’–ie in a third person narrative.
Talk based on one writer’s experience.
Durrell was in Cyprus in 1950s–53-56. (Speaker’s work is partial or microbiography.) Cyprus was then British colony.
Durrell taught English to make money. Then held official post at Public Information Office. This was on the eve of the
revolt against British rule that was to lead to independence. At first Durrell was welcomed by writers and intellectuals
but when he took up his official post he was regarded by many as a traitor. His work, Bitter Lemons, published in
1957, draws on his time in Cyprus. British critics thought at the time that his account of British rule was fair but his
erstewhile Greek friends did not.
Nicoletta Demetriou was born in the late 70s immediately before the Turkish invasion and the division of the island.
Huge change in Cypriot life resulted. In part ND’s book became a quest to explore the ’lost’ Cyprus.
Preparing to write it forced her to face certain questions about her identity and the voice she wanted to use in order to
narrate the story. Discussions with friends. In the end the 3rd person voice no longer seemed valid because it would
divorce her from the forces and tensions that produced her–and her interest in Durrell and his Cypriot world.
Book will include her family’s experiences after the island was divided, her memories, interviews with people who
knew LD (after Turkish invasion community he lived in was forced to move into southern, Greek half and dispersed),
and ’travel’ sections about places LD knew (he lived in what is now northern, Turkish Cyprus but worked in the
south). First draft of book to be completed at end of summer.
ND made a decision to ’live’ the book–to go to places where LD lived–and to contrast her experiences with his. The
book that she is now working on has become a blend of personal reminiscences, travel writing, history and biography.
–
Questions
–Reaction of family? Family pleased. Friends: a friend bought 10 copies of Bitter Lemons in Greek and circulated it
amongst other friends. Divided reactions about LD. One friend described emerging book as a love story between ND
and LD.
–(per Liz): Target audience? Primarily English. May be translated. Turkish audience? Maybe.
–(per me): How was blend of diverse elements (personal, travel, biographical etc) structured? Planned or instinctive?
To begin with, confusion. No structure. Decision to let stories guide her. No artificial divisions. Resistance to imposing structure. Allowed structure to suggest itself.
–Self-indulgence? Yes but LD is always there, so reader will learn a lot about him. (His centenary this year. Conference
’starts’ 13.06.12. Ref to LD not being as popular now as he was. Suggestion from audience that for this reason and in
order to illuminate the complexities of Cyprus, ND was a necessary guide to subjects.)
–Nostalgia for lost Cyprus apparent in the book? Not really because there is a lot about the division during the 80s
and interviews with people who knew LD.
–A criticism of Biography: A Very Short Introduction could be that it leaves out academic biography. Does biography
always have to be subjective? Is it possible to be objective and impartial? ND asked in turn, Is there any impartial
academic work? (Ref during discussion to biography as ’the bastard child of history’.) Questioner wondered if what
she thought of as academic biography was now considered an old-fashioned approach–compared to the more selfreflexive contemporary one. Somone suggested that biography always involved the question of where the author was
positioned realtive to the subject. ND finished by saying that perhaps she and the questioner could agree on the idea
of the ’subjectively objective’.
–
Visit
[5]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[6]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
262
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0hQmPzCtwbM/T9s9P2oLNcI/AAAAAAAABNc/y_m9iDhU7zU/s1600/yellow+flag,+oxford+
canal+june+2012+(2).jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T6_J27wXKpc/T9s9YIyS7NI/AAAAAAAABNk/LElsjX_S9uI/s1600/sedge,+oxford+canal+june+
2012+(2).jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0QWckKB2LWg/T9s9f9U02SI/AAAAAAAABNs/Ybx0XkgHhDs/s1600/elder+flowers,+oxford+
canal+june+2012+(2).jpg
4. http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing
5. http://frankegerton.com/
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2012-06-15 17:02:45)
Just a small correction, Cyprus, was invaded, or liberated, depending on your point of view, in July 1974.
frank (2012-06-16 08:01:37)
Ah–thanks very much for that correction, Rupert!
north york moors, kirby, burlington, pope, melbourne, nunnington, hound trail (2012-06-17 06:46)
[1]
York moors, near Kirkbymoorside.
Lovely weekend staying with family on edge of the North
Looked through really interesting files of family papers, architectural drawings and photos yesterday afternoon, that
brought the lives of my ancestors to life. Sad to think that family house, Kirby Hall (a rare design by Lord Burlington–
who was the subject of Alexander Pope’s Epistle to the Earl of Burlington, Of Taste (1731), one of the Moral Essays)
was demolished in the twenties. Great-grandfather lost heart after the death of his only son during the First World
War and sold up.
Day also overlaid with happy memories from my childhood of coming to Melbourne Hall near York where my dad
grew up.
A sad task yesterday morning was visiting Dad’s grave in order to decide on a headstone. While there we also
trimmed the grass on his grave and around the many headstones of our ancestors.
A delicious lunch at the Royal Oak at Nunnington.
In the afternoon we walked on the moors for a bit and came across a hound trail. Fell hounds–a sort cross between
a hound and greyhound–race across the moors, following a pre-laid laid trail. Beautiful animals. An old-fashioned
sport. There are a series of trails throughout the summer and cups are awarded to the champion animals when the
season ends.
Non-stop rain yesterday but a great time.
263
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DcDSdEWiJ0s/T91vUXvHwwI/AAAAAAAABOE/kySHQTSLkTY/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fbm9ydGggeW9yayBtb29ycyBuZWFyIGtpcmtieW1vb3JzaWRlLCBqdW5lIDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-716057
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
decent bike ride, waterlogged allotment, cotton thistles, hedge and ditch, bunting, two great
evenings (2012-06-23 15:47)
[1]
[2]
264
[3]
[4]
[5]
Haven’t been on a decent bike ride for some weeks, what with the demands of the allotment and the trip to Yorkshire
last weekend.
I couldn’t do anything on the allotment this morning as it’s pretty near waterlogged. Still, some of the potatoes are in
flower (though I never got the chance to ridge them up), the shallots and onions are looking good and the cucumbers
and Italian courgettes are beginning to bush out.
So, it was great to take my mind off what I wasn’t able to do on the allotment by heading out on the bike. Strong
head-winds to start with before I turned off the Langford road just after Broadwell and was carried back along Calcroft Lane and the Clanfield road. Noticed how green everything was because of the rain. Even so, the grass and the
corn aren’t as far forward as I’d expected–too cold, I imagine. Or maybe it’s the waterlogging.
265
A plant that appears to be thriving is cotton thistle, which, when the sun went behind a cloud, seemed to shimmer
out at you like a wraith. The ones in the top photo (taken near Bampton) were about seven foot tall; the one in the
next pic (in Alvescot) was about six foot.
Interested to see how much more established the recently-laid hedge and new-dug ditch off Calcroft Lane look (see
[6]post of Sunday 26th February).
Loved the home-made bunting still lining the brook in Clanfield.
It’s been a bit of a mad week, I must say, what with the MSt Guided Retreat coming up tomorrow. A really fun experience was the end-of-year evening for the undergraduate diploma finalists yesterday. Terrific readings! Also, had a
great time when J’s god-daughter came to stay on Thursday and we ate out at [7]Biztro (best meal ever there).
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--weEqonifFw/T-WU9T3tsZI/AAAAAAAABOU/bACqlNvLGes/s1600/giant+thistle,+near+
bampton+june+2012.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MvAlqNCwBJ0/T-WVFNUvEJI/AAAAAAAABOc/bnWNJAb21ag/s1600/giant+thistle,+alvescot+
june+2012.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hrCr6hMlEXY/T-WVPcIDqDI/AAAAAAAABOk/PmuTg1OSVCs/s1600/new+ditch+and+new+laid+
hedge,+calcroft+lane+june+2012.jpg
4.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s5dcznA7uq0/T-WVYu9ZHqI/AAAAAAAABOs/qGOXKRc213c/s1600/bunting,+clanfield+june+
2012+a.jpg
5. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G-YtAev2uvw/T-WViE356XI/AAAAAAAABO0/JgXPTECsj3E/s1600/bunting,+clanfield+june+
2012+b.jpg
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012_02_01_archive.html
7. http://www.biztro.co.uk/
s1, al-andalus, aclaiir agm, seacourt tower, roots building, stowe, 18, filmscript (2012-06-28 21:51)
[1]
Heading home on the S1 bus, feeling pretty stuffed, to be quite honest, after an excellent meal at Al-Andalus tapas
bar, Oxford.
Pre-AGM dinner for members of [2]ACLAIIR (Advisory Council on Latin American and Iberian Information Resources). Last year’s [3]AGM was held at the British Library but this time it’s at the Taylor Institution Library, Oxford.
Thanks a million to my colleague Joanne for organising such a great meal (and, indeed, the event tomorrow). So much
scrummy food. Not to mention, lovely company.
Meanwhile, took this pic as the bus wizzed past the Seacourt Tower, a landmark that has been part of my life since
1973. In those days, pre-refurb, it was known, I think, as the Rootes Building, after the long-defunct [4]car company.
When I was a boy, Dad driving by this meant it would only be half-an-hour before I was back at Stowe School (sometimes a good thing, other times not so good).
Returning to Oxford tomorrow on the 7 am 18 RH Transport bus for the ACLAIIR AGM itself. En route I’ll be working
on a further rewrite of the short filmscript I collaborated on in the early spring. Getting there, hopefully.
–
266
Visit
[5]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[6]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZIvv_Is9kJk/T-zD7aRMqaI/AAAAAAAABPI/htIfWvGdvW8/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2VhY291cnQgdG93ZXIsIGJvdGxleSBqdW5lIDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-716350
2. http://aclaiir.org.uk/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/bl-aclaiir-jack-c-spitfire-sausage-mash.html
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootes_Group
5. http://frankegerton.com/
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
runners, wigwams, rain, cycling, aclaiir, lie-in (2012-06-30 10:41)
[1]
[2]
Intended to dig over the patch on the allotment where the runner bean wigwams are to go–runner plants are waiting
in pots at the top of the garden. But before I’d finished my cup of tea it was pouring with rain.
Went out on the bike instead and hope to be able to get onto the allotment tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the online course comes to an end this weekend and diploma marking is arriving.
The ACLAIIR meeting yesterday at the Taylor was terrific. Lovely to see colleagues, meet new people, listen to the
seminars and attend the AGM.
Meanwhile, the countryside is looking pretty healthy (including the mallow beside Clanfield to Bampton road above),
267
although I think the corn seems late this year (lower pic of wheat off Calcroft Lane).
Looking forward to a lie-in tomorrow.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mEho90bB5Gs/T-65guMoP2I/AAAAAAAABPg/XI06i1FC4Pc/s1600/mallow%252C+nr+clanfield+
june+2012.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iXv_R1h51IQ/T-66PHYn_OI/AAAAAAAABPo/dsUMv1vahqg/s1600/poppies+and+corn%252C+
calcroft+lane+june+2012.jpg
3.7
July
lie in, brandy bottle lilies, weeding, bell (2012-07-01 14:42)
[1]
[2]
Enjoyed having a lie in this morning. The last few weeks have been a bit mad–both at work and socially.
Nice to switch off and enjoy being at home.
Stopped to photograph this part of the Great Brook near Tadpole Bridge when cycling earlier. Love [3]brandy bottle
lilies!
About to try and do some weeding on the allotment now, though it’ll still be wet. Pub later–probably the [4]Bell and
Standlake.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yjz6h5NvRSc/T_BDh3U0pCI/AAAAAAAABP8/I8uNslgg9Rs/s1600/common+rushes,+brandy+
bottle+lilies,+great+brook,+nr+tadpole+bridge+july+2012.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a9Sv2dK5eik/T_BDkszwzTI/AAAAAAAABQE/tc6_rt_gQIk/s1600/brandy+bottle+lily,
+great+brook,+nr+tadpole+bridge+july+2012.jpg
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3. http://www.ceh.ac.uk/sci_programmes/documents/Waterlilies_Nuphar_Nymphaea.pdf
4. http://www.thebellstandlake.co.uk/
saturated, bistro, essay, shock, swan (2012-07-06 17:45)
[1]
Oxford is saturated. Miserable.
Really heavy rain earlier. Lighter now but everything in
The last couple of bright days were bliss. Sitting with a friend on Wednesday evening, drinking wine at a bistro,
doors open to the pavement, seems a world away.
We talked about screenwriting for a while then turned to that essay I wrote at Easter. I was shocked by how shocked
she was at what I had written. Perhaps I am still numb from the horror of what happened over the past two decades.
Though I am sure that I am happier than I was. It was good to talk–just as it had been good to write down the events.
Part of the strange mixing by which I (and writers generally?) make sense of things. But I still find it hard to understand how the people involved did what they did.
Meanwhile, on the Oxford canal this morning, even the swan looked pissed off with the weather.
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0JqGzYt5cuY/T_cWWQ-BJ8I/AAAAAAAABQY/QBRAIyXPwuY/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc3dhbiwgb3hmb3JkIGNhbmFsIGp1bHkgMjAxMiBhLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-777117
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
269
common aeshna, walking, reflecting (2012-07-09 19:21)
Took this pic of a Common Aeshna dragonfly on our
[1]
neighbour’s ceanothus. Haven’t seen one of these for a while–one settled on our shed two or three years ago. Our
neighbour wondered if the insect came from our pond. Could have done.
Meanwhile, pleased to be having some time off. Doing lots of walking and reflecting on what happened to the
family over the last couple of years. Amazing to think that it’s been over two years since the latest nightmare kicked
off.
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4hDUqeoJINg/T_shatrk8qI/AAAAAAAABQs/4osscQWLuTw/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FY29tbW9uIGFlc2huYSwgYmFtcHRvbiBqdWx5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-754207
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
wilts, rest, howard’s house, beckford arms, phoenix, poppies (2012-07-10 23:26)
[1]
270
[2]
[3]
some walking – as well as get some much needed rest!
Taking a break in Wiltshire. Great to get away and do
Wet yesterday although sun shone today – as pic of terrace at the excellent Howard’s House Hotel shows (terrific
range of unusual pudding wines at HHH btw – [4]www.howardshousehotel.co.uk).
Saw this field of agricultural poppies yesterday en route for lunch at the Beckford Arms – now reopened after a
fire and as good as ever (liked the locally-brewed Beckford Phoenix bitter – [5]www.beckfordarms.com). Wondered
about these poppies – maybe being grown for morphine ([6]macsmith.com/index.php?page=uk-poppies)? Intriguing to see, anyway.
–
Visit
[7]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[8]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M2DsdJt1o8o/T_yvXGUbB_I/AAAAAAAABRs/Xgzls5Moo4c/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FYWdyaWN1bHR1cmFsIHBvcHBpZXMsIHdpbHRzIGp1bHkgMjAxMiBhLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-726092
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MzIvmHks5Ik/T_yvYS7tKeI/AAAAAAAABR4/pPrIxZABwHg/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FYWdyaWN1bHR1cmFsIHBvcHBpZXMsIHdpbHRzIGp1bHkgMjAxMiBiLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-730763
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ea_aP_TdzYk/T_yvZeCxCpI/AAAAAAAABSE/HcMJKmQOxj0/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FYSBzcGVjaWFsIHBsYWNlLCB3aWx0cyBqdWx5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-734614
4. http://www.howardshousehotel.co.uk/
5. http://www.beckfordarms.com/
6. http://macsmith.com/index.php?page=uk-poppies
7. http://frankegerton.com/
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8. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
compasses lower chicksgrove, perspective, streetbooks (2012-07-11 17:41)
[1]
[2]
[3]
It’s been good to have time off and space to think. Wiltshire–around Lower Chicksgrove–as relaxing as ever. Especially liked taking Tufty for his night-time walk after supper at the [4]Compasses. The pub’s in the middle of nowhere
and the village and countryside are so still by then. (Room shutters shown above.)
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Lots of things in better perspective after holiday. Feeling much fresher–even though we were away for only three
days–and now looking forward to work again, including, with luck, the preparation of StreetBooks’ first publication
not written by me.
–
Visit
[5]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[6]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-morZxy22zsQ/T_2vHaBUeVI/AAAAAAAABSw/L7gD_ldO0Ow/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2h1dHRlcnMsIGNvbXBhc3NlcywgbG93ZXIgY2hpY2tzZ3JvdmUganVseSAyMDEyLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-700711
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zvO9SBckBAA/T_2vGb_NtiI/AAAAAAAABSY/KiN4zwBWofU/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fd29vZGxhbmQsIGZvbnRoaWxsIGVzdGF0ZSBqdWx5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-796905
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jpIhoD1Onrk/T_2vGwS1XNI/AAAAAAAABSk/ciEhg_c46og/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FZm9udGhpbGwgbGFrZSBqdWx5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-798902
4. http://www.thecompassesinn.com/
5. http://frankegerton.com/
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
drenched, autumnal, corsewall point, omg, newton faulkner, comments (2012-07-14 09:35)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
[4]
More downpours overnight. Just walking up the garden path to fetch the bike left me drenched from brushing past
the shrubs. When I set off on my cycle, the rain seemed to have stopped but it couldn’t resist having another go when
I was about a third the way round the circular route.
The countryside had an autumnal feel. There was a good patch of scabious in Alvescot (a plant I always associate
with the cliffs above the Corsewall Point on the Mull of Galloway in September–an arbitrary association, I realise!).
[OMG I’ve just discovered that the old lighthouse is now a [5]hotel!] The blackberry bushes are budding, with the
promise of a good autumn crop. In Kencot, some hedge trees had been felled–though they will doubtless grow back.
There isn’t much natural light entering the house this morning. On the radio it said that people are becoming depressed by the summer weather. I’m not surprised. Decided to download Newton Faulkner’s [6]Write It On Your
Skin to cheer myself up–OK, some contradiction here, you might be saying, but he has a GREAT voice.
Now to typing up assignment comments for the rest of the working day.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GFnxVqWbw50/UAEg8votoEI/AAAAAAAABTA/6BR4i2yeLqc/s1600/scabious,+alvescot+july+
2012.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tq_V1_LUK4U/UAEhFvTVwWI/AAAAAAAABTI/dK-uEPKKf98/s1600/blackberry+buds,
+alvescot+july+2012.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tmPFr00sla0/UAEhQfsKKKI/AAAAAAAABTQ/7O0ltBmy1nA/s1600/tree+stump,+lencot+july+
2012.jpg
4.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wBN0kzWNf_0/UAEha3BUu-I/AAAAAAAABTY/DakaNJbSHvI/s1600/tree+stump+a,+kencot+
july+2012.jpg
5. http://www.lighthousehotel.co.uk/
6.
http:
//www.amazon.co.uk/Write-It-On-Your-Skin/dp/B008DBM69G/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342253826&sr=301-1
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fresher air, sun!, black bourton green, more comments (2012-07-15 09:22)
[1]
Garden again damp to start with this morning. But when I went cycling the air was noticeably fresher and now the
sun is out–a lovely soft summer light.
Pic above shows horse chestnut, swing, bench and bridge on Black Bourton Green.
Writing up more assignment comments today.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GMnr1_MvE30/UAJxF4kMMtI/AAAAAAAABTo/jB4pyvJvQ7U/s1600/village+green+and+swing,
+black+bourton+july+2012.jpg
heron, lock, signs of the times (2012-07-16 21:01)
[1]
When I’m walking to work, I often see this heron. He fishes in the channel that runs between the Oxford canal and
the Thames near the last [2]lock (the one that appears on the Kindle [3]cover for The Lock). He’s usually a little way
off but this morning was only yards from the tow-path–still taking hardly any notice of passers by, though.
275
Meanwhile, overnight, the village has moved several hundred miles north, there’s a new vicar and a neighbour’s
started selling postcards. By ’eck, this summer’s an odd ’un.
[4]
[5]
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[6]
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GYJqgqQk84A/UARp3S3Iq6I/AAAAAAAABT4/2l-e8F7njsE/s1600/heron,+oxford+canal+july+
2012.jpg
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/oxford-canal-bridge-nags-head-yaffling.html
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/lock-on-kindle.html
4. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pzx1BSIac-I/UARr9VgRUnI/AAAAAAAABUA/4WWpgj0Mxok/s1600/downton+sign+post,+july+
2012.jpg
5.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ru7Frokbx6I/UARsFwtlbjI/AAAAAAAABUI/-ulf_GDNQEM/s1600/downton+church+sign,
+july+2012.jpg
6.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-onJQgXqqPoA/UARsOdYjbwI/AAAAAAAABUU/gS0_5GhXAG8/s1600/downton+post+office,
+july+2012.jpg
sandwiches in the parks (2012-07-19 17:43)
[1]
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[2]
[3]
The Parks, Oxford, earlier this afternoon: saw this squirrel tucking in (to crumbs...) when I was walking between the
Social Science and Latin American Centre libraries.
–
Visit
[4]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[5]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iTnwdDOTMZM/UAhIlFEy1SI/AAAAAAAABVQ/6C1Hvxp_dQI/s1600/squirrel+in+oxford+parks+
a.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JANyvDMtZhc/UAhImnwyAtI/AAAAAAAABVY/UKxQ_azKbRE/s1600/squirrel+in+oxford+parks+
b.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g2XOzcCdme8/UAhIn4465sI/AAAAAAAABVg/0MyWZ30xstY/s1600/squirrel+in+oxford+parks+
c.jpg
4. http://frankegerton.com/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
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summer...?, cricket at worcester, yaffling, dinner at exeter, developing as a creative writer, new
journey (2012-07-21 14:18)
[1]
Great that summer seems to be here at last.
Off to see some cricket at Worcester College later this afternoon. Some friends have been coming back to play the
dons’ team each year for two decades. For a couple of years when we lived on Osney I ended up playing too (a sort
of honorary Worcester alumnus)–though I can’t claim to have been an asset at all. I liked the beer and listening to
the green woodpecker yaffling in the trees by the canal, though. Worcester is, I believe I’m right in saying, the only
Oxford college with a sports ground within its walls. A wonderful place!
Had a busy week–when aren’t weeks busy? But it’s nice to have some space this weekend.
Tomorrow evening, I’ll be dining in hall at Exeter College, as it’s the start of the creative writing summer school. I’m
teaching a course entitled, Developing as a Creative Writer, which I’m really looking forward to. The dinner will be
preceded by drinks in the Fellows’ Garden, where I’ll meet the students for the first time.
Photo above seems appropriate to the way I feel these days, somehow. Maybe it’s the after effects of the family
upsets–whatever the cause, I often feel like I’m embarking on a new journey now.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zzYXRYZcATA/UApn9HewemI/AAAAAAAABV8/LEFeDk8LC8U/s1600/footpath+off+calcroft+
lane+july+2012+a.jpg
Gail (2012-07-22 08:11:06)
Looking forward to your reading on 6th August at Exeter. Here’s to new journeys!
Gail (OUDCE)
frank (2012-07-24 19:46:39)
Btw, now changed to Friday 10th August, 11.15 am.
Gail (2012-08-04 16:32:11)
Thanks, looking fwd to Friday now! :) Does this mean Jenny Lewis is now on Monday? I know a student is coming specially to
hear her and I’ll notify her of the date change, if you can confirm?
frank (2012-08-04 17:10:45)
Yes, I think that’s right. I’ll double-check with Sandie. I’m definitely on Friday, though.
frank (2012-08-04 17:41:34)
Just heard back: yes, a straight swap. Jenny on Monday.
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borders, granddad, keble gaudy, 99 runs in 30 overs to beat...
(2012-07-21 18:31)
[1]
[2]
[3]
the magnificent borders and tranquil lake.
Walk to cricket pitch at Worcester College took me past
My step-granddad was at Worcester and I always envied him his undergraduate days there in the Twenties. (Keble in the Eighties, was pretty good, of course–looking forward to the Gaudy on the 15th September, which I’ve just
booked.)
It was lovely to see old friends and to watch some of the cricket. I left after tea when the old boys’ team had 99
runs in 30 overs to beat. That’s a doddle (though not if the team had been made up of players like me–which, fortu280
nately, it isn’t.)
The pitch was heavy towards the boundary but the crease was good, apparently. It had been touch and go whether
the match would take place all week but the groundsmen OK’d on Thursday in view of the weather forecast–which
has turned out to be right.
–
Visit
[4]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[5]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hj7U8VC5vds/UArny6DAr3I/AAAAAAAABWQ/UMjF1zdiCA8/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FYm9yZGVyIHdvcmNlc3RlciBjb2xsZWdlLCBveGZvcmQganVseSAyMDEyLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-779093
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FkH08Xe__-U/UArnzX6iBKI/AAAAAAAABWc/TxiBu48tQrE/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FbGFrZSwgd29yY2VzdGVyIGNvbGxlZ2UsIG94Zm9yZCBqdWx5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-780868
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BS3C5pptLJ0/UArnzly9USI/AAAAAAAABWo/MYYad_naAxU/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FY3JpY2tldCwgd29yY2VzdGVyIGNvbGxlZ2UsIG94Zm9yZCBqdWx5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-782636
4. http://frankegerton.com/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
exeter, weeds, three courgettes, al fresco late breakfast, s1 (2012-07-22 21:56)
[1]
[2]
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Had a great evening at Exeter College–tutors’ meeting then reception in Fellows’ Garden and excellent dinner in hall.
Managed to get to allotment earlier, though the clay soil was still sticky. Weeds were mental, as expected. Veg that’s
there (and a lot of things didn’t get sown this year) is doing well, even so. Weeded the courgettes and cucumbers
which were the number one priority. Brought back three Italian courgettes. First fruits.
Late breakfast on terrace–haven’t done that for months.
Now heading home on S1.
–
Visit
[3]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[4]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0GNo6lkXBjc/UAxpNf1YsaI/AAAAAAAABW8/GqU9IPQr_54/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FczEgJiB3eXRoYW0gaGlsbCBqdWx5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-744493
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IJvLwqW1Sx0/UAz_-JFPDTI/AAAAAAAABXM/YMdvMsz_5GA/s1600/thames+at+swinford+july+
2012.JPG
3. http://frankegerton.com/
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
walk, binsey, taylor, hollybush (2012-07-28 16:09)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
[4]
Beautiful morning–fresh to begin with, getting hotter, but not too humid, as the sun climbed higher.
Caught 18 bus at seven because I was due at the Taylor. The bus gets to Oxford way before the library opens so I
had a great walk. Oxford canal towpath to Aristotle Lane then out onto to Port Meadow and along Fisherman’s Walk.
Crossed the Thames at Bossoms Boatyard and headed for Binsey. The lane from the hamlet feels more like the country
than the lanes round Bampton. It’s a delight and leads to the ancient [5]church and its ’treacle’ well. We were married
at Binsey.
Loved the sight of Wytham Hill from Port Meadow (above) and the chicory plants lining the river bank by the boatyard. You used to only see chicory near the ring-road roundabout at Botley. I’m pleased that it’s spreading. Come to
think of it, the roundabout isn’t that far from Binsey. (The sound of the ring road in the churchyard is what gives the
game away that you’re not in the countryside.)
So many walks along these interlinked paths years ago. Lovely to see the old places.
The sky seen through the vast windows in the Taylor Main Reading Room has been moody at times and at one
point looked like rain.
Taking a quick break now before the final hour. Then it’s off to Witney and a late lunch at the [6]Hollybush.
–
Visit
[7]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[8]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JisWHo5lH4k/UBYRHXm5v5I/AAAAAAAABYg/KmO4M5oPzWc/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
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253FZHVja3MgYnkgb3hmb3JkIGNhbmFsIGp1bHkgMjAxMi5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-752922
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9VqBKr0IASk/UBYRHoZuCkI/AAAAAAAABYs/jjRr0puff3M/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FZ3JhZmZpdGkgYnkgb3hmb3JkIGNhbmFsIGp1bHkgMjAxMi5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-754606
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B8bPQ3uV4dQ/UBYRIEiloII/AAAAAAAABY4/teKe5vzUIyI/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FcG9ydCBtZWFkb3cgYW5kIHd5dGhhbSBoaWxsLCBveGZvcmQganVseSAyMDEyLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-755794
4.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zn4AENjg7-o/UBYRIXTRERI/AAAAAAAABZE/Lz5melnU2yc/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FY2hpY29yeSBieSB0aGFtZXMsIG94Zm9yZCBqdWx5IDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-757324
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binsey,_Oxfordshire
6. http://www.hollybushwitney.co.uk/
7. http://frankegerton.com/
8. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
3.8
August
meadowsweet, burnt, exeter summer school, new novel, italian courgettes, argh!, olympic opening ceremony, frank (2012-08-04 08:56)
[1]
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[2]
Lots of [3]meadowsweet on the verges this year–more than usual, I can’t help thinking. The bottom photo was taken
last Sunday, the top one, this morning.
The meadowsweet apart, there is a burnt-up feel to the landscape–dessicated cow parsley heads and grass seeds, the
oilseed rape and corn ready to harvest.
Enjoying the summer school at Exeter–great students. Also, finished the first chapter of the final version of my
third novel yesterday. Still in shock! Will be reading this for the first time next Friday at the Saskatchewan Lecture Theatre, Exeter College, 11.15 am. (I’ll also be reading from The Lock and Invisible.) From the programme: ’All
three novels are mostly set in Oxford and Oxfordshire, and reflect his love of the region, which the books celebrate.
After the readings he will discuss the limitations and pleasures of writing regional fiction–and blogging about it:
[4]www.justthoughtsnstuff.com.’
Went to allotment earlier to pick courgettes. Lots of these–and lots of different Italian varieties. There’s also a lot of
grass up there–argh!
Loved watching the Olympic opening ceremony on the BBC Sport video player. Hats off to Danny Boyle, of course,
but also to the esteemed writer behind the event’s storyline, Frank Cottrell Boyce!
Meanwhile, an unexpectedly busy weekend ahead.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cJKzixlPj9Y/UBzO9uartdI/AAAAAAAABcE/PKIyUPTUQrI/s1600/meadowsweet+and+oilseed+
rape,+near+clanfield+august+2012.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IpHbDq4ufmk/UBzPHVMFyaI/AAAAAAAABcM/XuAFh_4n9v0/s1600/meadowsweet+near+lew+
july+2012.jpg
3. http://www.purplesage.org.uk/profiles/meadowsweet.htm
4. http://www.justthoughtsnstuff.com/
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rain, calcroft lane, jessica ennis, tears, narrative, economic gloom, john cantlie (2012-08-05 10:44)
[1]
[2]
BBC weather said no rain till 10 am but at 6.30, the rain said, You’ve got it wrong, mate.
I had to be up early because of work but had hoped for a good cycle like yesterday’s–no rain and a lovely clear
atmosphere. No such luck. A brief respite when I photographed the brook at the edge of Black Bourton Green but
then down it came again. Along Calcroft Lane it was particularly heavy, though you can’t actually see the stair-rods in
the pic. (For an earlier pic and a couple of vids featuring Calcroft Lane, see posts from [3]31st December 2010, [4]10th
March 2012 and [5]11th March 2012.)
Went to the Horse Shoe last night for a pint and saw Jessica Ennis run the 800 metres on the big screen TV. Brilliant.
I’ve not really been following the Games much but that race was amazing to watch. Great to see Greg Rutherford’s
long-jumping too. There were men down the pub confessing to have shed tears while watching Britain’s medalwinners yesterday. Prefaced, of course, by, ’I’m not normally an emotional person...’
Caught two excellent Radio 4 programmes this morning. Jake Arnott’s [6]Something Understood piece on narrative
and how it enables us to explore and understand the world. And John Gray’s salutary but beautifully argued [7]Point
of View talk on the economy and the sad truth that, ’The relative security that many people enjoyed in the recent past
is fading from memory.’
Over breakfast, I read photographer John Cantlie’s gripping and terrifying [8]article in the Sunday Times about being
286
taken prisoner by London jihadists in Syria ten days ago. He was threatened with execution and shot when trying to
escape. If you’re not a News Int subscriber, you can also hear Cantlie describing his ordeal on R4’s [9]Broadcasting
House.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LlG9r-cIhGs/UB44vVRXVxI/AAAAAAAABcw/NJ2cVxVBZGQ/s1600/brook,+black+bourton+
august+2012.jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ao7nsFoD_eA/UB4446LnGmI/AAAAAAAABc4/x3KojrEtLTU/s1600/calcroft+lane+august+2012.
jpg
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/happy-new-year.html
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/life-writing-party-vodka-cadiz.html
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/calcroft-lane-ii.html
6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qn7f
7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01l8rc1
8. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/newsreview/features/article1096135.ece
9. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lh96l
sushi, university parks, robin (2012-08-07 21:16)
[1]
Ate sushi in University Parks in between the Taylor and the Latin American Centre.
Was joined by this little robin, who cheered me up after my hectic morning!
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sno09euHkzo/UCFzrcybpDI/AAAAAAAABdc/BBVlT5TgM-o/s1600/robin,+university+parks+
august+2012.jpg
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summer school, oers, allotment disaster, readings, firework display (2012-08-11 14:11)
[1]
[2]
The summer school ended last night with a formal dinner in Exeter Hall and the awarding of certificates to the students.
For me, the school was a thoroughly rewarding experience. I very much enjoyed working with all the students.
Thanks to them for their enthusiasm, dedication and hard work.
Feeling a little drained today–not least because it’s been a busy week at the library. Even so, I’ve been doing some
preparatory work for a research project I’m involved in–tracking down, evaluating, classifying and cataloguing
[3]Open Educational Resources (OERs) in Creative Writing. (Btw if you’re interested in gadgets and [4]Creative
Commons, check out the link to OpenAttribute under JTNS Links–right.)
Now off to allotment to harvest onions and chop down grass (of which there is a great deal). To be honest the allotment has been a disaster this year, as far as most crops are concerned. What’s growing is doing really well–it’s just that
a lot of crops didn’t get planted. We’re so dependent on little windows of opportunity in between work commitments.
When the weather is kind, that’s fine but if it’s against you–as it has been all this year–you’re snookered...
Enjoyed reading from The Lock, Invisible and my new novel yesterday. I think the last of these worked OK, although I
need to deepen the characterisations in the first chapter, as well as differentiating the voices more. The audience was
great, though. Really supportive.
288
Meanwhile, saw great burdock, above, and the wonderful firework display of plants and flowers on the old rubbish
tip along the Clanfield Road while cycling this morning.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zmpge9aG2fE/UCYwsU6RHcI/AAAAAAAABeM/5SGn0ix8LgI/s1600/old+rubbish+tip,
+clanfield+road+august+2012.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--nsMCfYV7XY/UCYwgeZIAYI/AAAAAAAABeA/FCtiEekaO0M/s1600/great+burdock%252C+
clanfield+road+august+2012.jpg
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources
4. http://creativecommons.org/
telegraph blog, trains, nell (2012-08-16 22:54)
[1]
Well, you heard about her here first. OK, just a brief mention in my post of [2]23rd June 2012: ’Also, had a great time
when J’s god-daughter came to stay on Thursday and we ate out at Biztro (best meal ever there).’
And now here she is, writing about [3]trains on the Telegraph blog! With 52 comments, as well.
Not sure I agree with everything Nell says (’I think not indeed’! :-), having written my second novel on...buses, but
it’s a fantastic piece. What was I writing at 17? ’A...B...C...’
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O6bu8pJkEls/UC1qLQ1EGuI/AAAAAAAABfM/HndoOsZX-0M/s1600/telegraph,+nell+
whittaker+august+2012.jpg
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/decent-bike-ride-waterlogged-allotment.html
3.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/nellwhittaker/100065833/
tightening-brakes-and-a-sense-of-falling-the-world-through-the-window-of-a-train/
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bark (birch?), parks, cycling, oppressive, oers (2012-08-18 10:21)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Took these shots of tree bark in the Oxford University Parks yesterday. Loved the colours and patterns. Assume the
tree is some sort of birch, though you can never be sure of what you’re looking at in the Parks. Could be an exotic,
completely unrelated to birch.
Great cycle earlier. Still nice and cool then, although it’s beginning to hot up now. Don’t think we’ll reach the 30C
that’s promised for some parts of the UK in west Oxfordshire but you never know. Actually hope the temperature
doesn’t get that high because you can already feel the oppressive humidity–also promised.
Now about to get on with the rest of the OER research mentioned last week that I didn’t finish...
Looking forward to a more relaxing day tomorrow.
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university+parks+august+2012+b.jpg
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university+parks+august+2012+c.jpg
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hot, cherwell, ash, biztro (2012-08-19 12:43)
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Wow, it’s hot!
I’m looking at this pic–taken in the Oxford University Parks on Friday–rather wistfully. It was cooler then and now
the sight of the River Cherwell makes me want to go for a dip.
Cycled earlier, after having cleared the ash out of the grate and stowed the fire guard (usually do this at the start of
the summer but it’s only a couple of weeks since we last had a log fire). Meanwhile, have just mowed the lawn. Late
breakfast on the terrace soon.
Another delicious meal at Bampton’s [2]Biztro last night–with J’s mum, this time. (For me, smoked mackerel pâté
followed by seared tuna salad).
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0qwl-rUQXiw/UDDOkSYPvGI/AAAAAAAABgo/O-TVtfL_HRk/s1600/cherwell+and+meadows+
from+oxford+university+parks+august+2012.jpg
2. http://www.biztro.co.uk/
autumnal, min-till, mad, furniture saga, jtns pics on google+, new lights (2012-08-25 10:11)
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The land looks autumnal in many places now. Fields have been harvested, ploughed or min-tilled and sown.
The sky was dark and brooding when I started my bike ride but when I was returning along Calcroft Lane, the sun
broke through.
A mad week at work, finishing off things so I can take some leave.
Meanwhile, the furniture saga I mentioned [6]last year, is only just reaching its grim conclusion after legal issues were
resolved–these were nothing to do with me. (The post I’ve linked to btw was rewritten at the start of the year, after
dad died.)
Oh, and if you’d like to see the complete collection of [7]justthoughtsnstuff.com photos, they’re all on [8]Google+.
New lights to explore before my next post.
Post edited 17.09.12.
1.
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bourton+august+2012.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2ppbceQWWeI/UDiNsrCHTII/AAAAAAAABiI/bz_X_-poBpk/s1600/harvested+field+near+
kencot+august+2012.jpg
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kencot+august+2012.jpg
4.
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+calcroft+lane+august+2012.jpg
5. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g_3Say_wBBU/UDiN73_XwzI/AAAAAAAABig/t6HdPVeCeq4/s1600/ploughed+field,+calcroft+
lane+august+2012.jpg
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/furniture-clowns-kennington-invisible.html
7. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
8. https://plus.google.com/photos/110094791454271883546/albums/5452271828456931681?banner=pwa
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3.9
September
holiday, france, châlons (2012-09-03 00:17)
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car for ages.
Had a great holiday in France–the first European trip by
Years ago, I took against the Channel tunnel but having travelled to and from Europe via it now, I feel OK. (One
of the few ’complaints’ was that French Orange seemed to last from France to GB, whereas GB Orange kicked off after
only a mile or so of being on British soil and was in any case just weak 3G–in France Orange data services seem to be
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ubiquitously strong 3G.)
Now home but will be posting photos of the trip here every so often. Above are, the tunnel and a couple of pics
of the first stop–Châlons-en-Champagne.
–
Visit
[4]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[5]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
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253FY2hhbG9ucyBlbiBjaGFtcGFnbmUgYXVndXN0IDIwMTIgYS5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-717929
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253FY2hhbG9ucyBlbiBjaGFtcGFnbmUgYXVndXN0IDIwMTIgYi5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-720244
4. http://frankegerton.com/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
end of holiday, horseshoes, bell at langford, châlons, tournon, seguin, jaboulet (2012-09-05 22:29)
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Last day of the holiday... Great lunch at the Hollybush’s sister pub, the [11]Horseshoes, in Witney. Yesterday, did the
Bampton-Black Bourton-Langford walk featured in [12]post of 3rd September 2011–superb lunch at the [13]Bell!
Above are photos from the journeys to and from the South of France. On the way down we stayed in [14]Châlons-enChampagne (top pic), as mentioned in my first French [15]post below, and [16]Tournon-sur-Rhône (see also, French
Wikipedia [17]site). On the way back, it was just Châlons (last three pics)–quite a drive, that one.
The second from top photo shows the bridge between Tournon and [18]Tain-l’Hermitage, which was built by [19]Marc
Seguin (the inventor of the wire-cable [20]suspension bridge) in 1849–the first night pic is taken from the bridge itself,
looking towards the old castle. This structure was the second Seguin bridge to be built at Tournon. The earlier one
(1825) was said to be the first of its type in France (see [21]Bridgemeister). It was converted to a footbridge in 1847
and demolished in the 1960s–for navigational reasons, according to a board on the surviving bridge.
In the background of the daylight photo of the Seguin bridge, can be seen [22]Paul Jaboulet’s vineyards. Terrific to
catch a glimpse of these, having enjoyed the wine with Christmas lunches.
Tomorrow, the furniture is to be lotted up. Quel dommage.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yLdJeXk_OTY/UEe1zias7iI/AAAAAAAABmk/2z3deI0bpjU/s1600/facade+hanging,+building+
project,+ch%C3%A2lons-en-champagne+august+2012.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7QvL4qSoYCo/UEe16aRMieI/AAAAAAAABms/x_2iPkKFlOA/s1600/marc+seguin’s+1847+
suspension+bridge,+tournon-sur-rh%C3%B4ne+&+paul+jaboulet+vineyard+august+2012.jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w1NTe0lz4-I/UEe2DVHlEFI/AAAAAAAABm0/JyEUnCVEnZU/s1600/tower+above+
tournon-sur-rh%C3%B4ne+august+2012.jpg
4.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RxS8AMkzkjM/UEe2L1jqHkI/AAAAAAAABm8/i50micifeB4/s1600/terraced+vineyards,
+tournon-sur-rh%C3%B4ne+august+2012.jpg
5.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0fD9rFSUYT0/UEe2XKXTt8I/AAAAAAAABnE/-AF997N7Sow/s1600/vines+above+
tournon-sur-rh%C3%B4ne+august+2012.jpg
6.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z5gSUEW-kqE/UEe2aUcbcDI/AAAAAAAABnM/6r6BMAkrCWM/s1600/castle,
+tournon-sur-rhone+from+marc+seguin’s+suspension+bridge+august+2012.jpg
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7. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PlQN4pqE_Ds/UEe2hSoE63I/AAAAAAAABnU/jJhpoAGoF9o/s1600/balcony,+tournon-sur-rh%
C3%B4ne+august+2012.jpg
8.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FYbOk2D-IlU/UEe2ow7aqlI/AAAAAAAABnc/jxIZkP96xVQ/s1600/street,+ch%C3%
A2lons-en-champagne+september+2012+a.jpg
9.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3pba89Ob1go/UEe2vfk3QOI/AAAAAAAABnk/FniK-eOzp9k/s1600/h%C3%B4tel+de+ville,+ch%
C3%A2lons-en-champagne+september+2012.jpg
10.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p0v0lD70nHo/UEe21gn6PGI/AAAAAAAABns/v5n-11vBdTo/s1600/cathedral+and+moon,+ch%
C3%A2lons-en-champagne+september+2012.jpg
11. http://www.horseshoeswitney.co.uk/
12. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/bell-oaks-alvescot-black-bourton-church.html
13. http://bellatlangford.co.uk/
14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2lons-en-Champagne
15. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/holiday-france-chalons.html
16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournon-sur-Rh%C3%B4ne
17. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournon-sur-Rh%C3%B4ne
18. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tain-l’Hermitage
19. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Seguin
20. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_bridge
21. http://www.bridgemeister.com/list.php?type=crossing&crossing=Rh%F4ne+River
22. http://www.jaboulet.com/Website/site/eng_prehome.htm
energised, cousins from australia, churches, collobrières, sweet chestnuts, huge, huge thanks
(2012-09-09 10:54)
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Well and truly back to work but feel energised by the holiday and the great weather we’ve been having this week.
Really enjoyed visit from Australian cousins, Paul and Annette, yesterday. Lovely to catch up, have lunch at [13]Biztro
(thanks both) and visit the churches at [14]Black Bourton and [15]Langford (benefiting hugely from the experience of
the guides who were there for the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust sponsored [16]bike ride).
Above are photos of our destination in the South of France, [17]Collobrières (see [18]also), a beautiful Medieval town
in the wooded hills above St Tropez. The town is overlooked by the ruins of the church of St Pons and has a narrow
12th century bridge leading to the centre, which demands careful driving! Highlights included the red and rosé wines
and sweet chestnuts, which featured in preserves, starters, mains, kirs and the local beer. If you’d like to see more
photos, they’re on [19]Google+. A huge, huge thank you to Rachel for making the holiday possible!
1.
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hills+august+2012.jpg
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collobri%C3%A8res+august+2012.jpg
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collobri%C3%A8res+august+2012.jpg
4.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WB5O1y3AxmQ/UExfPWJi2HI/AAAAAAAABro/qaV2oH6kIMo/s1600/vines+near+collobri%C3%
A8res+august+2012.jpg
5. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2jgOClTnB-U/UExfrWOR4AI/AAAAAAAABsQ/GhaNCXs_9h0/s1600/ruins+of+st+pons+church,
+collobri%C3%A8res+august+2012.jpg
6.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_3QjzDNjEXw/UExfyJKXRjI/AAAAAAAABsY/hw6j1pWcDXc/s1600/houses,+collobri%C3%
A8res+august+2012.jpg
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A8res+august+2012+b.jpg
8. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uJIvIki5mH8/UExgCazY2MI/AAAAAAAABss/oRK_0gbwLG4/s1600/butcher’s+shop,+collobri%
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9. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o5KS9Kdnhyk/UExgMl95NDI/AAAAAAAABs4/jDcV2TPF9_E/s1600/boules+players,+collobri%
C3%A8res+august+2012.jpg
10.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cEW17X4c3gE/UExgW1bqXjI/AAAAAAAABtA/J3VNjc_qHTc/s1600/12th+century+stone+
bridge-pont+raoul+calvi-over+real+collobrier,+collobri%C3%A8res+august+2012.jpg
11.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rRtSDvpEdI4/UExgm124B1I/AAAAAAAABtU/Y0soQUc_e-M/s1600/from+the+balcony,
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+collobri%C3%A8res+august+2012.jpg
13. http://www.biztro.co.uk/
14. http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/black-bourton-church
15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Matthew’s_Church,_Langford
16. http://www.ohct.org.uk/StridePoster.pdf
17. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collobri%C3%A8res
18. http://www.beyond.fr/villages/collobrieres.html
19. https://plus.google.com/photos/110094791454271883546/albums/5786101657966497169?authkey=CMDkz9qa0I3GYA
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2012-09-09 12:09:23)
I am reliant on you for the gloriously sombre Oxon skies, not for the blue of today, which I have more than my fill of here ;-)
frank (2012-09-09 12:33:29)
Ah! Apologies! Back to normal next week!
Lucinda (2012-09-10 06:27:37)
Great snaps mate, brings out that warmth. keep up the good work.
hooky, plough, oers, keble gaudy, lost, spray, spuds (2012-09-15 19:12)
[1]
Enjoyable pint of Hooky at the Plough at Kelmscott earlier
after online teaching and intensive Open Educational Resources (OER) hunting.
Now on bus to Oxford dressed up for Keble gaudy. Can’t believe it’s four years since the last one. It’ll be fun to
see everyone again, although it’s sad that 1985 English alumni never come back. Indeed quite a few are ’lost’...
Meanwhile, still reeling from busy, busy week at work. Glad I caught up with some sleep on holiday!
During a break from online teaching and OER stuff, I went to the allotment and sprayed off the couch grass. Hated
doing this but I’ve got so behind with everything up there this year, what with the atrocious weather. Still, the spud
harvest was good, as were the onion and shallott crops.
–
Visit
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[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
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2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
misty, refreshing, days off, cherwell boathouse, oers live, first fire of autumn?
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(2012-09-22 18:41)
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Misty, cold start to the day. Very beautiful, though.
It was great to go out on the bike–journey refreshed me after a madly busy week.
Today was hectic to start with, after the bike ride, catching up on library work then doing online teaching. Now,
though, looking froward to the rest of the weekend and a couple of days off.
Fun trip to next village earlier in the afternoon for colleague’s house warming party. Nice to able to chat to everyone
away from work and see the lovely house.
Delicious birthday meal yesterday at [6]Cherwell Boathouse!
Btw the open educational resources for creative writing that I selected in August and last weekend are on the Rewley
House site. Worth a glance at the [7]CW ones, as well as those for other subjects.
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Chilly evening. Debating whether to light first fire of the autumn.
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mist,+bampton+2012+a.jpg
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mist,+bampton+2012+b.jpg
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5.
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lane+september+2012.jpg
6. http://www.cherwellboathouse.co.uk/index.php?page=restaurant+introduction
7. http://open.conted.ox.ac.uk/tags/creative-writing
batcombe, sweet tooth, september sun, rain, reckless, assessor (2012-09-26 16:24)
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Birthday break at Batcombe, Somerset. Great to return there and to stay at the wonderful [7]Three Horseshoes (the
best ever food and hospitality there, I would say). Presents included copy of Ian McEwan’s new novel Sweet Tooth,
which I’m really enjoying. A textbook McEwan opening chapter that completely immerses the reader in the fiction.
The weather on Monday didn’t look promising (top photo), although it cleared towards lunchtime and yesterday’s
walking was in brightish September sunshine.
Astonishingly heavy rain on Sunday night. Not surprised to learn of sad floods in Somerset and elsewhere.
Was intrigued by the tombstone in Upton Noble churchyard ([8]St Mary Magdalene’s)–that middle name ’Reckless’
(third-from-top photo). A story there, I feel.
Into Oxford this evening for induction for Certificate of Higher Education assessors.
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2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7LlGKDb7DyY/UGMZ6nxRNbI/AAAAAAAABww/JcPgaZ4CWmM/s1600/st+mary+magdalene,+upton+
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3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HdD3AJitgZY/UGMaE_I_7JI/AAAAAAAABw4/z5e7Q07oaLM/s1600/sidney+reckless+denning+
tombstone+september+2012.jpg
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jpg
5. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jDnHst_APkY/UGMaQ895cLI/AAAAAAAABxI/sricTIcBKpM/s1600/near+batcomber+september+
2012.jpg
6.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E0zX2a7iK6g/UGMaZk0nsMI/AAAAAAAABxU/NLWvSTTPYQw/s1600/brook+near+batcomber+
september+2012.jpg
7. http://www.thethreehorseshoesinn.co.uk/
8. http://www.achurchnearyou.com/upton-noble-st-mary-magdalene
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2012-09-26 17:33:26)
That’s better, gloomy skies, followed by scudding clouds, I am now living my Autumn through your photos.
You were the lucky birthday boy with book and beer, a peerless combination.
(A few miles further south, I was once reading Tess in a bar, literally on one of the mentioned bye-ways, and the locals thought I
should be involved in their discussion of runner beans. An annual conversation with highs and lows, the latter in a Hardyesque
way dominating!)
Why are there so many Gold Hills in the West Country?
Frank Egerton (2012-09-26 18:18:50)
Excellent story! It’s great that one can spend time in places mentioned in the novels. We once stayed at a pub that featured in
Tess and late in the evening a fiddle player struck up and there was much Hardyesque singing!
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michaelmas, anticipation, things to be done, a conscious englishman, a pint or two (2012-09-29 09:30)
[1]
Oxford Michaelmas Term starts on Monday. Lots of preparations have been going on in all departments recently and
everyone is frantically busy. There’s a great sense of anticipation and excitement.
Teaching tomorrow from 8 am and today there are lots of things to be done for the libraries and the creative writing
courses. Will also be doing some more work on StreetBooks’ 2013 lead title, A Conscious Englishman by Margaret
Keeping. A terrific book! More on this over the coming months.
Fantastic cycle earlier, which got the day off to a good start.
A beautiful autumn morning with not a cloud in the sky, as the above photo shows.
Will there be time for a pint or two later? I dare say there will be.
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October
oth week, downpours, mist, ace, streetbooks.co.uk, mellow, soft (2012-10-06 11:32)
[1]
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Well, 0th Week is over for me. Busy, busy time, welcoming new students to the libraries and making sure they had all
the info about how make the best use of the collections, as well as how to access e-resources.
Astonishing downpours over the last few days–at night especially. This morning there were giant puddles everywhere and a lot of mist about. Latter atmospherically diaphanous and not thick enough to make cycling unsafe.
Been doing some more work in connection with the new novel StreetBooks is publishing on 7th February 2013, A
Conscious Englishman by Margaret Keeping–see above flier and [3]StreetBooks website.
Looking out of the window, it’s mellow autumn sunlight and a soft blue sky.
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2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D1PFGbfnQ4w/UHAHyYU5v6I/AAAAAAAABzc/cklExUbEc3o/s1600/jtns+flier.jpg
3. http://streetbooks.co.uk/
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flooding, great brook, wet feet, wet fields (2012-10-07 21:42)
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Hadn’t expected there to be any flooding when I set off on my bike ride this morning.
I knew the rain had been heavy but even so...
Great Brook out across the road in three places near Tadpole Bridge. Wet feet! Flooded fields.
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http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sUkn53KOV1A/UHGQA6BxkvI/AAAAAAAAB0E/6hjc5b1U488/s1600/flooded+road+near+
tadpole+bridge+october+2012+a.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R5h2L009W9Y/UHGQHYaqc0I/AAAAAAAAB0M/Q0HPayY1zvY/s1600/flooded+fields+by+great+
brook+october+2012+a.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-awGo1HB1sxE/UHGQTuSr2hI/AAAAAAAAB0U/TwBdFqU2nO0/s1600/flooded+fields+by+great+
brook+october+2012+b.jpg
oxford canal, a40, coal barges, snaky heron, rain (2012-10-11 22:53)
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[2]
Lovely walk along the Oxford canal before work this morning. Though not as long a walk as I’d have liked because
the traffic on the A40 was bad again and the bus didn’t get in till about 8.15. All month the traffic has been bad. I
don’t remember it being this bad last year (showing my age with these curmudgeonly comments!).
Saw the coal barges above by the last lock before the city. A similar barge is referred to in The Lock, when Gerald,
the Oxford don having an affair with a graduate student, visits his daughter Alison on her barge and learns about
her way of life: ’His questions revealed that the stove was called a Squirrel and that it was kept going all the time in
winter. As well as heating the living-area, a radiator in the bedroom was run off it. Coal was supplied by a firm from
up north’ who would phone when their barge was in the area.’
Also saw the heron again at the very end of the canal by Hythe Bridge Street–looking rather snake-like, as a friend
remarked when I showed her the photo. I say it’s ’the heron’ but I think this is another one–a younger one.
Later, at about 11.30, the promised rain started and the day stayed pretty grey and damp after that.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-za0XjnT4JpE/UHc7CGlH72I/AAAAAAAAB08/RJz-mEBUFpM/s1600/heron,+oxford+canal+
october+2012+a.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r9KEzbv0Z9E/UHc7MFJws4I/AAAAAAAAB1E/CFgXVb7HFYo/s1600/coal+barges,+oxford+
canal+october+2012.jpg
Margaret Keeping (2012-10-12 09:24:37)
It was good to see the canal photos ; how the towpath has changed, though, since I biked home from work there every day in the
80’s.
Certainly more accessible than the muddy path, but something is lost. More curmudgeonliness no doubt.
I think herons have a judgemental look, and their solitariness is eerily beautiful.
315
frost, gang warfare, typesetting, editing, landscapes (2012-10-14 11:02)
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[3]
Up fairly early this morning because I’m marking finals scripts later. A misty start to the day.
There was a frost too and cycling was chilly as well as beautiful. When I had to brake because of an oncoming car
along Calcroft Lane, I felt the tyres slip and the memory of when I came off last December returned to me and made
me shudder. I’ve continued to feel twinges in different parts of my body all year and it’s only recently that they’ve
pretty much gone. Do not want to repeat the experience!
Yesterday, I worked at the Taylor. Had a lovely walk down the Oxford canal beforehand but when I turned into
Gloucester Green bus station, heading for Caffè Nero, I suddenly noticed police tape across the entrance to the square.
I asked the guy selling London tickets what was happening. There had been a fight between two gangs after the
clubs emptied and one person lost an eye and another was critically ill in hospital with stab wounds. ’That’s where
it happened,’ he said, pointing. ’There’s the blood.’ The pool was magenta and looked surprisingly fresh. I decided
to get away from the scene-of-crime police and photographers and head for another café on St Giles. As I walked
along the top of the square looking at the debris and little yellow numbered markers by the discarded belts (weapons,
I suppose) and other evidence, I felt very sad for the young lives blighted by the drunken evening–both the victims
and the people who’ll end up behind bars.
Meanwhile, I’ve been typesetting and editing A Conscious Englishman. Apart from anything else, I’m enjoying reading
the novel again. The wonderful descriptions of nature and landscapes seem so far removed from what I saw at
Gloucester Green. Btw the novel’s author, Margaret Keeping, has just started a [4]blog about her experience of the
[5]StreetBooks publishing process.
Which is about it for now.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7V7MpRbAZEU/UHp9t40RdCI/AAAAAAAAB2E/YcmY_qwoESQ/s1600/cattle,+black+bourton+
october+2012.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9Uibkb99yjE/UHp90V2xEqI/AAAAAAAAB2M/WHCuRVi6I_Y/s1600/mist+and+footpath+sign,
+calcropft+lane+october+2012.jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3Frlu6rvMAs/UHp97ebUPmI/AAAAAAAAB2U/sN0LE8f7bSg/s1600/misty+landscape,
+calcroft+lane+october+2012.jpg
4. http://publishingmyedwardthomas.blogspot.co.uk/
5. http://streetbooks.co.uk/
Margaret Keeping (2012-10-14 17:26:07)
I like the compassion in your thoughts about that horrible fight, Frank. A different Oxford, one I used to be much more aware of
when I(and Marc) worked at the Probation Day Centre in the 90’s but now never see.
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oxford canal, streetbooks lock, bampton post office raid, log fire, cathy x (2012-10-20 22:59)
[1]
[2]
Lots of work this weekend, which means cycling in the dark both mornings. So, here are two photos I took yesterday,
while walking along the Oxford canal.
The bridge over the last lock will be [3]familiar to jtns regulars and features in The Lock, my first novel–an image of
the bridge appears on the [4]cover of the [5]StreetBooks Kindle ebook edition.
It has been, sadly, another violent Saturday. This time closer to home. As I walked into the centre of the village, there
was police tape cordoning off part of the square, an ambulance, many police cars and a dozen or so police officers,
some interviewing witnesses. I saw a woman being led to the ambulance and our post office manager standing outside his premises.
From what I’ve learnt since, there was a raid about 9.30 am, involving two men. The woman who works behind the
counter was badly beaten up. An incident that has left the village shocked and angry.
[Since writing the above, the story has started to appear in the local [6]press.]
It is not the first raid on a business in the village since we’ve been here. As someone said, crooks must think little
villages ’easy pickings’.
The day has been mostly overcast and cold–though there was some thin sun around noon. The ground is sodden
from torrential rain during the week. A chill autumn day, therefore. Log fire this evening.
318
Thanks to Cathy x for the mention on her blog [7]writeanovelin10minutesflat.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uB4TuLWKzjw/UIJ8-pt33XI/AAAAAAAAB3Q/9XXQ5CoVFLc/s1600/autumn+leaves+and+red+
berries,+oxford+canal+october+2012+a.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ImPYKI5fw7Y/UIJ9G6udckI/AAAAAAAAB3Y/LUAUgcjEFtg/s1600/oxford+canal,+last+lock+
october+2012.jpg
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/oxford-canal-bridge-nags-head-yaffling.html
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/lock-on-kindle.html
5. http://streetbooks.co.uk/fiction.html
6. http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/9997793.Bampton_post_office_robbed/
7. http://writeanovelin10minutesflat.wordpress.com/
writeanovelin10minutesflat (2012-10-21 15:39:25)
Thanks Frank. That’s very kind of you to name-check me. Love the beautiful leaves. Cathy x
lie-in, webs, oed word of the day, hotchi-witchi (2012-10-21 10:17)
[1]
Decided to have a bit of a lie-in after all. Feeling fresher for it.
Amazing webs in the hedges and on the fields, when out cycling!
Btw I subscribe to the Oxford English Dictionary’s excellent Word of the day service (see [2]oed site, box on right
hand side). The word that appeared in my inbox the other day, complete with etymology and historic examples of its
use, was ’hotchi-witchi’, which is an English Romani word for hedgehog. Love that word!
1.
http:
//3.bp.blogspot.com/-MoibvwJuZm0/UIOxTKeP0PI/AAAAAAAAB4c/3J0-viH6nXo/s1600/webs,+kencot+october+2012+a.jpg
2. http://www.oed.com/
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marking finished, lie-in, warmer, blue trailer, mst blog, edward thomas’ oxford, wio 20th
(2012-10-28 15:17)
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[2]
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[3]
Finals marking finished for another year. A rewarding experience.
Had a lie-in this morning and have felt a good deal less awake than on previous Sundays when I’ve got up at 6 am...
Enjoyed cycling, though. Rather warmer than yesterday (top photo), which was freezing. There wasn’t much of a
frost but the wind was extraordinarily bitter.
The countryside was grey and fairly nondescript this morning, apart from the blue trailer.
Btw the MSt in Creative Writing now has a blog, which is exciting: [4]http://blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk/mstcw.
And talking of blogs, [5]Margaret Keeping’s post on Friday featured the wonderful book on Oxford that Edward
Thomas wrote. Published in 1903 by A & C Black, it has illustrations by John Fulleylove and the fee for the book
apparently saved Thomas and his family from the ’gutter and bankruptcy’. Seeing the post made me want to reach
for my first edition, only to find it not on the shelf. I have a feeling it’s in the attic. I’ll have to get the ladder down.
Meanwhile, looking forward to the Writers in Oxford 20th anniversary party at Worcester College in a couple of
weeks’ time. As the invitation says, it will be held in the room ’where it all began’. I’m wondering how many past
chairs of the society will be there.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AjwjlFoLOas/UI0wycsXVAI/AAAAAAAAB5c/xBnmM72Uahg/s1600/yellow+lichen+near+black+
bourton+october+2012.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--v0N0iN3HdM/UI0w8w2nhNI/AAAAAAAAB5o/2pEykW34KB4/s1600/blue+trailer,+calcroft+
lane+october+2012.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ECMu_FYm_cE/UI0xGQb9pqI/AAAAAAAAB5w/pNoG_9cOXlA/s1600/blue+trailer,+yellow+
lichen,+calcroft+lane+october+2012.jpg
4. http://blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk/mstcw
5. http://publishingmyedwardthomas.blogspot.co.uk/
Margaret Keeping (2012-10-28 17:42:34)
Well Frank, if yours is a first edition of ’Oxford’ as mine is too, I hope your attic is good and dry.
Must admit I find it a curate’s egg of a book for me, - good in parts. My favourite section is The Oxford Country, when you can
feel him getting into his stride, literally and writerly,like,
’One such footpath I remember,that could be seen falling among woods and rising over hills, faint and winding, and disappearing
at last,- like a vision of a perfect, quiet life.’
And ,
For the most part we saw only the great hawthorn hedge,which gave us the sense of a companion always abreast of us, yet
always cool and fresh as if just setting out.’
321
3.11
November
greylags, signet, running to catch up, family (1 unkown before now), hunger (2012-11-03 09:40)
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[2]
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[4]
[5]
Working in Oxford today but don’t have to be in until 10,
which means I had time for a decent walk along the canal, across Port Meadow and down the Thames path to the city
centre. (Now having regular Americano in Caffè Nero.) As always, a delight to walk the byways I loved when living
on Osney Island.
Finished the last of the marking for a few weeks on Monday. Spent the rest of the week running to catch up, it
seemed. Lots of things happening. Lots to prepare for.
Delicious meal at Biztro, Bampton last night. Family staying on both Thursday and Friday this week. Lovely to
see H then S!
Also nice to hear from a distant cousin, RS, earlier in the week–who I knew nothing of before then.
The treat at the end of the working day will be late lunch at the Hollybush. Witney. Worth the hunger!
–
Visit
[6]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[7]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QB86zLk-sG4/UJTmuHlkA4I/AAAAAAAAB6s/Yc1qEt81a-o/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FZ3JleWxhZyBnZWVzZSwgcG9ydCBtZWFkb3cgbm92ZW1iZXIgMjAxMi5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-770655
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c_U-y2pgcjQ/UJTmu7OxHNI/AAAAAAAAB64/JY4dUxuz838/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2lnbmV0LCB0aGFtZXMgcGF0aCwgb3hmb3JkIG5vdmVtYmVyIDIwMTIgYS5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-775235
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ldkO4RtG1p4/UJTmwKRIZ8I/AAAAAAAAB7E/7t4CDeXfx9Y/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2lnbmV0LCB0aGFtZXMgcGF0aCwgb3hmb3JkIG5vdmVtYmVyIDIwMTIgYi5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-779882
323
4.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EJNcvTg3DHQ/UJTmxWaY7FI/AAAAAAAAB7Q/ot3mhRdP7_0/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2lnbmV0LCB0aGFtZXMgcGF0aCwgb3hmb3JkIG5vdmVtYmVyIDIwMTIgYy5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-784994
5.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cm4uRwMcO3M/UJTmyFOXR_I/AAAAAAAAB7c/o6WtdJPlfUg/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2lnbmV0LCB0aGFtZXMgcGF0aCwgb3hmb3JkIG5vdmVtYmVyIDIwMTIgZC5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-788446
6. http://frankegerton.com/
7. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
rain, waterlogged fields, first log delivery, brazil, in trouble again (2012-11-04 21:55)
[1]
Rain overnight was heavy by at least 4 am and lasted till midday. Lots of waterlogged fields by the time I went cycling.
First log delivery of the winter this afternoon (we’ve been using up what was left of the last spring delivery till now).
Enjoying Michael Palin’s [2]Brazil on iPlayer. In episode 2, Into Amazonia, Palin visits the [3]Yanomami, recalling
Redmond O’Hanlon’s adventures, recounted in [4]In Trouble Again.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C8K_GohPg5A/UJap47NOGiI/AAAAAAAAB8U/YSit_LozoUA/s1600/flooded+field,+black+
bourton+november+2012.jpg
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nqm81/Brazil_with_Michael_Palin_Into_Amazonia/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanomami
4. http://literature.britishcouncil.org/redmond-ohanlon
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autumn leaves, aa gill, edward thomas, a conscious englishman by margaret keeping, streetbooks (2012-11-11 17:07)
[1]
A beautiful autumn day. Or should that be winter’s day? Not quite winter, I think. Not least because there are still
so many autumn leaves on the trees. The relentless rain seems to have been good for keeping them on, if for nothing
else.
A great [2]article on Edward Thomas by AA Gill in the Sunday Times. (Sorry that link won’t work for those who
don’t have access beyond the News International paywall...) I liked the following especially:
’Barely two of his poems mention the war and then only in passing. But altogether they are an almost unbearable
memorial to the trenches, not as dispatches from the front or descriptions of horror, but as a departing view of what
was fought for and what was lost.’
The article anticipates the [3]play about Thomas by Nick Dear at the Almeida. Meanwhile, A Conscious Englishman
by Margaret Keeping, which will be published by [4]StreetBooks on 7th February 2013 is showing on [5]Amazon,
[6]Blackwell, [7]Waterstones and other major online retailers. See also, Margaret’s excellent [8]blog, Publishing my
Edward Thomas.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pl94uenPiBA/UJ_CfvcnCwI/AAAAAAAAB9M/kdbRHJ6Beg0/s1600/heart-shaped+leaves,+the+
parks,+oxford+november+2012.jpg
2. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/books/fiction/article1160454.ece
3. http://www.almeida.co.uk/event/darkearth
4. http://streetbooks.co.uk/aconsciousenglishman.html
5.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Conscious-Englishman-Margaret-Keeping/dp/0956424236/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=
1352648879&sr=8-5
6. http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/id/A_Conscious_Englishman/9780956424235
7. http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/margaret+keeping/a+conscious+englishman/9437149/
8. http://publishingmyedwardthomas.blogspot.co.uk/
Anonymous (2012-11-14 15:31:39)
I, too, read the article on Thomas in the Times and was irritated (but not surprised given Gill’s historic hostility towards the
Welsh)by it’s title (’The Quiet Voice of England’)and not even a passing acknowledgement of his Welsh roots (both his parents
were Welsh)of which he was very proud, to the extent that he gave all his children Welsh names (Merfyn, Myfanwy and
Bronwen), and note, his son’s name spelt the Welsh way, with an ’f’ rather than a ’v’. And now here’s this book, ’A Conscious
Englishman.’
If, by this, certain English people are trying to stake an exclusive claim on Edward Thomas as being one of their own, then it is a
deception that does not bear scrutiny.’ There is no doubt that he loved England, but he is more fairly described as an Anglo-Welsh
poet.
325
Frank Egerton (2012-11-15 09:10:53)
Thanks. The title is a quote from Thomas himself–see, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now _All _Roads _Lead _to
_France. In the novel Thomas’ pride in his Welsh roots is made very clear. (I am half-Welsh and appreciate the points you make.)
Margaret Keeping (2012-11-15 14:51:59)
As you say Frank, ’I am rapidly becoming a conscious Englishman,’ was a significant statement in his growing belief that he
had to ’do something’about Britain at war. He called himself an ’accidental Cockney’, was described by a very close friend as
’A Londoner with a covering of Oxford’, and the truth is that English language and literature, writers and preoccupations filled
his thinking constantly. His prose ’Beautiful Wales’ is lovely, but only two poems relate in any way to Wales - Mountain Chapel
and Helen of the Roads - a pity.His poems and 90 % of his prose are specifically placed in southern England, no doubt reflecting
demand for the prose and daily influence for the poems. So in a way Gill is right.
But do read Thomas. He saw ’lovers of the Celt’as poseurs:
’Their aim and ideal is to go about the world in a state of self-satisfied dejection, interrupted, and perhaps sustained, by days
when they consume strange mixed liquors to the tune of all the fine old songs which are fashionable...I cannot avoid the opinion
that to boast of the Celtic spirit is to confess you have it not.’
Ouch! You can always rely on Thomas for honesty.
Margaret Keeping (2012-11-15 16:38:25)
Of course in that he says,’I am rapidly becoming...’ does imply that he was not a conscious Englishman beforehand. He is
using England to mean Britain as he disliked that term and thought it meant nothing: people only relate to their own ’holes and
corners.’ It’s annoying but I think it was even more prevalent then than now, when we are a bit more attuned to separate identities.
trailer, autumn days, wio 20th, fox, snowdrops, tunes (2012-11-18 22:39)
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A mix of gloomy, leaden days, this week–like yesterday–and beautiful sunshine, like Wednesday and today. On the
sunny days the autumn leaves have been glorious.
Yesterday we went to the [6]Writers in Oxford (WiO) twentieth anniversary party, which was held in the room in
Worcester College where the society was founded. It all came about when two Oxford-based writers were returning
from a Society of Authors meeting in London and decided to see if there was any interest in a more local group. When
they contacted fellow Oxford authors, far more than expected turned up to the inaugural meeting and WiO was born.
It now has around 200 members. I edited the Oxford Writer, the society’s newsletter, in the early Noughties and was
chair from 2008-2010.
When we arrived at Worcester we met Brian Aldiss, who used to send me updates when I edited the newsletter,
including news of the Steven Spielberg film [7]AI, which was based on one of his stories (Super-Toys Last All Summer Long). As we wandered towards the building where the party was being held we saw first a fox, nonchalantly
strolling across the lawn, and secondly, clumps of snowdrops out beneath one of the trees. A somewhat surreal experience!
It was lovely to see so many old friends. There were speeches from Brian, Philip Pullman, the current chair Denise
Cullington and one of the two people who came up with the idea for a society on the train, Jenyth Worsley. (Sadly the
other founder, [8]William Horwood couldn’t be at the party.) Philip remembered a memorable gathering at his house,
when the whisky writer, the late Michael Jackson, gave a talk and cracked open many rare whiskies from his private
collection. I remember that evening well–it was the greatest of fun.
328
Today, I got up early to work on [9]A Conscious Englishman–the typesetting is nearly done. I also downloaded Daniel
Merriweather’s [10]Red and [11]Mad World by Gary Jules (loved the film in which the Tears for Fears cover featured,
[12]Donnie Darko). I bought T-Mobile versions of both tracks but they don’t work on the Blackberry and I’ve been
meaning to replace them for ages! Yesterday evening, after getting back from the party, listened to David Gray’s Life
in Slow Motion. Hadn’t heard that for a while–still pretty great.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GIPj2g_PYTI/UKjMkW_YdsI/AAAAAAAAB-I/64PxGEgYXys/s1600/autumn+trailer+november+
2012+a.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y6p1iJyBDjI/UKjMtIDqWMI/AAAAAAAAB-Q/AjsBIpAy0CQ/s1600/autumn+trailer+november+
2012+b.jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tuK8RhtixF8/UKjM1uDTz8I/AAAAAAAAB-Y/gdAIlDC6pQg/s1600/autumn+trailer+trash+
november+2012.jpg
4. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Cd5CtPN2em4/UKjNAH1XZgI/AAAAAAAAB-k/QhyqgPyMsIk/s1600/autumn+leaves,+water+and+
tees+near+tadpole+bridge+november+2012.jpg
5.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PV_KNoHEKQc/UKjNKEQqocI/AAAAAAAAB-s/h-VtKzLh7QU/s1600/water+and+trees+near+
tadpole+bridge+november+2012.jpg
6. http://www.writersinoxford.org/
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.I._Artificial_Intelligence
8. http://www.williamhorwood.co.uk/
9. http://streetbooks.co.uk/aconsciousenglishman.html
10.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yur15Brfvhs&ytsession=9R8nlxTveUP0-oQ_hiuDOgfmcjLvTLl4fOD_
dOhz1pUYN2t65x4qiqPgAPow8ocCZjI5_1tfL94HJmaMdIFU1bSKl19swSioujULFLkolaB5JxAdqycrVqwoLeXZcbL_
izhqDkLF55KcCUSlIxAkPqg3WeiH2XOeo7YwT2C5EG4upKJ6xF3sCfsgogff_1gYz3YTaREG9U_9YigORFX61U0cx2b_onEws4xFCp05uCI
11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4
12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Darko
flooding, tredegar, edward thomas, insecurities, visconti, clair, such a strange experience
(2012-11-25 15:41)
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The rain was relentless yesterday, pouring down on ground that was already saturated.
The fields and the allotment are awash. On the latter this is a miserable end to a miserable year.
So far, though, no significant flooding of roads in our village or neighbouring ones, apart from some water flowing
across the Black Bourton road in Clanfield just beyond the Plough. But only a few inches. The water was lapping
over the Shill Brook on Mill Green in Bampton but hopefully this will subside soon–the water does seem to be getting
away much quicker than it did during the dreadful floods of 2007 (some 200 houses were flooded then).
As I mentioned on Facebook earlier in the week, I was intrigued to find out that Edward Thomas’ father was from
Tredegar in the Rhondda Valley. This was where my maternal grandfather came from–also called Thomas, though
no relation to the poet that I know of. When I told the author of [5]A Conscious Englishman, Margaret Keeping, about
this, she said in passing that she thought that I was ’not unlike’ Thomas. Well, if I only had his gifts... But what I do
relate to when reading the novel, is his insecurity and lack of confidence. I’ve sometimes wondered if these are traits
that other descendants of people who left Wales feel. I certainly noticed this in my cousins on the Welsh side, who
now live in England. In fact I wrote about these issues in The Lock. Gerald’s best friend, Jonathan (a Welshman living
in Oxford), manifests just such insecurity and lack of confidence, despite being successful (and nearly all my AngloWelsh cousins are successful). I don’t understand why being of Welsh descent living in England should produce these
traits but perhaps it has something to do with feeling deracinated and not fitting in.
Having said that, in the Times’ [6]review of The Lock (for those with access beyond the paywall) there was mention of
’hearty northerners’, which I think referred to Jonathan–so perhaps I didn’t make it clear enough that he was Welsh,
after all :-)
Meanwhile I unpacked some paperbacks yesterday that I hadn’t seen since January 1978. My reading from the 1970s,
including scripts of early Luchino Visconti and René Clair films, which I must have been going through shortly before
everything was put in store (regular readers of this blog will be familiar with the odd saga that is behind the unpacking
of the books). Such a strange experience, seeing them again. Hard to get my head round it.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IMnrzsWq-sY/ULIzEsxQCDI/AAAAAAAAB_k/iecDn35JReM/s1600/straw+trailer,+dawn+
november+2012.jpg
2.
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flooded+field,+black+bourton+november+2012.jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6n_wWz19FcI/ULIzR7yqo8I/AAAAAAAAB_0/0bKdl9y8AnA/s1600/flooded+plantation,
+bampton+november+2012.jpg
4.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d-AxdlhpjQo/ULIzcY8dBaI/AAAAAAAAB_8/-oV2sC8TbEg/s1600/allotment+flooding,
+bampton+november+2012.jpg
5.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Conscious-Englishman-Margaret-Keeping/dp/0956424236/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=
1353857990&sr=8-1
6. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/article2456913.ece
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3.12
December
assignments, frosty bampton, a conscious englishman, life-writing lunch, lincoln college, letters, end of term (2012-12-03 10:21)
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[5]
Missed cycling this weekend due to work, including writing up comments on assignments. Enjoyed doing the assignments, though–they were the final ones of the course and it’s always exciting to see how people have developed as
writers over the ten weeks.
Did manage to get a walk round the village on frosty Sunday morning to collect Sunday Times. Bampton looked
beautiful but the cold weather made the house difficult to keep warm, even with a log fire and the heating on. It’s all
down to the original windows, which we prefer to double-glazing.
Proof copy of [6]A Conscious Englishman arrived earlier in the week and the first batch of books is now printing.
Last Tuesday, I went to the [7]Life-Writing Lunch at Wolfson College–part of the [8]Oxford Centre for Life Writing
series of events. Great fun. This time, Dr Oliver Herford of Lincoln College gave a preview of his next research project:
a study of the circulation and publication of the letters of nineteenth-century poets and novelists, especially Henry
James and John Keats. [Lincoln College was, by-the-by, where Edward Thomas was as an undergraduate.]
Among the many interesting things Dr Herford said was that the recipient of a letter is fifty percent of the context.
In relation to this point, he was reluctant to see any one of the apparently contradictory personas of Henry James
that appear in different letters as being the more true. Dr Herford emphasised the complexity of the writer that the
different letters reveal. He said that some things are sayable to one recipient and not another. He also pointed out that
letter writers don’t tend to write with the thought that letters to different recipients will one day be scrutinised side
by side. A fascinating area–not least when these observations about letter writing are applied to one’s own emails,
perhaps!
Hard to believe that another Oxford full term is at an end. They are so chock-a-block with things happening and just
whiz by.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xS0oYbilhDs/ULtPzPINwcI/AAAAAAAACBY/MH-y8mCWNzI/s1600/bampton+church+on+frosty+
morning,+december+2012+a.jpg
2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GdhYa_5oX00/ULtP5gNNvgI/AAAAAAAACBg/FS-iXsrG5sU/s1600/bampton+church+on+frosty+
morning,+december+2012+b.jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KMOVQm0cREM/ULtQAVphWpI/AAAAAAAACBs/xboh9N1BIEQ/s1600/sandford’s+piece,
+bampton+december+2102+a.jpg
4.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-coeGBBhENVg/ULtQHQ0liRI/AAAAAAAACB0/GMSB8aDUaFE/s1600/sandford’s+piece,
+bampton+december+2012+b.jpg
5.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9Q9fSw68qB8/ULtQO-yRdqI/AAAAAAAACB8/B3bPW1N9UGE/s1600/sandford’s+piece,
+bampton+december+2012+c.jpg
6. http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/margaret+keeping/a+conscious+englishman/9437149/
7. http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing/events/lunch
8. http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing
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rare walk (sad), turkey n all, ace, east oxford art & book fair (2012-12-08 14:13)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Beautiful morning but too icy to cycle first thing. Decided to go for a walk instead–only to realise that the last time I
did that particular walk must have been Christmas 2011. Sad!
Was struck by the vividness of the dropped larch needles and tufts of grass in the morning sunlight on Mill Green as
I was coming back into the village (above).
First work Christmas party earlier in the week (Latin American Centre). Turkey and all the trimmings–good to have
because the other big work party is at an Indian restaurant this year and on Christmas Day we’ll be having pheasant,
as usual.
The review copies of [4]A Conscious Englishman have been printed and are being put into envelopes this weekend for
sending out. Have to say that [5]Lightning Source have done a great job of printing the book and have made Marc
Thompson’s painting on the cover look terrific (thanks also to [6]Marie O’Hara who photographed it and [7]Andrew
Chapman for designing the cover). It was lovely to see the author, [8]Margaret Keeping, on Thursday and hand her a
copy of the book.
Next weekend, pre-publication copies of the book will be on sale at the East Oxford Art & Book Fair at the Cowley
Road Methodist Church–Saturday 15th December, 11 am-4 pm.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1AFiabjWNdA/UMNEgo9U7KI/AAAAAAAACC4/Fw5krt1vmJw/s1600/buckland+road,+bampton+
december+2012.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RDBqTetQwnU/UMNEqLT6xII/AAAAAAAACDA/wUTKjlvxuTE/s1600/larch+needles,+mill+
green,+bampton+december+2012.jpg
3. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MqnN4hIH9wk/UMNE68vOEoI/AAAAAAAACDI/XS8lSZhTxqU/s1600/Xmas_Book_Fair-02.jpg
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/aconsciousenglishman.html
http://www1.lightningsource.com/
http://www.marieohara.co.uk/
http://www.preparetopublish.com/
http://publishingmyedwardthomas.blogspot.co.uk/
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frozen oxford canal, east oxford art & book fair, brian levison, yehuda amichai, fox at great
barrington, sir bradley (2012-12-16 23:21)
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[5]
[6]
Warm today but SO cold earlier in the week!
Oxford canal froze over (above)–a very different scene at the last lock before the city centre to the one [7]a couple of
months ago, let alone the one that was used as a basis for the cover of the [8]Kindle edition of [9]The Lock.
[10]StreetBooks was at the first East Oxford Art & Book Fair yesterday, which was an excellent event. In the photo
above, Margaret Keeping signs a copy of her wonderful novel about Edward Thomas, [11]A Conscious Englishman. It
was also lovely to see friends there, including many fellow members of Writers in Oxford. The event was opened
by Brian Aldiss. It was nice to talk to him and to remember the extraordinary [12]fox sighting before the Writers in
Oxford twentieth anniversary party.
Thrilled to buy a copy of Adding An A by my friend Brian Levison at the fair. The estimable Henry Shukman said
of this poetry collection, ’This is a warm-hearted, good-humoured collection that both celebrates everyday pleasures
and explores common tragedies with wit, candour, and a delightful fluency.’ When I was editor of the Oxford Writer,
I was proud to include one of the poems, At a lecture on [13]Yehuda Amichai. These are lines from the poem:
’...I stare through the pages at the Old City
smelling the narrow alleys, old stoves and simmering pans
dazzled by the light bouncing off buildings
obliterating for a moment
the mortar and bullet marks,
picked scabs on the face of the walls.’
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Today, we were supposed to be walking near Hay-on-Wye but sadly this mini-break fell through when the hotel’s
boiler packed up... Very disappointing. Although the walk we did near the Barringtons and Windrush village did a
lot to make up for it! Beautiful unspoilt countryside round there. The walk only marred by a nasty incident when
Tufty was attacked by a vicious bull terrier. He seems OK now, though, thank goodness. Nice to round off the walk
with a pint of Donnnington BB at the [14]Fox at Great Barrington.
PS Ace that cyclist Bradley Wiggins has just won [15]Sports Personality of the Year.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nME5Z5QzT_k/UM5GHY03LnI/AAAAAAAACEI/e2NVERto0ao/s1600/frozen+oxford+canal+and+
last+lock+december+2012.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sj1jZaFJL2U/UM5GO4NOJeI/AAAAAAAACEQ/fX_x_r9crS4/s1600/margaret+keeping+signing+
novel,+east+oxford+art+and+book+fair+decmeber+2012.jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fMpvFdHxuY4/UM5GVPkRHyI/AAAAAAAACEc/Nc18VhxV0AU/s1600/cotswolds+near+windrush+
december+2012.jpg
4.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dFWC1VtNny0/UM5GcpJSLKI/AAAAAAAACEk/UKBXHRQHs5E/s1600/j+and+t+near+windrush+
december+2012.jpg
5.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l29Da2CNlmQ/UM5GioFot-I/AAAAAAAACEs/mmqsTuUOmYk/s1600/house+and+barns+near+
windrush+december+2012.jpg
6.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WcNWlt9l_Ow/UM5GpwJYmrI/AAAAAAAACE0/VJcAqrsAiaU/s1600/cotswold+barn+near+
windrush+december+2012.jpg
7. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/oxford-canal-streetbooks-lock-bampton.html
8. http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Lock-ebook/dp/B005MU9URC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1355696270&sr=8-3
9. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/lock-on-kindle.html
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/aconsciousenglishman.html
http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/trailer-autumn-days-wio-20th-fox.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehuda_Amichai
http://www.foxinnbarrington.com/
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/
wiggins-wins-sports-personality-of-the-year-award-8421198.html
soaked, flooding, logs, near-boiling, holiday, still work to do, moan, moan, moan (2012-12-22 12:16)
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Soaked to the skin when I went cycling.
Fields I’ve not seen flooded before are now under water.
Expecting a delivery of logs in a minute, which I’ll trundle up the garden path–one long puddle.
What happened to the coldest December for a hundred years! It’s wet but near-boiling for the time of year.
Good to be on holiday, though there are still a fair few things to get done before the 25th!
Moan, moan, moan!
–
Visit
[3]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[4]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
1.
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253FZmxvb2RlZCBmaWVsZCBuZWFyIEtlbmNvdCBkZWNlbWJlciAyMDEyLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-761985
2.
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253FZmxvb2RlZCBmaWVsZCwgY2FsY3JvZnQgbGFuZSBkZWNlbWJlciAyMDEyLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-765521
3. http://frankegerton.com/
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
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first walk together in ages, bampton-downton, profumo, log and twig deer (2012-12-23 23:18)
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[3]
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Pre-Xmas guests left this morning–great to see Deci and Margaret.
Took T for a walk afterwards. The first time we’ve walked on our own together since I can’t remember. A beautiful
day for it, with the sun coming out every now and then and thankfully no rain. Water, water everywhere, though. T
was reluctant to walk off the lead as we headed away from the village but was brisk off the lead on the way home! It
was strange, somehow, getting used to walking together.
Meanwhile, an extensive article in the Sunday Times about Bampton property and the Downton Abbey effect, entitled,
[5]Live Abbey ever after in your own piece of the real Downton (not sure about that pun!). Bampton is where the
village scenes in the TV series are filmed, though the Big House itself is actually 30 or so miles away.
Also intrigued by the second extract from a new book about Stephen Ward and the Profumo scandal, [6]An English
Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines, a story that has always fascinated me.
Loved the deer made of logs and twigs in front of a house further down the street.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h3orJDxTs-c/UNcjeTwS4uI/AAAAAAAACIg/NUeqA5Sv4Gc/s1600/flooding,+millennium+
wood,+bampton+december+2012.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iSoThOwhrzs/UNcj0QrUFWI/AAAAAAAACIw/v85rWtuO51Q/s1600/bench+and+red+hoodie,
+millennium+wood,+bampton+december+2012.jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m5hmEy9bato/UNcjpF5ztVI/AAAAAAAACIo/PVRkX6nYgLc/s1600/flooded+rec+plantation,
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+bampton+december+2012.jpg
4.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zivkIJZs7NI/UNcj8sBS4-I/AAAAAAAACI4/XTpWq1vpyK0/s1600/log+deer,+bampton+
december+2012.jpg
5. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/style/homes_and_gardens/My_Place/article1179891.ece
6. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/newsreview/article1181656.ece
flooded farmland and allotments, morris and talbot, midnight mass, humanist, happy christmas!!!! (2012-12-25 00:26)
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[3]
Lots of flooding in west Oxfordshire when I drove to Witney and Burford for last-minute Christmas shopping–though
thankfully it looks like only farmland is under water (above are the Windrush valley by the Swan at Swinbrook and
east of Burford). The allotments are pretty soggy too, of course.
Went down to the Morris Clown and the Talbot this evening. Nice to see friends.
Also nice to hear Midnight Mass on Radio 4, despite being a Humanist!
Happy Christmas!!!! Have a wonderful day!!!!
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--9Ttvg7yVhY/UNjf46jSBdI/AAAAAAAACJ0/yutPa3kGQ7g/s1600/allotment+flooding,
+bampton+decemeber+2012.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rfRUhUq3IVs/UNjf_SpQeCI/AAAAAAAACJ8/hDtdWs6irM4/s1600/flooding,+fields+by+swan,
+swinbrook+december+2102.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CVX6RZAq4UE/UNjgFbVb6PI/AAAAAAAACKE/LCBlJ9dKS4I/s1600/flooding,+windrush+
valley+december+2012.jpg
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2012-12-25 05:04:46)
I always end up listening to Carols and Readings from Kings, takes me back to those Christmas Eves with Grandfather and
latterly Father.
After seven years of brainwashing in formative years, very hard to erase a fondness for rousing, militaristic hymns ;-)
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happy xmas!!; wreath, walks, pints, pheasants & rioja; more bampton-downton (2012-12-25 14:48)
[1]
Happy Xmas!!
J’s Xmas wreath is on the front door, we’ve done one walk with T, delivering cards, enjoyed a pint or two with
Alan and Cathy at the Horse Shoe, and are about to go on another walk with T while the pheasants roast and the
Rioja breaths.
Meanwhile a further Bampton-Downton property article has appeared in the Mail: [2]http://bit.ly/V1xtGa.
Not sure ’tiny’ is quite right, though.
Weak but welcome sunlight and only an early downpour today. What a wonderful surprise!!
–
Visit
[3]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[4]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YeWbs5hZUDk/UNm8zk_32OI/AAAAAAAACLE/xivOxxhZ4dg/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FeG1hcyB3cmVhdGgsIGJhbXB0b24gZGVjZW1iZXIgMjAxMi5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-725949
2. http://bit.ly/V1xtGa
3. http://frankegerton.com/
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
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goodnight, john mcgahern, moving forward?, contemplating the past, saying what you mean,
happy days! :-) (2012-12-25 23:49)
Goodnight all. Xmas Day is almost over for another year.
[1]
A warm day, both literally and metaphorically. Also a day when I began re-reading That They May Face the Rising
Sun by John McGahern. In truth I began reading this book at Easter 2006 (I think it was that Easter) but set it aside
about a third the way through. Somehow I believe that the interruption was significant and beginning the book again
is the start of moving forward. I wonder. In any case, the prose is beautiful, characterful and redolent of place. Inevitably too this Xmas was a time for contemplating the past. In this regard, I was struck by a scene in Marigold Hotel,
which we watched a bit of at the end of the day. Ronald Pickup–appropriately named–is trying to chat up a woman
in a club in India. Suddenly he drops all pretence and is just himself and whereas he would have lost the woman with
his dreadful ’seductive’ patter, suddenly he is in with a real chance. Why do people waste so much time by talking
rubbish and by not saying what they really mean or who they really are?
Happy days! :-)
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4wxAMa2DF-4/UNo7s9JoZTI/AAAAAAAACME/k5U5wnNqzeA/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FeG1hcyBnbGFzc2VzIGRlY2VtYmVyIDIwMTIuanBn%253F%253D-711416
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
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rain is the new snow, happy swans!
(2012-12-27 21:02)
[1]
[2]
Took these photos when walking yesterday.
Rain is very much this Christmas’ theme–such a contrast to the snow in [3]2010.
Still, the swans in the top pic seem happy!
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UN0y02XyziU/UNy2DXAq3DI/AAAAAAAACNA/6p8jKaHuUjs/s1600/flooding+and+swans+above+
bampton+castle+signal+station+december+2012.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tIvKP-LYfLU/UNy2Kl0WtxI/AAAAAAAACNI/6YKl0n3a8kk/s1600/flooding+near+bampton+
castle+signal+station+december+2012.jpg
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2010_12_01_archive.html
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blenheim, henbane, woodman, frosty bells, downton, reflection, tim parks, ebooks, reading
(2012-12-28 23:23)
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[5]
Walked round Blenheim today–the long route through the woodland to the south of the house–for the first time in
nearly 20 years. I’d forgotten so much, including the verge near Springlock Gate where we saw [6]henbane for the
first (and only) time.
Dropped in at the Woodman, North Leigh, on the way back–excellent pint of Howell’s [7]Frosty Bells. (Not too strong
but a brilliant full malty, seasonal flavour.)
Watched some Downton Abbey Series 3 on DVD later. Fascinating to see the village in its 1920s fancy dress. The holes
in the road by the library/hospital must be left deliberately to help the film makers!
This midwinter time of year continues to be one of reflection and looking to the future. What a year. What a future?
(Let’s hope!)
Terrific [8]article recommended by Facebook friend Julia Bell about ebooks. Apart from anything else, the author, Tim
Parks, describes the techniques and activity of reading wonderfully!
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http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--FsuHjryUsY/UN4IZt9jW1I/AAAAAAAACOE/AtQV5qzbbiU/s1600/trees+and+sheep,
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2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R9ZFVGUIvmE/UN4IguxWzKI/AAAAAAAACOM/yByiv8C5yHY/s1600/blenheim+palace+december+
2012.jpg
3. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-velJh5vMO-I/UN4IpHz24gI/AAAAAAAACOU/KxFShC32oys/s1600/gate,+blenheim+december+
2012.jpg
4.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gqof42O6_gk/UN4IyBcKhbI/AAAAAAAACOc/9udmRiH5g_M/s1600/mossy+oak,+blenheim+
december+2012.jpg
5.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zxp60YdOKys/UN4I44rfTII/AAAAAAAACOk/Gt7LBrnwJsc/s1600/grand+bridge,+blenheim+
december+2012.jpg
6. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyoscyamus_niger
7. http://www.realaleinfo.com/beers/view/660
8. http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/feb/15/ebooks-cant-burn
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biking, water still, friends round for drinks, t growing up...a bit (2012-12-30 17:44)
[1]
Good to get out on the bike today. Love long country walks–that I don’t get the chance to do for much of the year–but
cycling is special. It’s the sense of freedom as you spin through the countryside, lost in thoughts and views.
Still a lot of water in the fields but no flooding of people’s homes round here that I’m aware of. The outlook is better
for the coming week, so the land should get a break.
Enjoyed having friends round for drinks at lunchtime. T reasonably well behaved–at over 7 he seems to be calming
down...a bit.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GaoAl6mOdfo/UOAv9a7poyI/AAAAAAAACRE/CUDJRKVrcqE/s1600/flooded+fields,+calcroft+
lane+december+2012.jpg
luminous moss on a cotswold wall, the ups and downs of 2012, looking forward to 2013, happy
new year!!!! (2012-12-31 22:05)
[1]
Saw this mossy Cotswold stone wall while walking between Windrush and Sherborne this afternoon. The moss glowed in the fading four o’clock light and cheered the
otherwise muddy and waterlogged landscape.
Now, as the new year approaches, I think of the things that have happened in 2012.
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There have been sadnesses. Dad dying, nearly a year ago now, was the worst. Over the last year, I’ve learnt things
about him that I didn’t know before–things that bring him alive as a person I wish I had known. Earlier in the week,
I wrote about people failing to communicate. Despite all the education and the supposed erudition (so hard won),
despite the advances in human understanding, we failed to say what we meant in his later years. I miss him very
much.
The sale of family possessions not seen since 1978 was–well, not a sadness exactly, but something so bizarre and odd
that normal phrases can barely convey my feelings about the experience. Of looking through the online catalogue
and glimpsing childhood memories that were hidden in crates all that time, only to emerge and be destroyed as a
collection of meanings and memories. I hope their new owners find happiness in these things.
Recently, a friendship changed suddenly due to misunderstandings. I hope that 2013 will see renewal.
But there have also been rather wonderful experiences in 2012. The trip to San Francisco in May, which had an
unexpected, almost life-changing effect on me. To travel at last to a place I’d dreamt of going to when in my teens and
to find it more real and more fascinating than I thought it ever could be.
Driving to the South of France in the late summer with J and T. Inland from the tourist beaches, high up in the chestnut
woods in the medieval village, the pace of life was gorgeous and reviving. Lovely that our friends from the Alps were
able to join us.
I’ve loved preparing the novel A Conscious Englishman by Margaret Keeping for publication in February 2013. The
book is a fictional account of the last years of the First World War poet, Edward Thomas, and his work has a special
significance to me. When I was just beginning to unravel the family mysteries back in the mid-nineties, I became pretty
depressed and Thomas’ poetry about the simple beauty and magic of the countryside sustained me, brought me back
from gloominess, gave me hope. His poems and the complimentary paintings of John Nash were so important to me
then.
I’m pleased to have started writing the ’proper’ version of my third novel. It has taken many years to find the right
path.
Writing an extended essay about my family’s experiences over the past two decades last Easter was cathartic–the start
of coming to terms with things and healing. Also, on the subject of non-fiction, attending talks at the Oxford Centre
for Life-Writing has been inspirational.
I have loved working with my creative writing students and my lovely, supportive colleagues at the University.
A year of warmth and sadness. Of happiness, of pain, of keeping going. In many ways, a year like any other. I’m
looking forward to 2013, though. I don’t know why exactly but I am.
Happy New Year!!!!
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
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253D-764972
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
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Chapter 4
2013
4.1
January
sunlight and blue sky, 2013 (2013-01-01 18:17)
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[3]
At least there was sunlight and blue sky!
Happy 2013!!!!
–
Visit
[4]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[5]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YxoBpOWYwXw/UOMolAfbeDI/AAAAAAAACTQ/YtUGdt-26ro/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FZmxvb2RlZCBmaWVsZHMsIGJ1Y2tsYW5kIG1hcnNoIGphbnVhcnkgMjAxMyBhLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-738879
2.
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253FZmxvb2RlZCBmaWVsZHMsIGJ1Y2tsYW5kIG1hcnNoIGphbnVhcnkgMjAxMyBiLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-742900
3.
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253FZmxvb2RlZCBmaWVsZHMsIGJ1Y2tsYW5kIG1hcnNoIGphbnVhcnkgMjAxMyBjLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-746673
4. http://frankegerton.com/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
holiday, promise of spring, hedging (2013-01-04 20:52)
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[2]
[3]
Great to have some extra days’ holiday. Back at work on Monday.
Meanwhile some signs in the west Oxfordshire countryside that promise spring, including more hedge laying along
Calcroft Lane (aka the gated road). The hedging continues the work that started [4]last winter and is wonderful to
see.
1.
http:
//1.bp.blogspot.com/-e-jcKqGd8xo/UOc_Ob3-p0I/AAAAAAAACUo/BlP3ih6_rMw/s1600/sheep,+weald+january+2013.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IYRzkiMLphs/UOc_QYKrwWI/AAAAAAAACUw/ZeMarT5f-T0/s1600/sheep,+calcroft+lane+
january+2013.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EvLn6OFNzMg/UOc_WfslFwI/AAAAAAAACU4/RAvk8MSvA30/s1600/hedging,+calcroft+lane+
january+2013.jpg
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/hedging-part-two.html
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back to work, forecast of snow, coal fire, oxford 0th week, fresh eyes (2013-01-12 22:19)
[1]
Gosh, a challenging week! A shock to the system, going back to work after the lovely long holiday! Still feeling the
benefits, though. One of these has been an unexpected urge to tidy desks and put both my physical and virtual filing
systems in order–something not felt for a few years. Colleagues will wonder what’s happened!
Somewhat grey and lowering weather, nevertheless. Incredibly warm to begin with but now chilly–with the forecast
of snow.
Loved the smell of a coal fire from one of the barges when I was walking along the Oxford canal the other day.
Oxford 0th Week–this past week–seemed earlier than usual. The online course I teach started last Monday and there
has been a fair bit to do in respect of other creative writing courses too. All very rewarding, however–as suggested
above, the long holiday has meant I’ve viewed the world of work with fresh eyes! Long may that last.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-doHJHE1-PWI/UPFGyXIZx-I/AAAAAAAACWU/69gZAfb4BiQ/s1600/coal+smoke,+oxford+canal+
january+2013.jpg
Margaret Keeping (2013-01-14 11:13:40)
Good luck with the new orderly Frank - though you’ve always seem to get where you’re going in life OK.
I love those barges and the smoke rising from the chimney - once I took that daily walk to Hythe Bridge Street from Port Meadow
for work and seeing your pictures vividly reminds me of that quite other life.
snow, change opportunity and uncertainty, ebooks v ’real’ books, oxford english, a conscious
englishman, margaret keeping, linda newbery (2013-01-20 22:48)
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Snow arrived in Oxford and west Oxfordshire on Friday. Some disruption to travel but not much, thankfully. Not as
bad as the past two years. The predicted heavy falls this afternoon didn’t materialise. The roads will be icy tomorrow,
though.
Last week was Oxford First Week and seemed busier than usual. Lots of admin and meetings during it and Noughth
Week. All rather fascinating, even so. The impact of the digital revolution is being scrutinised and responded to
360
throughout the University, as plans for the coming years are drawn up. A time of change and opportunity, as well as
uncertainty.
Same in publishing, of course. I’ve been heartened, nevertheless, by some articles about the importance of the book,
as opposed to the ebook, recently. There was [12]The Book Bounces Back in last week’s Sunday Times and [13]Why
Printed Books Will Never Die on [14]Mashable (not behind the News International paywall!). Why was I heartened?
Well, having been excited by ebooks for many years, I have to say I do love ’real’ books. True, they’re bulky and a
nightmare to house, whether at home or in libraries, but they are great to work with and enjoy. Academics also raise
an interesting point about referencing–the problem of how to cite a page reference, when there are no pages as such
in an ebook. Well, I’m sure a way round this will be found–if it hasn’t already–but the culture of citation in respect of
physical books is so fail-safe and unambiguous. The rise of the ebook won’t cease but I hope that e and physical books
will co-exist. As my friend [15]Lorna Fergusson put in a discussion recently, ’What I wish is that we could debate all
this in a non-confrontational manner accepting that for most of us it’s not a case of "either/or" but "both/and".’
Pleased to receive my copy of the second issue of Oxford English, the annual magazine published by the Oxford
[16]English Faculty. Well produced, apart from anything else, and only available, as far as I can see, as hard copy.
Meanwhile, very, very pleased to receive some wonderful comments about StreetBooks’ forthcoming title, [17]A Conscious Englishman by Margaret Keeping from the novelist [18]Linda Newbery, who wrote: ’Her [Margaret Keeping’s]
writing is very assured and she has the necessary eye for place, detail, weather and seasons to write about Edward
Thomas...I hope the book will reach the wide audience it deserves and feel sure that many others will enjoy it as much
as I have.’
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VUVzmx3ZId4/UPxiHK1gXgI/AAAAAAAACXg/uF_13pIvSQ0/s1600/snowy+bampton+village+
centre+january+2013+b.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sGaFTNgIxXk/UPxiJr70OBI/AAAAAAAACXo/E97fhf1ACu0/s1600/snowy+talbot+pub,
+bampton+january+2013.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lM6miKnCiic/UPxiSNJjxMI/AAAAAAAACXw/tRo6wbJOL4Q/s1600/snowy+romany+pub,
+bampton+january+2013.jpg
4. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sT6nclj4FWM/UPxiSwaF-VI/AAAAAAAACX0/j82kRA7lJOM/s1600/snowy+victoria+arms+etc,
+oxford+january+2013.jpg
5.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z0NCdYf8qUs/UPxihx5HTQI/AAAAAAAACYI/5XjXU91lZRs/s1600/snowy+oxford+canal+&+
former+lucy’s+site+january+2013.jpg
6.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xhbhst-k3VQ/UPxipDo6K4I/AAAAAAAACYQ/VfIHy2mwGoU/s1600/snowy+jericho+bridge,
+oxford+canal+january+2013.jpg
7.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tFo5UECngSU/UPxirZnnbQI/AAAAAAAACYY/-qwY9JlpB0s/s1600/snowy+’unofficial’
+barges,+oxford+canal+january+2013.jpg
8. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5sNYc0mDiK4/UPxixcrKGtI/AAAAAAAACYg/1K0UGRJlvDw/s1600/snowy+causeway,+buckland+
marsh+january+2013.jpg
9. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9B490WWtOl8/UPxi3ryD2KI/AAAAAAAACYs/-CcXysVOGxY/s1600/snowy+lane+from+buckland+
marsh+to+buckland+january+2013.jpg
10.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lBb4gpzF3p8/UPxi3WFf7qI/AAAAAAAACYo/SsxQ5NomKF4/s1600/tufty+rolling+in+the+
snow+january+2013.jpg
11.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rleNym1NjiQ/UPxi4e0ta7I/AAAAAAAACY4/Vc3sPehvBOg/s1600/green+barn,+near+
buckland+january+2013.jpg
12. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/newsreview/features/article1192952.ece
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
http://mashable.com/2013/01/16/e-books-vs-print
http://mashable.com/
http://www.fictionfire.co.uk/
http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/
http://streetbooks.co.uk/aconsciousenglishman.html
http://www.lindanewbery.co.uk/
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thaw, a conscious englishman on sale, look inside, burns night, cairn o’mohr spring oak leaf
wine (2013-01-26 12:09)
[1]
The thaw began last night and this morning, after a lot of rain (flooding predicted in some areas), there is hardly any
snow left.
Another rather hectic week. Lots going on at the libraries, there’s teaching and marking to do, and the publication of
A Conscious Englishman is imminent.
Talking of the forthcoming novel, you can now buy copies from the [2]StreetBooks website and Look Inside on [3]Amazon. (There’s also a nifty £5.58 Book Depository copy available on Amazon, I notice. As has been widely noted, the
ways of Amazon and pre-publication copies are a mystery!)
Meanwhile, having some friends round for a Burns Night (well nearly) supper this evening. The Cairn O’Mohr
[4]spring oak leaf wine arrived yesterday and the [5]Rough Guide to Scottish Folk has been downloaded. Btw the
original box of spring oak leaf was damaged–all thanks to [6]Cairn O’Mohr for getting a replacement to us within a
day!
1.
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//4.bp.blogspot.com/-byfB6mQgBQY/UQOntCuyrcI/AAAAAAAACZ4/KncL0mHYkd8/s1600/thaw,+bampton+january+2013.jpg
2. http://streetbooks.co.uk/fiction.html
3.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Conscious-Englishman-Margaret-Keeping/dp/0956424236/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=
1359198984&sr=8-1
4. http://cairnomohr.homestead.com/T9.html
5.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Guide-Scottish-Folk-Second/dp/1906063605/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=
1359200917&sr=1-1
6. http://cairnomohr.homestead.com/index.html
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mud, hardy celandines, streetbooks on linkedin (2013-01-27 09:55)
[1]
[2]
After the thaw, mud!
Still, nice to see these two hardy celandines, which were covered by snow till yesterday and are underwater today.
Btw for those in Linkedin, you can now visit the [3]StreetBooks company page.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zFHmkgrgISg/UQT3Z7q_1JI/AAAAAAAACbI/tzyKln2pQkI/s1600/mud,+bampton+january+2013.
jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LqNkvZ604rE/UQT3VQN8wII/AAAAAAAACbA/Z3T12C9B0sM/s1600/celendines,+maybe,+mill+
green,+bampton+january+2013.jpg
3. http://www.linkedin.com/company/streetbooks?trk=top_nav_home
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4.2
February
moon, crows and snowdrops, ribs, a conscious englishman, edward thomas, publishing my
edward thomas (2013-02-03 15:15)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
[4]
Yesterday, the sun shone and the countryside round Bampton really cheered up.
Beside the spire of [5]St Peter and St Paul’s, Broadwell, the moon was still out at 8 o’clock in the morning and crows
flew in front of it (spot the moon and crows!) and there were snowdrops in the churchyard.
Today, the fields were stark, the trees and hedges so obviously picked clean, the gate in the picture, almost hidden in
summer by foliage, now laid bare like ribs on a carcass.
Meanwhile, the official publication of [6]A Conscious Englishman by Margaret Keeping nears–Thursday 7th February.
As readers of this blog will know, the novel is about the last years of World War I poet Edward Thomas’ life. It’s
a terrific read. And you can find a huge amount of extra information about the poet at the author’s excellent blog,
[7]Publishing my Edward Thomas.
Today, appropriately, given the weather, is a quiet day, catching up on sleep and rest after a hectic week.
1.
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church,+moon+&+two+crows,+broadwell+february+2013.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oxqzVrskmaE/UQ557t2yLTI/AAAAAAAACcc/KCBNJJbB03s/s1600/snowdrops,+st+peter+&+st+
paul’s+churchyard,+broadwell+february+2013.jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CYFn072b2AQ/UQ5553R8ocI/AAAAAAAACcU/BQ2VSfMoreQ/s1600/towards+the+cotswold+
from+lew+february+2013.jpg
4.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P348arTUExI/UQ559_51XWI/AAAAAAAACck/NOOUDrhkFZw/s1600/gate+and+horses,+lew+
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february+2013.jpg
5. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-253435-church-of-st-peter-and-st-paul-broadwell
6. http://streetbooks.co.uk/fiction.html
7. http://publishingmyedwardthomas.blogspot.co.uk/
a conscious englishman by margaret keeping published today (2013-02-07 13:03)
[1]
I’m very proud that A Conscious Englishman by Margaret Keeping is officially published today by [2]StreetBooks.
I’ve followed the novel’s development over several years and always hoped that one day StreetBooks would be able
to publish it. The novel’s subject, Edward Thomas, has been important to me since the 1990s when I began reading his
poetry during the turbulent family times that I have written about elsewhere in this blog. In those days I desperately
wanted the family problems to be resolved and dreamt of moving out of Oxford to the countryside. Late at night I
would read Thomas’ poetry or look at John Nash’s paintings and dream of another life. Well, we did move and when
I walk through the lanes and fields round Bampton, I am reminded of the images in the poems and paintings and am
grateful for the help they gave me to get through that difficult period.
The novel is a wonderful rendering of the last years of Thomas’ life. It is told from both Thomas’ point of view and
that of his wife, Helen. To say that Thomas is the novel’s subject is, to an extent, misleading because it neglects Helen’s perspective, which is in many ways the book’s great strength and is essential for an understanding of the poet.
The novel brings the two people’s stories together in a brilliantly accessible form that is compelling, beautiful and
poignant.
I have been struck by the number of people who have already read the book who say they cried at the end. The
ending is very moving.
The novel is available from the [3]StreetBooks website and can also be ordered from bookshops and bought from
online retailers (ISBN 978-0-9564242-3-5).
’[Margaret Keeping’s] writing is very assured and she has the necessary eye for place, detail, weather and seasons
to write about Edward Thomas...especially like the way she’s shown the origins of the poems in his observations,
and her depiction of the complicated relationships between the main characters. I hope the book will reach the wide
audience it deserves and feel sure that many others will enjoy it as much as I have.’ Linda Newbery, author of Set in
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Stone
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yNLGCdc4-EA/URN4OzZtAzI/AAAAAAAACdw/c86HT3rUA_k/s1600/a+conscious+englishman+
by+margaret+keeping,+front+cover.jpg
2. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
3. http://streetbooks.co.uk/buyaconsciousenglishman.html
Cathy (2013-02-09 21:19:45)
Looking forward to reading it. Thanks for the recommendation Frank. Cathy x
margaret keeping on the bill heine show, radio oxford; excellent reader reviews of a conscious
englishman on amazon (2013-02-10 15:33)
[1]
Margaret Keeping, author of A Conscious Englishman, appeared on BBC Oxford’s [2]Bill Heine programme earlier
today. She was guest newspaper reviewer for the first hour of the show. You can listen to the programme on the
iPlayer over the next 7 days.
Some excellent reader reviews of A Conscious Englishman on [3]Amazon btw.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3X_ys5mIvls/URe8vQKqTBI/AAAAAAAACe4/9BD1yaDkNiQ/s1600/bill+heine+show,+radio+
oxford+february+2013.jpg
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0147c87
3.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0956424236/ref=cm_cr_dpvoterdr?ie=UTF8&qid=1360501799&sr=8-1#
R3AN59BI77GT4G.2115.Helpful.Reviews
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cycling, misty morning, catching up, moss, nests, ace reviewed, weekend (2013-02-16 11:29)
[1]
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Good to be cycling again. Ice and work commitments have meant I’ve not been out on the bike for a couple of weeks.
Today was misty–thicker in some places than others, as the two pics above show.
Yesterday, I enjoyed catching up with two friends who I first met when I worked with them on Oxford creative writing
courses. Lunch at Brown’s with one and drinks at the Randolph with another. It was great to see them and hear their
news. I say ’first met’ but in one case, yesterday was the first time we had met face-to-face because the course I taught
was online and we have only kept in touch by email and Facebook since. Wonderful to see him and hear his voice.
Meanwhile, when I went to the shed to get the bike this morning, I noticed clumps of moss scattered across the path.
Evidently excellent nesting material!
On Thursday there was a good review of A Conscious Englishman in the Oxford Times–also [4]online. Great that
the novel is selling well and that there is already a lot of very complimentary feedback from readers. All down to
Margaret Keeping’s wonderful story-telling and gift for natural description.
Some online teaching and assignment marking this weekend. Also a Skype tutorial with a student in Japan. Plus
some time for relaxation, of course!
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sQRcILJG8OA/UR9oCjCHHHI/AAAAAAAACf8/jTowdbPSW4w/s1600/moss,+garden+footpath,
+bampton+february+2013.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xRkk-Fj9QAw/UR9oJ6EWgUI/AAAAAAAACgE/3wcjHUQjr20/s1600/tidied+hedge,+alvescot+
february+2013.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vK1TGHxQD68/UR9oK8Og4JI/AAAAAAAACgM/-ueED8FD70U/s1600/field+and+tree+in+mist+
february+2013.jpg
4. http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/books/10222361.A_Conscious_Englishman_by_Margaret_Keeping/?ref=rss
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twickenham, old boys match, freezing, snowdrops, hedging (2013-02-24 15:36)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
[4]
Excellent afternoon at Twickenham yesterday, watching the England-France match. My first time at the stadium–
wonderful atmosphere but unbelievable to think that there might have been as many as 82,000 people there. In the
taxi back to Bampton from Witney last night, the driver asked what the stadium’s capacity was and as I said the figure,
I thought, I must have got that wrong, it can’t be that many. But it is!
I used to play rugby when I was at Heatherdown and Stowe but didn’t continue with it after school, apart from an
old boys match when I was about twenty (a game that almost finished me off–a year or so of student life had left me
as unfit as anything).
Another striking thing about yesterday’s game was how straightforward and giving the crowd were. Just 82,000
people out to enjoy themselves!
Meanwhile, it’s freezing in the west Oxfordshire countryside. A cold easterly wind that seemed to modify its direction
with every turn I made when cycling this morning so that I was always heading into it. Lots of snowdrops out, though,
including the ones above on a verge just outside Black Bourton. The hedging and tree cutting at Alvescot continues.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--upWs-OJGTY/USotnDiGoyI/AAAAAAAAChQ/OTqobX1mCt8/s1600/twikenham%252C+flares+
and+french+team+before+the+game+february+23+2013.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OHApOLNFN9g/USotruR8vSI/AAAAAAAAChY/zI0sLXnNc54/s1600/twickenham%252C+scrum%
252C+french+end+february+23+2013.jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XccgK2AmzvI/USot41sn2wI/AAAAAAAAChg/q-8N1EEXpQ0/s1600/snowdrops%252C+black+
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bourton+february+2103.jpg
4.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NGPPZDqmrYU/USot5EC-FWI/AAAAAAAAChk/DRCO3chLmug/s1600/hedging%252C+alvescot+
february+2013.jpg
Margaret Keeping (2013-02-25 18:04:00)
I liked your Twickers blog very much; might send you privately my ’rugby’ poem - one of the very few I had published though
now I wouldn’t expose myself to that degree!
I hope there’s some proper hedging going on at Alvescot.
4.3
March
waterways, craft, grebes, the lock, picnics (2013-03-03 15:47)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
I was working at the Taylor yesterday but beforehand walked along the Oxford canal where I took the photos of the
rowing boat and the narrowboat rudder above.
The great crested grebes I saw on the Thames near the train station earlier in the week. When we lived in Oxford I
used to love seeing these birds on different parts of the river. On Saturdays, when my wife finished work, we often
used to cycle to Port Meadow and have a picnic beneath an evergreen oak on the bank of a narrow arm of the river
and watch the pair of grebes that always nested there. In my first novel, [4]The Lock, I used this place as a setting for a
couple of the scenes. In the following extract, Elizabeth and her daughter Alison are walking along the bank and see
the grebes.
***
They passed an evergreen oak and the line of trees to their left gave way to a broad grassy expanse of bank running
down to a dense margin of water forget-me-not, mint and woundwort. The pool itself was formed by the stream
broadening out at a point where it forked. Both arms flowed into the Thames a little further on from here. The main
one arrived at a weir beyond the end of the next bit of avenue. The other one flowed down the side of an island that
was covered in rosebay willowherb and alders, joining the river near the railway station.
There they are,’ said Alison, pointing at the pair of grebes.
Oh yes.’
And they’ve got little chicks. They hatched just the other day. There – the little stripy heads are poking through her
wings.’
Oh, yes, two of them.’
I can never work out which of the adults is which, let alone the chicks – both sexes look more or less the same. The
other one, though, seems to have a more peachy-coloured throat.’
Dad would know.’
The grebe that was not carrying the chicks promptly dived, to re-emerge some way off from its partner almost half a
minute later with a straggling piece of reed in its bill. It propelled itself gracefully towards their nest with its prize.
The other grebe swam up to the nest now too and both prodded the reed into place.
I wonder if they really are the same pair Dad used to bring us to see?’
I should think so. Do you remember seeing them down by the lock?’
Yes, that was brilliant. I didn’t believe they were the same ones that time. The city seemed so big then – I didn’t understand how all the waterways linked up. Funnily enough we were down at the pub on the Island the other night.’
***
That bit about all the waterways connecting up is significant because a lot of the story unfolds on the banks of the
Thames, Cherwell and Oxford canal. When the location shifts from Oxford to Gloucestershire in the second half of
the book, the scenes are set on the banks of a different canal–the Thames and Severn. In the novel, waterways link the
characters even though they are at odds with each other.
Meanwhile, today I cycled towards Tadpole Bridge and along the Great Brook for the first time in several months.
The Great Brook lane had been closed because of flooding. It was nice to go that way although the land looks as if it
has been picked clean by the water and there is that strange cement-like smell in the air that lingers for a long time
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after flooding.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pXgORsJxWzo/UTNmOzufcpI/AAAAAAAACiw/NeZdujZF7Hc/s1600/great+crested+grebes%
252C+thames+near+oxford+station+february+2013.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u-YiYJQHX-c/UTNmXaSGXVI/AAAAAAAACi4/e_s1TYeN5D4/s1600/boat%252C+oxford+canal+
march+2013.jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t_hpjXjEeOc/UTNmbJRLeTI/AAAAAAAACjA/eqAnf2s8AVE/s1600/narrowboat+rudder%252C+
oxford+canal+march+2013.jpg
4. http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Lock-ebook/dp/B005MU9URC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1362324821&sr=8-2
brrr!, almond blossom, king cups, guardian books blog, disputed land by tim pears, the next
day (2013-03-10 15:32)
[1]
[2]
Can’t believe it’s forecast to be only one degree above freezing tomorrow. I was quite getting into the comparatively
balmy temperatures of a few days ago.
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Some signs of spring, nevertheless. Spring is late, though. Saw the almond blossom above out on an Oxford street
midweek and was thrilled to see the first king cups out in a ditch along Calcroft Lane.
Oxford full term ends this week but as far as creative writing courses are concerned, it’s business as usual till almost
Easter.
Was really pleased that A Conscious Englishman by Margaret Keeping got a terrific mention in the [3]Guardian Books
Blog last Tuesday. Btw you can now follow StreetBooks on [4]Twitter.
Yesterday, I started reading Tim Pears’ 2011 novel [5]Disputed Land, which is set in a big house in Shropshire and is
told from the point of view of a perceptive 13-year-old boy called Theo (they grow up so fast these days!). It’s a great
read!
Meanwhile, I haven’t looked forward to a new David Bowie [6]album so much since Scary Monsters!
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mYEHsneBrGM/UTyKbwAQYXI/AAAAAAAACjM/8ahPJTGtXBc/s1600/almond+blossom,+hayfield+
road,+oxford+march+2013.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-H556aK2ZdNE/UTyKcRijv9I/AAAAAAAACjU/I_2JGuWFFxs/s1600/first+kingcups,+calcroft+
lane+march+2013.jpg
3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/mar/05/what-are-you-reading-today
4. http://www.twitter.co.uk/streetbookscouk
5. http://www.timpears.com/timpears_disputedland.asp
6. http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Next-Day/dp/B00BOU4G0U/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1362607235&sr=301-2
Margaret Keeping (2013-03-10 16:37:36)
I’m very keen on on Tim Pears so I’ll look out for Disputed Land.
His child characters in ’Landed’ were remarkable, and his writing on the countryside of borderlands like Shropshire.
cold, wet, brightbox good but 3g useless, disputed land, a conscious englishman, maconochie,
multitrack (2013-03-16 14:47)
[1]
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[2]
[3]
House is really chilly today, even though the central heating is on. The east wind whizzes through the ground floor
from outside door to outside door. I’m maybe also tired from a busy week. Plus I got soaked cycling this morning.
As the above photo shows, the floods are back. It doesn’t take much to top up the water table it seems.
Looking forward to catching up on some sleep tomorrow and the early part of the week. Time off. Yippee.
Meanwhile, EE’s new wireless router arrived this morning–a BrightBox. Have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. I
imagined myself spending hours setting the thing up, much of the time trying to get hold of the support centre. But
all was fine–really easy to install and much easier to connect to with the computer than the old one. Signal strength
in furthest away parts of the house is much better too. If only I could be as positive about the experience of EE’s 3G
coverage in parts of west Oxfordshire–between Standlake and Eynsham especially. The signal is far worse now than
it was before Christmas.
Continuing to enjoy Tim Pears’ [4]Disputed Land. It’s a joy to read. Even managed to stay awake long enough to read
five or so pages every night this week. A rare occurrence these days. OK, ’stay awake’ is a bit of an exaggeration–the
book does have crumpled corners from when it fell onto the floor as I dozed off–but each time I started reading again
and got to the end of the next section. Must be good.
Talking of good books (A Conscious Englishman), do have a look at author Margaret Keeping’s Wednesday [5]blog
post, which not only has a recipe for ’Making good, fresh Maconochie’ (a First World War soup prepared by British
soldiers in the trenches–well, not necessarily to everyone’s taste) but, under ’Publishing news’ (at the bottom of the
page), a lovely quote from Robert Macfarlane and mention of enquiries about foreign rights.
376
Lastly (but not leastly, I hope), I’ve posted a draft of the first chapter of my new novel on my [6]website. The working
title is, Multitrack.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tcxUdj0MVRU/UUR9HW4-cPI/AAAAAAAACmM/HmgeYMd--HI/s1600/snowdrops+and+ivy,
+bampton+march+2013.jpg
2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mj7-0VJP40E/UUR9Ip3L4_I/AAAAAAAACmU/tXtw3UaVIHQ/s1600/daffodils,+black+bourton+
march+2013.jpg
3. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-th2pdIZ1RsY/UUR9MYnaLxI/AAAAAAAACmc/faCy3Y2aGQ4/s1600/flooded+spinny,+calcroft+
lane+march+2013.jpg
4. http://www.timpears.com/timpears_disputedland.asp
5. http://publishingmyedwardthomas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/edward-and-helen-what-they-ate-on.html
6. http://www.frankegerton.com/newnovel.html
jtns ebook (2013-03-18 22:30)
[1]
Misty morning–have a couple of days off, so had a lie-in and a bike ride.
Meanwhile, you can now download an [2]ebook of the first three years of justthoughtsnstuff.com.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hzZPnH-obyw/UUeTnmZpPeI/AAAAAAAACm4/t6pf4f05TBA/s1600/towards+faringdon+from+
clacroft+lane+march+2013.jpg
2. http://frankegerton.com/justthoughtsnstuffcom.html
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spring?, periwinkle, snowy churchyard, in pursuit of spring, spuds and onions, creative writing
(2013-03-24 12:52)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Spring? It’s nearly April and there’s an easterly wind and patches of snow on the ground. The temperature is barely
above freezing and the outlook for Easter is hardly any better...
The only cheerful sight on our walk near North Leigh last Tuesday was a bank of periwinkle in a green lane (top photo).
The plants must have escaped from a garden or been introduced but were lovely to come across. The photo of St Peter
and St Paul’s, Broadwell was taken when cycling this morning–compare this with the ones I posted on [4]Sunday 3rd
February, when the countryside seemed on the verge of spring. Some beautiful colours in the landscape, nevertheless,
like the burgundy willow stems in a hedge along the gated road, Calcroft Lane.
Talking of spring and Easter, I’m looking forward to three programmes about Edward Thomas as prose writer, entitled
[5]In Pursuit of Spring, the first of which will be broadcast on Radio 4 on Good Friday at 3.30 pm.
Ordinarily, I’d be working on the allotment over Easter but it’s been so long since I’ve been able to do anything
up there that I’ve almost forgotten where it is. Still, last year’s spuds and onions are keeping well and bring back
memories of better times.
A weekend of creative writing work–MSt and online courses. Rewarding.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vKnm-Y_Bg7s/UU2kae7WqiI/AAAAAAAACnI/EGBvgu9X5FA/s1600/lesser+periwinkle,+north+
leigh+march+2013.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3lGmqFI94Uw/UU7yJyZuIEI/AAAAAAAACnY/U5XYfkj3Q6Q/s1600/st+peter+&+st+paul’s+
church+in+the+snow,+broadwell+march+2013.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s7w9FR_VMME/UU7yLgMRRzI/AAAAAAAACng/4oNr2WutIAY/s1600/willow+hedge,+calcroft+
lane+march+2013.jpg
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/moon-crows-and-snowdrops-ribs-conscious.html
5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rglll
Margaret Keeping (2013-03-27 13:14:40)
So true about the allotment - we even forgot our allotment AGM, so out of sight out of mind it’s been.
Our broadbeans are getting lanky indoors - I know they should be OK outdoors but just can’t trust it.
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willow wands, purity, regrowth, yellow flag, in pursuit of spring, edward thomas, a conscious
englishman by margaret keeping, guardian books (2013-03-29 11:57)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
[4]
Saw the old barge loaded with what I took to be willow wands moored on the Oxford canal earlier in the week. As
you can see there was bright sun that morning. That was a treat–there’s warmth in the sun when it appears and just
the sight of the sunlight is enough to cheer you.
Most of the time, though, the north east wind is unrelenting. It’s drying out the land and leaving it looking dead
and dessicated. As the other photos show, the land and the trees are so bare. There’s a kind of purity, I suppose, as
if everything has been stripped back to the bone–while we wait patiently for regrowth. As mentioned a few weeks
ago, there are always some signs of life, even so–the yellow flag iris plants in the stream alongside Calcroft Lane, for
example.
I’d hoped to get all my work done before today, so I could enjoy the long weekend but alas am having to finish up this
morning and the early part of this afternoon. Aiming to stop before [5]In Pursuit of Spring–the first part of the Radio
4 series about Edward Thomas, as prose writer, which goes out at 3.30 pm. Speaking of which, I found this page about
the Thomas book of the same name on a site that has been put up by, I think I’m right in saying, the Edward Thomas
Fellowship. There’s also an excellent piece about Thomas and the broadcast on the Guardian [6]Environment Blog.
It’s great that the Guardian is such a Thomas fan: A Conscious Englishman by Margaret Keeping was recently featured
on the Guardian [7]Books Blog and is available via Guardian [8]Books.
Hope you’re having a good Good Friday!
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LqO5ajJnElo/UVV66YWWgyI/AAAAAAAACnw/Wd4jZbcWKqc/s1600/barge+with+willow+wands,
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+oxford+canal+march+2013.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w6p5PQ_Pu_w/UVV7AJia9rI/AAAAAAAACn4/l6Zk7erwoV4/s1600/tree+regrowing+from+
fallen+stems,+calcroft+lane+march+2013.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X2VTlMYdBhg/UVV7CACeCJI/AAAAAAAACoA/oEOSZvMeeSk/s1600/stream,+ivy+and+bare+
fields,+calcroft+lane+march+2013.jpg
4.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PjP2bGlNYt8/UVV7DrLhoKI/AAAAAAAACoI/RX9heHSchWk/s1600/flag+iris+plants,
+calcroft+lane+march+2013.jpg
5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rglll
6. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/mar/28/pursuit-of-spring-edward-thomas
7. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/mar/05/what-are-you-reading-today
8.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/fiction/9780956424235/a-conscious-englishman?commentpage=1#
comment-22053956
bitter wind, sun, in pursuit of spring, book reviews, richard jefferies, daffs and scillas
(2013-03-30 18:08)
[1]
The wind was much more bitter this morning, even though there was much more sun. The only time I felt warm was
when I was standing by the bin outside the back door, opening up the bag of birdseed about to top up the feeder. At
that precise point there was no wind and the sun on my back was hot. A few steps towards the bird feeder, though,
and the wind whistled and it was freezing again.
Loving listening to In Pursuit of Spring–listen again on the iPlayer: [2]One; [3]Two. Last episode goes out tomorrow
at 2.45 pm.
Shocked to learn that Edward Thomas wrote some 1,300 book reviews–over one million words–in his short life (makes
my 100 book reviews, extending to some 40,000 words seem pretty feeble).
Episode Two is very interesting on the great [4]Richard Jefferies, amongst other subjects.
Saw these lovely daffodils and scillas in what looks like something of a ’wilderness’ opposite a very Jane Austenish
big house in Kencot, west Oxfordshire.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QDZ91wH_t8g/UVckJGJ5PeI/AAAAAAAACoY/0FBFSx8Q0Ak/s1600/daffodils+and+scillas,
+kencot+march+2013.jpg
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rgm2t
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rkyv5
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jefferies
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Margaret Keeping (2013-03-30 19:18:01)
I’m so much enjoying the In Pursuit of Spring broadcasts and trying to blog on the book (dealing OK with mild disappointment
that they cut me out of the programme.) How well it reads aloud - Robert MacFarlane doing a fine job and Richard Emeny
talking his usual good sense.
It’s been decidedly warmer in Oxford today- saw embryonic primroses on the gradually improving Aston’s Eyot - the former
Victorian dump for Oxford rubbish.
frosty morning, shropshire, lince, happy easter!
(2013-03-31 22:32)
[1]
[2]
Two pictures from early morning cycle ride.
Later, drove to Shropshire for a lovely family gathering.
Meanwhile, a friend has asked about the meaning of the word ’lince’ as used by Edward Thomas. I don’t know but
perhaps Margaret Keeping does?
Belated Happy Easter!
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pm1lvXWafaA/UViqce7ZxWI/AAAAAAAACoo/7L9AJ7yteBA/s1600/frosty+landscape,
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+calcroft+lane,+easter,+march+2013+(2).jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aLa9hegeruY/UViqgAwPbMI/AAAAAAAACow/3OTKUTh_epU/s1600/style,+calcroft+lane,
+easter,+march+2013+(2).jpg
Margaret Keeping (2013-04-02 18:55:03)
Context would help but I think it’s this:
a rising ground; a ridge; a ledge, esp. one on the side of a chalk down; an unploughed strip serving as a boundary between fields.
Pronounced and often spelt lynch.
cathydreyer (2013-04-03 19:51:15)
Hello, thanks both. That’s really helpful. I think I have a lince on my walk!
Margaret (and Frank) where do you think Edward Thomas stands in relation to James Joyce? Having just read The Icknield Way,
some of Thomas’s descriptions of the way people speak made me think about Sirens in Ulysses ...
4.4
April
buckland marsh, two degrees, disputed land by tim pears, sweet tooth, ian mcewan
(2013-04-01 14:58)
[1]
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[2]
Walked from Tadpole Bridge to Buckland via Buckland Marsh this morning. By the time we returned to the car the
temperature had soared two degrees to a heady four. Still, the keen wind is at last drying out the land. The scene on
the marsh (top photo) was quite a contrast to that on [3]1st January, one of the last times I did this walk.
Delighted by the elegant ivy arch seen in a wood near the ’Hansel and Gretel’ house–anyone who travels the OxfordSwindon road will know the house I mean. (There have been a quite a few friends who’ve said, ’When I was a child I
wanted to live in that house.’)
Finished reading [4]Disputed Land by Tim Pears last night. Seemed appropriate, given the trip to see family in Shropshire (where the novel is set). Not that there was quite as much intrigue nor as many undercurrents at the family
gathering. Almost but not quite :-) Now started on [5]Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan.
I remember interviewing McEwan ages ago and talking about how far he had come by the time Enduring Love
was published (1997). How much further he has come now. Here is an extract from that old interview (see
[6]frankegerton.com/reviews).
’I couldn’t have done you a kind of Balzacian novel with neighbours in it.’ I have just reminded Ian McEwan of a
critic who saw conflict in his first novel, The Cement Garden, between its theatrically dislocated setting and the realistic
treatment of character.
It is evident that the idea amuses him. ’I conveniently have the house standing in a street where all the others have
been bulldozed–bulldozed out of fear, if I then had to have Mrs Smith popping in.’
We are sitting opposite each other on large comfortable jade-green sofas in his North Oxford home. His gentle voice
expresses a wide range of subtle emotions. The candid point he is making here is that his early stories were of their
time. He feels that there is a world of difference between them and his latest novel–a tour de force, by anyone’s
standards–Enduring Love.
’I was 21 and I was desperate to invent, to be vivid and different, without knowing much about the world, which is
partly why those stories were rather bizarre.’ He is frustrated at still being judged by their standards: ’I read accounts
that try to fit later novels into the scheme of First Love, Last Rights, and it makes very awkward reading.’
He believes his writing divides into two periods. The first ending with The Comfort of Strangers, which cast a fairly
cold eye over sado-masochism and patriarchal societies. ’It’s really my last novel of not naming anything. The Venice
is a sort of mental one–the Venice of Thomas Mann...’
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O-yEmoMuiCg/UVl7a1ka1dI/AAAAAAAACpA/UPLXmNHkJSI/s1600/buckland+marsh+and+
horse-riders+sign+april+2013.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VvQS7br48YY/UVl7dL_BuAI/AAAAAAAACpI/zK71runesqQ/s1600/ivy+arch,+wood+near+
buckland+april+2013.jpg
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/sunlight-and-blue-sky-2013.html
4. http://www.timpears.com/timpears_disputedland.asp
5. http://www.ianmcewan.com/bib/books/sweettooth.html
6. http://frankegerton.com/reviews.html
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sun, reed bed (2013-04-02 20:24)
[1]
Sunny today! It even felt hot in the shade, though the relentless north east wind continues.
Taking a few days off.
This reed bed is grown for thatching. Thatched houses used to be very common in our part of west Oxfordshire in
Victorian times and earlier. While there are still quite a few thatched houses, the majority were tiled during the last
century.
–
[2]http://streetbooks.co.uk website
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com blog
StreetBooks is a new micro-publisher based in west Oxfordshire
A Conscious Englishman by Margaret Keeping published on Thursday 7th February 2013
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iswH0AzpEZQ/UVswhd40l9I/AAAAAAAACpc/4QCMtDPuI0k/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FcmVlZCBiZWQgb3Bwb3NpdGUgZ3JlYXQgYnJvb2sgYXByaWwgMjAxMy5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-792553
2. http://streetbooks.co.uk/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
Margaret Keeping (2013-04-02 22:19:00)
I can almost hear the racket of sedge-warblers.
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refreshed, sweet tooth, guardian books blog, claire armitstead, margaret keeping’s a conscious
englishman, easter discovery (2013-04-06 12:47)
[1]
[2]
Holiday nearly over.
Feeling refreshed, though the time passes so swiftly.
Continuing to enjoy Ian McEwan’s [3]Sweet Tooth.
Really pleased to see the fantastic Guardian Books Blog [4]piece by Claire Armitstead on StreetBooks and Margaret
Keeping’s [5]A Conscious Englishman: "Reader reviews roundup: A biographical novel about the poet Edward Thomas
and a child’s eye view of life on the margins head our reviewers’ Easter discoveries".
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PkjNUj8WWRY/UWAIvBaJlMI/AAAAAAAACps/wsQeY0mdu68/s1600/cherry+blossom,+bampton+
churchyard+april+2013.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aTjQJ6Tvfvc/UWAIwBgyDtI/AAAAAAAACp0/YVE3ASzvIQQ/s1600/blossom,+bampton+april+
2013.jpg
3. http://www.ianmcewan.com/bib/books/sweettooth.html
4. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/apr/05/reader-reviews-roundup
5. http://streetbooks.co.uk/fiction.html
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last day of holiday, grafton lock, kelmscott, invisible, tom and sarah (2013-04-07 21:39)
[1]
Last day of holiday.
Had a lovely walk along the Thames from Grafton Lock to Kelmscott.
The above photo was taken just below William Morris’ Kelmscott Manor. It was about here that I set a scene in [2]Invisible. In a chapter, late in the novel–Daddy, I Hardly Knew You–Tom and Sarah have a picnic by the Thames and he
begins to understand more about her complex, troubled relationship with her father. Here is an extract.
–
I didn’t quite understand what she was driving at, although I dare say I picked up enough–from her demeanour, if
not her words. Selfishly, I didn’t want to get too heavy, what with Dad’s visit and the fact it was such a beautiful day.
It was a Sunday and I’d driven us to Kelmscott. I’d prepared us a picnic which I packed into a wicker hamper just as
Sarah liked. Tara helped me sort out the details, although I chose the wine.
We called at the Plough for a pint, then walked along the lane, past William Morris’s manor and onto the watermeadows. Appropriately, we spread out our rug under a huge willow on the river bank.
In the gentle late-autumn sun, Sarah’s pale complexion, dark feathery hair and green eyes looked quite, quite beautiful. But there was hurt in her expression. A tension. I’m not the most observant bloke in the world but it’d been there
ever since I picked her up. It was like she couldn’t let her features respond to the magic of the day. Instead they were
frozen by some as yet barely guessed-at ice field spreading across her mind.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PunyOxKPuB4/UWFrrW7zKZI/AAAAAAAACqE/CjIiSrW23ko/s1600/thames+below+kelmscott+
manor+april+2013.jpg
2. http://streetbooks.co.uk/fiction.html
Margaret Keeping (2013-04-08 19:20:11)
With your photo I imagine a sound-track of sedge-warblers.
388
warmer, frog spawn, busy, noughth week, uk web archive, e-legal deposit (2013-04-14 13:44)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Significantly warmer today–and indeed all this week. Frog spawn has started to appear in our new pond! Though
out in the countryside, there are still places that remain flooded–the hedgerow shown above stands in about a foot of
water. Even so, it’s nice to see fields being cultivated and sown now.
Am I feeling the benefits of my holiday, after the first week back at work? Hmm, just, I think. It has been busy, as
Oxford prepares for Trinity Term. We’re about to go into Noughth Week.
One thing that’s been talked about quite a bit this week, in library circles, has been the British Library’s hugely
ambitious plan to harvest and store billions of webpages for future scholars–see the Guardian’s [4]report on this.
And this in the same week that electronic legal deposit started (as discussed on the UK Web Archive [5]blog). Big
information science advances.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ttWpsgUBtTg/UWqfmnDSW4I/AAAAAAAACqU/86dD_rDWc7M/s1600/frog+and+spawn,+bampton+
april+2013.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XWMBlADG-4k/UWqfqygWphI/AAAAAAAACqc/woZj6hoYjPw/s1600/flooded+hedge,+calcroft+
lane+april+2013.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k8anOysQuFQ/UWqftSxQFyI/AAAAAAAACqk/KkKqPQxoelw/s1600/wounded+soldiers,
+calcroft+lane+april+2013.jpg
4. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/apr/05/british-library-archive-webpages-tweets
5. http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/webarchive/2013/04/non-print-legal-deposit-its-here-.html
390
top of the garden, grrrr!, sweet tooth, nesting material, twists (2013-04-20 21:02)
[1]
Beautiful sunny day. Late lunch at the top of the garden after a trip to the Plough at Kelmscott (a pint of Lion–Grrrr!).
The manor must have been open (the first time this year?)–a huge coach lumbering up one of the little lanes into the
village and cars in a field on the outskirts. A taste of summer, today. And how hungry I am. Thank goodness this
winter is over (I surely can’t be speaking to soon–it’s nearly May!). Now just about to finish Ian McEwan’s [2]Sweet
Tooth. It’s held me till nearly the end and from the ’tipping point’ (around p.210) had me in thrall, desperate to find out
what happened next and admiring of McEwan’s handling of suspense and his generation of inexorable momentum.
But, with six pages to go, I’m not sure about ending the novel with Tom’s letter. It seems a bit of a cop out. What I
really want is more Serena. She’s fascinating and I suspect this Tom finale gives a false sense of ’conclusion’ without
satisfying the deeper needs of the reader. Still, I shall read on–of course... Ah well, the novel has kept me more than
entertained most of the time. Meanwhile, we put our dog’s groomed-out fur for the birds–see above photo. It seems
it is much prized as nesting material, especially by blue tits!
...And now, having read those six pages, I can report that McEwan turns the end of the novel pretty magnificently.
Yes, a clever last-minute twist and then another twist. Expertise, he has. I should have remembered that!
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http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zsAyvffjovo/UXLx4eOMMbI/AAAAAAAACq0/PS_r8enaXzM/s1600/tufty+fur+dispenser+
april+2013.jpg
2. http://www.ianmcewan.com/bib/books/sweettooth.html
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first week of term, learning from students, cold again, biztro, allotment, fur, tls review
(2013-04-27 15:40)
[1]
[2]
First week of term, so lots to do. Nice to see students back at the libraries and to be meeting creative writing students
for tutorials. The [3]online course I teach started this week too. I’ve been teaching this course since 2008, three times
a year. I have to say that I still love returning to the exercises. I suppose this is because the discussions are always so
different–as individual as the students in each group–and, of course, I always learn new things about the stories and
issues we’re looking at, as well as about how I might present my ideas. You learn from your students–one of the great
things about the job.
Colder again today. Such a contrast to the sitting-out-at-the-top-of-the-garden miracle-of-a-day last Saturday. And
yet spring has started and the grass, flowers, shrubs, trees and crops are all growing inexorably, all of a sudden. In
the fields, the oilseed rape is just coming into flower, as the pictures above show (taken near the neighbouring village
of Black Bourton).
Guests staying on two days this week, which meant a couple of visits to the excellent [4]Biztro.
Went up to the allotment to try and get the seized-up padlock off the shed, so that I can start clearing out all the
rubbish that’s accumulated in there over the last decade. I need the sense of a new start to get my enthusiasm back.
Then I’ll prepare the ground. So late, though. After such an awful year. I’ve found myself wondering if the allotment
392
is worth the effort. I dare say I’ll get back into it. Wresting the padlock off was a struggle but I won in the end.
Well, demand outstripped supply as far as our dog’s fur was concerned (see last week’s [5]post), once the great tits
began taking it for their nests. There’s only so much fur a little dog is prepared to part with!
An iffy review of A Conscious Englishman in the Times Literary Supplement this week. On the one hand I was really
pleased to see the book appearing in such a prestigious publication but on the other I was disappointed by the rather
cheap points the reviewer scored. The novel does divide people. Which, according to Martin Amis, is what you want
in a book–it gets people talking. Still, I liked this quote from the review: ’A Conscious Englishman...turns its subject
into a twentieth-century equivalent of the old-fashioned notion of Keats: a poet misvalued by his times and cruelly
cut down...’
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-plFWBFUWxSg/UXvbuGIOO1I/AAAAAAAACrM/OvHpHxo5esQ/s1600/oilseed+rape+near+black+
bourton+april+2013+a.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GpXuCBXO4QI/UXvbs_t64lI/AAAAAAAACrE/29cCA4p9uBY/s1600/oilseed+rape+near+black+
bourton+april+2013+b.jpg
3. http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/W800-3
4. http://www.biztro.co.uk/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/top-of-garden-grrrr-sweet-tooth-nesting.html
4.5
May
bank holiday, witney walk, s1, allotment, outside, historical novels review, wild flowers, mount
owen road (2013-05-06 13:30)
[1]
393
[2]
[3]
I’m writing this blog post on the S1 bus from Witney to Oxford. Yep, working this bank holiday–the University
doesn’t have a day off today and students need their libraries.
Actually, quite enjoying the day so far. It’s a beautiful sunny morning and I had a lovely walk in near-deserted Witney
before catching the first bus. All being well, I’ll get another stroll from Botley to the centre of Oxford, via the Willow
Walk and Osney.
Started work on the allotment yesterday, having cleared the shed of seven years’ worth of junk last Sunday (psychologically, a good beginning; and how lovely it was to open the shed door yesterday and see everything in order). A
modest bit of digging got done, it has to be said–it’ll take a little while to get allotment-fit again. Still, I did enjoy being
up there.
At the house, yesterday, had breakfast outside and sat up the top of the garden later. Also sat out at the [4]Plough at
Kelmscott, enjoying a pint of [5]Cotswold Way.
Pleased to see A Conscious Englishman in the [6]Historical Novels Review. Tut-tut, though, Lightning Source, about
that faded type on those three pages...
Just passing over the Thames at [7]Swinford toll. Surprised by how full the bus is, now I’ve looked up from typing.
After the allotment yesterday, I went for a quick cycle. Saw the wild flowers above on the verge alongside Mount
Owen Road–a beautiful country lane up and over Bampton’s only hill (’Mount’ is something of an exaggeration). Not
normally keen on dandelions but these were such a rich, vibrant yellow!
394
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-agrha-OAqZk/UYZNW97QuBI/AAAAAAAACrg/PocJrqttB1E/s1600/dandelions,+mount+owen+
road+may+2013.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Qwg0qzkIc8/UYZNYn4ZyyI/AAAAAAAACro/fz4VcqqnGHs/s1600/cowslips,+mount+owen+
road+may+2013.jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hJ8G08FMHIs/UYZNau3scwI/AAAAAAAACrw/OYCzek9jiO4/s1600/lords+and+ladies,+mount+
owen+road+may+2013.jpg
4. http://www.theploughinnkelmscott.com/home.html
5.
http://www.wickwarbrewing.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=
2&category_id=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2&vmcchk=1&Itemid=2
6. http://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/a-conscious-englishman
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swinford_Toll_Bridge
Margaret Keeping (2013-05-06 17:10:34)
Glad you have recovered from allotment discouragement, Frank. I keep a summer picture of ours around to encourage me. The
fruit looks like being spectacular this summer.
Artweeks is going splendidly, probably because of the sunny weather and Marc’s quietly well-known reputation.
I sold a copy of ACE and many admired its excellent good looks.
changeable moods, history thesis fair, late spuds, conted trinity newsletter, horseshoes, cannock chase, b, amok, lie in (2013-05-11 18:08)
[1]
395
[2]
[3]
396
[4]
Enjoyed cycling this morning. The countryside’s moods were changeable as the threat of showers came and went, as
the above pics show. Cloudy skies, occasional bursts of sunlight–and lots of beautiful spring blossom.
A busy week, including working bank holiday Monday-see last [5]post–some challenging (though stimulating) meetings and the History Thesis Fair.
A bit of gardening on Tuesday night meant I got some onions in on the allotment. A week or so late but they might
come to something. But then the showers started and so planting spuds has been badly delayed. Ah well, all gardening fun.
Meanwhile, was really pleased that StreetBooks and A Conscious Englishman by Margaret Keeping were featured in
the University of Oxford, Department for Continuing Education Trinity [6]newsletter (page 4).
A friend visited today–great lunch at the Hollybush Witney’s sister pub, [7]The Three Horseshoes. Lovely lunch.
Earlier, when I got up, I enjoyed listening to [8]Open Country on Radio 4, which was all about Cannock Chase. Took
me back to days with B during the late 70s, early 80s.
On the bus back from Witney this afternoon, listened to [9]Amok by Atoms for Peace–suitably low-key surreal for the
long vistas of the Thames Valley and the scudding skies.
Looking forward to lie in tomorrow.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-detqwdHhzGk/UY4E9RGdq4I/AAAAAAAACsM/RP5e1Cy92tA/s1600/blossom,+near+black+
bourton+may+2013.jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lZLzHCDKQYE/UY4E91AZwjI/AAAAAAAACsQ/bMDL__Ytato/s1600/moody+sky,+oilseed+rape,
+towards+bampton+may+2013.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DroaeCK0bek/UY4FCS7Bm_I/AAAAAAAACsg/WfVpyzRZJEg/s1600/cherryblossom,+black+
bourton+may+2013.jpg
4.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CZLYs-KSe-U/UY4FCALKXMI/AAAAAAAACsc/k2EuqaslC8g/s1600/may+blossom,+calcroft+
lane+may+2013.jpg
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/bank-holiday-witney-walk-s1-allotment.html
http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/news/newsletter/OUDCENewsletterTrinity13.pdf
http://www.horseshoeswitney.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgft
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amok/dp/B00BLL1B5A/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368291752&sr=301-1
397
heavy cold..., moorhens, may landscape, writers greehouse, red nile - robert twigger, margaret
keeping, edward thomas (2013-05-19 13:00)
[1]
[2]
Two pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. Not out and about much this weekend due to heavy cold that’s been doing
the rounds at the University. Have to say that I felt a lot better today when I got up and imagined myself doing all
sorts of things in the garden and allotment. Mowing the lawn and chopping some kindling, though, finished me off.
The family of moorhens were seen on the Oxford Canal opposite the flats where the old [3]Lucy’s foundry used to be.
On Friday all members of the family were doing well–the five chicks a lot, lot bigger. The view towards the Cotswolds
from near the neighbouring village of Lew is a similar one to that posted on [4]3rd February, which showed a very
bleak landscape with picked-clean hedges and trees. The ground is now being cultivated but is still, I would say,
pretty bare–for May!
Meanwhile, I realise so late in the day that I failed as a fiend and Facebook friend to Megan Kerr, who was fundraising
for a project recently. Spring was so busy that Facebook pretty much passed me by... Do check out her website [5]The
Writers Greenhouse, which includes details of her writing courses. (Sorry, Megan...)
Megan is a member of Writers in Oxford and I’m really pleased that a new book on the River Nile by a friend and
former member of the group Robert Twigger, is the lead review in Sunday Times Books today. The Sunday Times is,
of course, behind the paywall, so here’s a link to the page for Red Nile on his publisher’s website, [6]Orion. See also,
398
Robert’s [7]blog.
As always, do check out, Margaret Keeping’s wonderful blog, [8]Publishing my Edward Thomas, which grows and
grows as a terrific [9]Edward Thomas resource.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KWOobMpWVCM/UZi4QqMbbwI/AAAAAAAACtA/qydtgRmwGIE/s1600/moorhen+family,+oxford+
canal+may+2013.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47IdrNlB408/UZi4SrW0VJI/AAAAAAAACtI/QbaRO9BPJNY/s1600/towards+the+cotswolds+
from+lew+may+2013.jpg
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Ironworks,_Oxford
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/moon-crows-and-snowdrops-ribs-conscious.html
5. http://www.thewritersgreenhouse.co.uk/index.htm
6. http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9780297866497
7. http://www.roberttwigger.com/
8. http://publishingmyedwardthomas.blogspot.co.uk/
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thomas_(poet)
out cycling again, bluebells, whitsun, mild, the national (2013-05-25 14:54)
[1]
Out cycling for a bit this morning. Beautiful morning but I’m still getting over the miserable cough and cold that’s
been around all week.
Saw this patch of bluebells on my way along the Buckland Road to the Isle of Wight Bridge and the Great Brook.
This weekend it’s all Whitsun Morris Dancing and folk music in the pubs in Bampton. Delighted to see the excellent
[2]Green King mild on, as usual at Whitsun, at the Horseshoe. [3]Mild is a rare but excellent beer.
Meanwhile, downloaded [4]Trouble Will Find Me by the National when it came out on Monday. Terrific. Instant
favourite.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o9BZ8qFnWlE/UaBvapoCUBI/AAAAAAAACtY/cvVgCW28ggU/s1600/bluebells+near+bampton+
may+2013.jpg
2. http://www.greeneking.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=75
3. http://www.camra.org.uk/page.php?id=227
4. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Will-Find-Me-Explicit/dp/B00CRW29US
399
potatoes, late (2013-05-27 15:02)
[1]
[2]
Forked through the ground for the potatoes yesterday and planted them today. Last year I said that the spuds were
going in late on the [3]6th May! Little did I know how late they’d be going in this time!
Three varieties planted (thirteen rows in total): Desiree, Estima and Kestrel.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I3-jS9UXKIw/UaNlMzIj4vI/AAAAAAAACto/M2A8QQwU0u0/s1600/potato+dibber,+bampton+
may+2013+a.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6VgBBl7f6W8/UaNlQEDZzbI/AAAAAAAACtw/ZfyBACje9nI/s1600/potato+dibber,+bampton+
may+2013+b.jpg
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/kind-weather-spuds-edzell-blues.html
400
4.6
June
sunrise, under the weather, book launch missed, lunch with cousin (2013-06-01 16:36)
[1]
Working in Oxford for part of today, so was up early. Took photo of sunrise through the lime tree above our garden
shed at about 6 am. OK sunrise is a bit misleading–sun had been up for a while. Still fresh and beautiful, though.
Had a lovely walk along the Oxford canal, then camomile tea at Caffè Nero. Now heading back home to enjoy the
late afternoon sun in our garden.
Cough and cold mentioned last weekend didn’t give up and became something of a nightmare. Still not fully recovered but on the mend.
Was meant to attend Oxford launch of If I Could Tell You by Jing-Jing Lee but couldn’t go because I wasn’t feeling well.
See the book on Goodreads: [2]http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17225939-if-i-could-tell-y ou.
I did, however, have lunch with a cousin yesterday. We had never met till then, even though we are quite closely
related. A lovely occasion! Discoveries, including places we both know in Wiltshire and Somerset and on my part
lots of new information about family history.
–
Visit
[3]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[4]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VTV3oYs52RU/UaoVFuQT6_I/AAAAAAAACuM/gUg7ne7fQU0/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc3VucmlzZSwgbGltZSB0cmVlLCBzaGVkLCBiYW1wdG9uIGp1bmUgMjAxMy5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-713411
2. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17225939-if-i-could-tell-you
3. http://frankegerton.com/
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
Margaret Keeping (2013-06-02 09:03:54)
Really sorry to hear that you’re still not over the beastly cold.
Lovely picture - I particularly liked the gentle sagging shed roof, which seems to be trying to mimic the curvature of the earth to
compliment the sun.
Christina Lee Jing-Jing (2013-06-08 17:23:34)
It’s too bad you couldn’t attend the launch, Frank! You were missed. Hope you’re feeling better now that the sun is out.
- Jing
401
feeling better, cold breeze, soft blue skies, presidential visit, valencourt books, assignments
(2013-06-08 23:54)
[1]
[2]
402
[3]
I’m feeling better now, thank goodness, although it’s only been during the last couple of days that I’ve got my strength
back.
Enjoyed cycling this morning, despite the bitterly cold breeze.
The breeze has been unremitting for the whole week and meant that today was pretty chilly even when the sun was
fully out. In sheltered places, though, the air was beautifully clear. The sky has been a soft blue with light cloud.
In the country, the blossom is still out and barley is coming into ear and will soon ripen.
At work, Oxford full term is nearly over–just one more week to go. Gosh the term has flown.
A highlight of the week was a visit to the library by [4]Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia. He came to
acknowledge the pivotal role that the Latin American Centre has played over the last 50 years in developing greater
knowledge and understanding of Colombia in the UK. He was in Oxford to attend a fascinating event at Magdalen
College to launch the [5]Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network.
An excellent article in this week’s TLS highlights recent publications from [6]Valencourt Books, an American print on
demand publisher specialising in reissuing long forgotten British authors such as Oliver Onions, John Blackburn and
Ronald Fraser–authors I had never heard of.
Meanwhile, it has been a weekend of marking assignments so far. A little bit of a lie-in tomorrow, however.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8zB4IETr8LI/UbLWpJchJEI/AAAAAAAACuc/iJ5AA8bPEyg/s1600/may+blossom,+near+
bampton+june+2013.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N0hLHa4aCUM/UbLWq2JZulI/AAAAAAAACuo/KtGIU3IY0pI/s1600/horse+chestnut+candles,
+near+bampton+june+2013.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UE8GZPhLREU/UbLWqqTmpwI/AAAAAAAACuk/mXU5CKT541w/s1600/barley+and+barn,+near+
black+bourton+june+2013.jpg
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Manuel_Santos
5. http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2013/130607.html
6. http://valancourtbooks.com/
403
dog walking, stillness, a fox, iain banks (2013-06-10 10:38)
[1]
I arranged to go into work a bit later this morning because I had to walk our dog. Which makes dog-walking sound
like a chore, which it wasn’t. Although grey, the light was soft, so that the greens and the colours of the wild flowers
were muted but vibrant. The wind has at last dropped too–the air was so still. Just after I took the photo above in the
Bampton Millennium wood, we rounded a corner and there was a fox, setting off swift and silent along the track.
Very sad, though, to get home and read of the death of Iain Banks.
Below is a review I wrote for the Times of Banks’ 2002 novel, Dead Air. I hope that the piece captures something of
Banks’ high-energy and eclectic style. Although, as the review suggests, I thought the end of the book less successful
than the beginning, I remember the novel very clearly and refer students to it when teaching at Oxford.
Banks’ work reveals him to be, amongst so many other things, a terrific technical writer. This novel is a great example
of the way that the ’tipping point’ works in fiction. The tipping point occurs anywhere between one third and two
thirds the way through a novel and is the moment when all the careful work has been done to build up the story and
the plot suddenly begins to move inexorably towards its conclusion, sometimes gently at first then gathering speed,
or, as in Dead Air, at a helter-skelter pace, and with dizzying twists and turns.
Filling the Silence
The Times, 31 August 2002
DEAD AIR
By Iain Banks
Little, Brown, £16.99, 384pp
ISBN 0 316 86054 9
£13.59
IAIN BANKS’s latest novel is a characteristic blend of contradictory elements. A seemingly trivial story of sexual
infidelity which tackles serious emotional and political themes. A Buchanesque adventure yarn set in 21st-century
London. A babel of phonetic voices whose title, Dead Air, is radio jargon for silence.
The narrator is a Scottish DJ called Ken Nott. Born Ken McNutt, his surnames indicate that he has his finger on the
"self-destruct button" and that he is in denial about the way the world is; "a professional contrarian". His personal life
is a mess. Ostensibly, he is going out with Jo, a record company publicist, who has an impressive display of "facial
metalwork". But there are other women. Above all, there is Celia, a former model from Martinique whom he meets
in hotel rooms for clandestine sex. Her husband, a ruthless gangster, would kill both of them if he found out.
Ken’s working life is equally precarious. He hosts a shock jock phone-in on Capital Live! during which he rants
against "bigotry and stupidity". The targets of his left-wing anger include Moslem fundamentalists and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. He receives regular death threats.
In between girlfriends and work he frequents a variety of pubs with the lads: Phil, his gay producer; Craig, a friend
from his Glasgow schooldays; and Ed, a black club DJ from "Sarf Landin".
A surprising feature of the book is that its first half is episodic with limited plot development. This approach works
because Banks is adept at drawing us into each new situation while deepening our understanding of his characters.
404
In a comic scene, in which Craig and Ken spend a night in, smoking joints and talking about "fitba" (football), Banks
makes us empathise with Ken more than we might have expected.
He appears to be vulnerable, is guilty about having once seduced Craig’s wife and shows that he has both insight into
his erratic behaviour and a desire to change.
Banks also develops weightier themes such as liberal humanism and its limitations. At one point Celia questions
Ken’s belief in "objective truth" and his assertion that people have every right to think whatever they wish so long as
they do not proselytise.
She counters by saying that he wants "to make everybody think the same way". She adds: "You are a colonialist of the
mind."
Given that the book’s opening is carefully set up, it is disappointing when the second half proves less successful. The
narrative turns into a thriller of the will-he-get-the-girl? sort. Clever use of a subplot ensures that this is initially
compelling, but after a while much of the story’s energy is attenuated.
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qNKtUdB2UFE/UbWe1-YDfdI/AAAAAAAACvU/9TJDLEhq5gU/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FdHVmdHkgaW4gYmFtcHRvbiBtaWxsZW5uaXVtIHdvb2QganVuZSAyMDEzLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-774858
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
last week of term, lunches missed, laura marling, oxonian review, a conscious englishman,
gabriel roberts (2013-06-15 16:33)
[1]
405
[2]
Last week of term.
Lots of things to do, though. Even so, was sad to miss the [3]Oxford Centre for Life Writing lunch on Tuesday and
yesterday’s lunch for all colleagues who had done Navigator courses (I did one last autumn).
Ah well, a busy but productive week.
Productive in terms of work but not on the allotment–too wet to do anything when I had free time. Hoping that by
some miracle the soil will have dried out by tomorrow morning.
At odd moments on the bus have been continuing to listen to Laura Marling’s Once I Was An Eagle. A generous
album both in terms of length and how many details that re-listening reveals.
Excellent review of A Conscious Englishman in the Oxonian Review by Gabriel Roberts. An insightful balance of wellarticulated criticisms and praise from someone who clearly knows the subject. These words sum up how I feel about
the book:
’A Conscious Englishman holds its own against other versions of the same story and provides an easier route than
academic studies into the contexts of Thomas’s writing. Anyone with a burgeoning interest in Thomas should begin
by reading the poems, but A Conscious Englishman is a worthy addition to the expanding secondary literature.’ Gabriel
Roberts, [4]The Oxonian Review
I’m so pleased for the book and for Margaret!
(Photos taken on Oxford canal on my way to work this morning.)
–
Visit
[5]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[6]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BDOqwlrGMQ4/UbyJnMemjXI/AAAAAAAACv4/vBvKnSV6jzw/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fb3hmb3JkIGNhbmFsIGp1bmUgMjAxMy5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-790684
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6ibVv5wokEk/UbyJnjV0EVI/AAAAAAAACwA/Fbb1izKEVSQ/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FeWVsbG93IGZsYWcsIG94Zm9yZCBjYW5hbCBqdW5lIDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-793410
3. https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing
4. http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/the-creations-of-edward-thomas
5. http://frankegerton.com/
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
406
cycling, hay fever, aclaiir, e-books, lac garden party, preparing for guided retreat, supermoon
(2013-06-22 15:18)
[1]
[2]
407
[3]
Had intended to go to the allotment early this morning but as it rained during the night I ended up cycling–for the
first time in ages.
It was lovely to be out in the countryside. Even though I have been suffering from hay fever since last Sunday. I
haven’t had hay fever like this since I was in my teens. But then this year, lots of people who’ve never suffered before
are snuffling and sneezing away. It’s all because everything has flowered at once, apparently, as a result of the late
spring–that seems to be the accepted explanation. Achoo!
Headed to London on Tuesday for the [4]ACLAIIR AGM and seminar. The theme this year was e-books from Spain
and Latin America, which fitted in well with the e-book skills training I attended in Oxford the following day. Academic e-books are beginning to take off now, it seems, both in terms of the numbers being published and collected
and in terms of the enhanced ways of viewing them. Downloading them for a time-limited period and viewing them
with Adobe Digital Editions or, even better, on an e-reader device such as a Kindle or a Nook, makes for a much more
satisfactory reading experience than before.
Went to the Latin American Centre summer garden party yesterday. A lovely occasion.
Meanwhile, have been preparing for the MSt guided retreat and for a couple of busy weeks of assignment marking.
Huge moon yesterday evening, by the way. Supposed to be even bigger tonight! A ’[5]supermoon’ indeed!
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A6wr2y5vzK8/UcWr5R_GswI/AAAAAAAACwQ/YlLdE8El6ns/s1600/oxeye+daisies,+black+
bourton+june+2013.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K-_N8NpO2_Y/UcWr62Ao82I/AAAAAAAACwY/j3FUucFjtLI/s1600/poppies+and+oilseed+rape,
+black+bourton+june+2013.jpg
3. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4QYVk8or00A/UcWr8CtRYpI/AAAAAAAACwg/WscOHGIkzBc/s1600/dogroses,+alvescot+june+
2013.jpg
4. http://aclaiir.org.uk/
5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23013393
408
mst, academic year turns, peony, a girl is a half-formed thing by eimear mcbride, bobby "blue"
bland, nook (2013-06-29 10:36)
[1]
Great to see the MSt students at the Guided Retreat earlier in the week and to hear the readings at the showcase.
The academic year turns and other courses are coming to an end (lots of marking). Soon there will be the summer
schools.
At the libraries the reading rooms are so much quieter since the undergraduates and taught master’s students left. A
brief lull, though, because soon the summer researchers will be here–some are already.
Meanwhile, our peony (a Sarah Bernhardt) is in flower. Glorious to look at; glorious fragrance!
I’m really pleased to have received my signed copy of A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride, which I
ordered from the publishers’ [2]website (Galley Beggar Press). The [3]review of the book in the TLS made it sound
unmissable (despite the ’Gob impressive’ headline). Looking forward to reading this.
About to download Two Steps from the Blues ([4]original LP, Hoogan Records 1961) by Bobby "Blue" Bland, who died
this week, aged 83 (see Guardian [5]obituary).
Contemplating buying a Nook e-reader.
1.
http:
//1.bp.blogspot.com/-TVTQ0Du3Oec/Uc6J71E_9fI/AAAAAAAACw8/g_VCnoPTOSQ/s1600/peonies,+bampton+june+2013.jpg
2.
http://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/book-store/galley-beggar-press/
a-girl-is-a-half-formed-thing-by-eimear-mcbride-pre-order
3. http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1275085.ece
4. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Two-Steps-Blues-Original-LP/dp/B007YOSJTY
5. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jun/24/bobby-blue-bland
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4.7
July
allotment, ugdip readings, wingspan by jeremy hughes, moocs, oers, opera next, mount owen,
ps no-see-ums (2013-07-06 11:42)
[1]
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[3]
Up to the allotment early today to finish digging some rough ground that I didn’t get the chance to clean earlier in the
year. Things are moving now and some of the potato plants are in flower. (Meanwhile, this weekend, we’ll be having
the first of J’s mangetouts and spinach, which she’s been growing at the house).
Went to the final year celebration evening for the undergraduate diploma students midweek. Loved hearing the readings. Also, I enjoyed meeting one of my colleagues who I’d not had a chance to chat to before. His second novel is
due out from Cillian Press in September: [4]Wingspan by Jeremy Hughes.
Interesting Radio 4 [5]programme about MOOCs and other digital teaching initiatives just now. MOOCs are Massive
Open Online Courses and I have to say, speaking as an Oxford online tutor for the last five years, they sound fascinating. Opening up learning is one of the main inspirations behind online courses and, indeed, behind the Open
Education Resources (OER) [6]project I took part in last year for the Department of Continuing Education.
At the beginning of the week, I decided to try out the Opera 12 web browser, having grown a bit bored with Chrome
and Firefox. No sooner had I done so, however, than there was suddenly a radically new Opera available–Opera 15,
which is based on the Chromium open-source software that powers Google’s browser, although the Norwegian one
has a very different feel. (I chose to download the slightly more experimental version of the browser, [7]Opera Next.)
Personally I like the absence of all but the address bar and the page tabs. For settings and options, there’s just one button to press that produces a drop-down menu; while commands, such as print, are available by right clicking on web
pages. I’m also quite into the way the browser handles bookmarks–a single page to which you add screenshot icons
for each bookmarked website. The browser is pretty stripped down at present, though a rapid roll out of features is
promised. I’m going to stick with the browser and see how it devlops.
Cycled home from the allotment the long way round, out to Lew and back over Mount Owen–pictures above.
PS (an hour or so after the original posting): as I think I’ve mentioned, I subscribe to the Oxford English Dictionary
Word of the day service (see OED [8]site, right-hand side), which means the complete definition and quoted examples
of a particular word are emailed to you each day. It’s fun. Today’s word was ’[9]no-see-um’, a indigenous American
coinage for ’any of several minute, bloodsucking flies, esp. biting midges’. Love this word! I think I got bitten by
several no-see-ums on the allotment earlier!
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eREu2EKQ_qA/UdfV1etzdtI/AAAAAAAACxQ/Ld9rqfxQxUQ/s1600/hedge+woundwort,+nettles,
+cow+parsley,+near+lew+july+2013.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GZamYP7eKts/UdfV1VA4veI/AAAAAAAACxM/uMdrIeIEVlA/s1600/telegraph+poles,+mount+
owen+road,+bampton+july+2013.jpg
3. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m8RbFX2qDEo/UdfV10EmChI/AAAAAAAACxY/N10wxAaDEn8/s1600/bampton+from+mount+owen+
july+2013.jpg
4. http://cillianpress.co.uk/wingspan
5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b036j3qc
6. http://open.conted.ox.ac.uk/
7. http://www.opera.com/developer/next
8. http://www.oed.com/
9. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/128424
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Rob (2013-07-09 11:13:18)
Frank. I’ve already dug a few roots of my potatoes. Not much on them, but good and clean. Also had our own lettuce and
beetroot leaves, and our own gooseberries in a tart. Ain’t it nice to eat your own stuff?
day off, heatwave, andy murray, dancing tadpoles, blue and white crops, proper summer
(2013-07-08 12:37)
[1]
[2]
Lovely walk through the fields to the south of Bampton earlier. Day off today.
Amazing heatwave in the UK at the moment that’s set to last for the rest of July, if the forecasts are to be believed.
Sitting at the top of the garden in the blazing sun yesterday was a great way to listen to Wimbledon and to hear
the moment when Andy Murray became champion! I swear the tadpoles in our pond were dancing. A couple
of interesting crops in the photos above–both taken this morning in the Thames Valley near what used to be RAF
Bampton Castle. The blue crop is linseed and the white one is some sort of mix that’s planted to provide game cover.
There are quite a few fields of linseed in the valley this year because the spring floods meant that there was no chance
412
to get the corn planted and presumably linseed can be sown fairly late in the year and still ripen in good time.
Great to have a proper summer! It hasn’t been like this since the end of May last year, when I was in San Francisco
(colleagues enjoyed telling me that it was way hotter in the UK!).
–
Visit
[3]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[4]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-andQHUwugwo/UdqmPWl8lwI/AAAAAAAACxw/bpDEGYsPAPE/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FbGluc2VlZCwgYmFtcHRvbiBjYXN0bGUganVseSAyMDEzLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-700063
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eokK71bv-E8/UdqmQK9G0MI/AAAAAAAACx4/GDSBpCjb7xU/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FZ2FtZSBtaXgsIGJhbXB0b24gY2FzdGxlIGp1bHkgMjAxMy5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-703166
3. http://frankegerton.com/
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
trap grounds, lord of the flies, marking done, free-ish week, summer school, exeter college
(2013-07-13 11:57)
[1]
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[2]
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[4]
Strayed off the Oxford canal towpath this morning and explored part of the Trap Grounds site, about half a mile north
of the city centre.
I’ve passed the site countless times over the years and used to walk part of it from the Port Meadow side when we
lived on Osney Island.
I had no idea that the canal part was such a wonderful place, though! It’s made up of reed beds and woodland, with
raised walkways, a hide and play areas that look like something out of Lord of the Flies.
Why was I in Oxford on a Saturday? Work, of course–but come 4 pm, I’ve a few days off. Can’t wait. Meanwhile, the
marking is done (for now) and there’s a relatively free week ahead before the summer school at Exeter College starts.
Yay!
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WvPjdqa4me4/UeExyY7VKCI/AAAAAAAACyQ/bfGMdiC_QUg/s1600/great+mullein,+trap+
grounds,+oxford+july+2013.JPG
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZMwMRx2dycI/UeEx0vRSBkI/AAAAAAAACyY/4uiL8dQkZ78/s1600/wooden+walkway,+trap+
grounds,+oxford+july+2013.JPG
3. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f48v-1dIBtA/UeEx1lTv2dI/AAAAAAAACyg/DQOyopYM9Jk/s1600/coppice-work+angel,+trap+
grounds,+oxford+july+2013.JPG
4.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MZFd9rzX0Zw/UeEx2pGmbLI/AAAAAAAACyo/IO5Ug7AezHw/s1600/reed+bed,+trap+grounds,
+oxford+july+2013.JPG
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compasses lower chicksgrove, beckford arms, oats wheat and barley, peaceful wiltshire
(2013-07-17 15:38)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Spent three excellent days staying at the [4]Compasses, Lower Chicksgrove, in deepest Wiltshire. With its flagstoned
floor and timbered, cool dark interior, it’s a timeless place. The food this year was the best ever.
Lovely walk on Monday to the [5]Beckford Arms at Fonthill. Photos of oats, wheat and barley seen along the way
above. Also, in the barley pic, is a strip of a yellow-flowered crop that isn’t oilseed rape. Mustard? Whatever it was,
it seemed planted as game cover rather than for harvesting.
This part of Wiltshire is incredibly peaceful and reviving.
–
Visit
[6]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[7]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Oxt7TYhuysQ/Ueasjb5hpGI/AAAAAAAACy8/FtwfRixFJ3E/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fb2F0cywgbmVhciBsb3dlciBjaGlja3Nncm92ZSBqdWx5IDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-748838
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rSyaz24t2pg/UeasjxzmcVI/AAAAAAAACzE/D9piF1wbpK4/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fd2hlYXQsIG5lYXIgZm9udGhpbGwganVseSAyMDEzLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-751265
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Myzk8l7UHkQ/Ueaskba1EAI/AAAAAAAACzQ/2N_0TJfob84/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FYmFybGV5LCBmb250aGlsbCBqdWx5IDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-753236
4. http://www.thecompassesinn.com/
5. http://www.beckfordarms.com/
6. http://frankegerton.com/
7. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
Margaret Keeping (2013-07-17 16:45:37)
That looks more desirable to me than the 41c we are currently experiencing here in Trausse. But I did just hear and fleetingly see
a Golden Oriole.
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30c, more wiltshire pics, sublime, developing as a creative writer, opera next 16 (2013-07-20 13:54)
[1]
[2]
[3]
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[4]
[5]
[6]
Wow, what a week! Temperatures over 30C–and it may be even hotter next week.
Some more pics from the Wiltshire excursion above. First three taken on the Fonthill/Beckford Arms afternoon and
the next two taken when we walked to the estimable [7]Howard’s House Hotel the following day.
The bottom photo shows the moon south of Lower Chicksgrove. One of the things I love about staying at the [8]Compasses is taking our dog for a walk through the hamlet and out into the countryside after supper. It’s so quiet in this
part of Wiltshire and the trees and fields seen in the fading light are sublime.
Meanwhile, it’s been back to work since Thursday. Amongst other things, preparing for the [9]Developing as a Creative Writer Summer School at Exeter College, Oxford, that starts tomorrow. Looking forward to meeting the students.
Btw Opera Next is now available in [10]build 16. Some improvements–sharper display, it seems to me, faster page419
loading and proper functioning of web-media such as iPlayer, amongst other things. I’m sticking with the browser.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rL8zZNbQT2M/UepKSyZc8PI/AAAAAAAACz4/XYSc88ulalA/s1600/poppies+and+barley,
+fonthill+july+2013.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pATn00DTq7I/UepKYRcGaXI/AAAAAAAAC0A/xLU9TWmkH3w/s1600/green+lane,+near+lower+
chicksgrove+july+2013.jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IjpdtymRJNY/UepKanaIb5I/AAAAAAAAC0I/pMueOvH_wek/s1600/shady+sheep,+fonthill+
july+2013.jpg
4.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-km9ls8k1tJ0/UepKa531IxI/AAAAAAAAC0M/nTbB6kzXGoQ/s1600/green+lane,+near+
chilmark+july+2013.jpg
5.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nclaAPztfgU/UepKd0v5TtI/AAAAAAAAC0g/tzkuNue1lxY/s1600/wagon+wheel+gate,+near+
chilmark+july+2013.jpg
6.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4J1Qm1No2X4/UepKcdXC0aI/AAAAAAAAC0Y/UySU641Z-Xs/s1600/half+moon,+tees+and+
telephone+wires,+lower+chicksgrove+july+2013.jpg
7. http://www.howardshousehotel.co.uk/
8. http://www.thecompassesinn.com/
9. http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/details.php?id=W800-36
10. http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/2013/07/19/opera-next-16
allotment, autumn king, first runners, summer school, narrow stone-walled winds, magic of
sunlight (2013-07-27 13:49)
[1]
Up on the allotment early. Tidied up the couch paths with the grass hook then weeded and hoed. Fortunately, the
hot weather has meant that grass and weeds have grown slowly, so everything is manageable. I also sowed some
Autumn King carrots (late, of course, but not much later, proportionately, than any of the other plantings this year)
before feeding and watering.
Brought back the first handful of runner beans and masses of courgettes (Italian and green and yellow round).
It’s been great to meet the two summer school groups I’m working with at Exeter College. Though it was so hot
and humid in Oxford this week. Everyone did very well to keep going! The welcome dinner last Sunday was fun
too–great to catch up with colleagues on high table. Pleased that we were let off wearing academic gowns this year
because it was so stifling.
Came across these shining leaves in one of the narrow stone-walled winds, or lanes, that run between gardens to the
north of us here in Bampton (maple or sycamore?). Not sure that the photo quite does justice to the magical effect of
the light through the green, though!
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1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BADETEHiYms/UfLDcbmJs4I/AAAAAAAAC08/u7s7fhuTMA0/s1600/shining+leaves,+north+
wind,+bampton+july+2013.jpg
rain, first spuds, great brook, brandy bottle lilies (2013-07-28 14:56)
[1]
[2]
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[3]
Heavy rain yesterday evening meant there was little I could do on the allotment this morning, although I did lift our
first spuds. The variety is Estima and while the potatoes are quite small there were a lot of them on each root. Given
how late the spuds were [4]planted this year, I was really pleased.
Afterwards, I went cycling. I’ve not been along the Great Brook, which parallels the Thames and flows into it at
Shifford Lock, for some time because I’ve tended to work on the allotment then do the Mount Owen route. So it was
great to see what’s been happening in this part of the countryside. The stream is full of brandy bottle lily pads and
flowers–like the ones in the photos, which I saw opposite the thatcher’s [5]reed bed.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AU3hcyk5TB0/UfUfIVwE5yI/AAAAAAAAC1w/0G6aizcIsts/s1600/estima+potatoes,+bampton+
july+2013.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IJ7PPsDfko0/UfUfLdNaa2I/AAAAAAAAC14/3u7ccC5mWEQ/s1600/brandy+bottle+lilies,
+great+brook+july+2013+a.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z5RAZdSyEQE/UfUfHSmQbcI/AAAAAAAAC1o/DOXzD4R9B18/s1600/brandy+bottle+lilies,
+great+brook+july+2013+b.jpg
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/potatoes-late.html
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/sun-reed-bed.html
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4.8
August
harvest time, lords and ladies, barley, exeter college summer school, rewley’s 135th
(2013-08-03 16:45)
[1]
[2]
Harvest time brings a frisson of autumn in the ruby lords and ladies berries and the dry ripened barley, which will
soon give way to cultivated soil and new-sown seed.
I photographed the lords and ladies at the base of this tree (or maybe it was one of its neighbours) the [3]year before
last (30th July). Not sure whether these ones will grow taller or remain as they are.
I was out cycling at about 7 am this morning, after having been working for an hour or so. These are busy weeks as
far as creative writing teaching is concerned, not least because of the summer school at Exeter College–which I am
enjoying immensely. Two wonderful groups of students!
Meanwhile, I’ve signed up to give a public seminar on Thursday 26th September at 10 am, Rewley House. This will
be my contribution to Continuing Education’s open day, which takes place this year on the 135th anniversary of the
founding of the department. Looking forward to this event! Details soon.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FlynvkJtZTY/UfzA4--YZYI/AAAAAAAAC2Q/t4ko_pG6lMQ/s1600/lords+and+ladies,+black+
bourton+august+2013.jpg
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2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VqZRY7aqaQ0/UfzA4pgWflI/AAAAAAAAC2M/s7z29KrXJJY/s1600/barley,+black+bourton+
august+2013.jpg
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/autumn-comes-early-lords-and-ladies-et.html
end of summer school, can’t quite believe, lie-in, friend’s 90th (2013-08-09 16:59)
[1]
The [2]summer school at Exeter College is drawing to a close. The last assignment feedback has been given and later
there will be drinks on the lawn and dinner in hall.
The three weeks have passed extraordinarily quickly and tomorrow all the students will leave the college and head
home. I must say, I have loved working with both groups and can’t quite believe that I won’t be seeing them for more
seminars. I hope that they have got as much out of the series as I have.
A lie-in tomorrow, perhaps. Although there is a friend’s 90th birthday lunch to look forward to.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cl35oT3GvQ0/UgULZVcn1mI/AAAAAAAAC2w/wVAGGBBW6Uk/s1600/radcliffe+square+august+
2013.jpg
2. http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/details.php?id=W800-36
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(2013-08-16 22:47)
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1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zloI4FPsXdE/Ug6dsnVCsOI/AAAAAAAAC3I/zGG4Ro-kuac/s1600/spider+and+web+near+
elizabeth+jennings+way,+north+oxford+august+2013.jpg
best part of the day, post summer school, bill’s, a conscious englishman ebook, notting hill,
walker evans at moma, spider, moles (2013-08-17 20:48)
[1]
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[2]
Enjoyed the best part of the day when I went out cycling–fresh and bright, if overcast. After that it got darker and
darker before the drizzle set in.
I’ve been at a bit of a loose end since the summer school finished, although I needed some space. Work at the libraries
has been good meanwhile, particularly the preparations for the coming term and the start of the new academic year.
On Thursday, there was a leaving drinks party at the library hosted by the graduate trainees, followed by supper at
[3]Bill’s in St Michael Street. A good venue and a really lovely evening!
Today I’ve been working on the ebook edition of A Conscious Englishman, which will be out soon.
I’ll be having some time off over the coming weeks, which I’m looking forward to. I hope to catch up on reading and
some of my own work.
During the week we watched Notting Hill. I’d never seen it before. I did enjoy it–very much–although its world
seemed pretty dated. Before the recession and all that.
A friend posted a link on Facebook on Tuesday to an article about an [4]exhibition of photographs by the pioneering photo-journalist Walker Evans at New York MOMA. Walker Evans American Photographs celebrates the 75th
anniversary of the first exhibition that the museum devoted to a sole photographer and includes 60 of the original 100
images. Check out the amazing selection of pictures accompanying the article.
At the risk of bathos, the top photo above is of a spider and its web in a lime tree near the Oxford canal.
Oh, and moles in west Oxfordshire tend to be slightly bigger than their cousins elsewhere in the British Isles.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1wZERwpMXZY/Ug_H4qhYvlI/AAAAAAAAC3Y/4HzXg-zA9h4/s1600/spider+and+web+near+
elizabeth+jennings+way,+north+oxford+august+2013.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dgqQNetEZxU/Ug_H5YOWVcI/AAAAAAAAC3c/WKCqSy0IEJw/s1600/west+oxfordshire+
molehills,+calcroft+lane+august+2013.jpg
3. http://bills-website.co.uk/locations/oxford/
4. http://www.americanphotomag.com/photo-gallery/2013/08/wall-reprise-walker-evans-moma
Margaret Keeping (2013-08-18 09:17:11)
I think the photo is remarkable, Frank, corny or not.
So true about the best part of the day. I am up at 6am now every day to let the puppy out - an improvement on getting up at
1 and 4 am as I was doing, but we can’t go for walks yet (vaccinations etc) and I’m getting cabin fever. Good to see photos of
further afield.
Interesting Saturday Guardian article - a publisher begging for all writers to stop writing for a year!
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to grow old like roy (2013-08-24 14:27)
[1]
On holiday for a week or so (that ’or so’ being a vital 48 hours)! Feeling at a bit of a loose end and having to tell myself
that I’m on holiday, nevertheless.
Saw these plums overhanging the wall of Broadwell churchyard when cycling this morning. This was the churchyard
where I took a [2]picture of the snow in late March.
Looking forward to some holiday reading. On the list are: finishing off second reading of [3]Remembering Che, My Life
with Che Guevara by Aleida March; [4]Naples Declared, A Walk Around the Bay by Benjamin Taylor; [5]Albert Angelo by
BS Johnson; [6]A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride; [7]The Murderer Said Shalom by Leonard Stein (who I
met at Exeter College this summer and who gave me a copy of his book).
It’s been quite a week trying to get everything done at the library and finishing the creative writing marking. It was
also the week that the [8]Kindle edition of A Conscious Englishman was published! Meanwhile, Margaret Keeping’s
reading at the Department for Continuing Education’s [9]Open Day is fully booked, as is my session, Fiction reader–
fiction writer. Excellent sessions still have places available, though. A fantastic day in prospect!
Not all the week was spent working. Loved listening to one or two tracks from [10]Slow Focus on the bus when I took
a break. What an album!
The trip down to the pub late-ish last night after the work was done was meant to be a celebration of the start of the
holiday, which it was, but this was tempered by the news of the death of Roy, a wonderful man, who made us feel
so welcome when we moved here in 2001. He had been ill for a little while but the shock of hearing he had died was
great. I don’t think, however, that he would have wished for his many friends to be sad for too long. He was a man
who seemed to enjoy every moment of each day and was fascinated by people. He had lived a long time but looked
way younger than he was. He also appeared incredibly fit and agile, even when he was ill and we didn’t know it.
A dear man whose way of looking at the world drew your attention to new things, made you join with him in his
humour and enriched you. If only I could grow old like that.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1e0kF_ffy0I/UhiNEd2sAkI/AAAAAAAAC30/LIJfvFDAbwU/s1600/wild+plums,+broadwell+
churchyard+august+2013.jpg
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/spring-periwinkle-snowy-churchyard-in.html
3. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Remembering-Che-Aleida-March/dp/0987077937/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377349321&sr=
8-1&keywords=remembering+che
4.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Naples-Declared-Walk-Around-Bay/dp/0143123467/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=
1377349362&sr=8-1&keywords=naples+declared
5.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Albert-Angelo-B-S-Johnson/dp/1447200373/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377349395&sr=
8-1&keywords=albert+angelo
6.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Half-Formed-Thing-Eimear-McBride/dp/0957185324/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=
1377349427&sr=8-1&keywords=girl+is+a+half+formed+thing
7.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Murderer-Said-Shalom-Detective/dp/9657290007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=
427
1377347315&sr=8-1&keywords=murderer+said+shalom
8. http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Conscious-Englishman-ebook/dp/B00EMKCABG/ref=tmm_kin_title_0
9. http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/students/openday/index.php
10.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Slow-Focus/dp/B00DFW9SS0/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1377349509&sr=
1-2-catcorr&keywords=slow+focus
lots of sleep, wayfaring tree, guelder rose, flowering rush (2013-08-25 21:06)
[1]
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[3]
[4]
Amazing to be on holiday–with lots of sleep last night (catching up after those busy weeks). Strange dreams, though.
Lovely walk to Buckland from Tadpole Bridge.
Excellent glimpses of wayfaring tree (top two photos) and guelder rose (third from top), not to mention flowering
rush, (the fourth one). Last of these, particularly exciting. A very occasional sight, this plant is slender and beautiful.
The last one I saw was growing on silt on a bend of the Thames not far from the old gas works below Osney back in
1989.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jrFziI7bIq0/Uhpbn7siyDI/AAAAAAAAC4E/7NyVFk8ld3A/s1600/watfaring+tree,+august+
2103.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Plm_On8K6Jo/UhpbtM5SiRI/AAAAAAAAC4M/kVFUFvWJmC0/s1600/wayfaring+tree+t+213-+
red+augu.jpg
3.
http:
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lovely walk, linseed, al fresco, penguin history of la (2013-08-27 20:43)
[1]
[2]
Lovely walk into the Thames Valley from the village this morning. Intrigued to see the linseed fields ready for harvest
- see [3]pic of one of these fields in flower earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, al fresco breakfast and lunch in the garden. Plus reading The Penguin History of Latin America - an extra
on the holiday book list.
–
Visit
[4]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[5]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[6]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
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253FbWlsbGVubml1bSB3b29kLCBiYW1wdG9uIGF1Z3VzdCAyMDEzLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-747393
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253FbGluc2VlZCwgbmVhciBiYW1wdG9uIGF1Z3VzdCAyMDEzLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-753572
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3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/day-off-heatwave-andy-murray-dancing.html
4. http://frankegerton.com/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
6. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2013-08-27 22:10:23)
I think Mr Egerton you will appreciate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq6tlxrQb4g purely as background sound!
redshank, chimney meadows, morris’ manor, posts revisited, more holiday reading, tales out
of school (2013-08-30 09:15)
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Walked to Shifford Lock on Wednesday (top four photos) and to Kelmscott from Grafton Lock yesterday. Lovely to
see lots of redshank in flower on the edges of Chimney Meadows, close by the Thames (top photo). The summer
views along that stretch of the river now are so different to those snowy ones on [6]27th December 2010.
Meanwhile, a fresh crop of reeds are growing just below William Morris’ manor–last season’s were photographed on
this walk on [7]7th April this year.
A couple of things relating to pics from recent posts. According to my brother-in-law, linseed is left on the field for
several weeks after ripening so that the stalks soften down (see preceding post). They are like wire otherwise and
would be hard to harvest. Also, looking at that [8]photo of what I referred to as plums (three posts back), I can see I
was wrong–they must be some sort of crab apple.
Enjoying The Penguin History of Latin America by Edwin Williamson, which is such a readable book to dip into.
Williamson’s style is old-fashioned enough to have immediate authority but contemporary enough to be immediately accessible. He also tells a good story, his narratives carrying you along as he picks out telling details and guides
you through the history rather than forcing his opinions upon you. There is plenty of space in which to make up your
own mind about what happened. I like his occasional understatements. At one point he writes of Hernán Cortés, ’But
on his return to [9]Tenochtitlán he found the Spaniards at bay and the Aztecs in a belligerent mood.’ I imagine they
were furious!
Benjamin Taylor’s Naples Declared is hugely enjoyable too. His prose reminds me of Jan Morris’ in her Oxford and
Venice books. It is described on the back cover as ’a work of voluptuous erudition’, although this phrase suggests to
me that the narrative might be overly rich, which it certainly isn’t. The narrative is light and beguilingly simple, the
erudition coming into play with the choice of just the right unusual word or Italian phrase being used sparingly here
and there.
Back in 1996 I reviewed Taylor’s episodic novel Tales Out of School for the Time Literary Supplement. My concluding
para went as follows: ’The novel’s form necessitates a pared-down style, yet its effects are, by turns, dryly humorous
and moving, learned and colloquial, the tone lyrical, and the descriptions richly suggestive, particularly of landscape.
Taylor’s vision is an idealistic one, but it is none the less effective.’
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2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3NMfnjgZ9_k/UiBGfKxFCKI/AAAAAAAAC6E/QvRAY6ZHIcI/s1600/pillbox,+chimney+meadows+
august+2013.jpg
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meadows+august+2013.jpg
4.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UfNxbS2Qzx4/UiBGjWzSvcI/AAAAAAAAC6U/N-SBHDHT0_g/s1600/thistledown,+chimney+
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5.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-seN-AUMH9NQ/UiBGRYHTQJI/AAAAAAAAC50/1dOamxKoj3I/s1600/reeds+in+flower+near+
kelmscott+august+2013.jpg
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/shifford-walk.html
7. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/last-day-of-holiday-grafton-lock.html
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8.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1e0kF_ffy0I/UhiNEd2sAkI/AAAAAAAAC30/LIJfvFDAbwU/s1600/wild+plums,+broadwell+
churchyard+august+2013.jpg
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan
4.9
September
trap grounds, graffiti, bedroom window, serge doubrovsky, autofiction, hero of herat, cuba
(2013-09-08 20:49)
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[5]
I worked in Oxford yesterday and beforehand diverted to the Trap Grounds nature reserve while walking along the
Oxford Canal (last visited on [6]13th July). Signs of autumn, with brown and orange-coloured leaves strewn on the
walkways and spiders’ webs in the trees and strung between the stems of plants. Grasses and reeds seeding.
Further down the canal I came across a footbridge stantion painted with graffiti.
Today, I finished brushing the last coat of gloss onto our front bedroom window. Painting this has been one of my
holiday projects. It’s been quite tricky, what with having to use a different undercoat for each of the two colours, dark
blue and bright white, and lots of masking. This was the one window we didn’t paint a couple of years ago and it
needed doing, although the hardwood frames–over a hundred years old–seem as tough as iron.
My other holiday project–done during the first stage of the break, the week before this one–was re-felting a pitch of
the allotment shed roof. Again, finishing off something started a couple of years ago. A fun, satisfying thing to do, if
a little over-designed to the professional, I dare say.
Last week, I spent time researching [7]Serge Doubrovsky on the bus to and from work. He is a French novelist
who coined the term ’autofiction’. I’m interested in looking at the different ways that authors have approached the
fictionalisation of biographical events because I want to write about what has happened to me in recent years. I
don’t, however, think I would like to have a fictional Frank Egerton and create fictional versions of family members,
as Doubrovsky does, but would prefer to distil human truths from my experiences and develop imagined scenarios
from those. We’ll see.
Midweek, a friend sent me a scan of a book chapter about [8]Eldred Pottinger, one of my ancestors, known as the
Hero of Herat. Fascinating to read about his exploits–and indeed about his [9]uncle, the first governor of Hong Kong,
and his cousin, [10]Frederick who ended up in Australia. (I’m looking forward to visiting cousins descended from
Frederick in Canberra soon).
Lastly, there’s a good [11]article on free-enterprise reforms in Cuba in the Sunday Times today–for those with access
beyond the paywall.
1.
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grounds,+oxford+september+2013+a.jpg
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http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EW4LOmUaLIk/UizKJLGJluI/AAAAAAAAC7w/TwNe575axXo/s1600/spider’s+web,+trap+
grounds,+oxford+september+2013+b.jpg
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grounds,+oxford+september+2013+c.jpg
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5.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cZbbg3OTrZI/UizKLiIVBwI/AAAAAAAAC74/zEehBTj1a0c/s1600/graffiti,+oxford+canal+
september+2013.jpg
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/trap-grounds-lord-of-flies-marking-done.html
7. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Doubrovsky
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldred_Pottinger
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Pottinger
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10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Pottinger
11. http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Americas/article1310741.ece
five alls, lifting spuds, gosford park, dog better, first log fire of autumn (2013-09-14 18:09)
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Lovely short break at the beginning of the week. Very much enjoyed having lunch at the [6]Five Alls at Filkins, a
neighbouring village, on Tuesday.
The return to work was, of course, busy–but fulfilling.
Today I lifted our spuds on the allotment. They have done amazingly well–not least because they were planted SO
late ([7]27th May). There were three varieties, starting from the top: Kestrel, Estima and Desiree (also shown bagged
up). The haulms of the last of these were still strong and growing and I wondered if I should leave them for a few
weeks. I decided to crop them because time will be precious over the coming month and if the weather is against me
I will struggle to get them harvested and the plot dug for autumn. In any case, there were more than enough potatoes
for us over the winter today.
During the week, we finished watching the excellent [8]Gosford Park. A proto-Downton, perhaps, being penned by
Julian Fellowes, but a tremendous script all the same, with wonderful, subtle direction (and social observation) from
the director Robert Altman.
I’m pleased to say that our dog is much, much better after losing his footing, spring down the stairs and spraining his
ankle (if dogs have ankles, that is). He’s such a brave little dog.
Today, the first log fire of autumn is burning in the grate.
1.
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2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-e-4hzdI326U/UjSTgVi16sI/AAAAAAAAC8Y/5E2rtcEgoTo/s1600/estima+potatoes,+bampton+
september+2013.jpg
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5. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WzlFsELgygY/UjSTqBm56KI/AAAAAAAAC8o/2bMgCYUZyps/s1600/bag+of+desitee+potatoes,
+bampton+september+2013.jpg
6. http://thefiveallsfilkins.co.uk/
7. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/potatoes-late.html
8. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280707
Margaret Keeping (2013-09-15 09:14:26)
What a marvellous crop of potatoes and in such a short time. We grow just Pink Fir Apple now as they do take up space we need
for other things for too long- but perhaps not.
I enjoyed your blog as always but for one thing in this one - aaagh, how I hate that word ’penned’, which seems to be spreading
rapidly like a rash. What is wrong with ’written’? Do you think it’s because no-one actually uses a pen any more except to sign
things? A kind of nostalgia?
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Frank Egerton (2013-09-15 10:03:41)
Thanks, Margaret. I was astonished by the crop of potatoes, particularly because they were planted so late, as you say. Didn’t
really think about ’penned’ when I used it. I suppose I felt, instinctively, that it was light and tripping enough for the context.
Not a word I would use often, I think.
Margaret Keeping (2013-09-15 22:27:37)
And it’s true, in that context - Fellowes, Gosford Park - nostalgia is where it’s at.
On onions, if you left the stalks on you could make a lovely plait on a long loop of string. I have an old Lawrence D. Hills book
which shows you how.
onions (2013-09-15 15:08)
[1]
Sorted out the onions today. I harvested these a couple of weeks back and they’ve been drying on a tray in the shed.
This morning, I pulled the stalks off and tidied the bulbs before bringing them back to the house for netting. They
and the spuds lifted yesterday are now hanging from the rafters in the outhouse.
This year we grew three varieties of onion: Setton, Sturon and Stuttgarter–all mixed together in the bucket above.
1.
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misty morning, mount owen, cucumbers and runner beans, oudce open day, a conscious englishman (2013-09-21 10:09)
[1]
[2]
Although it’s my birthday, I was up early because there’s work to finish before any celebrations can begin.
A slightly misty start to the morning, which softened the views when I was cycling. I did the Mount Owen route but
going in the other direction, starting with Mount Owen and ending up at the allotment. I realised I’d never done this
route like this before–in fact I don’t remember cycling up Mount Owen from Bampton since 2001. It’s a much longer
slope going this way and I was quite surprised by how demanding it was. It was extraordinary to see the countryside
from this direction–familiar places looked like they were in another part of England altogether.
On the allotment, I harvested a couple of cucumbers, one green, one crystal lemon (round, yellow) and masses of
runner beans (which have been amazing this summer). The courgettes have pretty much stopped on the allotment,
although they are still going strong at the house, with its sheltered lighter land.
Meanwhile, looking forward to the Oxford Department for Continuing Education [3]Open Day on Thursday–in particular, the authors event, which features Margaret Keeping reading from [4]A Conscious Englishman. (I notice that
there have been one or two returns for both this event and mine in the last 24 hours–and indeed other events that
were fully booked–so places are available again now. There are some excellent events in prospect!)
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september+2013.jpg
2.
http:
//4.bp.blogspot.com/-ltngCZkDLEs/Uj1bvZW0xkI/AAAAAAAAC9U/Gze7YWndPr0/s1600/cattle,+lew+september+2013.jpg
3. http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/students/openday/index.php
4. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/fiction.html
three horseshoes, batcombe (2013-09-24 22:42)
[1]
Lovely days away, staying at the Three Horseshoes at Batcombe, Somerset. (See Telegraph [2]article.) Great to be
walking valleys - a contrast to the flatlands at home.
Also, wonderful to be staying at a pub we first stayed at in 1986, when it was a bikers’ pub. A little different now more up market, it has to be said, but still a local with terrific food and fantastic beers and ciders, including the Wild
Beer brews.
Many of the walks through the countryside hereabouts are like stepping back in time.
–
Visit
[3]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[4]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[5]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
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253FdGhyZWUgaG9yc2VzaG9lcywgYmF0Y29tYmUgc2VwdGVtYmVyIDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-768882
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/pubs/9839332/Pint-to-pint-the-Three-Horseshoes-Batcombe-Somerset.
html
3. http://frankegerton.com/
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
5. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
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mst residence, allotment, memories, autumn (2013-09-28 23:25)
[1]
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[3]
It’s the MSt residence this weekend. Looking forward to meeting the students I’ll be supervising over the coming
year. We’ve spoken and they’ve sent work for me to read but we’ve not met.
Went up to the allotment just now and harvested what must be nearly the last lot of runner beans, courgettes and
cucumbers. In Bampton and in the countryside, rather a beautiful autumn is beginning.
Yesterday was a sad day because a friend has died, the landlord of our local. He died while we were away. Going to
the pub last night, at first I thought all the cards and flowers were for a birthday or some other celebration. What had
happened was so sudden and it was hard to take in.
I remember that not long after we moved to the village, we were talking to him and I said I’d just had a novel
published. He asked if I had any spare copies and I delivered a dozen which he displayed in the pub, selling all of
them.
It was sometime later that I met another friend when out walking. He told me that his wife liked reading fiction and
had bought my book at the pub. He said he didn’t tend to read novels but his wife had suggested he read mine. He
finished by saying that he must have enjoyed it because when he got to the end, he read it again. He said nothing
more about the book and we’ve never talked about it since. But what more could a writer want.
Thanks for these and other memories, Alan.
Revised 29.09.13
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digging (2013-09-29 21:13)
[1]
A busier day than expected. Though I did manage to put work aside for a while and start the autumn digging on the
allotment. Therapeutic.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RfIFwJI35-A/UkhdZpW7GSI/AAAAAAAAC-Y/8jEpizheumk/s1600/blackcurrent+bush,+swiss+
chard+&+freshly+dug+earth,+bampton+september+2013.jpg
4.10
October
promotion, mst, morris (2013-10-05 18:56)
[1]
A strange week.
Promotion within the library - a wonderful privilege but also much to take in. The MSt residence and meeting the
445
students - a lovely, exciting few days.
Then the funeral on Friday. Very moving. A warm, life-affirming service in the middle of which the Morris side that
is based at Alan’s pub danced in the church crossing.
With apologies to Milan Kundera.
We sit in the chancel with the other latecomers because the church is so full and half-way through the service we
hear the familiar sound of Morris bells. We stand up, lean forward and catch glimpses, imagining what must be
happening.
Men in white with bowler hats dance in a ring, others skip in from the side chapel. Big men, slender men, young
and old, each dainty enough to dance on a penny piece. Round and round they go then they step into the air - surely
they must do - spiralling past the Anglo-Saxon stones, up through the floor of the belfry, past ropes, before bursting
out of the medieval masonry, to join with jackdaws circling the tower. They look down at the ancient barrow in
the churchyard, spy the outline of a Roman temple in an autumn lawn, wonder at the remnant of the Burford road
heading for a ford in the Thames now long gone, the little market square at the base of the minster (where these days
film makers create Downton).
Then they are suddenly back with us, drawing on every ounce of energy and poise, gleaming white and kicking
chinkling bells, dancing for Alan. They tip their bowlers to the coffin and are gone.
(The photo? The three-fields walk, done early on Friday before the funeral.)
1.
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Margaret Keeping (2013-10-06 09:26:24)
Many congratulations on your promotion, Frank, and on that evocative piece of writing. I admired the sweep of history imagined
from the Morris mens’ view very much.
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2013-10-06 11:12:07)
A wonderful eulogy for your friend Alan, after last weeks post I thought nothing would top that, this did.
Congratulations on your elevation!
Frank Egerton (2013-10-06 15:13:27)
Thanks very much, Margaret and Rupert. The Morris dance was a very powerful experience - everyone I’ve spoken to has said
that. I’m glad something of this came across in the post.
murky, josé, desktop, calming, digging?, 0th week (2013-10-12 13:06)
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[2]
Got soaked when cycling this morning.
Some years ago, a Venezuelan friend fell in love with the English word ’murky’ because he felt that its sound summed
up much of our weather. Well, José, this morning was certainly murky, as the two photos above show. Incidentally,
these contrast with a [3]pic taken from a similar angle back in the summer (the photo btw that I use as my desktop
background at work - I find it very calming).
Now, fortunately, the sun is shining and I’m hoping that the allotment will soon dry out, so that I can do some more
autumn digging this afternoon.
Meanwhile, we’ve just had Oxford 0th Week - the time when the Freshers arrive and inductions are held at the
libraries. A very busy few days but great to be meeting the students for the first time.
1.
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2.
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near+black+bourton+october+2013.jpg
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/cold-breeze-feeling-better-soft-blue.html
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full term, full swing, oxford, late lunch, hollybush, ramblings, cathy dreyer, finals, allotment
(2013-10-19 23:33)
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Oxford full term in full swing.
Lots going on at the libraries and in the world of creative writing.
Working in Oxford all today up to a v late lunch at the estimable [5]Hollybush in Witney.
A grey, autumnal but incredibly warm day. Enjoyed my walk along the Oxford canal–photos above. (See the reed bed
from the same angle in the [6]summer.) Amazing ash keys this year!
Loved listening to [7]Ramblings on Radio 4 this morning. There I was, lying in the bath, when I suddenly realised
that the person being interviewed by Toyah Willcox was a former student, Cathy Dreyer. See her wonderful blog,
[8]Shortcircuit.
Tomorrow there will be finals marking and, hopefully, some more work on the allotment.
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2.
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4.
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5. http://www.hollybushwitney.co.uk/
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/trap-grounds-lord-of-flies-marking-done.html
7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006xrr2
8. http://walkinginacircle.wordpress.com/about/
walkinginacircle (2013-10-20 09:31:00)
Thanks Frank. That’s so kind of you. Lucky break for me having you as a tutor.
reviving weekend, autumn leaves, friend staying, kings of leon, london grammar, lou reed,
osney sundays (2013-10-28 14:30)
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[3]
A weekend away. Very reviving - lovely company.
This morning we were fortunate in west Oxfordshire and Oxford to be relatively unaffected by the storm that sped
across southern England. Although there were a couple of small trees down on the Oxford canal when I walked to
work (see photo above) and a lot of leaves have been scattered.
Meanwhile, Oxford Michaelmas term is settling down - a touch - and this evening, a friend is coming to stay, which
I’m looking forward to.
Oh, and I recently downloaded [4]Mechanical Bull by The Kings of Leon and [5]If You Wait by London Grammar.
Both excellent. Especially like the latter now I’ve listened to it a couple of times.
Sad to hear about the death of Lou Reed. Happy memories of listening to a [6]Velvet Underground cassette on Osney
Island at Sunday lunchtimes in the late 80s. And of an arrangement of [7]Sunday Morning, played at our wedding
blessing at Keble College chapel.
–
Visit
[8]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[9]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[10]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YPpPhCtcwm4/Um51hMAa6qI/AAAAAAAADAI/a3Uc0rnuTks/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FYXV0dW1uIGxlYXZlcywgb3hmb3JkIGNhbmFsIHBhdGggb2N0b2JlciAyMDEzLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-753460
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kOrOHUodrJM/Um51iuShi3I/AAAAAAAADAU/BwiZ1_WxeHo/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FZmFsbGVuIHRyZWUsIG94Zm9yZCBjYW5hbCBvY3RvYmVyIDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-758864
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wrQvwBKWr5I/Um51kF8p_LI/AAAAAAAADAg/fBfQ-Cvm2qY/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FYXV0dW1uIGxlYXZlcywgb3hmb3JkIGNhbmFsIG9jdG9iZXIgMjAxMy5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-765055
4. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mechanical-Bull-Kings-Of-Leon/dp/B00FBNVZ1E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382970849&sr=
8-1&keywords=mechanical+bull+mp3
5.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/If-You-Wait-Deluxe-Edition/dp/B00EYJJDIS/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_mus?ie=UTF8&qid=
1382970887&sr=8-1&keywords=i+you+wait+mp3
6.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Velvet-Underground-Nico-Deluxe/dp/B004026ROM/ref=sr_1_3_bnp_1_mus?ie=UTF8&qid=
1382970916&sr=8-3&keywords=velvet+underground
7. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004023JUC/ref=dm_dp_trk1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382970916&sr=8-3
8. http://frankegerton.com/
9. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
10. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
451
4.11
November
ethereal skies, first frost, mowing the lawn, berkshire logs, biztro, swiss chard, breathing spaces
(2013-11-03 14:49)
[1]
[2]
First cycle ride for a couple of weeks. Beautiful day with the most amazing clear sunlight and fantastic ethereal skies.
Midweek there was the first frost of the autumn but it’s still warm outside today and I cut the lawn this morning - for
the last time this year, I presume. Though one never knows! A log delivery yesterday - ash, silver birch and sycamore
from a few miles into Berkshire.
Another delicious meal at [3]Biztro when our friend came to stay earlier in the week.
Just been up to the allotment to harvest some Swiss chard - the only veg growing there now.
Enjoying re-reading [4]A Spy in the House of Love by Anaïs Nin.
Needless to say, it’s been a busy week, though there are some breathing spaces coming up soon. Hooray!
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p_8X72pU5aw/UnZNl0lumjI/AAAAAAAADA0/W3dMa4jPrHM/s1600/tilled+field+and+clouds,
+calcforft+lane+november+2013.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-INrP7cF_8kU/UnZNn7T2bsI/AAAAAAAADA8/xiq0ZhUlKp0/s1600/tree+and+tilled+field,
452
+calcroft+lane+november+2013.jpg
3. http://www.biztro.co.uk/
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Spy_in_the_House_of_Love
cultural evening, history in the making, jeremy hughes, wingspan (2013-11-05 21:04)
[1]
[2]
Excellent cultural evening.
A fascinating seminar at the Taylor Institution given by Sir John Elliott, who was talking about his life as a historian
and the inter-disciplinary study of early 17th century Spanish history and art (drawing on his book, History in the
Making).
Then it was up to Kellogg College for the launch of my colleague Jeremy Hughes’ new novel Wingspan (see pics
above).
The
novel
is
published
by
the
new Manchester-based firm Cillian Press ([3]http://www.cillianpress.co.uk/wingspan). A terrific reading! Lovely
to see colleagues and former students too.
–
453
Visit
[4]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[5]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[6]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
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1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ghS9tFPkbi0/UnldqvPAilI/AAAAAAAADBQ/LyuSpTEgpGE/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FamVyZW15IGh1Z2hlcywgcmVhZGluZyBveGZvcmQgbm92ZW1iZXIgIDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-743303
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cISRu5NbZr8/Unldrg2318I/AAAAAAAADBc/CM0ms_8KI5s/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FamVyZW15IGh1Z2hlcywgc2lnbmluZyBveGZvcmQgIG5vdmVtYmVyIDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-748404
3. http://www.cillianpress.co.uk/wingspan
4. http://frankegerton.com/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
6. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
freeeezing, spoilt, what’s the tree?, old friend, eagle and child (2013-11-09 12:02)
[1]
It’s freeeezing!
Still, as more than one person said yesterday, it is November.
We were spoilt having no frosts until last week.
There is some beautiful autumn colour, as the photo above shows (what’s the tree, though?). A lot of leaves remain
green even so.
Great to meet up with an old friend from Germany last night, who was in Oxford for a conference. Lovely chat over
a couple of pints in the [2]Eagle and Child.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VnQBCHCD9H4/Un4LHvwwvdI/AAAAAAAADBo/pcRH6uTyCr4/s1600/autumn+colour,+calcroft+
lane+november+2013.jpg
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eagle_and_Child
454
sunrise (2013-11-13 08:08)
[1]
Glorious sunrise (as seen from the bus stop); gorgeous, if chilly, morning.
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[4]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
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253Fc3VucmlzZSwgYmFtcHRvbiBub3ZlbWJlciAyMDEzLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-712219
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
4. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
455
malcolm parkes (2013-11-16 12:58)
[1]
[2]
456
[3]
On my way to Oxford and the memorial service for Malcolm Parkes ([4]en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm _Parkes)
who taught me when I was at Keble.
Malcolm was one of two tutors who interviewed me for a place at Keble. For much of that half-hour, though, it was
difficult to see him. He was seated in a bay window smoking his pipe and it was only when he wanted to ask a
question that his hand batted away the smoke and his face appeared momentarily.
I owe Malcolm, Stephen Wall and Frank Cottrell Boyce (who marked one of my two entrance papers) so much. Sitting the Oxford entrance exam and those thirty minutes being interviewed by Malcolm and Stephen were events that
changed my life.
Malcolm was a hugely inspiring academic but also a very warm, kind man. I remember how he arrived at my door
the day before my first-year exams (moderations) and handed me a packet of sweets and wished me good luck.
As a tutor, he gave me a love of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English literature that will stay with me always.
The last time we met, I heard his voice first as he called out his habitual greeting, ’Hello squire!’ While he was frailer
than even a year before, which was a shock, he was in good spirits and it was lovely to see him. We were in Sainsbury’s in Kidlington.
It’s a grey misty, cocooning day in west Oxfordshire as the 18 bus carries me through the autumn countryside. A
melancholy day, perhaps, when I think of how long ago that interview was. Yet a beautiful day too - and I try to
remember that my time at Keble taught me to value every day and all the opportunities it offers.
–
Visit
[5]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[6]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[7]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
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1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vbwmbvwOx0A/UodsVPLLt8I/AAAAAAAADCQ/na7uuYj_K94/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FaG9nd2VlZCwgbWF5YmUsIGFuZCBzcGluZGxlLCBuZWFyIGNsYW5maWVsZCBub3ZlbWJlciAyMDEzLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%
253D-702436
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CITIWn4siKY/UodsWSiOh4I/AAAAAAAADCc/78v0i_CKldE/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc3BpbmRsZSwgbmVhciBjbGFuZmllbGQgbm92ZW1iZXIgMjAxMy5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-707319
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jYB0JAaFE7k/UodsX9Sa1DI/AAAAAAAADCo/nW0eGhOosW0/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2lnbiBhbmQgJ3NjYXJmJywgb3hmb3JkIGNhbmFsIG5vdmVtYmVyIDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-712236
4. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Parkes
5. http://frankegerton.com/
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
7. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
457
Jon G (2013-11-21 12:00:26)
I enjoyed your beautiful words about Malcolm Parkes. Like you, I read English at Keble. Gentlemen are required to translate the
Life of King Edmund... A truly humane, considerate and talented teacher.
malcolm parkes, punctuation (2013-11-16 15:38)
PS During Frank Cottrell Boyce’s address this afternoon, it was great to be reminded of something that Malcolm said
in respect of the study of medieval manuscripts that had a profound effect on me as a writer. As Frank put it, punctuation ’brings to us the voice of someone who is absent.’
–
Visit
[1]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[2]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[3]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
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1. http://frankegerton.com/
2. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
3. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
Margaret Keeping (2013-11-17 09:24:12)
Isn’t that interesting- yes, the pace, the cadence. Staccato or mellifluous? Breath itself.
time off (2013-11-19 23:11)
[1]
458
[2]
Lovely couple of days off. Yesterday, a relaxing walk along the Thames from Lechlade to Kelmscott before lunch at
the Five Alls at Filkins - [3]thefiveallsfilkins.co.uk.
Today a walk from Bledington to Church Westcote followed by a pint at the Kingham Plough - [4]thekinghamplough.co.uk - a pub I last visited nearly 30 years ago when a land agent. In those days the lunchtime pint(s) were all
part of the working day. Times have changed. For the better, I feel. How did anyone stay awake!
Off to Biztro - [5]www.biztro.co.uk - earlier this evening. Excellent.
–
Visit
[6]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[7]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[8]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jGIykChKsus/UovwSoAEv5I/AAAAAAAADC8/uIs-GFsS6aw/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FY2F0dGxlLCBidXNjb3Qgbm92ZW1iZXIgMjAxMy5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-728647
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qJQyyxih-40/UovwTWchP-I/AAAAAAAADDI/N1EDOXsHUG4/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fd2F0ZXIgbWVhZG93LCBrZWxtc2NvdHQgbm92ZW1iZXIgMjAxMy5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-732250
3. http://thefiveallsfilkins.co.uk/
4. http://thekinghamplough.co.uk/
5.
6.
7.
8.
http://www.biztro.co.uk/
http://frankegerton.com/
http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
459
lovely walk, heavy rain (2013-11-20 20:48)
[1]
[2]
Lovely walk to the south of Bampton this morning. Though heavy rain came in as we were on our way back.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CoRt2p5iaBo/Uo0fkDSEJqI/AAAAAAAADDs/qolB7OQoleI/s1600/tufty%252C+millenium+
wood%252C+bampton+november+2013+a.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yVhteL5IvLQ/Uo0fvHDT2YI/AAAAAAAADDw/GXloA8LLEfE/s1600/hedge,+bampton+november+
2013+a.jpg
460
jfk (2013-11-22 08:27)
[1]
I can’t remember where I was when JFK was shot. I can’t remember much about the aftermath either, although at
some point I must have learnt that we were distantly related. (His sister, Kathleen, had married a third cousin (shot by
a sniper during the Second World War just weeks after Kathleen’s brother Joe Jr was killed when his plane exploded
on a bombing mission). Some years later, Kathleen was herself killed in an air crash. Such sad stories.) I remember
more about Bobby’s assassination. As a boy, it seemed strange that unknown relatives were being murdered in a far
off land.
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[4]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
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253FZmFsbGVuIGxlYXZlcywgb3hmb3JkIGNhbmFsIG5vdmVtYmVyIDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-797715
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
4. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
461
oak (2013-11-27 09:24)
[1]
Working late tonight, so I don’t have to be in till 11 am, and as I don’t have online teaching to do (the course ended
last week), I went cycling.
A dull morning but the autumn colours are all the more vivid for that! Including those of this oak tree.
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[4]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fltLVcEh5yM/UpW6qBsXUdI/AAAAAAAADEc/QHbK6QL6Q1s/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fb2FrLCBjYWxjcm9mdCBsYW5lIG5vdmVtYmVyIDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-758070
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
4. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
462
in oxford, tute, library, novella, icarus, lovely memories, shropshire (2013-11-30 08:47)
[1]
In Oxford for a creative writing tute first then a day at the library. Lovely walk along the Oxford canal, followed, now,
by camomile tea at Caffè Nero.
Have enjoyed working on a novella this week, provisionally entitled Icarus, the first draft of which was written some
time ago. It’s always been in the back of my mind to rework it but I couldn’t see how. Now I believe I can. The novella
is about a young film maker researching a story for a script in the 1980s. The story concerns a 60s political scandal
and the novella is set in both decades.
Lovely memories of last weekend in Shropshire seeing family and old friends.
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[4]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
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253FcmVmbGVjdGlvbnMsIG94Zm9yZCBjYW5hbCBub3ZlbWJlciAyMDEzLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-746820
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
4. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
463
4.12
December
up early, lime tree, oclw lunch, glasses, bike ride, christmas (2013-12-08 21:40)
[1]
[2]
Up early because there was work to do.
The photos above are of the lime tree at the end of our garden at dawn this morning. Its winter look is very different
to when I photographed it on [3]1st June.
I was sad to miss the life-writing lunch on Tuesday but it was fully booked by the time I knew I would be free to go.
I look forward to more life-writing events in 2014!
Collected my new glasses on Thursday. Things are a little sharper but fortunately there wasn’t too much to correct.
A lovely bike ride this afternoon when the work was done.
Looking forward to the Christmas break!
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-13nNf42_320/UqQ3A-mha-I/AAAAAAAADFE/CJhXnefuCx4/s1600/tree,+bampton+december+
2013+a.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ysn5_N2IwWU/UqQ3EurywCI/AAAAAAAADFU/is2W3SGjP7s/s1600/tree,+bampton+december+
2013+c.jpg
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/sunrise-under-weather-book-launch.html
464
Margaret Keeping (2013-12-09 07:47:15)
I was at the lunch, Frank -sorry you couldn’t get a place.
It’s good to hear you are writing your novella again.
cycling, folly hill, harrowdown hill (2013-12-09 10:52)
[1]
It was good to have time to cycle this morning (due in at 11 am again because I’m working late).
Took this photo from Calcroft Lane (the gated road) looking towards Folly Hill at Faringdon - it is visible, just, in the
far distance, a little to the right of centre.
I alluded to Folly Hill in my comments on the use of the locus amoenus in Renaissance literature in the piece on Harrowdown Hill that I wrote in 2005 (see 2008 revised version on my website: [2]frankegerton.com/nonfiction.html).
When I walked to Harrowdown Hill that morning, it was grey and there was a light mist, like today.
Now on the bus to work, almost at Oxford.
–
Visit
[3]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[4]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[5]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
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253FdG93YXJkcyBmb2xseSBoaWxsLCBmYXJpbmdkb24sIGZyb20gY2FsY3JvZnQgbGFuZSBkZWNlbWJlciAyMDEzLmpwZw%253D%253D%
253F%253D-734890
2. http://frankegerton.com/nonfiction.html
3. http://frankegerton.com/
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
5. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
465
view from the bampton bus stop, mist, low light, wintry (2013-12-11 08:14)
[1]
Misty start to the day.
Not quite at the shortest day but it certainly feels like the depths of winter - a state of mind brought about by low light
levels, I feel, more than temperature or wintry conditions.
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[4]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
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253FdmlldyBmcm9tIHRoZSBidXMgc3RvcCwgYmFtcHRvbiBkZWNlbWJlciAyMDEzLmpwZw%253D%253D%253F%253D-733501
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
4. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
466
(2013-12-15 12:58)
[1]
[2]
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o53eP1vDdFw/Uq2nL9FjErI/AAAAAAAADGk/M38DizG-q1Q/s1600/ploughed+field,+calcroft+
lane,+near+broadwell+december+2013.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c4orxVjRML0/Uq2nOIdwCrI/AAAAAAAADGs/N53YPhq_n4Q/s1600/stream,+calcroft+lane,
+near+clanfield+december+2013.jpg
467
stark, green, low light, roddy doyle’s the commitments (2013-12-17 09:35)
[1]
[2]
The cultivated fields look stark, what with their brown tilth and the bare hedges and trees. Yet elsewhere the grass
remains green and surprisingly spring-like.
The low light levels make the days seem very short indeed - can’t wait for the spring!
Though the excellent Radio 4 production of Roddy Doyle’sThe Commitments does much to cheer things up:
[3]www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03lknpn!
–
Visit
[4]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[5]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[6]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
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253FcGxvdWdoZWQgZmllbGQsIGNhbGNyb2Z0IGxhbmUsIG5lYXIgYnJvYWR3ZWxsIGRlY2VtYmVyIDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-777464
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OMzvVRR79TQ/UrAbGEDevHI/AAAAAAAADHM/pmaN416doEs/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
468
253Fc3RyZWFtLCBjYWxjcm9mdCBsYW5lLCBuZWFyICBjbGFuZmllbGQgZGVjZW1iZXIgIDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-782840
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03lknpn
4. http://frankegerton.com/
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
6. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
happy christmas!
(2013-12-20 21:24)
[1]
Happy Christmas!
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jyf1ShVFr2s/UrS1NodkSPI/AAAAAAAADHc/YzHGlMwQYYo/s1600/xmas+tree,+summertown,
+december+2013.JPG
469
happy new year!!!!
(2013-12-31 23:14)
[1]
Happy New Year!!!!
–
Visit
[2]http://frankegerton.com (website)
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com (blog)
A Conscious Englishman by Magaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published 16.08.13 - visit
[4]http://www.streetbooks.co.uk for details
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
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253Fc2hlbGx5IGJlYWNoLCBxdWVlbnNsYW5kIGRlY2VtYmVyIDIwMTMuanBn%253F%253D-799116
2. http://frankegerton.com/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
4. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
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Chapter 5
2014
5.1
January
flooded fields, gloomy weather, australia (2014-01-11 20:56)
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Returned to flooded fields and gloomy weather - top photo - after a couple of weeks away, staying with family, in
Australia (see below).
It’s stopped raining now - bottom photo. More on Australia to follow.
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1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P-qCgNeE998/UtGty6Pf2GI/AAAAAAAADSk/cuUpFVhflWk/s1600/flooded+field+near+black+
bourton+january+2014.jpg
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http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FgAWQHpOBzE/UtGt0FdZm5I/AAAAAAAADSs/AmpoFceMIfY/s1600/flooded+fields+towards+
bampton+from+black+bourton+january+2014.jpg
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http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-stwbEATAzFA/UtGuyxYChzI/AAAAAAAADS0/rB5pZj40NsQ/s1600/national+arboretum,
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http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cwDfWkuxCl4/UtGu5PsrL3I/AAAAAAAADS8/fM5V1HdD7tk/s1600/seascape,+shelly+beach,
+caloundra,+queensland+december+2013+g.jpg
5. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bEWEQtQkpfg/UtGu9wH_6tI/AAAAAAAADTE/633ENzptQcA/s1600/shrubs+with+glass+house+
mountains+in+far+distance,+queensland+december+2013.jpg
6.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X1kFveT2jAc/UtGvAyXQxxI/AAAAAAAADTM/-ucH9zwwELo/s1600/cliffs,+shelly+beach,
+caloundra,+queensland+december+2013+b.jpg
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http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YZ7W4ZA5Ogs/UtGvCjHwlOI/AAAAAAAADTU/sle_VHnMizM/s1600/kangaroo,+nicholls,
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http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u20L7tawzwA/UtGvFMtg-sI/AAAAAAAADTc/ezmzimkKOTc/s1600/pelican,+caloundra+
december+2013.jpg
9.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zKgcY0viLw4/UtGvIJwsVXI/AAAAAAAADTk/d_eyLj0WZZQ/s1600/parliament+building,
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working in oxford, contrast to australia, film fest, fishing (2014-01-20 09:00)
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Worked in Oxford on Saturday. Grey, stark and showery along the Oxford canal.
A contrast to Australia. Loved staying with family and soaking up the sun. Looking back, it’s like a dream.
Particularly memorable walks along beaches before the sun got too strong - apart from anything else, such fascinating
rocks on the shoreline.
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The Australia trip was also something of a film fest - not just on the plane but in Queensland itself. Here’s a list:
• Love Actually - great to catch up with this one; apart from anything else students talked about this being an
example of multiple narratives while discussing Geoff Ryman’s 253 last term: can see what they meant; wiped
a tear from my eye at the end...
• Letters to Juliet - not brilliant though I loved Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero’s performances
• The Time Traveler’s Wife - enjoyed this; thoughtfully done; but I was dipping slightly - exhausted by the flight
from KL to Brisbane; numb
• Stoker - outstanding acting from Mia Wasikowska and photography; can’t help thinking this is nod at early
Polanski like Repulsion and Cul-de-sac
• The Guard - troubling tragicomedy from the lesser-known brother (John Michael McDonagh) of the writerdirector of the next film, who nevertheless created Ireland’s highest grossing domestic movie; ace performance
from Brendan Gleeson
• In Bruges - a clever disturbing and anarchic movie from Martin McDonagh, author of the brilliant play, The
Beauty Queen of Leenane (which I read on the Killeries, just up from Leenane back in the late 90s); excellent performances all round: Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes; as with The Guard, not for the squeamish!
• Australia - great to see this in Australia on a sweltering evening; unashamedly emotive plot and performances;
exquisite!
• Django Unchained - tragicomedy with petabytes of ketchup; loved Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel
L Jackson; but Christoph Waltz was stratospheric; intriguing ’Australian’ cameo from Quentin Tarantino; excellent wry moment when he blew himself up!
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• Diana - what an odd life D led - a distant cousin who I never had the privilege of meeting
• The Hunger Games - solid fantasy
• The Other Boleyn Girl - brilliant; learnt things I’d never known about before, including that Queen Elizabeth
was brought up in the household of an ancestor (can that be right?); also, J especially liked Mark Rylance’s
performance ;-)
And there were more films...
Fishing’s different in Australia btw:
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1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9sh9etLGyX8/UtvrByrnF2I/AAAAAAAADf4/s4sKMNiIjOo/s1600/pool%252C+trap+grounds%
252C+oxford+january+2014.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oVXpCAKehPA/UtvrCgvJpzI/AAAAAAAADf8/iRTT2X7sROY/s1600/swans+by+last+lock+on+
oxford+canal+january+2014.jpg
3. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vUGDidjojGs/Utvr1WX_uzI/AAAAAAAADgE/ESBcpV_cJ5A/s1600/rocks%252C+shelly+beach%
252C+caloundra%252C+queensland+december+2013+a.jpg
4. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RkgmFO616xc/Utvr5eEi5-I/AAAAAAAADgM/nTQ-ptG4lZ0/s1600/rocks%252C+shelly+beach%
252C+caloundra%252C+queensland+december+2013+b.jpg
5. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6fOGrAek0_Y/UtvsHDNruFI/AAAAAAAADgk/NcBnshbFkoM/s1600/rocks%252C+shelly+beach%
252C+caloundra%252C+queensland+december+2013+d.jpg
6. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8mz5splg9yA/UtvsGkGn0zI/AAAAAAAADgg/BlSLrdB1lo4/s1600/rocks%252C+shelly+beach%
252C+caloundra%252C+queensland+december+2013+e.jpg
7. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-44TG8QBemp8/UtvsGH35EJI/AAAAAAAADgY/XZ5ADjSIKvQ/s1600/rocks%252C+shelly+beach%
252C+caloundra%252C+queensland+december+2013+f.jpg
8. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oociGPRc-aQ/UtvsRRvYmZI/AAAAAAAADg8/cg1blhjCxnY/s1600/rocks%252C+shelly+beach%
252C+caloundra%252C+queensland+december+2013+g.jpg
9. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_9Qugx42vcg/UtvsRBEtdHI/AAAAAAAADg0/_2DcNMgzmBc/s1600/rocks%252C+shelly+beach%
252C+caloundra%252C+queensland+december+2013+h.jpg
10. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TbSZ0a6VUpg/UtvsRWtLlHI/AAAAAAAADg4/eW859gKfZsc/s1600/rocks%252C+shelly+beach%
252C+caloundra%252C+queensland+december+2013+i.jpg
11. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tvIjIf3mRt8/UtvsXUUNscI/AAAAAAAADhI/9C9r5wgdAtg/s1600/rocks%252C+shelly+beach%
252C+caloundra%252C+queensland+december+2013+j.jpg
12. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M1rbUD0wZmM/UtvsXgHhxRI/AAAAAAAADhM/-9YCVeWQWhw/s1600/rocks%252C+shelly+beach%
252C+caloundra%252C+queensland+december+2013+k.jpg
13. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7KB-02yScF4/UtvwgluogFI/AAAAAAAADhU/_6Wm80yCv8E/s1600/seascape,+shelly+beach,
+caloundra,+queensland+december+2013+h.jpg
14. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LCzFp4zNX7w/Utvwqb9SI3I/AAAAAAAADhc/nYXhcyWLKGk/s1600/fisherman,+last+lock+on+
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the+oxford+canal+january+2014.jpg
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2014-01-20 18:19:43)
Good to see you back, and I am sure we all look forward to more of your dismal winter rural pictures :-)
oz photos on flickr, lessing’s the golden notebook, nobel laureates, showing and telling,
wingspan by jeremy hughes, bs johnson (2014-01-25 19:46)
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Some beach photos from Australia. These are the last Oz ones I’ll be posting but you can see these and other scenic
photos on Flickr: [8]http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankegerton/sets/721576 39872852554.
It’s been another busy week, although I have found time to read. Current book is Doris Lessing’s [9]The Golden Notebook (see also the excellent [10]Golden Notebook Project). This was recommended by a friend after I’d told her that I
was interested in doing some research into the overlap of fiction and life-writing.
I’m enjoying the novel, although one of the unexpected aspects of it that has struck me most forcibly is how Lessing
breaks many of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century ’rules’ of writing fiction. Her narratives are, for example, discursive, digressive, often tell rather than show, contain paragraphs that splurge on for a page or more, as
opposed to being neatly broken up into easily-digestible segments. As a tutor of creative writing, I found myself, at
the beginning, wanting to correct the Nobel laureate’s work. Yet the novel is engrossing and highly readable. Not
to mention thought-provoking. Reading Lessing made me think of the work of [11]Gabriel García Márquez and of
[12]José Saramago and how un-creative-writing-course they are.
Is the lesson, therefore, that if you want to win a Nobel Prize, don’t enrol on a creative writing course? I don’t think
so - forms of expression in fiction change over time and the current fashions have produced some wonderful narratives. Though it occurred to me that by spelling things out more - by telling more than showing - the three Nobel
authors might be opening up their work to the widest possible audience, not just the cognoscenti. Creating open and
embracing texts rather than varying degrees of post-modernly closed ones. It’s also the case, I suspect, that much of
the interest in The Golden Notebook today comes precisely from the bits of telling because they contain instructions to
the reader that are often very much of their period, revealing assumptions that are different from our own, as well as
information that is of-the-period. There is consequently a sense of the author being more in the text than is supposedly preferred nowadays. But then Lessing is a fascinating person to have in the text.
In the interests of balance, I should say that I enjoyed reading two excellent books in Australia that show more than
they tell, thereby stimulating the reader’s imagination terrifically and encouraging participatory engagement with
the narratives: [13]Wingspan by Jeremy Hughes (see post of [14]5th November 2013) and [15]Albert Angelo by [16]BS
Johnson. The former, written by a colleague on the Oxford Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing, features a
central character whose CV should make him an unpromising hero. A middle-aged schoolmaster who has travelled
little, had few sexual experiences and who has lived with his mother all his life. But after his mother’s death, his life
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begins a new phase. The narrative moves between the schoolmaster, other characters, perspectives and time periods
- the present and the Second World War. The schoolmaster’s journey is one of discovering about himself, his parents
(his father was an American pilot, his mother a game keeper’s daughter - with, it is soon apparent, a secret life) and
about wisdom and love. The novel is a warm, inspiring narrative written on a human scale, containing beautiful
evocations of landscape (East Anglia and South Wales) and memorable characters. Here is a paragraph of fine natural
description from its pages:
’I walked along the bridge. Each arch’s span was bookended with a V-shaped niche where it was possible to sit. I
looked down at the water running quickly and shallow over cobbled stones. Then I crossed the road. At once I saw a
dipper flit from stone to a step at the base of a low wall. It went down and up as if on an office chair, then dived into
the clear water where I could see it "flying". It returned to the step when it surfaced and was joined by another, its
back the colour of a gun barrel. The male. I watched them for a while, flitting away from this spot, taking it in turns
to disappear and return. Then I went back to the pub garden and took the path downstream.’
I’d heard about BS Johnson when I was a schoolboy - masters talked about the writer who wrote a novel that came
in sections in a box ([17]The Unfortunates) and another in which a slot was cut out of some of the pages - but I didn’t
know his name and never came across any of these intriguing works. Until I read an article in the TLS last year, that
is, in which the series of republished novels put out by Picador were reviewed. Albert Angelo is a great experimental
read, shifting between past and present tenses, different speakers, first, second and third person narration, building
up a fascinating portrait of its central character, Albert (another teacher) and the London of the 1960s. Like Wingspan,
this fragmented approach leads to a rich evocation of the way life is, in all its complexity. In a section in which the
author apparently breaks frame, BS Johnson sums up the aims of the narrative strategies that he employs (similar
strategies are employed by Jeremy Hughes, in his turn):
’-Is about the fragmentariness of life, too, attempts to reproduce the moment-to-moment fragmentariness of life, my
life, and to echo it in technique, the fragmentariness, a collage made of fragments of my own life, the poor odds and
sods, the bric-à-brac...
’-And also to echo the complexity of life, reproduce some of the complexity of selves which I contain within me,
contradictory and gross as they are: childish, some will call it, peeing in the rainfall gauge, yes, but sometimes I am
childish, very, so are we all, it’s part of the complexity I’m trying to reproduce, exorcise.’
And perhaps it is true to say that all authors - including more traditional ones, like Lessing - are trying to achieve the
things that BS Johnson speaks of in their fiction. Creating stories out of their own experiences.
Finally, a picture that I feel sure Rupert will appreciate.
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http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hz8Ldgj4Y-k/UuPNuy5jWqI/AAAAAAAADhs/W23P-sZS_tc/s1600/seascape,+shelly+beach,
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http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kJ-fR_e9M2c/UuPNyi4l23I/AAAAAAAADh0/AT1ZTJU40cI/s1600/seascape,+shelly+beach,
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http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7Ztr6RG5G-s/UuPN1KQmSCI/AAAAAAAADh8/w0MVBPd976M/s1600/seascape,+shelly+beach,
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4.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0DZdx-Kli7c/UuPN3_VOo3I/AAAAAAAADiE/1Jbz0huEqEE/s1600/seascape,+shelly+beach,
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5.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--JS13hW9e_k/UuPN546l2GI/AAAAAAAADiM/wdA2xoAgiuw/s1600/seascape,+shelly+beach,
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6.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9qa01d7KL-o/UuPN775ELjI/AAAAAAAADiU/NRsEP9It-PU/s1600/seascape,+shelly+beach,
+caloundra,+queensland+december+2013+f.jpg
7.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F7ECFLGGuiM/UuPN8RYdb6I/AAAAAAAADiY/wrOGfVs16ts/s1600/wreck,+dicky+beach,
+queensland+december+2013.jpg
8. http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankegerton/sets/72157639872852554
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Notebook
10. http://thegoldennotebook.org/
11.
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13.
14.
15.
16.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Garc%C3%ADa_M%C3%A1rquez
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Saramago
http://cillianpress.co.uk/wingspan/
http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/cultural-evening-history-in-making.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Angelo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._S._Johnson
17. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unfortunates
18.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S8jsX71oo8s/UuPOAGgWsAI/AAAAAAAADio/3WuwehKYFyo/s1600/flooded+copse+near+
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Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2014-01-28 22:00:00)
Rather belatedly appreciated Frank, thank you :-)
5.2
February
ugh! graffiti, downton hallucinations, log fire, assignment marking (2014-02-01 15:57)
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There has been a lot more rain this week. There’s also a been a keen wind, which makes the saturated air particularly
unpleasant. It’s in any case as if you are clothed in damp air and then you’re sliced into by jets of cold. Ugh!
Yet there has been some respite. Walking along the canal tow-path in Oxford yesterday morning, the air was warm
for a while and I was fooled into thinking that spring was on the way. There were hazel catkins out near the station.
How I hate the damage graffiti does! But how striking some of the images are!
Expression of another kind was thrown into sharp relief this morning as I walked through the churchyard. (Not
Bampton churchyard any more but somewhere caught between ancient Bampton and Yorkshire Downton. You halfexpect to bump into Lord Grantham. Or at least you do when you have a cold - perhaps it’s the Boots day and night
remedy.)
No cycling today because of the cold - only the walk to the butcher and Budgens. Then some assignment marking
seated close to the log fire. Very much enjoy getting to know my students through their work.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HjksheX9Wf0/UuzgB1zSg5I/AAAAAAAADi0/Ybfg7RYVKMA/s1600/graffiti,+oxford+canal+
january+2104.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YnsNUkyIDzw/UuzgFIcJYOI/AAAAAAAADi8/YDYfagLNc-o/s1600/stone+doorway,+st+mary’s+
bampton+february2014.jpg
Margaret Keeping (2014-02-02 09:40:42)
Now this week I was expecting a comment from you on that pub, as I’m sure you know it. I gather it also has Downton
associations.
Frank Egerton (2014-02-02 10:03:10)
I do indeed know it - and have done for many years. I liked it best in the early 1980s. Around that time I wrote a short story set
there (which well never see the light of day). The pub is owned by a cousin, would you believe. I didn’t know it had Downton
associations.
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breezy, 2007, ditch clearing, assignments, windows 8, (deer and kite), kerry young, open country, adlestrop, wychwood forest (2014-02-08 12:53)
[1]
It’s been a breezy week - with lots of rain, of course.
Thankfully, the village seems safe from flooding. After over two hundred homes flooded here in 2007 a massive
programme of ditch clearing and (I assume) stream and river dredging started, which appears to have worked. Water
levels rise rapidly when rain is especially heavy but fall quickly too and have so far not reached houses.
More assignment marking this weekend - though for a different course.
This time the assignments have to be marked digitally. It’ll be interesting to put Windows 8’s Word through its paces.
The old laptop gave out a couple of weeks ago and a new one had to be bought. Windows 8 has taken a bit of getting
used to but is on the way to becoming second nature now. I love the way you can flick through photos using the
desktop pictures app, especially (the laptop’s got a touch-screen).
This morning started with a short bike ride and continued with a haircut then a log delivery (very dry, sound wood).
Took the photo above just outside Clanfield, one of the neighbouring villages (also very badly affected by flooding in
2007). What the phone camera didn’t detect, sadly, were a small herd of deer in the far distance (left-hand side) and a
red kite flying directly overhead.
Attended a very energetic and entertaining talk and reading at the [2]Kellogg College Centre for Creative Writing on
Thursday evening given by [3]Kerry Young, who was discussing voice in fiction. Her highly successful novels Pao
and Gloria (published by Bloomsbury) are written in the Jamaican dialect of her childhood (she left the island when
she was ten). She said that she wrote the first of these in standard English to begin with - several drafts were written
like this - before the narrative voice came to her when she was revisiting Jamaica. Suddenly she could see how to tell
her story in an interesting way. The voice, she said in answer to a question at the end of the talk, came partly from that
of her father (who she had lost contact with when she left Jamaica) but also drew on other memories. It was in any
case, she added, a simplified Jamaican voice because to write the dialect straight would make it hard for non-Jamaican
readers to understand. She also said that the voice was the key to the success of the novels. She made the discovery
of the voice and the subsequent flow of the rewriting sound almost mystical experiences. (Something I can readily
understand - as I’m sure other writers can too). She had drawn on her father when developing her central character
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in Pao but she said that the character was nevertheless not her father - he had provided the historical facts which she
had then got to work on imaginatively. Again this way of using one’s own memories in fiction was something I could
relate to. A terrific evening.
Oh and I meant to recommend an amazing, wonderful, brilliant programme I heard on Radio 4 last Saturday morning
- Open Country, [4]Adlestrop - in which Helen Mark visited the place where Edward Thomas’ [5]poem was set before
she explored the north Cotswold countryside nearby. I was particularly intrigued to learn about the fate of the ancient
Royal [6]Wychwood Forest that I had always assumed had been destroyed piecemeal over centuries but which was
cleared substantially by the Victorians. Apparently there was quite a bit of controversy about the land improvements
that led to the felling of the trees at the time. One of the best remnants of the forest can be found in Blenheim park, I
believe (or at least that is what I was told years ago).
Now, work.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MmBI4FVdDk8/UvYYu-Fev_I/AAAAAAAADjQ/7EKD7ma5H_Y/s1600/swollen+brook,+clanfield+
february+2014.jpg
2. http://www.kellogg.ox.ac.uk/kerry-young
3. http://www.kerryyoung.co.uk/
4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03s9tmh/Open_Country_Adlestrop/
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlestrop
6. http://www.wychwoodproject.org/wps/wcm/connect/occ/Wychwood/Home/
Margaret Keeping (2014-02-09 09:00:27)
Oh bother and damn - I was meaning to go to Kerry Young’s talk without fail - why am I so forgetful....I knew her a hundred
years ago -well, late 70’s, when she was a detached youth worker in the City. An unimaginable post these days I fear. They were
all real characters but Kerry most of all - her parties were something else!
Perhaps the department could make use of her again? Does she live in Oxford? I remember she moved away to Leicester I think.
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rain, high winds, 21st fiction from latin america, palabras errantes, weinrebe lecture, edward st
aubyn, hermione lee (2014-02-17 08:52)
[1]
It hardly needs saying but this has been another week of atrocious weather - torrential rain with the addition of very
high winds on Friday night and Saturday morning. Mercifully, Bampton continues to avoid house flooding, although
local farmers are facing heavy losses because their fields have been under water for six weeks - some fields higher up
the valley look like old gravel workings and lower down it is as if a dam has been built and a reservoir created.
What it must be like in Somerset and beyond Reading is hard to imagine, nevertheless.
Travel to London on Wednesday was by coach - I’d originally booked train tickets but services between Oxford and
Didcot then between Reading and London were severely disrupted. I was heading for a one-day seminar on [2]21st
Century Fiction from Latin America. This was a wonderful, informative and enjoyable event. Well-attended and
thoroughly stimulating. Great to see friends too and to meet new colleagues working in the area of Latin American
Studies. It’s hard to isolate highlights from this event but I was particularly struck by [3]Professor Claire Taylor’s talk
entitled From Print to Hypertext: Digital Media and New Literary Genres in Latin America in which she emphasised
the continuity between born digital works and the rich traditions of Hispanic literary experimentalism. Professor
Taylor’s presentation was complimented by Edward King’s exploration of critical approaches to comics and graphic
fiction in Latin America, in which he quoted [4]Professor Jared Gardner of Ohio State University (a quote that seemed
to sum up nicely some of the things that are happening in the cultural sphere globally as result of the digital revolution):
’...we are in the midst of a major sea change in the ways in which our culture represents itself to itself, moving from the
traditional, linear, cause-and-effect narrative towards the database (multilayered, non-hierarchical navigable archives.’
[5]Archives, Collectors and the New Media Work of Comics, Modern Fiction Studies 52.4 (Winter 2006)
I was also delighted to discover the amazing website [6]Palabras Errantes, which was introduced by its editor Cherilyn Elston, a Cambridge University PhD student. The site publishes new work by Latin American authors who are
largely unknown to British audiences. Each story is published in an English translation and in the original Spanish.
The objectives of Palabras Errantes are explained on the website:
’Palabras Errantes is a collaborative online project that publishes contemporary Latin American literature in transla507
tion. Born in 2011 in Cambridge, England, the project was created with the goal of forging a dialogue between Latin
American writers and Anglophone readers interested in getting beyond Borges and Bolaño. To this end, we publish
writers who thus far have had little or no exposure in Anglophone literary circles, while serving as a forum for translators interested in Latin American literature.’
Some terrific stories - a website well-worth a visit!
On Thursday evening I walked to Wolfson College for the second of this term’s [7]Oxford Centre for Life-Writing
Weinrebe lectures, which took the form of a fascinating discussion between the college’s President, Hermione Lee
and the novelist [8]Edward St Aubyn. The discussion focused on St Aubyn’s five-novel series featuring his fictional
alter ego Patrick Melrose. Lee praised St Aubyn’s abilities as a mimic - the title of the four Hilary Term Weinrebe
lectures is Voicing the Self - and was interested in his decision to write the Patrick Melrose novels in the third person.
St Aubyn said that he was attracted to the freedom of the third person and being able to drop into consciousnesses,
write multiple points of view and also maintain a sense of distance (from the highly disfunctional family he writes
about, presumably). He also discussed his preference for setting the novels in a single place over a short space of time.
He felt that in following the [9]classical unities of place and time he created strong structures for each novel, which
he needed in order to contain the chaos of emotions. He was in any case drawn to compression - the condensing of
many years’ worth of experience into a few days. When discussing the autobiographical background of the novels,
he revealed that he had never talked about what had happened to him as a child until he was twenty-five, something
that had led to strong feelings of isolation. Reading had been almost the most intimate communication he had experienced - though he regretted that since becoming a novelist he read with a ’technical gaze’ and could no longer read in
a receptive way. He cited as key influences Racine, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady
(adding that A level set texts were bound to be influential because that period of one’s life was the only time when
one spent two years studying the same books). At Oxford (he was at my old college, Keble), he had valued Joyce
(who he had written about for the entrance exam), Yeats and Eliot. He praised Beckett’s starkness and purity and said
that he liked Thomas Pynchon, who had been recommended to him by a friend. (On the subject of Joyce, Lee made an
intriguing comparison of a scene in which Patrick Melrose experiences an episode, close to Schizophrenia according
to St Aubyn, in which he hears voices and his personality fragments, to the effects found in the Nighttown sequence
on Joyce’s Ulysses.) However, St Aubyn disagreed with Lee when she suggested that his novels were satires, saying
that to him they were tragedies - although their surface did explode into forms such as satire. Lee suggested that a
compromise position might be that the novels were tragedies with a comic surface. St Aubyn said that he had been
afraid that he would be ostracised by family and friends when the novels came out but on the contrary people had
seemed to vie for the honour of being the model for certain characters. He had also received a lot of compassionate
support for the true-life suffering he had endured as a child. He said that there were, nevertheless, only three direct
portraits in the novel series, while most characters were either combinations of real people or invented (Nicholas Pratt
had been an invented character). With a new book coming out shortly, St Aubyn was keen to emphasise that although
like many novelists he had started out writing inquiries into his identity, he was not just an autobiographical writer.
St Aubyn proved a very entertaining and congenial interview subject and Lee struck a good balance between insightful questioning and allowing the author to be himself.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wMqs1qO-SMA/Uv8jLllCDfI/AAAAAAAADjg/Cf3ZJi976iI/s1600/frog,+oxford+canal+
february+2014.jpg
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
http://aclaiir.org.uk/events
http://www.liv.ac.uk/cultures-languages-and-area-studies/staff/claire-taylor
http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/Gardner236
http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/Gardner236/writing/writing.html
http://www.palabraserrantes.com/
7. https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing
8. http://www.edwardstaubyn.com/
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_unities
508
beautiful morning!, tutes, st barnabas church, digital humanities, knowledge exchange, hollybush witney (2014-02-22 10:44)
[1]
A beautiful morning! On a day like today, the last two dreary, dampened months are already a distant memory. (Only
to return next week? Perhaps - but with lessened force, let’s hope!)
In Oxford for one-to-one assignment tutorials today. On the bus in, answered work emails and organised next week’s
diary; a brief walk along the Jericho part of the Oxford Canal (photo above - showing St Barnabas church and the
old boatyard that is under threat of redevelopment). Now, a cup of camomile tea at Caffè Nero before a walk back
up the Oxford Canal, following my usual route but in reverse - a treat indeed! Then the tutes in the University’s
Summertown building.
On Tuesday, I went to a very exciting event on Digital Humanities ([2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital _humanities) entitled, Promoting Public Engagement Through Digital Projects in the Humanities. Guest speakers from
different departments within the University, spoke about their work and in particular about harnessing public support for projects, either in terms of funding or valuable contributions (crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing).
A well-known (non-Oxford) example of the latter is the Jeremy Bentham website (Transcribe Bentham [3]http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/transcribe _bentham), that seeks to digitise all of the philosopher’s
manuscript documents and make them freely available to scholars. Members of the public have been enlisted to
transcribe manuscripts a page at a time, under the direction of academic supervisors. Studies of similar initiatives
reveal that the benefits to participants are fascinatingly various, ranging from the enjoyment of taking part in the
venture to seeing the work as a therapeutic distraction from a life-crisis.
At Oxford, crowd-sourcing led to the creation of an inspirational archive of World War I ephemera which were
brought to roadshows and digitised (Great War Archive - [4]http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa). The project
has now been extended to Europe.
A digital curator from the Bodleian Libraries talked about getting crowd-funding for a recent project to
digitise the Bodleian’s Shakespeare first folio (the only extant first folio still in its original binding). See
[5]http://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. (The first folio, incidentally, disappeared from the Library’s collection in the
late 1600s. It reappeared in 1905 but the Library had to pay a great deal to get it back. An oil baron was also inter509
ested in the book, which bumped up the price astronomically and the University had to enlist the support of donors
through an ad in the Times to acquire it - an earlier instance of crowd-funding!)
Digital Humanities at Oxford (see [6]http://digital.humanities.ox.ac.uk) is a growing part of the University’s drive
to share its collections and knowledge more widely - an initiative known as Outreach but which is increasingly being
referred to as Knowledge Exchange. An area I’m particularly interested in through my work for both the Bodleain
Libraries and the Department for Continuing Education ([7]http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk). My online work for the
Department has meant that I have helped to bring Oxford courses to students studying around the globe. They participate on a course via its dedicated website or via Skype one-to-one tutorials.
Off for a late lunch at the Hollybush, Witney, later ([8]http://www.hollybushwitney.co.uk).
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3zv5L5Ad3pM/Uwh4prSQOuI/AAAAAAAADj8/OY7oFUXaSN4/s1600/st+barnabas+church,
+jericho,+boatyard+&+oxford+canal+february+2014.jpg
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_humanities
3. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/transcribe_bentham
4. http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa
5. http://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
6. http://digital.humanities.ox.ac.uk/
7. http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/
8. http://www.hollybushwitney.co.uk/
5.3
March
water subsiding, moss and lichens, stop-go spring, corrected edition of a conscious englishman,
oclw podcasts, birds’ nests (2014-03-03 08:50)
[1]
510
[2]
The flood waters are subsiding, although grass and crops look sick and moss and lichens are thriving on gates, walls
and trees.
Days alternate between beautiful spring sunshine and more heavy showers.
This stop-go spring raises the spirits then lowers them.
Some sort of low-grade flu the past week hasn’t helped matters.
Still, good things are happening. Working on the corrected edition of Margaret Keeping’s A Conscious Englishman,
which [3]StreetBooks will be publishing very soon.
I was also delighted to receive an email on Friday reminding me of the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing [4]podcast
archive. There are lots of treats to be had and soon this term’s Weinrebe Lectures will be added, so you will be able to
listen to that Teddy St Aubyn [5]interview.
Top photo btw shows two birds’ nests from our garden, which now live in a basket in the passage between the kitchen
and sitting-room. There was lovely spring sunlight streaming through the windows that day - Saturday.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E2E4P0eynFA/UxNCmk681WI/AAAAAAAADkU/yzh8e9rRdGU/s1600/nests,+bampton+february+
2014.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o2rbWqsPgx8/UxNCqjZ0sEI/AAAAAAAADkc/BX7m4pOBBA0/s1600/gate+and+flooded+field,
+near+clanfield+febraury+2014.jpg
3. http://streetbooks.co.uk/
4. https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/life-writing/podcasts
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/rain-high-winds-21st-fiction-from-latin.html
511
warm sun, bees buzzing, more tutes, getting strength back, eagle and child, blackcurrant mild,
sawlogs (2014-03-08 09:10)
[1]
Yesterday I ate my sandwich hastily, reading up for the next meeting between munches, in St Giles’ churchyard en
route from the Latin American Centre to the Radcliffe Science Library.
It was the first time this spring that there had been real warmth in the sun. I looked up at the blossom on a cherry tree
and there were bees buzzing.
A grey start today with some fine rain but it’s nevertheless significantly warmer and there is a much more hopeful
feel to the air. Earlier, when I walked up the garden to the woodshed, the frogs were already swimming about in the
pond - and this was 5.45 am.
In Oxford now for the last assignment tutes.
A nice end to a working week that has been frantically busy - something not helped by me feeling under the weather
still. Though since Thursday I’ve been getting my strength back.
Met up with friends at the Eagle and Child after work last night. A lovely evening. Delicious venison, pork and red
wine sausages - accompanied by blackcurrant mild (surprisingly good).
Photo of sawlogs taken on the Oxford canal about an hour ago.
–
[2]http://streetbooks.co.uk website
[3]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com blog
StreetBooks is a micro-publisher based in west Oxfordshire
A Conscious Englishman by Margaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published - visit StreetBooks website for
details
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hsvQouhv2i8/Uxrex8_o4FI/AAAAAAAADkw/vpsz2-4viXk/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253Fc2F3bG9ncywgb3hmb3JkIGNhbmFsIG1hcmNoIDIwMTQuanBn%253F%253D-793135
2. http://streetbooks.co.uk/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
512
twickenham (2014-03-09 17:45)
[1]
[2]
[3]
Great day at Twickenham watching England v Wales (29/18).
Amazing weather - big contrast to England-France more-or-less this time last year when freezing wind scythed the
stadium.
The fast-moving first half, teams alternately scoring points, gave way (after, on our part, stilton, dried apricots and
tea) to more tactical, less decisive play in the second.
I think it’s fair to say that England dominated throughout, though Wales were often spirited.
Bril! Thanks to V and M for inviting us!
513
See, [4]www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-2576270/LIVE-SIX -NATIONS-England-vs-Wales-Followaction-happens-Twickenham-updates -World-Cup-winning-coach-Sir-Clive-Woodward.html
–
[5]http://streetbooks.co.uk website
[6]http://justthoughtsnstuff.com blog
StreetBooks is a micro-publisher based in west Oxfordshire
A Conscious Englishman by Margaret Keeping - StreetBooks Kindle edition published - visit StreetBooks website for
details
Sent using BlackBerry® from EE
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-utq9YxzUQKg/Uxyora2agUI/AAAAAAAADlA/JvgjD63BljA/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FdHdpY2tlbmhhbSwgZW5nbGFuZCB2IHdhbGVzIG1hcmNoIDIwMTQgYS5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-715458
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EaTJki6NONg/UxyosOUMLjI/AAAAAAAADlM/TDr7cs2U6Sg/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FdHdpY2tlbmhhbSwgZW5nbGFuZCB2IHdhbGVzIG1hcmNoIDIwMTQgYi5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-719372
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bj9CmCsTz8k/UxyoswfyVPI/AAAAAAAADlY/5_J1N42HZWI/s1600/%253D%253Futf-8%253FB%
253FdHdpY2tlbmhhbSwgZW5nbGFuZCB2IHdhbGVzIG1hcmNoIDIwMTQgYy5qcGc%253D%253F%253D-722348
4.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-2576270/
LIVE-SIX-NATIONS-England-vs-Wales-Follow-action-happens-Twickenham-updates-World-Cup-winning-coach-Sir-Clive-Woodward.
html
5. http://streetbooks.co.uk/
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.com/
514
new blackberry, spring weather, oclw blog, weald snowdrops (2014-03-15 13:43)
[1]
New Blackberry. Wanted a Q10 because of the keyboard, as much as anything else. I can’t get on with the virtual kind.
I was surprised that EE couldn’t get me a Q10 and that their independent partners couldn’t either. Vodafone came
up trumps, though, so I’ve switched to them. Rather more virtual features than the Bold but they are well thoughtthrough and I love the improved keyboard and the bigger screen. I was also able to transfer my calendar across
easily, which was a huge relief. Compatibility problems have meant I’ve had to do this manually when changing
smartphones in the past. Meanwhile, some gorgeous weather this week, which has made me feel much better. Still
not right but greatly improved on last weekend. Btw just had an email reminding me of the Oxford Centre for
Life-Writing blog. Well worth checking out - obviously: [2]http://oxlifewriting.wordpress.com. Saw this clump of
snowdrops near Weald (the hamlet on the Clanfield edge of Bampton) when cycling this morning.
–
Frank Egerton
Visit [3]http://www.justthoughtsnstuff.com
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yuyKrLZoNAs/UyTDz-htLRI/AAAAAAAADl0/DP-zrflax4c/s1600/Snowdrops,+weald+march+
2014.jpg
515
2. http://oxlifewriting.wordpress.com/
3. http://www.justthoughtsnstuff.com/
kingcups, cheering, life of tony benn, inspiring (2014-03-16 12:33)
[1]
A beautiful morning!
Kingcups out in the ditches along the Clanfield end of Calcroft Lane. Very cheering.
Interesting press coverage of the life of Tony Benn - such an inspiring man.
–
Frank Egerton
Visit [2]http://www.justthoughtsnstuff.com
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--HGaEA0hsjE/UyWaTL4bWBI/AAAAAAAADmU/lF3MxUByoZ0/s1600/kingcups%252C%2Bcalcroft%
2Blane%2Bmarch%2B2014-759492.jpg
2. http://www.justthoughtsnstuff.com/
Harriboy (2014-03-16 12:54:19)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/tonybennencouragedme/
(2014-03-24 20:38)
516
walks (2014-03-24 21:25)
[1]
517
[2]
518
[3]
Up at 4.30 this morning because I had to catch an early S1 bus from Witney. Due in Oxford for 8 am meeting, although
the bus made such good time that I fitted in a walk from Botley to North Hinksey and on into the city along the
Willow Walk and across Osney Island.
The sun was already melting the sharp frost at 7.15 and the light was gorgeous.
Another early start yesterday because the MSt residence took place over the weekend. Great to catch up with the
students I’m supervising.
Taking the photo from the bridge at the start of the Willow Walk (top, above) reminded me of a post I wrote for the precursor to this blog (see [4]http://www.frankegerton.com/scrapbook.html). The walk I posted about had reminded
me of, in turn, walks from the mid-90s when there had been family upsets. Little did I suspect, when I wrote that
piece, that soon, in the first months of justthoughtsnstuff (around this time of year in 2010), these old wounds would
burst open again catastrophically.
This morning, there were, of course, the overlaying years but also I had the sense of all those sad times having passed
and of seeing the key actors with more sympathy and compassion.
Last week I had a day off and we walked from Bampton to Old Man’s Bridge near Radcot Lock, where we crossed the
Thames and circled back to the village. The day was overcast and everything seemed winter-bleak. (It’s so strange
how the landscape takes its cue from the weather at this time of year - when there is sun, it is spring; when it is
grey, it is winter again.) The curlews’ calls haunted the watermeadows beside the river. A haunting but nevertheless
beautiful sound.
Later we had lunch at the excellent [5]Five Alls at Filkins.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cojB9ZKr9TU/UzCYPoTsQwI/AAAAAAAADm0/GVoew0Tg45E/s1600/willow+walk,+botley+
march+2014.jpg
2. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LLLDDLdq7bw/UzCYNMV_t-I/AAAAAAAADms/ggq9fVtyRG0/s1600/thames+valley+landscape+
near+radcot+march+2014.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gySXaS2iiqk/UzCYSOtaVSI/AAAAAAAADm8/P4OrxixY5J0/s1600/waterlogged+trees+near+
clanfield+march+2014.jpg
4. http://www.frankegerton.com/scrapbook.html
519
5. http://thefiveallsfilkins.co.uk/
bright, misty, allotment, really warm, tables and chairs, novella (2014-03-29 18:34)
[1]
520
[2]
Cycled this morning when it was bright and clear in some places and still misty in others.
Later I went to the allotment for the first time this year - apart from when I had to re-felt part of the shed roof in
the middle of the winter. The ground remains pretty wet under the surface, although I was able to tackle the rather
unsightly heap of old dug-out couch grass roots that I’ve built up over a couple of years. I shook the roots free of soil
and bagged them up - they’ll be taken to the tip tomorrow - before levelling the mound of fine soil.
It’s a beautiful day - really warm now.
Back at the house I took the table and chairs at the top of the garden off their bricks and brushed them down. Then I
got the other table and its chairs out of the shed and brought them to the patio by the house. The set at the top of the
garden is made from ship’s timbers and survives outside (so long as the legs are up on bricks) whereas the one for the
patio is less robust.
During the week, I did more work on the novella. Great to be working on it.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z4TkGt1HrRI/Uzbltdr1TUI/AAAAAAAADnQ/8h9AEOL3LLE/s1600/daffodils,+black+bourton+
march+2014.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-668g04oNkAc/UzbltUDIIzI/AAAAAAAADnM/9OlKyvme2Ac/s1600/ploughed+field,+calcroft+
lane+march+2014.jpg
521
5.4
April
fritillaries, john wain, where the rivers meet, waterman’s arms, hay fever, a conscious englishman, cambridge quarterly (2014-04-06 16:06)
[1]
The fritillaries are out in our garden!
As an undergraduate, it was such a delight to walk round Magdalen meadows and see fritillaries flowering in abundance - both pink and white ones.
They are rare now, in the wild, only appearing in one or two water-meadows along the Oxfordshire Thames. Once,
though, if the novelist and one-time Oxford University Professor of Poetry, John Wain, is to be believed, they were
much more widespread. In his wonderful Oxford novel, Where the Rivers Meet, children pick bunches of them in the
meadows near Iffley and sell them to the florists in the Covered Market.
The flowers were killed off by herbicides, I suppose, during the ’[2]War Ag’.
You can find more information about John Wain’s novel and how it relates to my first novel, The Lock, in the jtns post
for [3]Sunday, 14th August 2011.
As mentioned in that post, the real-life pub on Osney Island - the Waterman’s Arms, as was, now the Punter - that
features in both Where the Rivers Meet and The Lock was John Wain’s favourite and he used to walk down to it from
Wolvercote, where he lived. But in about 1991 the pub was done up. The novelist got as far as the porch, took one
look at the refurbished bar and never set foot in it again. Before the alterations, the pub had a narrow bar with a lino
floor and little round tables and stools, and a bar-billiards and piano room off to the side. It was a great, old-fashioned
pub in those days. Always packed, on a Sunday especially.
John Wain’s obituary photo in The Times was taken in the old Waterman’s.
I believe that, sadly, John Wain’s novels are out of print now - though still available on the web and in second-hand
bookshops. In addition to [4]Where the Rivers Meet, I would recommend [5]The Contenders and [6]A Winter in the Hills
(which, it appears is back in print in a Kindle edition this year).
Earlier this week, I thought my cough and cold had come back - with a vengeance. But now think it was a combina522
tion of hay fever (the oilseed rape is out) and the Saharan dust cloud. A bit better today.
The corrected reprint of [7]A Conscious Englishman, meanwhile, is almost finished. Its cover includes a lovely quote
from Robert Macfarlane on the front and Linda Newbery’s generous praise on the back.
On the subject of A Conscious Englishman, I was delighted to see reference to it - alongside references to Robert Macfarlane and Matthew Hollis - in an article entitled Edward Thomas and His Contested Country, which appeared in
the Cambridge Quarterly last year [(2014) 43 1: 85-92]:
’Others, however, channel Thomas’s literary spirit differently. Most recently, Margaret Keeping’s novel A Conscious
Englishman (2013), imagines Thomas’s path towards becoming a poet, his melancholic angst, and his decision to go
to war, through conversations with those closest to him and his own thoughts and feelings. In 2011 Matthew Hollis
won the Costa Book Award for Best Biography for Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas. In
it he describes Thomas’s emotional dislocation and the redeeming quality of his friendship with Robert Frost. Then
there is Robert Macfarlane, Cambridge academic and celebrated nature writer, whose own work has been inspired by
Edward Thomas, particularlyThe Old Ways (2012). Thomas’s dually restless and rooted engagement with landscape
resonates with Macfarlane, who appreciates how Thomas was ’interestingly alert to how we are scattered, as well as
affirmed, by the places through which we move’.’
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m9darUpt7O4/U0E_ynhSM2I/AAAAAAAADn8/Xx_zY7FCP2Q/s1600/fritillaries,+bampton+
april+2014.jpg
2. http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/media/130649/WW2_farming.pdf
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/watermans-arms-osney-now-punter.html
4.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Rivers-Meet-Coronet-Books/dp/0340506083/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=
1396795810&sr=8-1&keywords=where+the+rivers+meet+wain
5.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Contenders-John-Wain/dp/B000OKUPII/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1396795838&sr=
8-2-spell&keywords=contenderst+wain
6.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Winter-Hills-John-Wain-ebook/dp/B00IXYOVGO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=
1396795890&sr=8-1&keywords=winter+in+the+hills+wain
7. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
523
canal-side blacksmith, william morris, allotment drying out, novella, a conscious englishman
(2014-04-13 15:16)
[1]
524
[2]
525
[3]
526
[4]
Saw this wonderful canal-side blacksmith when I was walking during my lunch break on Friday afternoon and
thinking through something. The blacksmith was moored opposite Jericho, just up from St Barnabas church (see
photo of [5]22nd February 2014).
I liked the William Morris quotation - as indicated in several jtns posts, Morris is a hero of mine (see posts on [6]21st
April and [7]22nd April 2010, for example).
Beautiful sunshine for much of this week, though a cold wind remains, just waiting for a cloud to hide the sun so
it can lower the temperature. But it has to be said that both sun and wind are playing their part in drying out the
allotment and making forking through easier by the day.
I’ve been working on the novella and the corrected reprint of Margaret Keeping’s[8]A Conscious Englishman.
Yesterday, on the bus into work, I finished the major rewrite of the novella’s first chapter. This used to be about 4,500
words but is now 3,200 and is itself divided into four chapters. The novella’s working title is Icarus.
The text of A Conscious Englishman is almost finished and it and the updated cover - designed by [9]Andrew Chapman
- will soon be off to the printers.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mYHiHN-bjEc/U0lxiFQ9XcI/AAAAAAAADoU/IWo8jVy3flo/s1600/canal+blacksmith+april+
2014+a.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-strdtlZ1uZQ/U0lxnUS7OlI/AAAAAAAADoc/jvqnA0hPc3o/s1600/canal+blacksmith+april+
2014+b.jpg
3.
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2014+c.jpg
4.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wgT3m2ScHjc/U0lxr7Se5XI/AAAAAAAADos/wrri5bOgGdY/s1600/canal+blacksmith+april+
2014+d.jpg
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/beautiful-morning-tutes-st-barnabas.html
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/trimdon-labour-club.html
7. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/returned-to-bampton-this-afternoon.html
8. http://www.streetbooks.co.uk/
9. http://www.preparetopublish.com/
527
bracket fungus, rac/rau cirencester, forestry finals, ace final read through, planting spuds, jtns
40k (2014-04-18 16:14)
[1]
What’s the significance of this magnificent bracket fungus? A Good Friday link, perhaps? None that I know of. I was
just struck by its texture and colours as I was walking along the Oxford canal yesterday morning. It was growing
on a pollarded willow. Once I would probably have been able to tell you what sort it was but, sadly, not these days.
I studied forestry as part of my three-year diploma course at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester (now a
university) back in the late seventies and early eighties. Indeed, I believe I’m right in saying that I got the highest
mark in our forestry finals. Skills that have withered on the vine - if that isn’t too bizarre a metaphor in this context.
Spent the first part of today checking the typeset book-block of the corrected reprint of [2]A Conscious Englishman
before running it through Acrobat Pro prior to the final read though. Having made changes, I’m looking out for
unintended consequences of these, as far as the layout is concerned.
This afternoon I’ve been on the allotment, planting spuds, amongst other things. The annual outing of the potato
dibber - see previous years’ posts on this subject: [3]27th May 2013; [4]6th May 2012; [5]9th April 2011; [6]19th April
2010. This year I planted Desiree, Estima, Kestrel and Pink Fir Apple.
Meanwhile, Blogger stats tells me that jtns has reached 40,000 page views.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Oc2OVkl7aFE/U1E8w-A_CQI/AAAAAAAADpA/bdS48ymTtGs/s1600/bracket+fungus,+oxford+
canal+april+2014.jpg
2. http://streetbooks.co.uk/
3. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/potatoes-late.html
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/kind-weather-spuds-edzell-blues.html
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/dibber-spuds-eucalyptus-and-what-butler.html
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/all-quiet-on-allotment.html
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Margaret Keeping (2014-04-19 11:26:50)
So looking forward to seeing the new version, Frank.
Frank Egerton (2014-04-19 12:24:11)
Hoping I’ve avoided unintended consequences! In any event, it’s gone to the printers now. Next step, the corrected proof.
caterpillars, bright star (2014-04-20 19:55)
[1]
Bampton is under attack. These caterpillars are eating everything in sight. But what are they - any ideas? The Oxford
butterfly and moth book left us none the wiser.
More digging on the allotment earlier until the rain started.
Btw watched [2]Bright Star the other day. What an AMAZING film. Beautiful. Loved the space it allowed itself in
which to explore the relationship between Fanny Brawne and Keats. Outstanding!
–
Frank Egerton
Visit http://www.justthoughtsnstuff.com
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BDbVI69XTuc/U1Q0Qb5zLvI/AAAAAAAADps/JfuKvXPN-VQ/s1600/caterpillars,+bampton+
april+2014.jpg
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_Star_(film)
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belated happy easter!, wild fritillary (2014-04-22 20:00)
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[2]
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[3]
Some Easter pics, including one of a wild fritillary - as opposed to the garden sort (see post of a few weeks ago for more
about these plants and their association with Oxford and the Thames Valley: [4]http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/frit illaries-john-wain-where-rivers.html).
Belated Happy Easter!
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-55SkbOoDS-g/U1a7J50kHFI/AAAAAAAADqQ/xbdWfEVg0Lc/s1600/wild+fritillary,+west+
oxfordsire+april+2014.jpg
2.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UEJM4CiPvIA/U1a7NpBMr6I/AAAAAAAADqY/p9olJCYs1yU/s1600/easter+lunch,+bampton+
april+2014.jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mu5aQHXAS5M/U1a7OOYU3rI/AAAAAAAADqg/GUPADmXIbM0/s1600/furry+terrier,+bampton+
april+2014.jpg
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/fritillaries-john-wain-where-rivers.html
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thames valley, rain, downton abbey series five, way back in 2010 (2014-04-25 12:24)
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[2]
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[3]
Had a lovely walk into the Thames Valley this morning.
The rain started just as we got back to the village - part of which is once again the set for Downton Abbey. Perhaps not
the most glamorous day to be filming. Hard to believe that this is Series Five. Seems no time at all since we caught
our first glimpses of an unknown TV drama being made here - [4]way back in 2010.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ey1OD06842c/U1pCwwgh1LI/AAAAAAAADq4/uablJ-YJAdo/s1600/downton+abbey+set,
+bampton+april+2014+a.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JFbVtNfUpMc/U1pC0NQcTkI/AAAAAAAADrI/iKXCsMoJuyU/s1600/downton+abbey+set,
+bampton+april+2014+b.jpg
3.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1n7xiSEgvAs/U1pCyIuCjII/AAAAAAAADrA/7AuRuJhiQMw/s1600/downton+abbey+set,
+bampton+april+2014+c.jpg
4. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/returned-to-bampton-this-afternoon.html
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working late, week off, planting, quartet, cowslips, ace reprint with corrections (2014-04-28 08:57)
[1]
Not due at the library till 11 am because I’m working late this evening.
Had last week off - a very refreshing break.
Was pleased that I could fork through the allotment despite the showers and get some things planted (shallots, onions,
rhubarb and strawberries yesterday).
Lovely walks and cycle rides and one or two meals out. Also really enjoyed watching the film [2]Quartet, which
is about a home for retired musicians and stars Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins.
Made me wonder if there was a home for retired librarians or writers...
Saw these cowslips when cycling along Calcroft Lane (aka the gated road) on Saturday.
Have just signed off the updated edition of A Conscious Englishman (properly speaking, a reprint with corrections).
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MB0Km1KtyPM/U14Fvru-yGI/AAAAAAAADrs/1HXEleeU1Hg/s1600/cowsplis,+calcroft+lane+
april+2014.jpg
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/film/quartet
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5.5
May
working weekend, autumn king, cold start, sir robert taylor, digital icons, queen sofia, diary
management (2014-05-03 17:01)
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[4]
Something of a working weekend, despite having Monday off. Lots of work to do, although it is nice to be doing this
at home.
Not all work, nevertheless. Planted some Autumn King carrots and some Boltardy beetroots just now on the allotment,
as well as doing a bit of tidying, in the beautiful summer-seeming sunshine.
A cold start to the day, however, when I went cycling. A sharp frost in places - photos above. Relieved to have put
the runner bean plants in the shed overnight.
Went to a fascinating [5]talk at the Taylor Institution on Wednesday that was organised by a colleague. Its subject was
the private collection of books on architecture that were once owned by the building’s benefactor, the architect and
sculptor [6]Sir Robert Taylor (famous for his designs of parts of the Bank of England, now long since demolished). It
was wonderful to have the chance of looking at the books themselves after the talk. (Hopefully some photos of the
books will be available online soon - if they appear, I’ll post the link.)
Met with a friend for a drink on Thursday after work. She has recently joined the editorial team at a wonderful online
journal called [7]Digital Icons, which focuses on Russian, Eurasian and Central European new media. A brilliant
example of so-called born-digital academic publications that exist online only and represent the very best aspects of
the web.
On Tuesday, the Queen of Spain [8]visited the Taylor to attend a lecture given by Professor Edwin Williamson, prior
to attending 700th anniversary celebrations at Exeter College, where she is an honorary fellow. I’d wanted to go to the
lecture too but had a [9]Research Data Management meeting instead (really must improve my diary management...).
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z_lJ3mI0RQE/U2SZbt_ICGI/AAAAAAAADsA/13B41D8HxrQ/s1600/may+frost+may+2014+a.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pPBmGI4xKEE/U2SZbxaw6sI/AAAAAAAADsI/7XRZh-hDlRA/s1600/may+frost+may+2014+b.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mIB0N8B045s/U2SZb1kuLXI/AAAAAAAADsE/m38vk3Zje2Y/s1600/may+frost+may+2014+c.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zb33Q2-r4lA/U2SZi8kylBI/AAAAAAAADsY/1BR6gPdOqb8/s1600/may+frost+may+2014+d.jpg
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/167712/
Art-Architects-Books-and-Buildings-April-2014.pdf
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_(architect)
7. http://www.digitalicons.org/
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8. https://www.euroweeklynews.com/news/spanish-news/item/120300-spain-s-queen-visits-oxford
9. http://researchdata.ox.ac.uk/
may blossom,
downpours,
sowing,
creative writing,
term up-and-running,
novella
(2014-05-10 15:39)
[1]
Saw this beautiful may blossom when cycling earlier.
Blustery weekend so far, though, with heavy downpours - makes blossom seem distinctly ephemeral. Some cheering
intervals of lovely warm sunshine, even so.
Managed to put in an hour on the allotment yesterday evening after work, knowing I wouldn’t be able to get much
done up there today and tomorrow. Swiss and rhubarb chard in plus some mixed radishes and two varieties of runner
bean (there are early-sown runners growing in pots in the garden, which will be planted out next weekend).
Lots of creative writing teaching being done, meanwhile. The term is definitely up-and-running. Oh, and the novella
is growing.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3oIrW2zdQD8/U23n0qA_NGI/AAAAAAAADss/ugKDldSKAPM/s1600/may+blossom,+calcroft+
lane+may+2014.jpg
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ridging spuds, the poetry of tractor driving, l’étranger, instituto cervantes, aclaiir blog, new
novella, icarus, chapters 1-3 (2014-05-17 11:26)
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[3]
Up to the allotment early to ridge the spuds.
A job that reminds me of a time many years ago, when I’d left school and was working on a farm in Shropshire
for nine months. For weeks, I drove up and down the huge fields on my Massey Ferguson tractor with the ridger.
Sometimes it took nearly half an hour to drive from the top of the field to the bottom. You’d start work early and
finish at dusk, concentrating all the while in case you got out of line and knocked the spuds from their rows.
It could a poetic experience, though, potato ridging. At dusk, say, driving past the remains of an iron parkland fence
and a hunting gate with curls either side like treble clefs; fading light on an old dew pond; the sun setting beyond the
Welsh hills. And a lot of the time, I told myself stories to make the day go quicker. Or think through the scenes of the
film I would one day make of Albert Camus’ L’Étranger.
Well my film remains a dream, although the story-telling continues - see the opening chapters of my new novella,
Icarus, below.
Went to London on Thursday for the ACLAIIR committee meeting (Advisory Council on Latin American and Iberian
Information Resources), which this time was held at the Instituto Cervantes in Eaton Square. What a location! It was
lovely to see fellow members of the committee again and to look at the new library, which was opened by Queen Sofia
of Spain the day after she visited Oxford a couple of weeks ago. A colleague from the Taylor has co-written a great
piece for the ACLAIIR [4]blog, which she also edits, that covers both events and more.
For some of the week I’ve been reviewing a new online course that’s in development for the Oxford University
Department for Continuing Education.
I’ve also been working on my novella (isn’t that a perfect form for the internet age?), which has the working title,
Icarus. I’ve decided to post the first eight chapters of the story here in three instalments. The first appears below.
Icarus is set in the early 1960s and the late 1980s. It’s about a young film maker who is researching a political scandal
that happened nearly twenty years earlier and who is interviewing the people that were involved. The title doesn’t
refer to just one character but to nearly all the main ones, who each has certain Icarus-like sides to them.
So, here are the first three chapters. [The piece is a work in progress and surnames are represented by initial letters
only, pending standard libel checks.]
I
Icarus soars then, right wing inclined, wheels in the air. Below him, far, far below, lie the parched shapes of the
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Ancient World and the blue of the sea.
His father, the only movement in the apparently still air, flaps uneasily and ungracefully like some ancient, scrawny,
bird of prey. The old man tries to raise his head, fails, tries again, succeeding briefly, mouthing something to his child.
Above him the sun, below him the earth, Icarus soars and tilts, plucking up courage, each tilt bringing him fractionally
closer until, almost without meaning to, he hurls himself into the corkscrew. Sun and earth and water mix, blur and
lose meaning. His muscles scream and the flimsy frame that sustains him creaks and buckles but with a sudden surge
of power he breaks free. Heart exploding, fear in his limbs, he gulps the air. He is almost on top of his rapt father
who, with all his might, arches his neck, his face scowling.
Icarus swoops down and away from the old man, the fool, as a voice cries out laughingly in his head. The boy regains
his composure and begins another ascent, passing on his way a single golden feather see-sawing downwards. A brief
inspection of his plumage shows it to be intact. It was a very small feather, he muses.
The air is warmer. He cannot see the speck that was his father. He is alone. Like a god he surveys the world. For
a moment he achieves wisdom. As the globe turns he perceives the shape of the earth. He sees that the distinctive
shape of his own land, which had formed itself as he rose, is but a fragment. As he marvels he is lifted by the air until
his thoughts are pierced by searing pain. His skin blisters and smoulders. Vainly, he fights to aim himself into a dive
but the inexorable column of air carries him, votive and diminishingly hubristic, ever upwards. Vainly he remembers
his father’s scowl. Vainly he recalls how he had sneered inwardly. He can feel his face contorting in a grimace of
death. Wax melts. The burning feathers choke him. The sun licks the moisture from his body. He screams and beats
frenziedly with his puny arms.
II
Coughing and spluttering, not knowing where he is, or what is happening, Josh pushes himself up and bumps heavily
against Sheelagh who, waking, screams and slaps his shoulder.
The room in the light from the streetlamp is unfamiliar yet familiar. A room Josh knows, but only recently. The duvet
is on fire. The corner on his side is glowing and there is black smoke.
Shit!’ he shouts at the top of his voice and feels Sheelagh pushing away.
He grabs the duvet and dives forward, attempting to smother the glowing corner, simultaneously pulling the whole
cover away from the bar fire.
There is someone coming through the open door. Sheelagh – but for a moment Josh wonders who it is.
Icy water splatters his tummy.
The fire!’ he beseeches. The bloody electric fire!’
He yanks the plug from the socket with the snake-like flex, leaps up and manhandles Sheelagh through the doorway
onto the landing. They lean against each other and gasp for breath.
You could have electrocuted us!’
Sheelagh begins to cry.
I’m sorry,’ breathes Josh, I’m sorry.’ He places his palm against her belly.
III
Josh watches Samantha cross her drawing-room to the drinks trolley.
He sits in a green velvet armchair beside a carved fireplace. In the grate two large logs smoulder. He remembers the
duvet and shudders when he thinks what could have happened. He is angry with himself but forces his gaze back to
the room.
The sofa and four armchairs must create quite a cosy effect in some lights but today the sun streaming through the
sash windows accentuates a vast emptiness – despite the beautiful paintings and pieces of furniture round the walls.
Samantha returns with two small glasses of sherry. Before sitting down, she looks into his eyes and raises her glass.
He is about to say something – cheers, or sláinte. (Convent-school holidays in Ireland when her parents were fighting. Irish
blood in the family.) She looks down on him as if he is a child she finds amusing.
Josh raises his glass, says nothing and drinks.
Samantha sits, angling herself towards him, her arm along the back of the sofa, her hand resting in her lap. She is
poised yet gives the impression of being relaxed. Her clothes are smart - classic, she would say. Dark colours, blues
and greens, only set off by the hard gleam of a string of pearls. Josh is still surprised that her hair is quite so dark. She
has kept the style she had as a girl – swept back, shoulder length, held in place by a band - but what is now brown,
streaked with grey, was once honey-blond.
In her photographs she looked so young and innocent: wide eyes, round smiling face and a turned up nose that he
felt sure he would have liked to touch with his forefinger.
Curiously, though the rest of the face has tightened, the nose has kept its shape and softness, seeming out of place.
What I don’t understand,’ Samantha says, is why you want to make a film about Peter. After all, who’s heard of Peter
R nowadays?’ She puts up her hand, palm upwards, and shrugs her shoulders. Her eyes widen, looking youthful
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again for an instant.
Josh smiles.
She continues. Far be it from me to tell you what to do but really, I should have thought that there were much more
interesting subjects. Surely people want to be uplifted by films not presented with some sad little tale.’
When he spoke to her on the phone, he learnt nothing other than what is common knowledge. Can he draw her out?
He leans forward, feeling cool sherry splash onto his hand but managing to stop himself looking down. He frowns at
her. But surely your time with Peter R wasn’t sad? Well not all of it.’
Samantha’s gaze fixes on him. I suppose what intrigues me is your motive for making the film. Is it sensationalism?
If so, you’ll be disappointed.’
I’ve read the newspapers.’
A lot was made up. Sheer invention.’
A lot of facts there too – you know that.’
If you libelled me, I’d sue.’
You said. That’s why I’m here – to get things right.’
Such as?’
Josh breaths in, holds, takes aim and squeezes the trigger.
In an interview in 65 you said your affair with Peter ended not long before the Menton fracas.’
I don’t remember.’
This was slightly different to what you said in other interviews. I’ve started to wonder whether you broke up when
you were snowed in at that cottage.’
–
The defences behind Samantha’s eyes shatter. The bullet ricochets down the tunnel of her memory. Her mouth
twitches.
–
Josh senses he has hit the target. He smiles. If we work together we can tell people the truth – about Peter.’
Samantha takes a sip of sherry and looks into the grate.
More logs?’ Josh says.
Why not.’
–
For a few moments she sees images different from the long-haired young man in black jeans and sneakers, crouching
in front of the fire.
It has just started to snow. It is not late in the afternoon, although it is already dark. The snowflakes flurry into dotted
lines in the car’s headlights but it is warm inside and the rushing sound of the hot air blower and the muffled thud of
the wipers are strangely comforting.
He tells her that it’s not far to go now. They will arrive at the cottage in a quarter of an hour or so. Then they will be
safe.
Peter puts his hand on her leg and gives a little squeeze. He turns and smiles at her. No regrets?’
His voice is utterly reassuring. She shivers happily. She leans against his shoulder and replies, None. Oh absolutely
no regrets.’
Did she say that? She can’t remember exactly. Her memory has supplied these words without her will – she supposes
she must have said them, or at least something very similar.
–
Josh sets the poker on the hearth and resumes his seat.
He is about to ask Samantha another question but she speaks first. Actually, that was a very happy weekend. I must
have been misquoted – or maybe I was still in shock. It took years for me to get over everything. You’ve read David
M’s book, I assume.’
Josh nods.
He says we split up the night Peter drove to Menton – and the “fracas”, as you put it. That’s the honest truth. Some
unkind people said I was the reason it all happened, of course, but David set them straight. Peter was unstable then
anyway – he always was a bit odd, poor boy. That’s why it was so sad.’
–
An image flashes through Samantha’s mind. Peter wears his neatly-cut dinner jacket. His skin smells deliciously of
tobacco. I have to go now,’ he whispers and kisses her forehead. She smiles submissively.
She snaps her memory shut like a battered suitcase.
–
More sherry?’
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Before Josh has time to reply she is up and walking towards him, hand outstretched urgently.
Josh has only taken a few sips. He wants to keep a clear head. He feels she is trying to divert his attention, although
he also thinks that he has made progress in establishing a rapport with her. He drains his glass.
Before Samantha returns, she begins to talk about being snowed in at the cottage in the West Country with Peter. She
has regained her composure.
As I say, that weekend was bliss – one of the few times when we were truly happy with each other. It was quite
thrilling, actually.’ She laughs. You see I was hardly nineteen – past it these days, but then I was considered very
daring by my friends ’
I can imagine.’
Yes. And thoroughly bad by my mother and father, although they didn’t know about it all, of course, until much
later.’
Did they meet Peter?’
They’d met him socially a few times. In the fifties, I believe. My father thought Peter was a wicked man.’
This was before you and him?’
She looks over her shoulder. Absolutely. A lot people didn’t like him.’
Is there a gleam of satisfaction in her eyes?
Josh notices that there are two decanters containing amber liquid on the drinks trolley. He thought he’d caught a
whiff of strong alcohol when she had greeted him. Whisky maybe? Yet she doesn’t appear to be drunk. Topping up?
She hands him his glass and sits down.
Whisky. Definitely.
It was a lovely cottage,’ she says. It looked so pretty in the snow, and we were warm and happy. Peter suggested
we should get married and live there. He’d be in London for part of the week and I could have babies and look after
lambs and chickens.’
Not very PC.’
Samantha laughs. PC didn’t come into it. It was a romantic dream. Even I knew that...’
As she talks Josh picks up his notebook from the floor and begins to write – Samantha has forbidden the use of a tape
recorder and he isn’t sure she will be happy with him taking notes, though she seems not to notice.
Occasionally he stops her and asks a question. Far from objecting to this, she seems glad to have the opportunity of
explaining things.
Josh realises that the structure of his film will have to change. The cottage is still a good starting point but the opening
will not now be tempestuous and violent but peaceful and pastoral. Of course, though, there will be a sense of unease.
...Then the snow melted,’ she says. Almost overnight. We woke up and realised straight away – you know how the
light in the room is so much sharper when there is snow outside? I realised that we would have to drive home.’
Josh notices how her eyes harden suddenly.
I suppose I knew deep down that it would come to an end, even then – so what you read in that article was right up to
a point. Looking back, it was beastly of me to keep him on the hop, because I was moving up to London permanently
and things were happening, and I was young, and bound to meet someone else, someone my own age etcetera.’
She puts the glass which she has been cupping with both hands onto a side-table. She sighs and smiles at Josh.
Any good?’ she says.
He realises that the interview has come to a close. Reluctantly he shuts his notebook.
He nods enthusiastically. He gets up, following her example, and grins encouragement. Yes that gives me lots to
work on – though obviously I’d love to have another meeting. So many questions. I do realise how harrowing this
must be for you and really appreciate ’
Samantha waves her hand. No, I’m sure I can cope. You can make the necessary arrangements with my secretary.’
Beside his car, they shake hands.
Her face seems much softer now. When she speaks her look is almost coy. I trust you, you know. I think you’ll treat
what I’ve said with respect. In a way I’m glad that the truth is going to come out.’
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eVbyrG6sa2Y/U3coFNCsqfI/AAAAAAAADtw/S47R0BXkqsw/s1600/IMG_20140517_072751.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2ByRUne7mY4/U3cohMuf0QI/AAAAAAAADt4/g721KXXpufg/s1600/ridged+spuds,+bampton+
may+2014+a.jpg
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http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NEXXQB-ckZI/U3cokOb1j-I/AAAAAAAADuA/23iCbKfbY1k/s1600/ridged+spuds,+bampton+
may+2014+b.jpg
4. http://aclaiirblog.wordpress.com/
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red campion, shorts, mite/might!
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(2014-05-18 09:45)
[2]
Saw this gorgeous red campion when cycling this morning near Black Bourton. Actually, I suspect it is a red-white
hybrid.
More course reviewing this morning, though getting up early to work on a day like this is no hardship.
Got the shorts out for the first time since Australia yesterday.
Thanks, Margaret, for pointing out that ’mite’ should have been ’might’ in the first chapter of Icarus!
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soaked, flowers, lunch at gee’s, morris and folk, icarus, chapters 4-6 (2014-05-24 11:24)
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Got soaked cycling.
Took some photos of flowers in our garden, which remain bright despite the gloom.
A busy week with not much time for anything other than work - apart from Thursday afternoon, when cousins came
to Oxford for lunch. A good meal at [7]Gee’s.
This weekend is the Morris dancing one in Bampton. Some student work to comment on and, on Monday, the morning and early afternoon at work in Oxford, but there will still be time to listen to the folk music and watch some
dancing.
And here is the next part of Icarus. For intro and chapters 1-3, see last Saturday’s [8]post.
IV
The maroon MG follows the sweep of gravel and disappears along the drive.
Samantha waves once and closes the door.
She goes to the kitchen and makes herself a coffee. In her office, she looks through the latest faxes then phones her PA
in London.
As they speak, Samantha finds herself going over parts of the meeting with Josh in her mind. When she puts the
phone down, she wonders if she has done the right thing by talking to him. All she knows at this stage is that it feels
right. If only the memories weren’t so painful.
She returns to the drawing-room, puts more logs on the fire, takes a tumbler from a cabinet and pours herself a large
whisky. She flops heavily into her favourite armchair.
For a while the drink is a comfort. The fire quickly takes a hold and she feels warm, secure. She tells herself that the
passing years have put the events of nearly thirty years ago into some sort of perspective. She should savour the good
times – she is lucky to have had those.
–
Peter is driving a brand new Porsche 75 coupe – white, fixed-head.
Without double-declutching he drops to third and the 102 bhp engine takes them from 40 to 80 miles per hour down
the straight past the fuming cattle wagon and on along the deserted road.
He turns to her and smiles.
She is excited by the speed. It seems to express the recklessness of what she is doing perfectly. She jams her left foot
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to the floor as a corner approaches but Peter only touches the brake and takes the car round effortlessly.
Later Peter slows down. It has just started to snow. It is not late in the afternoon, although it is already dark. The
snowflakes flurry into dotted lines in the car’s headlights but it is warm inside and the rushing sound of the hot air
blower and the muffled thud of the wipers are strangely comforting.
He tells her that it’s not far to go now. They will arrive at the cottage in a quarter of an hour or so. Then they will be
safe.
When they draw up and scramble from the car for the back door the snow is almost an inch thick. Inside Peter strikes
a match and lights the oil-lamp that hangs from a beam. In the centre of the flagged floor there is a square table
covered with a red and white checked cloth on which stands a small churn of milk. Opposite the range is a pine
dresser replete with china. Samantha is enchanted. She follows Peter up a short flight of steps into the living-room.
He turns on the electric light. She blinks and looks about her. The scene reminds her of an image of old-fashioned
rural domesticity she has seen in a book. Delighted, she throws her arms around his neck and pulls his face towards
hers. I do love you,’ she exclaims and kisses him.
–
For a few moments, Samantha wonders what use memories serve. Sometimes they can be so vivid it is like stepping
back in time but the times themselves have gone – and in any case, you know what happened next. Yet she cannot
help asking herself what it would be like if Peter was still alive. She has been on her own now for ten years and Peter
died well over double that many years ago but if he had lived would he have sought her out? Would the restlessness
have passed – that fear of being confined that took him away from her? She cannot believe that he could have forgotten her. He would have come back – not then, perhaps, but one day. Maybe now when he was on the threshold of old
age he would have thought, Samantha?’ and the question would grow bigger and bigger until he ached to recapture
those moments when he experienced love.
–
In the inglenook a huge fire blazes, casting irregular leaps of orange light into the room. Samantha takes off her
dressing gown and slips between the smooth cotton sheets. She nestles into the mattress and pulls the covers around
her head. She draws up her knees and waits. She almost wants to scream but suddenly she is aware of his approach.
There is an almost imperceptible shift in the mattress and then he is beside her pressing his warmth against her. His
caresses are gentle. He kisses her neck.
–
The whisky tumbler falls to the floor but does not break.
–
Four days later, they are standing opposite each other in the kitchen. Samantha tries to make Peter look at her with
her smile. He will respond, he must. Why is his face so expressionless? Those eyes are blank, neither kind nor angry. Not
a hint of emotion, nothing. She kisses him but his lips part involuntarily. Her heart is a lump in her chest. She cannot
understand - they were so happy but since the last snowfall he has become indifferent. What about their plans? What
about all the love that she felt and knows he felt too?
Peter smiles at her but only politely as he steps round her. What place does formality have between two people who
have been so intimate?
I want to clear the path so we can get milk,’ he says but before going to the outhouse for his coat and boots, he seems
to relent. He kisses her forehead. Little angel,’ he whispers.
–
Samantha gets out of her armchair and retrieves her glass. She fetches the decanter from the trolley, arranges the
cushions from the sofa in front of the fire and lies down. After a while she will fall asleep and the pain will pass.
V
Peter glances at Samantha. She is pretty in her short tartan skirt and white Arran sweater.
She turns to him. Let’s stay here forever. We could get married and farm sheep.’
He smiles across the room at her.
Her eyes are searching.
He lights a cigarette and tosses the match into the fire.
He feels sorry for her. She’s young and inexperienced – and bored in all probability. If only there’d been a gap in the
weather they’d be back in town by now and everything would be in perspective.
At thirty-five he’s in his prime – he doesn’t want to think of settling down’ until he’s at least fifty. No, more like
seventy, if the booze doesn’t get him first. Speaking of which – he reaches for the whisky bottle.
Samantha is lying on the sofa, turning the pages of a magazine, even when she’s gazing at him. She’s been through it
fifty times already. Doesn’t she ever get bored of looking at those pictures of swim suits?
Time for a walk.
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Just going to the farm for the milk.’ He pauses briefly before adding, Darling.’ He grins. She smiles back. Coming?’
he asks then kicks himself for being so polite.
She sits up, looks out of the window and shakes her head. She pats the cushion next to her. Why don’t you just stay
indoors.’
Peter turns. Won’t be long. Then we can have some tea.’
Outside the light is fading, although on the western horizon the sky remains bright. There will be a hard frost but
he thinks the air feels warmer. Yes, the icicles on the eaves are dripping. He is seized by the desire to skip along the
path he has cleared so painstakingly and vault the garden gate. The thaw! Spring! Who believes the weather people
anyway? They weren’t much good last Friday night – warm front, mists.
Spring. Days getting longer. Girls opening like rose buds. That light in the west is announcing a new beginning.
There’ll be a thaw and after that the whole world will be freed from the snow. The grass will be green and the capital
will be filled with the excited hubbub and bustle of a people waking to a new generation.
VI
Peter flicks through some contact sheets. A cabinet minister, an elderly baroness, two distinguished peers and an
actor. They are good portraits and certainly he is proud of his work, but today that thrill in the air he anticipated in
January really is here, defying him to ignore its message of vitality and sensual pleasure. The brittle light streams
into the flat through the net curtains, silvering where it falls – pale but welcome herald of blue skies and a warm
summer-like day by noon.
Peter slips the photographs into a buff envelope, which he tosses onto the carpet. He picks up the tall mustard-yellow
coffee pot. As he drinks he glances at the front page of his newspaper. He is determined to go through some of the
civilising rituals of his Saturday before giving in to anarchy but before he can drain his cup he has folded the paper
and leaped from the table. He saunters briskly to the bedroom where he selects a dark green knitted tie, puts on his
sports jacket and pockets his keys.
In the street, the city is alive with traffic and happy people. This is not a day for hatred or anger but a day for love.
And everybody feels it. Further down the street there is a screech of brakes. A cab skids to a halt beyond an old lady
who is wheeling a trolley across the road. When the cabby moves off he gives a cheery wave.
Confirmed in his belief that all is right with the world Peter heads for the park and lights his first cigarette of the day,
inhales the smoke deeply and is sure that a cigarette hasn’t tasted this good for an age.
In the park there is still dew on the grass. Peter narrows his eyes so that the bare trees become a blur. In the foreground
the light is strong and bright. It could be late May or early June, although the first girl he passes is in red headscarf
and black and white checked overcoat. Yet that face – it is luminous with spring. Its richness and beauty, the fullness
of the lips, the sparkling chestnut eyes – these are not winter’s, but badges of spring. If he were drunk he would take
her in his arms and tell her how wonderful she is and how they should escape together to some tropical island where
it is always summer. He turns his head and watches her back. The overcoat is knee length. The legs are so smooth
and shapely.
Later he enters a pub and orders a pint of bitter. He sits down near a window. Beyond the frosted glass he can see the
shapes of the passers-by – vague forms and colours. The beer tastes delicious, his cigarette is almost as satisfying as
the first but he is lonely.
On a day like today you need friends to share it with. The day is getting confused. He should have stuck to his
routine, taken it easy, got himself sorted out. Should he call someone? No, people will be out by now and he couldn’t
bear the Russian roulette of ringing phones. In any event, he will see some of them tonight.
He wishes he’d arranged to do something this afternoon – that he didn’t was all his own fault. He wanted to be alone.
Still, he was right about the weather. He could give Samantha a ring.
There’s no reply. He returns to his table with another pint. He is glad she wasn’t there, in a way. He’d given in to a
momentary whim.
Later he will buy a paper and walk on to another pub. He will spend lunch-time smoking and getting quietly drunk,
and watching the world go by. Before tonight.
1.
http:
//3.bp.blogspot.com/-CM0U24Kk6GY/U4BuqDzZMZI/AAAAAAAADuw/fiVop-1LHlY/s1600/clematis,+bampton+may+2014.jpg
2. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k1_rD58jBYY/U4BuyeJRMOI/AAAAAAAADu4/2ptr1bKpW5U/s1600/allium,+bampton+may+2014.
jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6I8tEYf7Fao/U4Bu0SVzNvI/AAAAAAAADvA/Hx5LeH_6dYI/s1600/some+sort+of+carrot+
family+plant,+bampton+may+2014.jpg
4. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s1-G2KvZC-M/U4Bu1JoioyI/AAAAAAAADvE/8g-cT94eXdA/s1600/shrub,+bampton+may+2014.
jpg
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5.
http:
//4.bp.blogspot.com/-8htX4rH2FSA/U4Bu8BADqKI/AAAAAAAADvQ/O8eG-qcwbqY/s1600/weigela,+bampton+may+2014.jpg
6. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SXfYoplxv2I/U4Bu8rSKenI/AAAAAAAADvU/sRmc4ugrp44/s1600/yellow+flag,+bampton+may+
2014.jpg
7. http://www.gees-restaurant.co.uk/
8. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ridging-spuds-poetry-of-tractor-driving.html
parks and cherwell, morris dancing, stanford george harrington photos online, icarus, chapters
7-8 (2014-05-31 09:45)
[1]
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[2]
Lovely walk to the east of North Oxford this morning instead of my customary west side one. (Working at the Taylor
today.)
Every time I stroll through the Parks along the Cherwell, it amazes me that they are in the middle of the city - see
photos above.
And I’ve been walking them for a long while. As an undergraduate in my first year at Keble, they were where I burnt
round, mind spinning, desperately trying to make sense of Joyce and Beckett - amongst others.
Spent the first half of this week’s bank holiday working in Oxford before heading home to Bampton and the Morris
dancing. The dancers kept going despite the rain and it turned out to be one of the most memorable years. Lots
of people out and a great atmosphere. A mini beer festival at the Horseshoe too and roast pork rolls outside the
butcher’s, [3]Patrick Strainge.
This morning, I received the link to an amazing collection of photographs of Argentina and Bolivia from 1921-26 that
Stanford have just put online: [4]George Harrington photograph albums and papers.
And now, here is the final extract from my novella, a work in progress, provisionally entitled Icarus. The [5]first extract
was posted the Saturday before last and the [6]second a week ago. You can find a brief summary of what the novella
is about in the introduction to the first extract, together with an explanation of why surnames are represented by their
initial letters only on this blog.
VII
Pete, mate!’
Peter turns. A silver flash explodes in his face.
Lovely. A bit more cheerful, though. Try and look natural.’
Peter smiles. There is another flash.
Rich lets his camera dangle from his neck and puts out his hand. Good to see you, mate.’
Peter eyes Rich up and down. Not even the pretence of an evening suit – lightweight leather jacket, white shirt open
at the collar, an ineffectual boot-lace tie.
Rich pinches the sleeve of his jacket. The gear of the official photographer – comfy and practical, lots of zip-pockets.’
All mod cons.’
Anyway, dress suits are on the way out. You’ll come across some right looking geezers later on. Here, still on the
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Contax and chest-of-drawers Gandolfi?’
Peter nods politely.
You ought to splash out on one of these old son. You’ll cut the mustard with the big boys, not to mention the modules
– after the session.’ Rich winks at him.
Peter glances at the Canon 7. Yes,’ he says, I’ve read about them, but really they don’t have much that the Contax
hasn’t got.’
Come off it. This’s got a light meter coupled to the shutter speed for starters. Look at the film advance – it speeds up
the process. Designed to fit your hand. You just forget about the camera and concentrate on the subject. Right?’
Peter smiles. We’ll have to agree to differ.’
What?’ says Rich and rolls his eyes heavenwards.
Speed’s all very well, but photography’s an art form, practiced by professionals. It’s the person that matt ’
Rich turns and focuses on a young actress who poses, smiling confidently at the camera, then cries, Richy, darling,
come and meet Ronny, he’s just dying to meet you.’
Good to see you, mate,’ Rich calls to Peter. Maybe catch you later.’
That wink again. That man. For years I struggled to be accepted as a society portrait photographer – to be considered worthy of
this kind of function. Now anybody with a cheeky smile and a box brownie is in on the act.
Peter is beginning to feel like an anachronism. His attention to detail is still appreciated, though, surely?
He searches for a friendly face. The marble-columned hall is full of young people he doesn’t recognise. He is afraid
to launch himself into conversation with strangers tonight. It’s sometimes like that, he tells himself. There’s only one
thing for it – he must fortify himself with whisky.
–
As he enters the drawing-room he is hailed by his host’s father the Earl of C. Long, wolfish face, grey hair oiled back,
green eyes. The earl strides towards him.
Good of you to come, Peter. I’m glad I’ve caught you.’
Oh?’
But first-off – you haven’t got a drink in your hand.’
Peter smiles warmly despite his flagging confidence. Even so, as he follows the earl, he is distracted by unwelcome
thoughts.
A year ago everything that the earl represented – the people, the houses – and the very fact that he moved in this
circle, was a whirling, inspirational joy. In moments of reverie he imagined he was emulating artists from previous
centuries. He could have been Sir Joshua Reynolds calling on the Parkers at Saltram. Last spring such dreams were
possible. Now, he cannot allow himself to have them. He is getting old. Perhaps Samantha was right, after all. To
retire to the country, to farm sheep, to marry and raise a family... He would never see the likes of the Earl of C again,
perhaps, but he might have more chance of happiness.
–
The earl hands him a large whisky.
Thanks. Just what I could do with.’
Your very good health.’
Cheers.’
Now, I want to speak to you about something. Let’s go to the long gallery – there are one or two things I wish to
show you.’
How intriguing.’
I’ll explain all.’
As they cross the room, the earl looks about him. Party seems a bit flat, don’t you think?’
A bit.’
Don’t know what’s the matter with everyone. Perfect evening for it.’ He touches Peter’s arm. Better off with the
ancestors.’
He opens a door in the panelling and they slip away from the guests. At the top of the plain winding stair they reach
a narrow landing with two doors leading off. They take the left hand one and emerge into the gallery. Peter turns and
for a few moments cannot see the door in the pattern of the green wallpaper.
Good, isn’t it?’ says the earl. God knows why they wanted these secret stairs – probably for getting rid of the mistress!’ He nudges Peter with his elbow.
They begin to walk slowly down the long empty space in between the rows of paintings.
The point is,’ says the earl, I want to commission you to do a couple of portraits of Gwen and me.’
Peter smiles. Perhaps there is something of the fantasy remaining. He turns to his patron and nods. In his mind he
takes off his tricorn hat and bows with a flourish.
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I don’t know what to say.’
Nonsense. As you know, I’ve admired your work for some time. It’s painterly – completely different to the new lot.
Horses for courses, though.’
Indeed.’
What I want is something old-fashioned and permanent. You see this fellow here.’
Peter reads from the brass plate, Sir Richard Peacock.’
He married into the family in the eighteenth century. I like the way he looks, against this rather striking romantic
background. What I have in mind is a pair of portraits in costume. I want them for this gallery. They’ll call me a
reactionary but modern photographs just wouldn’t look right.’
No they wouldn’t.’
The earl lays his hand on Peter’s shoulder. Think you can do it?’
As they discuss the project further, Peter is delighted. This is what he has been getting at all along. He has studied the
great masters of portraiture – Reynolds, Lawrence, Kneller, Zoffany – and it is their sense of grandeur and style that
he has tried to emulate. But in modern dress there isn’t scope to express such a vision. He is sure this commission
will lead to a whole series of portraits that will divert fashion away from its temporary course.
Suddenly there are voices and the large white and gilt doors at the far end are flung open. Harry, the earl’s son, and
Cecil P, a treasury minister, stride through.
At first they do not seem to realise anyone else is there but after a few moments Harry stops talking, looks up, and
immediately bows his head.
Father. Peter.’
Evening, Harry,’ says the earl. He looks towards Cecil. Mr P.’
My lord.’ Cecil nods, smiling broadly. As ever, his wide eyes appear hooded when he blinks. His dinner suit is a size
too big for him but can’t disguise what a compact, athletically dynamic man he is. Not for the first time, Peter notices
how his somewhat babyish face becomes egg-like at the crown.
As the men advance Peter hears the earl make a strange, Huh,’ sound before asking, And what have you two been
plotting? The overthrow of the Prime Minister?’
Not the Prime Minister but we think it’s time the Chancellor went,’ says Harry.
Good God, the man’s only been in the job five minutes. What’s wrong with him?’
Trying to engineer a boom, importing massive quantities of raw materials, increasing the balance of payments deficit,
drawing on reserves and borrowing from the IMF. That do you?’
And what is friend P going to do about it when he’s in Number Eleven?’
Unusually, Cecil hesitates before replying.
Don’t be shy, Cecil,’ says Harry. We’re all friends here.’ He turns to Peter and smiles.
Absolutely,’ says Peter. Is he imagining it or was that smile intended to call his loyalty into question? He feels as if
his skin is tightening and his body is shrinking inside his clothes.
It’s really quite simple,’ says Cecil.
It always is,’ says the earl.
Under the Chancellor’s management, the economy is losing its equilibrium. To avoid disaster, he has two options –
either devalue or reign back till there’s a balance of payments surplus that’ll cover the already substantial deficit.’
All clever stuff, I’m sure,’ says the earl. But if it were that simple surely he’d already be doing what you’ve just said?
Dammit, the man’s not a fool!’
Well ’
Strikes me that the best thing for party and country is continuity – there’s been too much chopping and changing
recently. Better for everybody if the Treasury stood firm behind the Chancellor like loyal employees!’
With all respect, father, loyalty and continuity are fine when we’re seen as the natural party of government.’
Poppycock!’
Nowadays we have to use subversion and commando tactics. It’s a messy business.’
Before the earl can reply, there is the sound of excited voices moving up the main staircase, like a mob. A file of
chanting men and women surges into the room. Yippee, yippee, ya,ya. Yippee, yippee, ya,ya. Ya-ya, yaa, yaa. Ya-ya,
yaa, yaa.’
What the devil?’ shouts the earl, but his voice is drowned by the revellers who weave their tipsy, winding and oxbowing course through the long gallery, before disappearing unconcernedly the way they came. Before they finally
vanish a lone figure disengages itself from column’s tail.
A tall, liquid female figure in long purple and pea-green batik dress, flowing towards them, arms raised above her
head in a diamond. Rich dark brown eyes and swishing hair, pale peach skin and palest pink lips. Swaying rhythmically before them, each in turn, spellbinding with her movements and her stare until, with a lingering glance at Peter,
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she turns and skips from the room.
The earl is the first to speak. Who in heaven’s name was that? Harry, you have some peculiar friends.’
The younger men look at the earl in quiet amazement as if his words are the ravings of a lunatic.
With a shake of his head he strides out of the room, saying, I’m off to bed.’
Cecil turns to Peter and grins lasciviously. Yes,’ he chortles, who in heaven’s name was that?’
VIII
It is a colourless April day. Peter parks his sports car in front of a terrace of tall Victorian houses, climbs the steps of
the end one and rings the bell.
The door opens almost immediately and before him stands the girl who danced in the long gallery. Her hair is shorter
now and curls forward into blunt points either side of her face. She wears an orange cotton minidress. Her feet are
bare.
Yes?’ Her voice is unexpectedly deep and a little husky. She looks at him and blinks.
R, Peter R. The photographer.’
The girl’s look is blank.
You are Cordelia D?’ He is bewitched by her beauty, by her innocence. She is like a child. He remembers being
nudged by Cecil. Gutttersnipe!
Of course,’ the girl says. Suddenly she seems to remember something. Instead of Rich.’
He’s ill.’
Poor Richy.’
On the mend.’
You’d better come in. Do you have ?’ She pauses, wide-eyed. A camera?’
In the car. But I thought I’d introduce myself first. Have a look round – see where we can do the shoot.’
I suppose you know what you’re doing.’
I ought to be offended.’
She ignores the comment. There’s the drawing-room. Or maybe you’d prefer outside. There’s a garden – though to
be quite honest, I don’t know what it’s like. I simply haven’t seen it for ages.’
Peter closes the door and follows.
1. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u80VZc1VYLc/U4mSBsQ3rJI/AAAAAAAADvw/2CwvW4qLdGA/s1600/parks+and+river+cherwell,
+towards+marston,+oxford+may+2014+a.jpg
2. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m-Qmi4XGlJQ/U4mSDuXofnI/AAAAAAAADv4/lgPUxXdybqQ/s1600/parks+and+river+cherwell,
+towards+marston,+oxford+may+2014+b.jpg
3. http://www.downtonabbeyvillage.com/business-directory/food-drink?pid=76&sid=140:patrick-strainge-butchers
4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanford_archives/sets/72157644968412993
5. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ridging-spuds-poetry-of-tractor-driving.html
6. http://justthoughtsnstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/soaked-flowers-lunch-at-gees-morris-and.html
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5.6
June
walking from wolvercote, stone, bridge, teaching (2014-06-07 15:08)
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[2]
Have taken to getting off the bus at the top of the Woodstock Road, if I have time in hand, walking to Wolvercote and
joining the Oxford canal by the green opposite the Plough.
For the first ten minutes of the walk to the city, it’s as if you are in the countryside, with meadows and small copses
and reed beds off to the right. There are also quite a number of narrowboats moored up. These have seen better days
compared to the ones nearer the town but they are often brightly painted.
I came across the stone, above, just past Wolvercote - at first I thought it was a milestone or something that was used
for tying up barges but now suspect it must have had some sort of plate screwed to it. I had imagined that the holes
went right through the stone but they are only a centimetre or so deep, so perhaps they were screw fixings.
Love the raised bridge further along the canal below St Edward’s school.
Did [3]Prince2 project management methodology training yesterday - described as ’documented common sense’ by
the trainer. A lot to take in but potentially very useful for work.
Teaching in Oxford this morning and doing a Skype tutorial from home later.
1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UW4j998knBg/U5LEaqxwZMI/AAAAAAAADwM/eoilTsoKFQ8/s1600/stone,+oxford+canal+near+
wolvercote+june+2014.jpg
2.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZHPmGIaxthI/U5LEc7ADAvI/AAAAAAAADwU/Y6olB5pPHvo/s1600/raised+bridge,+oxford+
canal,+near+st+edward%27s+school+june+2014.jpg
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRINCE2
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stowe, memories, reclaiming, sarte, nausea (2014-06-15 22:33)
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[3]
Returned to my old school, Stowe, yesterday for the first time in sixteen years to take part in a careers event.
I enjoyed going back and meeting other old Stoics and the sixth formers.
I was amazed by how the place had changed. All the temples and garden buildings are so well looked after - thanks
to the National Trust. The school itself is extremely smart compared to when I was there in the 1970s. I wonder if my
dad noticed similar changes when I started - he had been at the school in the last years of the Second World War when
there couldn’t have been much money for the buildings’ and grounds’ upkeep.
What remained strikingly the same yesterday was the beauty of the school’s location in the gentle Buckinghamshire
countryside. When I was a schoolboy one of my greatest pleasures was walking along the nearby lanes and through
the fields. Not that my mind was quiet at such times. Mostly it was fizzing with ideas and attempts to puzzle through
my experiences and the things I was learning. Not least TS Eliot’s The Waste Land. Though the effects of David Bowie’s
music and how it made me feel and the thoughts it provoked were also pretty major.
Yesterday, it was interesting to be asked what Stowe gave me that has helped me in later life. As I explained, Stowe
was something of a refuge from upsets at home. As a result of those upsets and how they preoccupied me, I wasn’t
able to concentrate much on my academic studies, although I could do practical things. My chief interest was working behind the stage at the Roxburgh Hall, the school’s theatre. I rose to become the school stage manger and my
biggest achievement was designing and building the set for the [4]Congreve Club production of Ibsen’s An Enemy of
the People. By cunning use of a picture rail that extended outwards, three-quarter-height flats could be slotted over
the main ones during the interval, so that a large drawing-room, with a dining area at the back, was transformed into
a newspaper office.
And being stage manager transformed my life. It gave responsibility and helped me to achieve things. I had about 20
people working with me and I had a budget to manage. I could also work through the night in the theatre without
anyone being bothered about it. I presume the teachers turned a blind eye. Good for them because the work I did
and how I managed my time made me feel that I was in charge of my life, that I was living like an adult rather than a
schoolboy, and gave me the chance to succeed at the one thing through which I could express myself. Did my studies
suffer? No more than they would’ve done otherwise, I don’t think. And during the two terms after the play was
performed, I began to learn about academic subjects in ways which were new and exciting precisely because I was
feeling confident for the first time in my life after the success of the set and getting the only colour tie I received during
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my school career (looped over and over so there was just this enormous knot and a tiny stub of tie tucked into my
tank top!).
I loved my time at Stowe. Though often the unhappy episodes from childhood overshadowed my return visits as
an adult somehow. Yesterday those memories had no power. I suppose because all the background sadnesses have
eventually played themselves out with the events of four years ago - how the mess that lay behind the upsets (which
I didn’t know about) took so long to come to a head! Yesterday, I felt relaxed and happy and reclaimed my schoolboy
life as my own, unencumbered by the problems of others.
Meeting the students and hearing about their interests and plans for the future was a pleasure. Are sixth formers
really that much more mature and switched on than we were? They did seem so.
At work in Oxford, with the end of the financial year approaching, things are busy. There are lots of meetings about
the evolving library landscape and future projects too.
I’ve also been reading Satre’s [5]Nausea for the first time, using the excellent PlayEpub app on my BlackBerry.
To begin with, the book grates - the author doesn’t exactly encourage you to like his central character, who comes
across as a distinctly weird and at times creepy person. What’s the infantile desire to pick up soiled bits of paper
and put them to his mouth all about? Why does the fact that one day he can’t let himself pick up a piece of paper
upset him so? Perhaps it’s an acknowledgement of his growing up. And indeed he does become a more likeable
and fascinating companion as the book develops. I loved the section about a typical 1930s provincial Sunday with
everyone promenading in their finest clothes and impressing each other, which describes the day in great detail from
morning till the lyrically beautiful setting of the sun.
The meditations on the narrator’s relationship with the world (is it changed or is he?), the way we perceive the past
(we want to relive it in the fresh, unknowing way it was the first time, yet the curse of hindsight ensures we can
never do so), the fallibility of so-called experience (often just a means for the misuse of power) - all these subjects are
intriguingly explored. The narration proves utterly compelling also.
I look forward to reading more this coming week. Reading the novel also reminds me of the sources of introspection
and concern with ideas in my own work - for better or for worse. Of childhood, teenage and early-twenties fascinations with Balzac, Maupassant, Flaubert, Zola, Camus - and yes, Satre and Robbe-Grillet.
Balzac in particular pre-dated Stowe. But without Stowe and my unacademic career there paradoxically my academic
life would never have developed, I can’t help thinking. It gave me confidence to be myself in a time of need.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zAKxcQuTapk/U52s9PA-dkI/AAAAAAAADxw/FH3QwiMOnWM/s1600/wild+flowers+by+oxford+
water,+stowe+june+2014.jpg
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http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WZwK1cnf0RI/U52tEgjURYI/AAAAAAAADx4/fvkSsfSAnhU/s1600/oxford+bridge,+stowe+
june+2014.jpg
3.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gufBHnYwAlE/U52tGBtDkuI/AAAAAAAADyA/rLkKZ4FOXVM/s1600/corinthian+arch,+stowe+
june+2014.jpg
4. http://www.stowe.co.uk/life-at-stowe/activities-and-societies/congreve-society
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausea_(novel)
Rupert Neil Bumfrey (2014-06-16 07:35:03)
Proof that we experience unique yet similar emotions through our time on this planet :-)
Margaret Keeping (2014-06-17 13:32:24)
Thank you for your Stowe reflections, Frank, and for the whole post which links the material very interestingly and makes that
crucial point that no experience is wasted in our lives, especially for a writer.
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tree peony, aclaiir agm and seminar, cambridge university library, open access monograph publishing, invisible on ora, allotment (2014-06-21 13:01)
[1]
The tree peony is in flower again - always a highpoint of the year. Not so many flowers this time, though, after the
saturated winter, which the plant didn’t seem to like. The stems are frailer too.
Went to the ACLAIIR [2]AGM and seminar at Cambridge University Library on Tuesday (see also one or two recent
updates and pictures on [3]Twitter). I don’t know Cambridge well at all and had never visited the library before, so
there was a certain sense of adventure. This was accentuated by the epic bus journey, which took four hours...each
way! Lots of work to do while travelling but even so I did feel I had been to a far-flung place when I got home. The
Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire countryside in the gradually fading evening lights was beautiful,
though. The landscapes are so soft at this time of year with their puffs of trees and copses and the pliant fur of the
grasses and crops.
The theme of the seminar - and of another set of presentations in Oxford the following day - was Open Access (OA)
monograph publishing. This relatively new development in scholarly communications and publishing is a hot topic
in academic circles and you can find out more by reading this [4]overview written by Peter Suber, Director of the
Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication, and by visiting the Oxford [5]OA website.
Other sites that might be of interest are those of [6]OAPEN-UK, which gives details of a research project into scholarly monograph publishing and [7]Open Book Publishers, a sophisticated recent independent OA [8]publisher. There
were speakers at the ACLAIIR event representing both these initiatives.
Open Book’s slogan ’Knowledge is for sharing’ sums up what OA is all about. The company’s [9]About page adds
more detail about both it and the thinking that’s motivating such ventures:
’Open Book Publishers was founded in 2008 by a small group of academics at the University of Cambridge. Since
then, we have grown into an international network of scholars who believe that it is time for academic publishing to
become fairer, faster and more accessible...’
The Cambridge event was rounded off by a trip by ACLAIIR members, seminar delegates and guest speakers to
[10]All Bar One for a glass or two of wine.
At the Oxford event I particularly enjoyed the talk given by Professor Geoffrey Crossick, who is writing a report for
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the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) on [11]OA monograph publishing. I was especially interested in some of his passing comments about such things as the way new publishing practices might affect written
forms. An example of this in creative writing might be a move away from novels to novellas as more people read
fiction online.
Interesting questions are raised by OA, such as how anyone is going to make money in an OA publishing environment and whether making books simultaneously available as Open Access online and in print has any impact on
print sales.
I first became intrigued by the possibilities of OA a couple of years back and took the decision to make an [12]uncut
version of my second novel Invisible available via ORA, the Oxford University Research Archive (novels, musical
scores etc count as part of the University’s research output). I felt that by making an alternative Open Access version
of the novel available, I was extending the readership of the work without unduly compromising print and ’conventional’ ebook sales. The ORA version of the novel is easily accessed via the Oxford University digital library catalogue,
[13]SOLO.
Away to the allotment in a minute. Beautiful, beautiful weather - sunny but with such clear air.
1. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ryJ1ZZvqv80/U6VffCZqlVI/AAAAAAAADyY/wL8c8aWp3l8/s1600/tree+peony,+bampton+june+
2014.jpg
2.
http://aclaiir.org.uk/2014/05/08/aclaiir-agm-seminar-2014-open-access-the-future-of-academic-publication/
3. https://twitter.com/frankegerton
4. http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm
5. http://openaccess.ox.ac.uk/
6. http://oapen-uk.jiscebooks.org/
7. http://www.openbookpublishers.com/
8. https://www.blogger.com/
9. http://www.openbookpublishers.com/section/14/1/about
10. https://www.blogger.com/
11. http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/rsrch/rinfrastruct/oa/monographs/
12. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:07e7a44e-fe67-48d6-8280-ae09de93cd4a
13.
http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=1&fromLogin=true&dstmp=
1403352020731&vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true
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wolvercote, towpath, scything, haystacks, marking, guided retreat (2014-06-28 11:20)
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As mentioned the other week, I’ve taken to walking to the city centre from Wolvercote when I have enough time.
It’s great crossing the green in front of the Plough and joining the towpath. The first fifteen minutes are like being in
the countryside. Then there are the narrowboats and, intriguingly, an oil painting with a slash in it hanging on a brick
service point - see tweet of [4]23rd June.
The other week, I came across a man scything the grass on Wolvercote Green and the next day there were low domed
haystacks. These disappeared when the hay was dry (where did he take it, what’s he using it for?) but this week there
were more in a little meadow further along the towpath - see photos above.
First there were some low stacks then these went, although the frames and a poll used to support them remained.
Yesterday, there were three more stacks.
They’re terrific!
In the meantime, there was a feature on Radio 4 about the popularity of scything. I can’t find that programme but
here’s an [5]article on the subject in the Telegraph from last year. There’s even the [6]Scythe Association of Britain and
Ireland.
This weekend and next week there’s portfolio marking and preparing for the MSt Guided Retreat.
1.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BtagdExywyk/U65noICQRuI/AAAAAAAADyo/IbKMo_Q2bXs/s1600/hay+stacks,+wolvercote+
june+2014+a.jpg
2.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n1S2iosyXS8/U65npB9jtwI/AAAAAAAADyw/jY83vzmleyg/s1600/hay+stack+pole+&+frame,
+wolvercote+june+2014.jpg
3.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xTIzps0wIa4/U65nqfHifvI/AAAAAAAADy4/runvhRjYcsc/s1600/hay+stacks,+wolvercote+
june+2014+b.jpg
4. https://twitter.com/frankegerton/status/480997354028666880
5. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningequipment/10195084/Scything-makes-a-comeback.html
6. http://scytheassociation.org/
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July
heavy rain, tour de bampton-tour de yorkshire, guided retreat, sunny week (2014-07-05 09:39)
[1]
It was raining heavily at 5 this morning and it only began to ease off when I was about half-way round my cycling
circuit (mercifully somewhat flatter than the Yorkshire Dales stage of the Tour de France with its Buttertubs Pass and
whatnot).
Speaking of the Tour, there was an excellent episode of Radio 4’s Open Country ([2]Tour de Yorkshire) this morning
about the history of the landscapes that the cyclists will be bombing through, including the folklore behind the Buttertubs name.)
Moved at a gentler pace this morning, even taking time out to photograph the meadow cranesbill flower above.
Just a few pages more to read for the MSt Guided Retreat that starts tomorrow before returning to undergraduate
portfolio marking for the rest of today.
Luckily, given the workload, I won’t have to head for the allotment to do the watering. Though it has been a treat to
be out there for half-an-hour in the late evening all this sunny week, watering, weeding and tidying.
1.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bP0Hmbl5h1k/U7esfHDqVDI/AAAAAAAADzc/A9iDdxwrG_w/s1600/meadow+cranesbill,
+calcroft+lane+july+2014+a.jpg
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b048034c
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compasses, beckford, howard’s, more marking, digital humanities summer school (2014-07-12 18:51)
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[3]
Had some great days staying at the [4]Compasses, Lower Chicksgrove, Wiltshire.
Long walks to the [5]Beckford Arms and [6]Howard’s House Hotel for lunch.
More marking earlier, though returning to holiday mode now.
Next week it’s the [7]Digital Humanities Summer School at Wolfson College, Oxford - all week. Lots to find out about.
Lots of notes to be taken. Report for Humanities Libraries to be written at the end of it.
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-adXDwaYzRe4/U8F0Xg_RquI/AAAAAAAADzs/j9uti2J27Qs/s1600/wild+carrott+and+fly,
+near+tisbury+july+2014.jpg
2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ypRVC4q94mE/U8F0btMYf9I/AAAAAAAADz8/LV9Vh0PoAro/s1600/j+in+wiltshire,+july+2014.
jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YptFh1el4v4/U8F0ZvDpONI/AAAAAAAADz0/Xhg7wD8TOlI/s1600/compasses,+lower+
chicksgrove+july+2014.jpg
4. http://www.thecompassesinn.com/
5. http://www.beckfordarms.com/
6. http://www.howardshousehotel.co.uk/
7. http://digital.humanities.ox.ac.uk/dhoxss
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dhoxss, whizzing ideas, relaxing, water lily, water flask, old ways (2014-07-20 15:29)
[1]
Had a great week at the [2]Digital Humanities Summer School at Wolfson College Oxford.
Over 70 sides of handwritten notes taken, some of which I’ll use for my report but most of which I’ll be going through
in order to follow up ideas and think through what was talked about. Such fascinating talks and workshops.
I’ll blog about some of the things I learnt in due course.
This weekend has been about doing some preparation for summer teaching but has mostly been about relaxing and
letting the whizzing thoughts post-summer school settle.
Took the photo of a water lily in our pond earlier - look at the flies in the centre.
Up on the allotment this morning it seemed slightly surreal to be sipping water from a Canadian [3]Digital Humanities
Summer Institute water flask (one of the giveaways at the Oxford summer school), a pair of buzzards circling above.
But then, as was emphasised by a number of speakers at the summer school, the digital humanities remain all about
the study of what it means to be human and aren’t divorced from the old ways.
1. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5nwZqEukCR4/U8vOgjDSKEI/AAAAAAAAD0Q/p1YjeDCPveI/s1600/water+lily,+bampton+july+
2014.jpg
2. http://digital.humanities.ox.ac.uk/dhoxss
3. http://www.dhsi.org/
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dog-walking, thames valley, nft, lff, wonderful times, polanski at the rac, repulsion, spider
(2014-07-26 18:03)
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Dog-walking this morning rather than cycling.
Saw the scabious above as I set off down the gentle slope into the valley from the village. Just before I saw it, I had
walked up the rise from the old ford by Primrose Cottages and suddenly the land had opened up, the Thames Valley
stretching ahead at least two miles to the escarpment below the Berkshire Downs.
In the valley the corn is ripening. Such a joyous time of year.
Spent some of today continuing the preparations for the Creative Writing Summer School at Exeter College. Bringing
the course materials up-to-date and adding a bit about Digital Humanities and creative writing. Would you expect
anything else, after DHOxSS last week (although I’m still too close to that to make full sense of everything!)?
Last night, watched Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, starring Catherine Deneuve. The last time I saw that film must
have been the late 1970s. And before that I’d read the screenplay. I can’t remember where I saw the film last but it
could well have been the National Film Theatre.
I was at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester then and drove the M4 regularly to screenings at the NFT and, in
autumn, at the London Film Festival...
...I remember attending the premier of the restored print of Abel Gance’s Napoléon at Leicester Square and the premier
of Cream in My Coffee - sitting next to its director, Gavin Millar, in the bar at the NFT afterwards; so exciting. But then
there were gems like Hitchcock’s Number Seventeen and Grierson’s Man of Aran in the retrospective seasons. I loved
choosing the films I was going to see at the festival from the programme, sending off my application and planning my
campaign - a Hungarian film at the NFT, then a frantic tube ride to Leicester Square for the latest Truffaut. Wonderful
times. The autumn sunshine on the motorway on the way up. The darkness on the way back...
...It was all in name of narrative - of understanding the different ways people tell stories. The story of my life, the
study of this...
...I remember seeing Polanski’s The Tenant at the NFT and then getting it for the Agricultural College film club - I
was the projectionist and could occasionally choose the films. Well, what a film that was - Polanski starring himself,
putting on make up and women’s clothing and throwing himself of a balcony. The audience was surprisingly quiet
but not irreverent that night. I was heartened and surprised...
Seeing Repulsion last night was fun, actually. A disturbing film - more so now, I think - but wonderful in terms of its
boldness; its direction and its performances. So fascinating too in terms of its images of London in the early 1960s!
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Meanwhile, the heatwave continues. (Btw, look for the spider in the second-from-top photo above.)
1.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JIHmoVjKUg4/U9N9aoq8a1I/AAAAAAAAD0g/DD1h0HBjdJQ/s1600/scabious,+bampton+july+
2014.jpg
2.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HkgVDHIC15U/U9N9lKgcvrI/AAAAAAAAD0o/dKgJe-yiy84/s1600/spider,+web+and+clover,
+bampton+july+2014.jpg
3.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iY2HP6jEumU/U9N9tK7dLoI/AAAAAAAAD04/0zV_Zvd02sY/s1600/web,+bampton+july+2014.
jpg
4.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PqqQ-tDx8LE/U9N9pQRCztI/AAAAAAAAD0w/zmg5zVmaZoo/s1600/ear+of+barley,+bampton+
july+2014.jpg
5.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aCo-CuM4zY0/U9N90ncG5yI/AAAAAAAAD1I/8qr_H8ij8A4/s1600/ears+of+barley,+bampton+
july+2014.jpg
6.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KOkdT_4s4z8/U9N90BtFKjI/AAAAAAAAD1A/yxlUYb8beKQ/s1600/barley+and+greater+
burdock,+bampton+july+2014.jpg
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Edited: August 2, 2014