tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46013740353769181212024-03-13T15:14:27.357+00:00All Books SavvyTo buy or not to buy, that is the question.Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-15426474772391928992014-08-02T20:04:00.005+01:002020-10-29T18:21:26.283+00:00The Little Prince<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The Little Prince hasn't grown up but has grown big over the years; huge actually, since its first double publication (in French and English) in 1943 in New York. There are only few other books that have been translated into over 200 languages. Some of these languages have otherwise only ever seen the bible translated into them before. This book has been and still is a huge success. What makes it so special?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxJ4NPMDLxi71X86M3qXsOvUlHpDP7i7VyP29_9MW6NB-qsTA2ztnvKbyhfcHV-XffbzcsID55WhZpTNT0DeWSZ6hn7-g6D5p1P1KTxM2r9fbsC6GP5v0hMSXCAQjSQvdSNy4I5nkFsp7a/s1600/the-little-prince-antoine-de-saint-exupery-book-new-york.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxJ4NPMDLxi71X86M3qXsOvUlHpDP7i7VyP29_9MW6NB-qsTA2ztnvKbyhfcHV-XffbzcsID55WhZpTNT0DeWSZ6hn7-g6D5p1P1KTxM2r9fbsC6GP5v0hMSXCAQjSQvdSNy4I5nkFsp7a/s1600/the-little-prince-antoine-de-saint-exupery-book-new-york.gif" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Lovers ask no questions it is said, and readers are book lovers. Nonetheless: What keeps this little book alive over generations? What makes it so precious? Maybe it is the moment of first reading it. The easy language resonates with readers long after they laid down the book.<br /><br />One of the charms of the book lies in the combination of text and pictures both coming from the hand of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_de_Saint-Exup%C3%A9ry" target="_blank">Antoine de Saint-Exupéry</a>. And while traditional publishing would ask for the pictures to accompany the text, the author has turned this credo upside down. The text explains the pictures much more than the other way round. This makes the book so memorable for children, and as grown-ups they carry their personal picture of the Little Prince with them indelibly. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s text never gives a description of the prince and of pretty little else, either. With many descriptive stimuli missing, readers are left to their own devices to fill the gaps with their own imagination. This makes the reading of the book an intensely personal matter and helps readers to make the story their very own. <br /><br />Maybe the element of a romantic and dramatic reality in the author’s live behind and on top of the story adds additional layers of depth far deeper than the literary genius. While the French Academy might object to the simplistic language used, it helps readers to understand the story and its content across borders, cultures, and personal age. And the language is a voluntary expression of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s vision of valuing lived experience over logically assimilated knowledge.<br /><br />All the best stories are the ones that tell of travel adventures and that explain transformation and metamorphosis. Cult books are made of this, like the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings" target="_blank">Lord of the Rings</a>. And adolescent readers are themselves in transition, in metamorphosis. In that respect, the Little Prince relates directly to what they are going through and resonates with their own quest of defining the world around them and making sense of it.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Besides the simple language, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry uses all the known descriptions and scenes from fairy-tale and myth. He has given this story about a rite of passage an insistent, repetitive language with well-known metaphors to make it more memorable. Talking to animals, going to places unimaginably far away, and entering the Otherworld are used free of cultural bias. This makes the book universally understandable and allows readers from any cultural background to relate to it.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The story of the rose can be seen in relation to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s wife <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consuelo_de_Saint_Exup%C3%A9ry" target="_blank">Consuelo Suncin de Sandoval</a>. She published with The Tale Of The Rose a psychological essay over love gone wrong. The figures in the Little Prince on the other hand are free of psychological trappings which makes the story even more childlike and understandable. <br /><br />The charm of the book becomes inescapable once you enter its hybrid time scheme. As the dedication states: To Leon Werth when he was a small boy. As opposed to ‘once upon a time’ the story becomes more immediate and relevant with the call to the child within. What once was possible for the child suddenly comes into the grasp of the adult. What once was relevant regains its place in an adult world often out of balance with personal needs. At such moments, bringing back the Little Prince makes a lot of sense. There are worse things than being reminded that everything is still possible.<br /><br />And with the second dedication ‘to the small child that this grown-up once was’, we are able to enter the poetic landscape and childlike emotion that keep the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince" target="_blank">Little Prince</a> alive in all readers. ‘It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.’<br /><br />Further reading:</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/antoine-de-saint-exupery-and-lost-prince.html" target="_blank">Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and the Lost Prince</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/princes-not-all-that-glitters.html">Princes: Not All That Glitters</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/when-one-prince-is-not-enough-andorra.html">When One Prince Is Not Enough</a></span></span><br /></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-66947337315352860322014-03-17T20:21:00.004+00:002020-10-29T19:04:24.387+00:00Titanic Survivor: The Memoirs of Violet Jessop, Stewardess<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The word hero or heroine is easily used these days. There are a few people who actually earned it. Violet Jessop was a heroine; she didn't do any great deeds; she didn't show bravery on the battle field; she just got on with her life. And that life was quite astonishing even if she herself didn't think much about it. We are lucky she was induced to write down her memoirs for us to enjoy and marvel at.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Jessop" target="_blank">Violet Jessop</a> was born in 1887. She was one of six children in an Irish family living in Argentina. While still in Argentina, she contracted and survived tuberculosis. Her mother moved the family to England after the death of her husband. There, Violet Jessop's mother started working as a stewardess on a ship. To be able to do this, she had to place her four sons in an orphanage and her two daughters in a convent school.</span><br /> </span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>As her mother’s health started to fail rendering her unable to work any further, Violet Jessop dropped out of school to start working. She took the first step in her extraordinary life as ship stewardess on the <a href="http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=3917" target="_blank">Orinoco</a>, a Royal Mail liner. She continued working with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mail_Line" target="_blank">Royal Mail Line</a> on the <a href="https://www.benjidog.co.uk/MiscShips/Oruba.html" target="_blank">Oruba</a>, the <a href="http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=22433" target="_blank">Danube</a>, and the Clyde. In 1910, she was hired by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Star_Line" target="_blank">White Star Line</a> to work on board the first <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Majestic_(1889)" target="_blank">Majestic</a>.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>After working on the Adriatic and the second <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Oceanic_(1899)" target="_blank">Oceanic</a>, she was transferred to the new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Olympic" target="_blank">Olympic</a> immediately after it was completed. She was working on the Olympic when it collided with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hawke_(1891)" target="_blank">HMS Hawke</a> in 1911. Both ships managed to limp into port under their own steam despite of heavy damage to both. No lives were lost in the accident. Violet Jessop was unfazed by the accident, and after the Olympic was repaired, she went back to work on it. A year later, she joined the crew on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic" target="_blank">Titanic</a>.<br /><br />Violet Jessop wasn't asleep when the Titanic hit the infamous iceberg. She was ordered on deck from her cabin. Together with other stewardesses, she was ordered into a lifeboat to show passengers that this could be accomplished in total safety. Someone thrust a baby at her at the last moment, and together with that unknown baby she was later taken aboard the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Carpathia" target="_blank">Carpathia</a>.<br /><br />Some people would have called it quits after that roaming the seven seas and would have started looking for a land bound employment. I know I would. No such thought crossed Violet Jessop's mind. She was back aboard the Olympic by June of the same year. Except for a stint on the P&O’s <a href="https://www.dalmadan.com/?p=2596" target="_blank">Malwa</a>, she continued working on the Olympic until the Great War began.<br /><br />At the beginning of World War I in 1914, Violet Jessop began training as a nurse (V.A.D.). On November 12 1916, she joined the staff on the second <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMHS_Britannic" target="_blank">Britannic</a>, sister ship to both the ill-fated Olympic and Titanic. The Britannic hit a German mine on November 21 1916, just over a week after Violet Jessop had joined the crew. The ship had previously done five successful runs in the Mediterranean since December 6 1915. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Almost all internet sites dealing with that particular incident put Violet Jessop on the first lifeboat to be lowered. That particular lifeboat was caught in the still running propeller of the Britannic causing it to sink with many of its passengers injured. Some even attribute Violet Jessop with a broken shoulder from that accident. This story is anecdotal and not based on fact. Rather, Violet Jessop jumped over board off the fast sinking ship. She hit her head on the rump in the process. It would be years later that it turned out she had broken her skull when jumping ship, and never had been treated for it.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>This time round, Violet Jessop was kept land bound until repatriation in 1917. She then worked ashore until 1920, when she returned to work on the Olympic. She only left the Olympic upon the commissioning of the second <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Majestic_(1914)" target="_blank">Majestic</a> (the former Bismarck). She continued to work as a ship stewardess until the outbreak of World War II. <br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>If you are interested in reading her story in her own unexcited and understated words, her autobiography Titanic Survivor: The Memoirs of Violet Jessop, Stewardess was edited by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maxtone-Graham" target="_blank">John Maxtone-Graham</a> and published by Sutton in 1997.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-ocean-liner-britannic-was-latest.html" target="_blank">Lost and Found, Britannic's Organ</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/evacuation-from-yalta-1919.html" target="_blank">Evacuation From Yalta 1919</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/prophet-of-great-war.html" target="_blank">Prophet of the Great War</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-45123265234971866532014-03-06T13:12:00.004+00:002020-10-29T19:02:35.693+00:00Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>William Shawcross wrote a biography about Queen Mum. If you remember him as an avid journalist and keen observer, then this book is not for you. This is an eulogy and could have been produced in this form by any well instructed and paid for ghost writer.</span></span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQDu-VDUk5821mjgbPvG062wKPGwSIB-fpNqAyppJDwmp5nuDW-vzobwounh7wzLEWz_sSrUpVmODfxPONeoedf8G6GZpJZL-A2j1Gt6XHMmh0yIKgob-Po-oPZbQXh98Bcxd5lYxEOuH4/s1600/queen-elizabeth-the-queen-mother-william-shawcross-book-cover-daily-telegraph.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQDu-VDUk5821mjgbPvG062wKPGwSIB-fpNqAyppJDwmp5nuDW-vzobwounh7wzLEWz_sSrUpVmODfxPONeoedf8G6GZpJZL-A2j1Gt6XHMmh0yIKgob-Po-oPZbQXh98Bcxd5lYxEOuH4/s1600/queen-elizabeth-the-queen-mother-william-shawcross-book-cover-daily-telegraph.jpg" width="132" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">Macmillan published Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother written by William Shawcross. The book is an authorize biography and therefore avoids anything even remotely bordering on controversial. Authorized biographies and autobiographies suffer from the same shortcoming: They show the life of the book's subject as the writer wants it to be remembered, not as it was. In that sense, such books are psychologically the most interesting fiction you can get your hands on.<br /><br />The bad news first: You have to plow through 1,000 pages from cover to cover. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shawcross" target="_blank">William Shawcross</a> didn't take any shortcuts in the timeline and meticulously retells a century long life almost day by day. That takes up space, even when skipping the relevant items at the behest of the PTB. If you are expected to have this book, you might convert into a small cocktail table to be in keeping with the subject.<br /><br />Anybody expecting even a whiff of journalism from William Shawcross will be sorely disappointed. William Shawcross, in case you don't know, is the journalist who exposed the secret bombing of Cambodia by the United States. Any bombs you might have expected exploding in this book have been carefully edited out. The book stays safely on the glossy magazine surface and even glosses over old news if they threaten to scratch the sugary coating. </span><br /> </span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>As <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_consort" target="_blank">Queen Consort</a> of the Unite Kingdom and Empress Consort of India, she was a prime performer on the world stage. The book concentrates on her masterly performances and forgets to take a look at the actress behind the role she was playing. If you want to believe the book, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_The_Queen_Mother" target="_blank">Queen Mum</a> was all affability. You never get to see the ruthless politician with an steel core that was the real her. Her personality and political views make <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" target="_blank">Margaret Thatcher</a> look like a cuddly toy. Her political views are never mentioned in the book; they would make Prince Philip look like a model in political correctness and a communist to boot.<br /><br />The book completely fails to show how the woman who didn’t want to become a Queen Consort was such a success. Affability and charm were not part of the role, they were used as the icing to hide the power broker behind. It also doesn’t mention that she was the driving force behind the total exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (the former <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII" target="_blank">King Edward VIII</a> and divorcee <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallis_Simpson" target="_blank">Wallis Simpson</a>), or why she was so right in doing that to two Nazi sympathizers.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Should anyone read this book? Apart from the undiscerning fan crowd I can't see anyone profiting from the exercise. I had to battle through pages and pages of descriptions of each and every piece of fashion that was ever made for her from top to toe. As a historical compilation of fashion over a century, the book might just serve a purpose. But be warned if the latter sounds intriguing to you, it is written as badly as any of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Cartland" target="_blank">Dame Barbara Cartland</a>’s novels.<br /><br />I can’t recommend the book as a good read for a rainy afternoon, either; the repetitions were boring and tedious, and when the author used the words ‘delightful’ and ‘thrilled’ for the thousandth time, I could happily have throttled him (that was around page 400). What is exciting about the book is the fact that it shows an Empress of India that never came to grips with the fact that she had become an ex-Empress after the war. It also completely eluded her that she wasn't a prime player in world politics anymore, but consort to a king of a small, unimportant country slipping off the edge of Europe. Even more fascinating is William Shawcoss' development and as a writer over the length of the book: He loses his perspective more and more and regresses into her warped views.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>It is, in that sense, a perfect representation of Britain today: A country lost in the grandeur of yesteryear; a government laboring under the delusion that Europe or the world are in any way interested in their views; and people hardly able to write and read, thanks to the shambles they call schools.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/royal-connections-can-be-deceiving.html" target="_blank">Royal Connections can be Deceiving</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/queens-consort-of-england.html" target="_blank">Queens Consort of England</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-prince-princess-and-perfect-murder.html" target="_blank">The Prince, The Princess, and The Perfect Murder</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-90484949558018657012014-02-05T21:30:00.003+00:002020-10-29T19:10:13.281+00:00George Eliot<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">In 1885 in the Mikado, women novelists are on the list of the Lord High Executioner to be put away with. Marian Evans, better known as George Eliot, was dead by then. She was born into a
time when open adultery was frowned upon unlike to today. Under her pen name of George Eliot, she
was to become one of the most read, most mocked, and best earning authors of
the 19th century.</span></span><br /></span></span>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB">In 1854,
Miss Marian Evans set sail for the continent accompanied by a gentleman by name of George Henry Lewes. He
was a fellow journalist of Marian Evans', not related to her, and already married to
another woman. Scandal broke immediately. It was an inauspicious start to what would become a literary power couple.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">The Victorian age is wrongly remembered and hailed as an era of righteousness and moral standards. It was the
most hypocritical of ages. Bigots made the rules
and double standards were the norm. The travel arrangements made by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eliot" target="_blank">Marian Evans</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Henry_Lewes" target="_blank">George Henry Lewes</a> were a way to commit social suicide. The twisted morals of the Victorian hypocrites made only women social outcasts, though.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">When Marian Evans returned from the continent, she found that she had become a social leper. She was cut out from her social circle and an outcast of society in general. She was excluded from going
to public places like the theater or opera and she didn't receive invitations to
dinners or soirées anymore. What she had called friends dissipated in the hot blast of social outrage made the more public for being feigned and false. She was left in a desert of total isolation.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">She retired to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry" target="_blank">Coventry</a>. There she found time and quiet to pursue her dream of becoming a novelist. The first manuscript she finished was '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenes_of_Clerical_Life" target="_blank">Scenes Of Clerical Life</a>.' It was published under her chosen pen name. Coventry saw the birth of George Eliot.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Her later
books ‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Bede" target="_blank">Adam Bede</a>’, ‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mill_on_the_Floss" target="_blank">The Mill On The Floss</a>’, and ‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlemarch" target="_blank">Middlemarch</a>’ assured
her of millions of readers. They made her almost as rich as J. K. Rowling. ‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romola" target="_blank">Romola</a>’, a
historical novel set in Florence, made her £7,000. In today's money that would be about a half a
million pounds. The novels transformed the farmer’s daughter with an aborted career as a journalist
into one of the most read novelists of the 19th century. The two faced Victorians
praised her work while reviling her person and private life. </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Maddox" target="_blank">BrendaMaddox</a>’s book ‘George Eliot’ was published by Harper Press. While there are more than enough plodding, boring
biographies on George Eliot on the market, Maddox takes a quirky and
slanted look at the life of Marian Evans. She concentrates on her private persona. From that angle, she shows the influence George Henry Lewes had on her writing. </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">The
result is a short but eminently readable book. It gives readers insights into the
times and circumstances of George Eliot's writing career. It paints a picture of a specific time that
gave birth to a specific type of novel. If
you don’t like prim and prosy biographies or want to complement the boring
picture they paint of George Eliot, this book is definitely worth reading.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Further reading</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-transvestite-surgeon.html" target="_blank"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Transvestite Surgeon</span></a></span></span></div>
</div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-white-sex-slaves-of-1874.html" target="_blank"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">The White Sex Slaves of 1874</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-beginnings-of-investigative.html" target="_blank"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Beginnings of Investigative Journalism</span></a></span></span></div>
</div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-63918155595328163062014-01-15T19:59:00.003+00:002020-10-29T19:11:24.703+00:00Getting A Grip<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Celebrities have it all and some have it even more, like Monica Seles. <span lang="EN-GB">JR Books
published Getting A Grip by Monica Seles. The autobiography gives an insight
into the reality of women’s tennis and reveals the intimate relationship of dieting with binge eating. Monica Seles tells her story of early fame, reveals the nightmares that hound her and the demons walking with her.</span></span></span><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-FmvwLyqwh1iYCJkOOwPP7gSbj-XR95iE-ixCPSb8THYqzYHg1rPdfFCat1N6r4uZsx2k67cfkqWrlS90QZRPNLM8qX8e_idCb350Rq4Ho07HKEkoi16CE2zJaqPOAp8gOKxUUTQd8yAE/s1600/monica-seles-getting-a-grip-biography-autobiography.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-FmvwLyqwh1iYCJkOOwPP7gSbj-XR95iE-ixCPSb8THYqzYHg1rPdfFCat1N6r4uZsx2k67cfkqWrlS90QZRPNLM8qX8e_idCb350Rq4Ho07HKEkoi16CE2zJaqPOAp8gOKxUUTQd8yAE/s1600/monica-seles-getting-a-grip-biography-autobiography.jpg" width="131" /></a></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">In 1993,
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Seles" target="_blank">Monica Seles</a> was on top of women's tennis. At 19, she was the world number one in
women’s tennis ranking with eight Grand Slams securely under her belt. She looked looked forward to a
record breaking career to equal Martina Navratilova's and would do everything to surpass her. In Hamburg, the unimaginable happened. A mad German attacked her and stabbed
her in the shoulder. The attacker got away with a probationary sentence. Monica Seles was sentenced to a life of ongoing fear, nightmares and depression.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">A possibly historical career entitling her to multi-million dollar sponsor deals playing
tennis came to an abrupt end. She entered a period of trying to come to terms with what had happened, and</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB"> failed</span>
miserably. She joined a multitude of other crime victims mostly unnamed and
unknown in misery and depression deserted by justice systems around the world. Her father and coach was
diagnosed with cancer at the same time, and it proved to be terminal.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Getting back into the game after 1995, she was stricken with
panic attacks, nightmares and a 20 kilogram gain in weight. She never got back
into her former top form. Numerous stress injuries bore proof of the</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB"> struggle with her</span> weight.
A link between her injuries and her weight was obvious and she became
obsessed with lowering her weight to her former sporting
weight of 57 kilograms. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">She became convinced that regaining her former weight was the key
to success. In consequence, she bought </span>just about every book on dieting available on the market.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">This isn't the perfect misery memoir. Monica Seles has an innate sense of
humor and doesn't take herself too seriously. She sees the funny side in many of the
situations she got into.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">The more she tried to diet, the more time she spent in front of the fridge stuffing
her face. She hired a food coach. The duties included emptying the mini-bars
in the hotels she was staying in keeping staff from delivering any
orders she might place with room service. When she didn't stay in a hotel, he slept next to
the kitchen to intercept her midnight excursions to fridge and larder. This
didn’t stop her from hopping round the corner to the next convenience store on the sly.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">With all this, readers are granted a look backstage of women tennis. She describes the strange atmosphere prevalent at events all over the world. A locker room with two women top seeds puts a fridge to shame the way she describes it. Women tennis players seem to have a need to keep a frosty distance from other top seeds. this is the opposite to men's tennis, where top seeds are able to be respectful
to each other and might even be friends off court.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">The book shows very credibly that eating and drinking don't make you fat. It is also recommended for all tennis fans as well as people believing in personal achievement.
All the scam dieting sellers including Weight Watchers and the robber barons marketing Light and Diet products will hate it, though. This is the moment to enjoy this book, drink a tea, and eat a scone with a rich dollop of butter, jam, and cream.</span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Further reading</span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://stutenzeecandyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/swiss-personality-of-year-stanislas.html" target="_blank">Swiss Personality of the Year Stanislas Wawrinka</a></span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://stutenzeecandyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/giving-up-key-to-success.html" target="_blank">Giving Up: Key to Success</a></span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://stutenzeecandyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/jerzy-janowicz-and-andy-murray.html" target="_blank">Jerzy Janowicz and Andy Murray</a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-62500214466398344662014-01-07T22:37:00.005+00:002020-10-29T19:16:03.090+00:00Devil's Cub<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">The question asked most often in this book is: Who on earth would want to go to Dijon? But the story starts in London with the kidnapping of a gentlewoman that went wrong. Flight and chase take readers on a rocky ride through France to Paris and from there to Dijon. There are no car races and crime scene investigations, I'm afraid; the year is 1780.</span><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiCNK1YumVnJEnMCF2NMR6LJnCGB-CLrBlNuWJsGwagMWiv6MQncaphJtt0FNvI0bDLWh0_y7UQSM_N1a69VfzHs5olOUTIwJEEMZKbibAHyAiVGzVaVzR9hUKWai-A8IkeGXhzcR1HtNY/s1600/georgette-heyer-devil's-cub-sequel-these-old-shades.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiCNK1YumVnJEnMCF2NMR6LJnCGB-CLrBlNuWJsGwagMWiv6MQncaphJtt0FNvI0bDLWh0_y7UQSM_N1a69VfzHs5olOUTIwJEEMZKbibAHyAiVGzVaVzR9hUKWai-A8IkeGXhzcR1HtNY/s1600/georgette-heyer-devil's-cub-sequel-these-old-shades.jpg" width="124" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Before the French Revolution, French and English aristocrats often intermarried. If you were really rich and powerful, you would be keeping a townhouse in London and another one in Paris, both. The Duke and Duchess of Avon had palaces instead just to keep in touch with their relatives in both countries and to grace the Royal courts of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III" target="_blank">King George III</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV" target="_blank">King Louis XV</a> with their presence.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Their wayward son, the Marquis of Vidal, will one day inherit titles and lands. He has already inherited his father's devilish disposition and his mother's mercurial temper. The Duke of Avon had earned the monicker Satanas when young. His son got the nickname Devil's Cub through his own reckless behavior. That is also the title </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Georgette Heyer gave to</span> the book. In it, she leads her readers on a merry chase. </span><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">The kidnapping is planned the Marquis to get a young damsel of dubious virtue to France. Instead, he gets a young lady of quality there. Once the stage is thus set, things spiral out of control rather quickly. The book is a comedy of errors; all participants react to wrong information and assumptions which lead them all from scrap to scrap. The facts are always quite different from what they think they know. The story is fast and will take readers from cover to cover in no time.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgette_Heyer" target="_blank">Georgette Heyer</a> is a master in period description and that makes this book that much more fun to read. As opposed to many writing historians, historical advisers to the movie industry, and other authors of historical novels, she always gets her facts right. That includes important details like the correct color of powder used for wigs and the placement of patches during that particular season. If you wanted to live in 1780, you could take this book as a style guide to get you there.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Despite being a sequel, Devil's Cub can stand on its own without any problem. Having first read These Old Shades about the adventures of the Duke and Duchess of Avon helps to understand some of the more obscure jokes and insults. </span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">These Old Shades and</span> Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer are available on Kindle.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">And why Dijon? The question is never answered in the book. I presume, the answer would be: No one.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">Further reading</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/english-intrigue-in-louis-xvs-france.html" target="_blank">English Intrigue in Louis XV's France</a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/how-house-became-home-in-georgian-london.html" target="_blank"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif">How a House Became a Home in Georgian London</span></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-sex-workers-of-georgian-london.html" target="_blank">The Sex Workers of Georgian London</a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-24384546166200567182013-12-18T17:00:00.007+00:002020-10-29T19:26:49.841+00:00A Royal Christmas<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Don't blame Prince Albert when looking at Christmas traditions in Britain. They look quite German, but that's all your fault. It all started with the Glorious Revolution and the subsequent import of German George, or King George I. And other foreigners are present, too. Just think pantomime, turkey, and Santa Claus.</span></span><br /></span></span>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The reason for the German elements lies with the Royal family. The Hanoverian line excelled at importing German princesses and with them all kinds of traditions to England. That included the Christmas tree and its decoration. In his book A Royal Christmas published by Elliott & Thompson, Jeremy Archer traces the Royal family's influence on how Christmas is celebrated in the United Kingdom. </span></span><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>American readers will find the book fascinating, too, as they will recognize many 'American' traditions. Many a tradition thought of as American is German in origin. The book contains no big revelations, but it collects all the snippets of information found in various books and biographies into a coherent Royal Christmas narrative.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Many make <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert,_Prince_Consort" target="_blank">Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha</a> the culprit for introducing German Christmas traditions to England after his marriage to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria" target="_blank">Queen Victoria</a>. That assumption is wrong; but he should be credited with being the first professional public relations manager for the Royal family. He didn't bring these traditions, he made them public. It was part of his drive to humanize the face of the monarchy. Making Prince Albert the German Christmas importer was just another publicity stunt to bolster the pretense that the British Royal family was British. That family is German, and then how.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_I_of_Great_Britain" target="_blank">German George</a> was Prince Elector of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg before he took over from Queen Anne as King George I. He was already married to a German Princess when he moved to London. Marrying German Princesses was the rule for all his male successors until Victoria took over; that amounts to 120 years of German family life before Prince Albert ever set foot on this island. In fact, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_The_Queen_Mother" target="_blank">Elizabeth the Queen Mother</a> was the first non-German Consort since German George took the throne. </span></span></span></span></div><div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>What then about Edward VII's queen consort <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_of_Denmark" target="_blank">Alexandra of Denmark</a>? She was German, too. The Danish Royal family is called Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg a junior branch of the House of Oldenburg. That impossible name was also the name of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Philip,_Duke_of_Edinburgh" target="_blank">Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh</a> was born with though he changed it to Mountbatten later. But he was a Greek prince? Well yes, but the Greek Royal family started out with a Danish Prince.<br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Once you have absorbed that, German Christmas traditions are not all that surprising anymore. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_of_Mecklenburg-Strelitz" target="_blank">Queen Charlotte</a>, consort to George III, would spend most of the month of December each year cutting out paper decorations, ordering special Christmas confectionery, and choosing a yew tree to embellish <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Castle" target="_blank">Windsor Castle</a>. And as with all German families, presents were given away and opened on Christmas Eve.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Princess Victoria found presents under not one but two Christmas trees on Christmas Eve. Prince Albert made the festivities a lot more fun with family games. For Queen Victoria, Christmas became a painful time. This dampened the holiday spirit for the whole family. The retiring widow didn't turn inwards, though, but started reaching out to her subjects on all continents. The men serving in the Boer war received specially designed chocolate to remind them of home while many of their families were invited to Windsor Castle for tea. </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Concentrating on the earlier history, Jeremy Archer spends little time on 20th century developments. He shows how the public traditions started by Prince Albert were refined on and adapted by the Royal family. He builds a proper timeline starting with German George leading to the Queen's speech on Christmas Day. And now you know why she has time to do the speech on Christmas Day, because gifts are exchanged on Christmas Eve.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>On the whole, the book is an amusing encyclopedia of Christmas traditions; it might inspire you to research some of your local traditions, too.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/christmas-trees-through-history.html" target="_blank">Christmas Trees Through History</a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-origins-of-santa-claus.html" target="_blank">The Origins of Santa Claus</a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/santa-claus-travel-in-switzerland.html" target="_blank">Santa Claus: Travel in Switzerland</a><br /></span></span>
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</span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-28471970442846177682013-12-13T18:27:00.003+00:002020-10-29T19:34:43.563+00:00Inspector Minahan Makes A Stand<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The age of sexual consent was and is a source of perpetual dissent. In 1874, that age of consent was 12. Brothels were illegal in the United Kingdom and thrived. Policemen were invited to sample the goods. They made use of girls and boys on offer. In return, they happened to overlook the brothels’ existence. And that is the more salubrious part of the story.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>A thriving export industry was in place, too. Girls and boys were kidnapped, drugged and shipped to the Continent. Certified virgins of both sexes were first made available to older and often syphilitic men at a price. Medical understanding was partly still medieval; they believed in healing syphilis by having sex with a virgin. After that, the girls and boys were made to work in brothels.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>This trade had a long tradition. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_I_of_Belgium" target="_blank">Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld</a> was married to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Charlotte_of_Wales" target="_blank">Princess Charlotte</a> of
the United Kingdom and Hanover. Charlotte would have been Queen one day, had she
not died prematurely in child-bed. Instead of Charlotte, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria" target="_blank">Victoria</a> became Queen. Prince Leopold's time spent in England might explain his
predilection for all things British. He found another job as King of the Belgians. He
ran an account with a London madam to supply him with
medically certified virgins that cost him £800 a month.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>In 1875, parliament raised the age of consent to 13. Furious protests ensued on grounds of tradition, the Bible or whatever; we all know how that works. The legal change changed nothing for the brothels in the United Kingdom or the export trade to the Continent. Teenage and younger girls and boys continued to be held and imprisoned as sex slaves on both sides of the Channel.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Fast forward to 1882 and a sleepy London outpost called Chelsea. Join Jeremiah Minahan on the beat, taking down notes outside brothels about the customers entering them. Jeremiah Minahan had been transferred to backwater Chelsea by the Metropolitan Police after refusing to hush up the beating of prisoners. When his notebook went missing from his locked desk, he reported it and its contents to his superior, for which he was demoted and sent to a post in Highgate at half pay.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Undaunted, Minahan appealed directly to the Home Secretary, Sir William Harcourt. The Home Secretary refused his appeal and with reasons to spare. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Harcourt_(politician)" target="_blank">Sir William Harcourt</a> was in an incestuous homosexual relationship with his son and a well-known customer in just about every boy brothel in London and beyond. Everybody who was anybody knew about that. There is nothing more uplifting than the strict morals of the Victorians.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Jeremiah Minahan teamed up with the Social Purity movement and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pall_Mall_Gazette" target="_blank">Pall Mall Gazette</a> under editor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._T._Stead#Website" target="_blank">W.T. Stead</a>. The latter dreamed up the most hare-brained plot imaginable. He abducted an innocent girl to the Continent just to prove it could be done. He got arrested for kidnap and sexual assault. The stink that ensued rocked the establishment and sent the Pall Mall Gazette’s sales figures rocketing sky high. In 1885, the age of consent was raised to 16 as a consequence. New penalties were introduced to prevent young girls and boys from being kidnapped and sold into slavery.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Inspector Minahan Makes A Stand by Bridget O’Donnell was published by Picador. It would be a good book if it weren't for her choice of language and style. She waxes eloquent. Her style is florid like a Victorian lady’s boudoir. Notwithstanding, she has done her homework but like an overeager pupil she has to show off all the time. She gets seriously side-tracked and the added twists and turns are unnecessary. They just make a complicated story even more complicated. But as weird and wacky history goes, this book is a definite must read.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Related articles:</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-presidents-slaves.html">The President’s Slaves</a></span></span><br />
<a href="https://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-sex-workers-of-georgian-london.html" target="_blank">The Sex Workers of Georgian London</a><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/abolition-of-slavery-purely-financial.html">The Abolition of Slavery</a></span></span></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-71244755657341709582013-12-10T18:37:00.005+00:002020-10-29T19:46:21.968+00:00The Secret History Of Georgian London<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">If ‘Georgian London’ conjures pictures of large, white, representative buildings, then this book will take you down a peg or two. If you think that your earlier incarnation was sweeping down majestic staircases in beautiful gowns, chances are much higher you would have lived in the gutter. Come to meet the girls and boys widely
ignored by </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">Georgette Heyer </span>in her period novels.</span></span><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbvUUuXOU1wF6fkNJee6fBkyhBayCidW2ib8MuIBv_Kt054S0elgBRaD8230KDetgxbjtN_AexFhMHxoyqKdI70U0YXyi-0rhQ68kzjLSYBWG2JHdf56kKv5YZ1gf6_Q4Tsq6rEHO1fXZh/s1600/The-Secret-History-Of-Georgian-London-Dan-Cruikshank.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbvUUuXOU1wF6fkNJee6fBkyhBayCidW2ib8MuIBv_Kt054S0elgBRaD8230KDetgxbjtN_AexFhMHxoyqKdI70U0YXyi-0rhQ68kzjLSYBWG2JHdf56kKv5YZ1gf6_Q4Tsq6rEHO1fXZh/s200/The-Secret-History-Of-Georgian-London-Dan-Cruikshank.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Everybody pretends surprised when told that today's sex trade has grown into a multi-billion pound industry.
The problem is that it hasn’t grown into that, it is one of the most stable businesses in history. If we convert figures spent on sex in
Georgian London into today’s money, we arrive at the same stupendous amount of money. And we
are only talking about known figures.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Cruickshank" target="_blank">Dan Cruickshank</a> explores the depth of depravity hidden behind the impressive facades of Georgian London. Diligently collecting and presenting his evidence, he arrives at an
estimate: About every fifth woman in London was a sex worker. Stripping away romantic
embellishments added by Victorian writers, he gets down to cases to prove his point.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Female sex workers were living in a strict caste system. Everybody needs
somebody to look down on. The bottom of the ladder started in the gutter with the streetwalkers, next
came harlots who worked from brothels, then prostitutes who formed part of a
‘nunnery’, and at the top the courtesans that were kept as mistresses by the rich and
powerful. A famous handful even managed to marry into a peerage like the Gunning
sisters.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Courtesans
were celebrities in their own right like the Kardashians. They would be received as guests in most except the
most exclusive establishments. One such well known celebrity was
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma,_Lady_Hamilton" target="_blank">Emma Lady Hamilton</a>, the mistress of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Nelson" target="_blank">Lord Nelson</a>. But the star of them was probably
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Salisbury" target="_blank">Sally Salisbury</a>, she is believed to have written her own autobiography. Among her clients and protectors she could name <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_St_John,_1st_Viscount_Bolingbroke" target="_blank">Lord Bolingbroke</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lennox,_2nd_Duke_of_Richmond" target="_blank">Duke of Richmond</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_II_of_Great_Britain" target="_blank">King George II</a>. But like so many others, she succumbed to alcohol and ended
her life in goal.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Brothels
were run by brawds. They were harlots that had become too old for the trade. They would go to the coach stations of London and collect
the day’s arrivals from the country. At first offering friendship and help, they would then put pressure on their prey with fake bills and debts that the girls and boys would have to
work off.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Hayes" target="_blank">CharlotteHayes</a> was famous as the keeper of a nunnery. One of her protégées was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Warren_(courtesan)" target="_blank">Emily Warren</a>
who became <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Reynolds" target="_blank">Sir Joshua Reynolds</a>'s muse. William Hickey, the Georgian
memoir writer and contemporary, wrote about her: ‘I however,
that night, experienced the truth – that she was cold as ice, seemingly totally
devoid of feeling. I rose convinced that she had no passion for the male sex.’</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">In her
will, Charlotte Hayes left a staggering sum of 20,000 pounds (well over a million
pounds in today’s money) that she had amassed through her trade. Inspired by
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook" target="_blank">James Cook</a>’s accounts of Tahitian erotic rituals, she would organized tableaux in
which ‘twelve beautiful nymphs, unsullied and untainted’ were to be deflowered by twelve equally beautiful young men. The paying audience to this life event were later asked to
join in the frolic, at a price it is understood.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Dan Cruickshank
covers the range of depravity well, adding </span><span lang="EN-GB">child sex abuse </span><span lang="EN-GB">to the picture. It was believed that sexual intercourse with a virgin child (male or female) would relieve
sufferers of the venereal diseases they had picked up frolicking around. The asking price for a virgin was around 150 pounds. The children involved were as young as eight. On the other hand, Dan Cruickshank
completely ignores the male sex workers which obviously, considering Charlotte Hayes'
little tableaux, existed then just like today.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Streetwalkers were forbidden their trade in 1820. With the start of
the Victorian age and its vicious double standards on all things moral, the sex trade was driven
underground where it produced even more exotic flowers than in the Georgian era. Dan Cruikshank's </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">The Secret History Of Georgian London was published by Random House.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">For readers of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgette_Heyer" target="_blank">Georgette Heyer</a>'s novels, the book is an eye-opener as to
the good old days. And those who haven’t read her books,
reading some after this book might give you a better feel for the period’s
upper and lower classes, as she is a masterly writer on period detail.</span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></span><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Further reading</span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-white-sex-slaves-of-1874.html" target="_blank">The White Sex Slaves of 1874</a></span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/how-house-became-home-in-georgian-london.html" target="_blank">How a House Became a Home in Georgian London</a></span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/who-would-want-to-go-to-dijon.html" target="_blank">Who Would Want to Go to Dijon?</a></span></span></span></span>
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</span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-63855712483858284972013-12-07T19:50:00.003+00:002020-10-29T19:51:36.947+00:00Star<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Writing biographies is a difficult undertaking. It becomes virtually impossible when writing about a subject where there is nothing interesting to say about. The other extreme can be found when there is so much of the same to tell that it becomes repetitive. This happened to Peter Biskind.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Peter Biskind’s Star, a biography of Warren Beatty, was published by Simon & Schuster. The author tries but abysmally fails to get Warren Beatty out of bed. While the book doesn't tell anything about a star actually achieving anything in his life, the book makes good reading for the scandal mongers at least.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Do you remember the musical Evita? In it, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evita_Peron" target="_blank">Evita Peron</a> is being accused of sleeping herself to the top. Presuming that story and content of the musical are near to the truth, she was not only more successful than <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Beatty" target="_blank">Warren Beatty</a> but incomparably more efficient.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The book charts the life of Warren Beatty from bed to bed. Where there is no bed, it goes from fling to fling. The size of a book is limited, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Biskind" target="_blank">Peter Biskind</a> had therefore to leave out a lot of them but managed to mention more than enough. Warren Beatty had to go through all this for a few measly and mediocre movie roles. How devastating must that be for him? It made me almost pity him. The book claims that this proclivity was his choice. Since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Woods" target="_blank">Tiger Woods</a>, everybody knows that sex addiction should be treated. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>In between all that, the author tries to get the spotlight away from the bedroom and onto a few forgotten movie sets. The movies with Warren Beatty got lost in the sea of mediocre movies; equally, the few work related sentences get lost in the book. The author can’t manage to get the attention away from the private life (or was it all work?). This is not the authors fault, but the consequence of having to write about a 'star'.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>While I read the book, I started to wonder when on earth Beatty had had time to do any work. But then, he probably wasn’t expected to while providing other services. I remember a time when providing this kind of service was called something other than acting. Even if some commentators of the biography might compare the succession of women to lemmings, in an age where toy boys become more acceptable this at least gives Warren Beatty a proper work title.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The author managed to completely miss the point, though, when he tries to make Beatty one of the greatest film icons besides <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Welles" target="_blank">Orson Welles</a>. The latter had multiple <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Awards" target="_blank">Oscar</a> nominations at a time when Hollywood was still producing movies. Warren Beatty got a few roles during a total crisis in the Hollywood film industry. In fact, the films coming out of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_the_United_States" target="_blank">Hollywood</a> during that time were so bad anything leveling out merely substandard was considered a great success.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The only pertinent comment in the book comes from Warren Beatty’s sister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_MacLaine" target="_blank">Shirley McLaine</a>. She said that he is ‘50 from the neck up and 14 from the waist down.’ Unsurpassed is the self delusion of the subject in contrast when said: ‘I know that the press has to cut people like me down to size ...’</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Once you have read this book, you get a perspective on all those hypocrites that deplore promiscuity in (from their point of view) gay lifestyle. Compared to Warren Beatty, hardened gay promiscuous icons working as escorts and porn actors have to graduate from kindergarten first.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The book is one biography too many about a non-star. It is amusing enough to while away an afternoon while you are snowed in or bedridden and unable to do anything more sensible than drink water. Get it from the local library, though; it’s not worth spending money on.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/arthur-miller-and-witch-hunt.html" target="_blank">Arthur Miller and The Witch Hunt </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/roger-moore-biography.html" target="_blank">Roger Moore Biography</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/quantum-of-solace-source.html" target="_blank">Quantum of Solace: The Source</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-56804170110688216232013-12-04T19:22:00.006+00:002020-10-29T19:52:52.056+00:00This Party’s Got To Stop: A Memoir<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Rupert Thomson has written a novel under the title of memoir. With it, he takes his readers for a ride through hell called family. Numerous book critics were taken in by the word memoir and fell for his ploy of pretend biography; they actually believed it. Reading the published reviews, he was extremely successful despite the fact that plot, style, and hyperbole used are a dead give-away.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Book critics are at their best (or worst) when imagining autobiographic content in fiction. If the actual biographical facts won't fit, they'll change the biography of the author. They have become so good at it that no book can be published without an in-depth analysis of the author’s personal life to ‘prove’ that content. Not stopping short at contemporary literature, the same system is applied to Shakespeare and Chaucer. It has become a very bad joke and quite boring, too.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Thomson" target="_blank">Rupert Thomson</a> turned the tables on them with this book. Granta published his latest book under the title This Party’s Got To Stop: A Memoir. In it, the author takes the book critics on the ride of their life. And he takes all the unnecessary autobiographies and authorized biographies published every year along with them. This book is showing them up for the fiction they are.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>His story lets three brothers move back into the family home after the death of both parents. The boys being in their twenties and one of them married with child, the combination is perfect to tell a horror story of human relations and claustrophobia. Rupert Thomson plays his trumps to the full; the extended set of drinks, drugs, and rock n’ roll come into play while he strictly keeps to the literary form of the novel.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>As the story evolves, it becomes darker, more claustrophobic, and violent. He shows that living too close together may become a trap, a negation of individuality. Personal traits and idiosyncrasy become signs of aggression to the people bundled up under one roof. Accordingly, the young family bunches together against the two bachelor brothers. Husband and wife get paranoia and start moving through the house armed with knives.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>If his dream sequences and flashbacks are sometimes boring or distracting, Rupert Thomson makes up for it when pulling the legs of book critics. I think my favorite joke is the part where he explains that the family unit suspect the bachelor brothers of an ‘incestuous homosexual relationship.’ He stops short of trying to explain where the genetic defects of their children would come from, but I felt that he was sorely tempted to do just that.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Around this story, he weaves a web of research into the family's history. The process shows how fast we tend to forget facts and replace real memories with pure fiction. He also exemplifies the reluctance of relatives to go into family history that they perceive as disturbing or abnormal; a normality measured against their absolutely normal selves, obviously.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>All in all, it is a very canny and interesting book. It is mandatory reading for all those who think that families should live in each others pockets and those that permanently lament the lack of closeness within families. He shows that geographical distance between family members brings them closer to each other rather than the other way round.<br /><br />Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/summers-in-maine.html" target="_blank">Summers in Maine</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/taking-dig-at-french.html" target="_blank">Take a Dig at The French</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/reincarnation-or-vivid-imagination.html" target="_blank">Reincarnation or Vivid Imagination?</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-82636536992346425502013-12-01T13:20:00.003+00:002020-10-29T19:54:51.145+00:00The Forgotten Garden<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Pan Books published The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. The author tells the stories of three women of three generations in search of their roots covering a hundred years in the process. While two of them were displaced by no choice of their own, the third is set upon a quest by her grandmother to solve a family mystery.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The three women are linked by a book of illustrated fairy-tales. Their stories are told parallel to each other. The ploy of making time jumps from chapter to chapter works surprisingly well for this story as past and present become progressively more entwined. If at the beginning of the book you tend to get slightly confused by these jumps, they start to make sense once you get past the first few chapters.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Starting out in Australia, the story leads readers back to a country mansion in Cornwall and the family that lived there before the Great War. The heroine of that story is Nell. She was found abandoned on a ship without parents or guardian. As an adult, she set out to find her roots symbolized by a book of fairy tales found in her luggage. This old book was the only clue and also gave her the only lead. She started her research by tracing the known facts about its author.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Her findings led her to a girl called Eliza who would become the author of the fairy tales. When her mother died, the child was taken in by her uncle and aunt. The known facts about her life remained few, and the more Nell found out, the more she got puzzled. Finally, she set out for England to see if she could trace down more facts. Her quest led her into Cornwall and to a family that was less than charming.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Cassandra, the third of the women, inherited a Cornish property from her grandmother Nell. Intrigued and at a loss to explain how her grandmother came by it, she in turn set out for England and Cornwall to unravel the mystery behind the property and her grandmother’s diary of her journey there. Once there, she started to unravel the strands of mystery and the clues left to her by her grandmother. She found more questions than answers. In her quest, she used the fairy tales as a guide to the family history and hidden lies surrounding the family once living in the mansion and the cottage she inherited.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Covering a time period from about 1900 to the present, the book is quite long, but this shouldn’t put you off reading it. It lends itself to reading chapter by chapter with interruptions as there is no timeline you have to follow; the book takes care of that for you. But the story line is strong enough to carry you on once you sit down with a cup of tea and might bind you up for longer than you intended. You have to be prepared, though, to overlook some minor inconsistencies which <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Morton" target="_blank">Kate Morton</a> overlooked as her characters evolved while writing; on the other hand, the logical errors are not grave enough to mar the enjoyment of the story.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/christopher-lloyd-and-great-dixter.html" target="_blank">Christopher Lloyd and Great Dixter </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/walnut-tree-farm.html" target="_blank">Walnut Tree Farm</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/growth-and-sustainability-highgrove.html" target="_blank">Growth and Sustainability: Highgrove Harmony</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-42010062623276323892013-11-27T19:21:00.004+00:002020-10-29T20:07:57.067+00:00Poisoned Pens: Literary Invective <div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Let me correct you impression that trolls are an invention of the internet. Better, I let someone else do it for me. A
book I found will disabuse you of any such preconception. It holds a collection of truly vicious
comments that were written by writers about other writers. The book is a must read
for any troll aspiring to do it in style; it’s a necessary guide on how to be truly insulting.</span></span><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitpNt4MgwCn4E8h1nURGhYjhBLz1FHWx7BPZtZ2vmH2pySlXYq8l92L6tQ31LCc72g3LYS3Qo4ApUMNdVF7VzOIN8hcuN3p0TsnzQS1IbhVb60pzCyDYXSo25SD0ics-N3p7iBfyIxwv5J/s1600/Poisoned-Pens-Literary-Invective-gary-dexter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitpNt4MgwCn4E8h1nURGhYjhBLz1FHWx7BPZtZ2vmH2pySlXYq8l92L6tQ31LCc72g3LYS3Qo4ApUMNdVF7VzOIN8hcuN3p0TsnzQS1IbhVb60pzCyDYXSo25SD0ics-N3p7iBfyIxwv5J/s200/Poisoned-Pens-Literary-Invective-gary-dexter.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">“English
has one million words; why confine yourself to six?” </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf" target="_blank">Virginia Woolf</a> directed t</span>his vitriolic comment at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._H._Lawrence" target="_blank">D.H. Lawrence</a>. It holds pride of place over any trollish
comment I read on the internet so far. But I do hope you appreciate style in
crabbiness. The book is presenting a collection of crabby, cutting, stylish,
and well aimed insults directed by writers at fellow writers. Even trolls
could attain a form of literacy by applying the rules of the well honed insult.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Gary
Dexter has signed as editor to the compilation called Poisoned Pens: Literary Invective from Amis to Zola which was
published by Frances Lincoln Limited. It covers a potpourri of the snide and the snippy from
ancient classical authors to modern time cat fights. The book is organized in chapters
which don’t necessarily need to be read in the order presented. If you have a
preference for venomous Victorians, feel free to start there. </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">To
the aspiring troll, it gives invaluable inspiration in examples like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde" target="_blank">Oscar Wilde</a>'s assertion about
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Meredith" target="_blank">Meredith</a>: “</span><span lang="EN-GB">As a writer he has mastered everything except
language: as a novelist he can do everything except tell a story: as an artist
he is everything except articulate.” That is what I call a well honed insult, too long for Twitter, though.
Or take <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Makepeace_Thackeray" target="_blank">Thackeray</a> on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift" target="_blank">Swift</a>: “</span><span lang="EN-GB">Some of this audience mayn’t have read the
last part of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulliver%27s_Travels" target="_blank">Gulliver</a>, and to such I would recall the advice of the
venerable Mr. Punch to persons about to marry. Don’t.“</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="DE-CH">Poor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen" target="_blank">Jane Austen</a> is one of the most revered
and enduring English authors but not universally loved. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain" target="_blank">Mark Twain</a>, the American writer, was so irritated
by Austen's writing that he wrote in one letter: "Every time I read <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_and_Prejudice" target="_blank">Pride andPrejudice</a> I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin
bone." You might attribute this to cultural differences. I for my part
am able to enter into his feelings; I would like to do the same for each of her books.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="DE-CH">Maybe you prefer to stay with the poets in expectation of more refined reading. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron" target="_blank">Byron</a> described <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats" target="_blank">Keats</a>'s work as "neither poetry nor
anything else but a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlem_Royal_Hospital" target="_blank">Bedlam</a> vision produced by raw pork and opium." He even
offered his publisher to skin Keats alive. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley_(from_disambiguation)" target="_blank">Shelley</a> in turn described
Byron’s work as “mischievous insanity” brought on by Byron’s taste for “bigoted
and disgusting Italian women”. </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="DE-CH">I recommend this book especially to all
new online writers. It will help to deal with their trolls. If a comment is not as well
written as Oscar Wilde did, ignore it; if it is, take it as a
compliment. I enjoyed reading the book from beginning to end; it also stops me from answering comments I get on my writing.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/high-literature-being-politically.html" target="_blank">High Literature: Being Politically Incorrect</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/language-barriers.html" target="_blank">Language Barriers</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/poking-fun-at-book-critics.html" target="_blank">Poking Fun at Book Critics</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-1109922574222884752013-11-23T13:33:00.005+00:002020-10-29T20:11:13.610+00:00Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation Of A World War II Fighter Pilot<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation Of A World War II Fighter Pilot by Bruce and Andrea Leininger with Ken Gross was published by Hay House. The book covers the search for the past of the Leininger’s son.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkUvO34d-we5BYMjZV_Udhzgn-17y494TxsX2qP7mhitBIqqfRpz4AHCl4BxMKfS_Z52lwfbMtlwVCYcH7egsexTdHJYt09Kr_iiawRfr7SnOg0QliYj3rRCx3CB0xIPAFQNcxVYi1E0f8/s1600/Soul-Survivor-The-Reincarnation-Of-A-World-War-II-Fighter-Pilot-bruce-andrea-leininger-ken-gross.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkUvO34d-we5BYMjZV_Udhzgn-17y494TxsX2qP7mhitBIqqfRpz4AHCl4BxMKfS_Z52lwfbMtlwVCYcH7egsexTdHJYt09Kr_iiawRfr7SnOg0QliYj3rRCx3CB0xIPAFQNcxVYi1E0f8/s200/Soul-Survivor-The-Reincarnation-Of-A-World-War-II-Fighter-Pilot-bruce-andrea-leininger-ken-gross.JPG" width="150" /></a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>James Leininger was two years old when he started having atrocious nightmares. These nightmares of a burning plane with him inside flying led his parents on a quest to identify the soul that inhabited their son. Equipped with a few snatched words they imagined hearing like ’James Huston’, ‘Jack Larsen’, ‘Natoma’, and ‘Corsair’, they went out to find out about the previous life led by their son.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Their search led them to Japan, to an old lady who was the sister of a WWII hero, and to a veterans’ reunion of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Natoma_Bay" target="_blank">Natoma</a>, a US WWII aircraft carrier, while collecting the evidence for a case of reincarnation.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>If the idea seems so preposterous to you as to be unbelievable, you are probably right. The initial plot is done quite well and in the confines of believable possibilities, it’s piling up the evidence that undoes the plot. Most revealingly, the most American of reactions is completely missing in the book: Calling in the shrink.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>One of the proffered proofs included a book about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwo_Jima" target="_blank">Iwo Jima</a> that Bruce Leininger presented to his father. It is quite clear at that point that the interest in WWII ran in the family, and I for one don’t know the stories the grandfather might have told his grandson. But it makes you suspicious about the premises of the research in the first place.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>There are other inconsistencies: For instance, I doubt my son aged two would have been articulate enough to correct me from seeing a bomb underneath a fighter plane and tell me that it was a drop tank. And setting up the parents Leininger in the bad cop good cop alignment where Bruce doesn’t believe in it and Andrea does, doesn’t make anything more believable. It rather made me wonder why Bruce was doing all the research in a case he thought preposterous.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>As the book progresses, the proofs provided get more curious, like the sister who had felt a presence on the day of her brother’s death, but remembered it only later (oh what wondrous things are our memories!). Starting out from ‘nobody saw him go down’, Bruce goes to find no less than two witnesses of the fatal hit over Japanese waters. Curiously, both witnesses hadn’t reported their observations on debriefing. What a coincidence.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The book is published after the ‘witnesses’ are all safely dead. This brings me to the conclusion that we are dealing with one more American urban myth. That the writing style is rather like the howling of a cheaply made advert doesn’t help either. Emotions are piled on witnesses and family reminiscent of a cake gone black in the oven and covered with oozing globs of topping to hide the damage and the bad taste.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-thief-who-learned-magic.html" target="_blank">The Thief Who Learned Magic </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/ghosts-lacking-in-spirit.html" target="_blank">Ghosts Lacking in Spirit</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/heroes-lacking-definition.html" target="_blank">Heroes Lacking Definition</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-67605458740911041492013-11-20T14:17:00.004+00:002020-10-29T17:20:14.103+00:00Jack Tar: Life in Nelson’s Navy<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Every cartoon about seamen and sailors and many a horror story is built on the old adage of 'no women on board'. Someone might know where the saying comes from, I certainly don't. What I do know is that is wrong. This book will tell you why.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Jack Tar: Life in Nelson’s Navy by Roy and Lesley Adkins was published by Little, Brown. The book tells the story of the ruthless conscription drives leading to the victories of Nelson’s navy in the Napoleonic Wars. Revealing the hands-on methods of getting men on board and describing the shocking living conditions there, it also unveils the startling truth about women on board.<br /><br />Life on board ship at the time of Nelson’s navy was miserable. Seamen were housed below decks in confines so small modern law would forbid housing chickens in them. Add measly pay, strict order and even stricter discipline with severe punishments attached to any breach, and you will arrive at a low eagerness level to join for anyone of their own free will. And food on board wasn’t first class either.<br /><br />The typical food for Nelson's seamen is not what I recommend for your Christmas dinner. Breakfast would have consisted of burgoo made of boiled oatmeal seasoned with salt, sugar, and fat. Available with it was Scots’ coffee made from ships biscuits that were burnt to charcoal, crushed, and mixed with water. Lunch was soup or stew containing whatever was handy or available. In the evening there were dry biscuits with fat and cheese. The biscuits were infested with weevils which had to be knocked out first. Nobody would trouble over the weevils when burning the biscuits for Scots' coffee, though. All these delicacies were washed down with many pints of stale beer.<br /><br />To fill the many job offers, press gangs roamed the port towns for likely willing and but primarily useful candidates. By law they were constrained to seafaring men. But as they had to fill a quota, they didn’t bother with such niceties and just took anybody able to walk. The seamen were thereafter held like prisoners on board ship to keep them from defecting as soon as the recruiters’ backs were turned.<br /><br />For the families at home, it meant that men wouldn’t come back for months or even years. They faced a future without any income and certain poverty. Over this plight, many women chose to be smuggled on board to become helpers. The scope of work these women did on ships was astounding. From obvious tasks like tending the sick or wounded, they often were assistants to the surgeons amputating limbs during battles and made use of their stitching skills treating wounded men.<br /><br />Many women became active during battle, too, doubling up as powder monkeys, carrying the powder to the cannons, and quite a few took part in battles like any of the men. These were not the dramatic and cross dressing women hailed in many historically inaccurate films, just the ordinary heroine on board ship.<br /><br />The book takes its many tales from letters written at the time. The authors thoroughly investigated the archives while working on the book. It’s an interesting work, full of surprises and rich in detail. I liked it a lot for being informative and spellbinding at the same time. There is a lot of history, but also a lot of atmosphere bound into its pages. As an added plus, it gives explanations on many expressions we still use today, such as getting a square meal, getting scuppered, pipe down, or starting on a clean slate.<br /><br />After the Battle at Trafalgar, many ships were decommissioned. Their cannons were placed as bollards in the streets, upturned and with a cannonball in the mouth, a design we all still know. Like the cannons, the crew ended up in the streets without work, money, or future. The ships were converted into floating prisons. Former crew members had to resort to crime to survive and too often they were caught and sentenced. Their sentences meant serving their time in prisons made out of the decommissioned ships they had served on during the war.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/surviving-shipwreck-three-times.html" target="_blank">Surviving Shipwreck Three Times</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-pirates-of-barbary-coast.html" target="_blank">The Pirates of Barbary Coast </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-ocean-liner-britannic-was-latest.html" target="_blank">Lost and Found: Britannic's Organ</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-24347389083145121112013-11-16T20:25:00.004+00:002020-10-29T20:20:37.162+00:00Pirates of Barbary<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The Coast of Barbary extends from the Straits of Gibraltar to Tripoli in the Mediterranean Sea. That means it runs from modern Morocco to Algeria. The name Barbary was derived from Barbarians, but this epithet shouldn’t be applied to the inhabitants of that coast but to the truly barbarian pirates that used the coast as their base. They were for the greater part European.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Adrian Tinniswood’s Pirates of Barbary was published by Jonathan Cape. In it, Adrian Tinniswood draws a compelling and gruesome picture of 400 years back, when things were the same as they are today. History repeats itself, and this book shows that what is considered bad now was bad then. But unlike the Somali pirates of today, who capture and hold to ransom merchant ships and crews, pirates in those days went the more direct way of selling the captured crews into slavery on the slave markets of Tunis and Algiers.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>If you like your history blood drenched, full of bad guys, and definitely off the beaten tracks of schoolbooks, then here is the thing to go for. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Tinniswood" target="_blank">Adrian Tinniswood</a> revels in details, mostly of the gory and hair-raising kind, making the whole book read more like an adventure story than like researched dry facts. But researched facts they are, and the author has done his homework well.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>He tells the stories of individuals like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Verney" target="_blank">Sir Francis Verney</a> who stormed out of a family row to turn pirate. He also turned Muslim. But seemingly Allah was not with him, as he was an appallingly bad pirate, ending impoverished on Sicily. Maybe that is not quite the future you hope for when you sent your son to Oxford.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Mainwaring" target="_blank">Sir Henry Mainwaring</a> also graduated at Oxford. He turned pirate after being snubbed for the honor of conveying the British Ambassador to Persia. He was later recalled and pardoned by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_VI_and_I" target="_blank">King James</a> to become a vice-admiral not much later. He wrote a widely read book about piracy from the inside. There is nothing like firsthand knowledge when writing a bestseller.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>There was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ward" target="_blank">Ward</a> from Kent, who was named the Arch Pirate of Tunis. He had been a privateer (those were the official pirates of the crown as opposed to the unofficial ones working independently) and didn’t relish the new regime when King James outlawed it too. With 30 followers he captured a ship, set off for Tunis, and on the way ‘exchanged’ her for a French vessel full of loot. He was made welcome by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dey" target="_blank">Dey</a> of Tunis, after paying his taxes for the privilege, and went on to become a highly successful businessman mainly dealing in captured European slaves.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>His counterpart in Algiers at the time was the Dutch captain <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zymen_Danseker" target="_blank">Simon Danseker</a>, who was named the Devil Captain of Algiers. Although he had a highly profitable partnership with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasha" target="_blank">Pasha</a> of Algiers, Danseker retired early from the game after a short but fruitful career. He chose <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marseille" target="_blank">Marseilles</a> to retire to and therefore was the obvious choice for the French King to ask out on a mission to free French slaves from Tunis. Danseker boldly sailed into Tunis where he had a spirited discussion with the Dey who ended a head shorter.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>King James in his infinite wisdom had outlawed privateers, the state sanctioned pirates bringing in huge amounts of money to the treasury looted from French and Spanish ships. To counterbalance the losses, he disbanded large parts of the navy at the same time to save money. This brought an influx of highly trained British sailors to the pirates in Barbary and at the same time weakened the defense of the British Isles. As a consequence, the inhabitants of whole coastal villages disappeared over night, men, women, and children, to resurface in the slave markets of Tunis and Algiers.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>In 1816, the British and the Dutch finally declared war upon terror, and a combined fleet descended upon Algiers. They only left after they had reduced it to a pile of smoking rubble.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /> There are many stories collected in this book, and they are hauntingly similar to what is going on today. But it is also a highly entertaining book for all who like their pirates bold and bloodthirsty.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-battle-of-lepanto-and-its-influence.html" target="_blank">The Battle of Lepanto and Its Influence on English History</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/naval-arms-race-in-mediterranean.html" target="_blank">Naval Arms Race in The Mediterranean</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/all-at-sea-with-nelson.html" target="_blank">All at Sea With Nelson</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-74588333644849234192013-11-12T19:35:00.003+00:002020-10-29T20:26:17.860+00:00Arthur Miller<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Writing biographies is a dangerous business. Autobiographies should be the easiest to write but end up as a pack of lies as authors want to present life according to their wishes instead of the truth. Unauthorized biographies don't have access to all the facts and end up gossip mongering and stating the obvious. And then there are authorized biographies which combine the worst of both the ones mentioned before.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Christopher
Bigsby’s Arthur Miller was published by Weidenfield & Nicolson. The authorized
biography of the American playwright covers the years 1915 to 1962.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Miller" target="_blank">ArthurMiller</a> died in 2005 at the age of 89, and the reactions were not universally those of
grief or even of loss. Lights were dimmed on Broadway and one paper cleared its front page. But many dissenters made themselves heard over the empty rituals of public
praise for the dead. Arthur Miller had been the most famous of America’s playwrights and had always divide opinion. He called forth mixed reactions from critics and public all his life. Reactions to his death were in
keeping with tradition.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">It was the dissenters who made Arthur Miller famous. Their constant carping kept him in the public
eye all his life, and now beyond. Only when able to
produce work provoking enough to be both criticized and defended a writer
becomes famous. Clashes between critics and fans made him interesting to publishers and newsworthy for media consumption. From a marketing point of
view, Arthur Miller had done everything just right.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Author <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Bigsby" target="_blank">Christopher Bigsby</a> is director of the Arthur Miller Center at the
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_East_Anglia" target="_blank">University of East Anglia</a>. He was and still is a constant and staunch defender of
Arthur Miller. That the biography would be penned by hum was no great surprise, therefore. Covering
the years from 1915 to 1962, it ends with Arthur Miller’s divorce from Marilyn Monroe.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Arthur Miller
had granted Christopher Bigsby access to his papers prior to his death. I</span><span lang="EN-GB">ts wealth of detail and data</span><span lang="EN-GB">
will make </span><span lang="EN-GB">the biography</span><span lang="EN-GB"> a standard work for future scholars and students.
As it was written by someone completely blind to all the negative points to Arthur Miller and his writing, it ended up completely one sided and uncritical. Future scholars
will be able to use the book as a reference book and a timetable to work with, but any real work has still to be done. </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Christopher Bigsby meanwhile has published the sequel covering the period from 1962 to 2005; I haven't found it in me to even start reading it yet. His
decision to end the first book in 1962 was probably very wise. The play <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_the_Fall_(play)" target="_blank">After The Fall</a> dating from 1964 will prove to be a major stumbling block for him. Arthur Miller's play tried to cash in
on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe" target="_blank">Marilyn Monroe</a>’s suicide; how does he intend to defend that? </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><span lang="EN-GB">Arthur Miller's
behavior as a private person was always indefensible. Christopher Bigsby tried to do just
that.</span> I think this is the major flaw of this biography. How to defend a
serial adulterer during his first marriage? What positive points can be cited about cashing in on the second wife’s death?
What does one say about the son with his third wife who was born with Down’s syndrome and shunted off to
an institution and then conveniently forgotten? Arthur Miller’s autobiography doesn’t even mention
the boy.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Wives
and children played second fiddle to Arthur Miller’s career. By trying to defend
him, Christopher Bigsby shows him up as cold and ruthless. It might be
that the essence of his work would have been impossible to write if he had functioned
as a husband and father. As it is, that question must remain open.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">At the
end of the book, </span><span lang="EN-GB">Christopher Bigsby tries to bail him out with the happenings at the House of Un-American Activities Committee questioning. Arthur Miller’s refusal to name names before <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee" target="_blank">HUAC</a> in 1956 may have been a major feat, even heroic. He stood against fascist McCarthy in a fascistic American
society. It was brave and is praiseworthy. But it doesn't redeem him. </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Arthur Miller
had got himself into these hearings all by himself with his play <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crucible" target="_blank">The Crucible</a>, the
1953 play about the Salem witch trials. In it, he draws (rightly) a clear parallel
between McCarthy's paranoid fear of Communists and the religious hysteria that led to the witch
hunts in 17th century Massachusetts. In hind sight, there might be better
parallels to draw on, especially if you follow the permanent shady dealings of
the CIA and NSA.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">The play
angered some fascist critics so much that they regularly put down Arthur Miller’s
plays as bad on the grounds that they had been written by Arthur Miller, rather than on their intrinsic
merit. Christopher Bigsby has made his homework in this section rather well and names these
critics plus showing them up as paid pawns of the CIA.</span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">Further reading</span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/macmillan-published-queen-elizabeth.html" target="_blank">Official Biography of The Queen Mother </a></span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/dont-speak-well-of-dead.html" target="_blank">Don't Speak Well of The Dead</a></span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/marquess-of-bath-biography.html" target="_blank">Marquess of Bath Biography</a></span></span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-14271194254971208882013-11-08T13:16:00.005+00:002020-10-29T20:31:13.280+00:00A Natural History of Ghosts<div style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Can something not made of matter matter to science? We are talking ghosts. People might believe in atoms, neurons, and black matter. People might believe in gods, demons, and eternal beings. But people also believe in ghosts. The first two groups are amply served by scientific research in several fields. Ghosts finally receive the recognition they deserve in a book dealing exclusively with them. </span></span><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij0Hcumg-3saC4pjuJZb_chJ_6zGodfC3E4eL2MKJbZIYZQQusr6sFCf-ljq1N2m2_iYXi656Z34iTWdAuWsR3EImy0K312Zj_dwrO4R3mEheSUNrN_3DDgRK7OUZMSBP7RmuKRqNWeu91/s1600/A-Natural-History-of-Ghosts-Roger-Clarke.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij0Hcumg-3saC4pjuJZb_chJ_6zGodfC3E4eL2MKJbZIYZQQusr6sFCf-ljq1N2m2_iYXi656Z34iTWdAuWsR3EImy0K312Zj_dwrO4R3mEheSUNrN_3DDgRK7OUZMSBP7RmuKRqNWeu91/s200/A-Natural-History-of-Ghosts-Roger-Clarke.jpg" width="129" /></a></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The science of ghosts isn't new or an invention of modern times. Eminent people have dabbled in it before. The English philosopher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes" target="_blank">Thomas Hobbes</a> for instance posed this question in 1651: Why do ghosts wear clothes? He found no answer. This book takes things even further by following up on the general question about clothing: Do ghosts get cold? Where do the clothes come from? Does all clothing end up being used by ghosts? I picture heaven and hell as well as all the intermediary realms as huge wardrobes filled with discarded shoes, socks, shirts, frocks, and capes. Does it hold the answer to all the single socks disappearing from your washing machine?</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Roger Clarke's A Natural History of Ghosts was published by Particular Books. The writer grew up and spent all his youth in ghost haunted buildings and is therefore to be considered an expert in the field. His first encounters happened in a 17th century rectory on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Wight" target="_blank">Isle of Wight</a>. The rectory was regularly haunted by the ghost of a woman. When the family got bored with just one ghost, they moved to a Norman abbey in another part of the island. The ghost factor there was increased considerably. And the Isle of Wight has so many ghosts to show off, you will find it hard not to run into any of them no matter how short your stay. </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Collecting so many friends in higher places at a young age, it can't surprise that Roger Clarke became the youngest member of the Society of Psychical Research at the age of 14. While other boys might dream of piloting a speedboat at the age of 16, he got an exclusive tour of the Tower of London after dark. I won't bore you with an interminable list of ghostly visitors there, it is mostly self-evident. </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Ghosts have a limited imagination, and that limitation translates into this book. It is not Roger Clarke who is boring readers, instead, ghosts are shown up as great bores. It makes you wonder on the other hand if they are not bored to death with what they do, literally. Every ghost ever encountered is extremely limited in scope; it only covers a few feet of ground over a thousand years, and that again and again; it utters the same moan every day for 500 years in a row; it wears the same clothes (there we are again) from its first appearance onward; and it rattles the same rusty chains all the time (even though they must have been new at the start). The author can't is unable to quit that vicious cycle as long as he sticks to reported facts.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Do you know the story of the Angels of Mons? During the battle of Mons in 1914, ghostly bowmen of the battle of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azincourt" target="_blank">Agincourt</a> fought in 1415 arose from their graves and went to the aid of the beleaguered British Army at Mons. Why they should have made the journey in the first place is a mystery. By mid 1915, half the British population would have sworn that the story was for real citing a friend of a friend as a source. But the story is a hoax. It was published on September 29, 1914, in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Evening_News" target="_blank">London Evening News</a>. It was a short story marked as fiction written by the well-known Gothic writer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Machen" target="_blank">Arthur Machen</a>.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The book shows that the eminent psychic frauds and equally eminent and well-meaning investigators are much more interesting than ghosts. There is a reason to that, obviously. Ghosts are only a means to an end and should be grizzly enough by their mere existence. People on the other hand have ulterior financial motives and therefore must be news-worthy in their own right. I won't spoil the fun in giving away any details here, but you'll have a few good laughs on that count.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/ghosts-lacking-in-spirit.html" target="_blank">Ghosts Lacking in Spirit</a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/reincarnation-or-vivid-imagination.html" target="_blank">Reincarnation or Vivid Imagination?</a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/three-generations-forgotten-garden.html" target="_blank">Three Generations: The Forgotten Garden</a></span></span></span></span>
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</span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-10255798506602155152013-11-03T23:25:00.003+00:002020-10-29T20:34:40.330+00:00Through The Language Glass<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Linguistics is a science that is at best a bit murky; it can become a quagmire, too. The language barriers I mention in the title refer to the barriers put up by linguists on their own understanding of languages. A new book tries to get rid of a few 19th century hold-overs embedded in our minds.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAw7YgqGentAm0ADZv4mpA_9MDhuLR22_dUwvfgNYzdueKrDoyFhReA8OsBZx2lodBMcX03zr7vUD0qXTd_FEZbC9R6dWjzl-44j6OXmJDNWjbRGZW1e_tKCXdzQ6Icv-0MP2tI1U_syBw/s1600/through-the-language-glass-guy-deutscher.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAw7YgqGentAm0ADZv4mpA_9MDhuLR22_dUwvfgNYzdueKrDoyFhReA8OsBZx2lodBMcX03zr7vUD0qXTd_FEZbC9R6dWjzl-44j6OXmJDNWjbRGZW1e_tKCXdzQ6Icv-0MP2tI1U_syBw/s200/through-the-language-glass-guy-deutscher.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Linguist Guy Deutscher’s Through The Language Glass was published by Heinemann. Deutscher goes against the grain and bone of established linguists by taking a common sense look at language. The whole attempt is refreshing and doomed to failure as he gets caught in the quagmire of the science. But if you like to take a fresh look at things you thought you knew, he certainly gives you the starting points to start your own thoughts on language and its use.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>American linguistic guru <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky" target="_blank">Noam Chomsky</a> once proposed that we are born with an innate sense of grammar and that grammar in all languages was so similar that aliens coming to earth would assume that we all talk dialects of the same language. Similarities are a fickle thing, and small dissimilarities may hide profound differences in thinking; I wouldn’t want to put my name under that part of the statement. And as to an innate sense of grammar, he obviously wrote this at a time before modern journalists started butchering grammar on a daily basis.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Deutscher concentrates on studies done by John Havilland on the language of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guugu_Yimithirr_language" target="_blank">Guugu Yimithirr</a> in Australia. The language is the originator of the word received in English as kangaroo. But Havilland’s study covers a more interesting aspect of that language. It has no word for left, right, in front, or behind. All directions are given by reference to North, South, East, and West. While we are limited to indicate a direction by reference to us or a (maybe) known landmark, the Guugu Yimithirr are able to indicate the direction in an objective surrounding.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>If you would follow a linguist great like George Steiner in his reasoning, the lack of our known directional words should mean that the Guugu Yimithirr miss out on understanding them. But contrariwise, they can understand them very well even if they might wonder at our self centered thinking or our inability to orient ourselves in this world. Steiner’s reasoning was that the Hebrews lacking a future tense in their language were unable to understand future as an abstract concept. I join <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Deutscher_(linguist)" target="_blank">Guy Deutscher</a> in his verdict of ‘a harebrained notion’.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Deutscher also goes into the use of names for colors and color descriptions; and usually arrives at similar results as with the directional words. The work suffers a bit under too much color, and by the fact that he often gets lost in his own arguments to the point where he starts to defend his enemies and attack his supporters. This to my unique sense of humor makes it just more interesting to read, though.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>If you enjoy the use of language and are someone who likes juggling ideas and concepts, this book is a must read. It probably won’t answer a lot of questions you have concerning language use, but it will feed you loads of new questions to ponder.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/literary-trolls.html" target="_blank">Literary Trolls </a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/taking-dig-at-french.html" target="_blank">Taking a Dig at The French</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/high-literature-being-politically.html" target="_blank">High Literature: Being Politically Incorrect</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-76658028174284659462013-10-27T09:09:00.002+00:002020-10-29T17:25:42.854+00:00Mark of The Dragonfly<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>How should I tell you this? Too many, too fast, too few, too early, too late; this sums up the book;and yet at the end I will recommend it to you. I'm afraid my review will be as contradictory as the book. It's main weakness lies in the fact that the story has as many holes as Emmental cheese. But it could make sense; which gives me some suspicions and a possible culprit. I might be wrong, too, about the latter.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Bobbie Shafer's Mark of the Dragonfly was published by Malachite Quills and is available on Kindle. It tells the story of a boy destined for greatness in a world much like ours but with several parallel worlds to jump around in. I have to be very vague because I am not sure from what the book tells me if I got that right.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The story is not clearly fixed in a time frame, which makes it a bit difficult to start reading it. When I read haste and then find a main character holding a monologue over two pages, then I get very suspicious. And that is only for starters. New characters are introduced and disappear with frightening speed. Everything is pushed on the reader too fast to bond with any of them including the hero of the tale. Characterization remains sketchy of necessity at that speed, and conversations are short and don't always make sense. It is like trying to read short hand in a foreign language.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>I had to read through three quarters of the book to come to the place where Bobbie Shafer was allowed to show her true gift for writing. Which brings me to my suspicion: The book left me with the feeling that an editor had punched the holes into the story. The book is so full of ideas, the story could have been stretched over several books without boring the reader. It looks like having been cut down to size rather brutally.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The final show-down at the end of the book came about 1,000 pages too early and left me with so many questions they would fill more pages than the book. Despite all that, it is worth reading; either out of professional curiosity as to what can happen to a story if you apply the butcher's knife instead of the scalpel when editing or to while away a rainy afternoon. Despite everything I said so far, it is still able to take you away into a wonderful realm of adventure and make-believe.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-thief-who-learned-magic.html" target="_blank">The Thief Who Learned Magic</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/teenage-sorcerer-apprentice.html" target="_blank">Teenage Sorcerer Apprentice</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/jim-button-50-years-later.html" target="_blank">Jim Button 50 Years Later</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-82171117836373275382013-10-20T13:16:00.004+01:002020-10-29T19:16:51.373+00:00These Old Shades<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Enter Paris and Versailles in the time of Louis XV. Corruption and intrigue are ripe in France and give an open playing field to the English Duke of Avon, affectionately known as Satanas to his enemies. Starting broke as a youngster, he had gambled a young Austrian noble out of his fortune to pay for a lavish and sumptuous lifestyle.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>This is the scene set by Georgette Heyer for one of her best books set into the historical period she is best at recreating for her readers. The story takes the reader through period France and England rich in details that make it imaginable and vivid. And, as is usually the case in her novels, the characters are well-built and believable.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>If you think of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgette_Heyer" target="_blank">Georgette Heyer</a> mainly as a writer of romance novels, this one will take you through mystery and whodunit spiced up with comic relief. When the Duke walks the back streets of Paris one night, an urchin runs into him. Seemingly out of a whim, he buys the boy of his brother to become his page. Slowly, the reader is introduced to devious scheme for revenge he hatches against the Comte de St Vire for an old but rankling insult.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The beauty of the book besides offering a thrilling thread to rip you along to the end is the detail of the descriptions. It lets you imagine the Paris of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV" target="_blank">Louis XV</a> and the nobility and their hangers-on that peopled the fashionable houses and salons. It paints a pretty picture and shows how the majority lived in vivid glimpses when dealing with the bought boy's past.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The build-up of the intrigues and counter-intrigues is playing out like a minuet. The Duke of Avon makes his moves as if leading an intricate dance while leading others on a string. When the Paris urchin is kidnapped from the Duke's estate in England, his brother gives chase, taking the reader along through England and into rural France.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>What makes the book so eminently readable is the amount of detail packed into the descriptions. The fashion, hairstyles, modes of travel and to powder and patch is spot on for this very moment in time. If you want to escape today for yesteryear, this is the book to read. Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades is available on Kindle. Do yourself a favor on a rainy weekend; get it and read it.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/how-house-became-home-in-georgian-london.html" target="_blank">How a House Became a Home in Georgian London</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-sex-workers-of-georgian-london.html" target="_blank">The Sex Workers of Georgian London</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/royal-changelings.html" target="_blank">Royal Changelings</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-84711534142181080952013-10-14T11:50:00.003+01:002020-10-29T20:36:14.210+00:00Special Forces Heroes<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Special Forces Heroes by Michael Ashcroft was published by Headline. It is a collection of heroic incidents. The royalties of My Lord Ashcroft are donated to Help For Heroes, a charity supporting servicemen injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>It was in the expectation of getting some insight into what makes heroes tick that I started to read this book. It had been handed to me on the understanding that it contained the answer to the difference between a hero and a coward. Lord Ashcroft has spent years studying the bravery of soldiers in battles, and it said his latest book would try to answer that question.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Maybe the book tried, My Lord certainly didn’t. I found it a grueling read, taking me from battlefield to battlefield through blood and bravery. In time, the stories started to resemble each other. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if I hadn’t read that one already earlier in the book.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ashcroft" target="_blank">Michael Ashcroft</a> is a specialist, and his stories are certainly well researched and dutifully recorded. But their fascination must be for others. I felt like having walked into a stamp collector enthusing over his stamps. Expecting to see colorful stamps from the entire world with exotic animals, butterflies, and scenes, he would show me 600 times the same grey stamp with a dot here and a printing error there to distinguish one from the other.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Ashcroft distinguishes between two types of valour, spur of the moment bravery and cold courage involving planned heroism. The book does not give any clues to where he draws the lines. Obviously, there are other forms of heroism that go unmentioned, e.g. perseverance. And still others would have been out of scope for this book.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The book is corollary damage to Five TV’s series of the same name. It is in all probability a commissioned book. It has all the marks of homework made and without joy at that.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>All in all, I found the book lacking in conclusions and explanations regarding his personal views. His book should treat only heroes receiving medals for premeditated bravery. That might be his point of view, but I don’t share it. What is premeditated in a surprise attack from enemies still baffles me after finishing the book. I put it aside gladly, and it will not be one I care to read again.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/reincarnation-or-vivid-imagination.html" target="_blank">Reincarnation or Vivid Imagination?</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/history-distortion-with-criminal-intent.html" target="_blank">History Distortion With Criminal Intent</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/antoine-de-saint-exupery-and-lost-prince.html" target="_blank">Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and The Lost Prince</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-30562285054404039932013-10-07T23:20:00.006+01:002020-10-29T20:38:32.881+00:00Downwave<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Robert Beckmann’s Downwave was published by Milestone Publications. Its two subtitles are: Surviving the second great depression, and: Everything all the experts would tell you if only they dared.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>If you thought nobody foresaw the current crisis, you are wrong. Robert Beckmann, the author, was an American investment analyst living in London. He described in his book a scenario with collapsing banks and countries going bankrupt. He based his assertions on the thesis that the housing market would collapse as it had become a dangerous bubble. </span></span> <span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Russia’s economist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Kondratiev" target="_blank">Nikolai Kondratiev</a> had done his studies in the 1920s. He had concluded that an economic life-cycle ran over about 60 years. Based on this assumption, Beckmann arrived at a date at the end of the 1980s for his scenario. Did I tell you that the book was published in 1983? <br /><br />Was Kondratiev wrong? Not really, as the crash of 1987 showed. Both he and Beckmann couldn’t expect governments all over the world just starting to print funny money to stop the crash from happening. Since then, governments have been on an evil spending spree and the printing presses were doing overtime since 1992. It will make the current crisis just that much worse, it might be expected. <br /><br />What’s even more evil, governments almost exhorted taxpayers and companies alike to spend money they didn’t have, leading to expensive take-overs in multinational companies that became more and more uncontrollable and unmanageable. And the credo of my home is my castle was replaced by my home is my cash-cow. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>With Beckmann I agree on the timing, and thereby come to mention two very old friends of mine, the actor and the house-wife, the second rate actor who’s only achievement as President of the United States was being shot at, and the brainless mop of hair who devalued the title baroness to gutter level. It was their ill fated decision to reintroduce Victorian standards into economics. Without those, the depression might already be over. It also strengthens my conviction that our lord out of the closet (Keynes) will not offer the solutions to the present crisis. </span></span> <span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>If you want an ever gloomier assessment, I found an article from 2005 referring to this book as well: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2005/sep/25/politics.economicpolicy">Alphabet of global downturn</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Mellon" target="_blank">Jim Mellon</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span> <span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/how-money-came-to-dominate-our-lives.html">How Money Came to Dominate Our Lives</a></span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/abolition-of-slavery-purely-financial.html">Abolition of Slavery: A Purely Financial Decision</a><br /><a href="http://stutenzeehistoryblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/prophet-of-great-war.html">Prophet of The Great War</a></span></span></span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-38490678652161211472013-09-30T11:20:00.003+01:002020-10-29T20:41:31.019+00:00Notes From Walnut Tree Farm<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Notes From Walnut Tree Farm by Roger Deakin is published by Hamish-Hamilton. A book about change and sameness in country life, it is filled with observations of the wild and not so wild. Published after his death from the notes he left behind, the editors have done their work to satisfaction.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Roger Deakin died in 2006, leaving behind 45 filled exercise books of diaries covering his last six years of life. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Blacker" target="_blank">Terence Blacker</a> and Alison Hastie, two close friends, skillfully edited them into one coherent book. Rather than going by real time as recorded by Deakin, they arranged his writings into the four seasons starting naturally with spring to bring it to conclusion in winter. They contrived thereby an admirable composition as natural as the flow of the seasons. </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span> <span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Deakin" target="_blank">Roger Deakin</a>’s observation of nature around him and his farm is minute, but never boring. With keen eyes and adroit hearing, he brings to life animals and their sounds, plants, trees, wind, and seasons. His observations lead him off into philosophical thoughts, or into humor, or through one into the other. But even with thoughts drifting, he never becomes either disjointed or chaotic in the flow of his ruminations. </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span> <span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>If you like the countryside and are not living there (like me), this book makes you hear and smell wet grass, hay, and fallen leaves. Deakin’s many observations about spiders, frogs, trees, and squirrels will remind you of times spent outdoors and the many small miracles to be seen there. This is not a wild book about the wilderness, but an orderly book about orderly country life with its joys and its sorrows, its complaints and its rewards. </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span> <span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>I am no friend of posthumously published books. They usually seem like disjointed limbs being put together the wrong way; or they feel like the dustbin has been emptied on the desk and just been scanned. Not so here, where the book, I suspect, is more of an entity than the original diaries ever were. </span></span> <span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>When I had finished, I felt I had rushed through the book, though I had taken my time to read it. It is a book that lends itself to slow reading with long thoughts in between sentences or paragraphs. </span></span><br />
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<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Ideally, I think, it should be read season by season and in season to get the feel for its ebb and flow. I will put it aside now, and take it up again in spring. </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span> <span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/growth-and-sustainability-highgrove.html">Growth and Sustainability </a> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/three-generations-forgotten-garden.html">The Forgotten Garden</a> </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeebooks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/christopher-lloyd-and-great-dixter.html">Christopher Lloyd and Great Dixter</a></span></span>
</span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4601374035376918121.post-36726926318527918762013-09-22T20:47:00.004+01:002020-10-29T17:32:55.486+00:00The Well-Fed Writer<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Thousands of books have been written on how to become a freelance writer. Most of the publications are a total waste of paper or storage space. Some books are a waste of time but do no harm, but only a handful are worth reading.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman</span><span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is one advice book that might teach you some useful things. But as with all advice offered to you, be it personally or in any other form, you'll have to work it your way.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The book has a subtitle: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Commercial Freelancer in Six Months or Less. That may sound good but is the usual hype. You have to work in your own time; don't try to live someone's life. It gives you the best before date of the advice you're getting at least if you want to try to convert the advice given one on one. If everyone copied his method, the track you are asked to follow will be so trampled, you'll have difficulties leaving any of your tracks at all. Learn: Advice is only as good as far as you are able to make it your own.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><br style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" /></span></span>
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The Well-Fed Writer contains loads of information and reading it is actually fun. It is the fun that lifts the book out over all the other advice books you can buy dealing with freelance writing advice. </span><span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The book is divided into 15 chapters and they are subdivided several times again. Read it in little bits or all in one go whatever your style. It is not a novel with a thread to loose, just lots of information to be absorbed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>All writers of advice books think that they are the only ones who know how it works. Peter Bowerman sets the trap for his readers by pretending that his replication approach is the only way it works. All religions work that way, also all MLM systems; I'm not sure if the latter counts as religious as well. Don't fall into this very obvious trap. Instead, concentrate on what he has to tell you and then make it work for yourself. Replication is the dead end of evolution. Once everybody replicates, everybody walks in the same direction. Creativity is deader than dead at this point. Customers looking for writers on the other hand are looking for creativity, not reproduction..</span></span><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The book is a mine of information, most of what is written is useful in one way or another. A lot of it is so basic that you are excused for thinking the writer is addressing idiots. The writer obviously was under that impression. But spread out over 15 chapters, he has lots of advice to give that is worthwhile thinking about. It might give you ideas on how to do things your own way.</span></span><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The author covers the most important aspects of writing, sales, marketing, and payment. The Well-Fed Writer strongly highlights the importance networking has for your career as a freelance writer. The book contains all kinds of networking tips; good ways to find contacts and how to improve your network connections are part of the parcel. Reading the book, you will probably get the impression that the author is suffering from OCD. Just filter the dross from the pearls and your career is go.</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Peter Bowerman has one major trump up his sleeve with The Well-Fed Writer: He assumes that you might not live in a big city. He gives outstanding advice to all writers dealing with limited markets. Limited market may apply to you living in small town or village in a country with limited language reach. Whatever the case, this book contains valuable advice for writers living in any country and writing in any language. </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>The book also deals with niche markets. Like with all the rest of the book, you'll have to sort out what is important for you, and what isn't. I disagree with most of what the author says, but that doesn't mean it might not be true all the same. It just means it doesn't work for me. </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Further reading</span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeewritings.blogspot.com/2015/09/use-pictures-to-brand-your-online.html" target="_blank">Use Pictures to Brand Your Online Writing</a><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><a href="http://stutenzeewritings.blogspot.com/2015/09/my-name-is-my-brand-when-writing-online.html" target="_blank">My Name is My Brand When Writing Online</a><br /></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://stutenzeewritings.blogspot.com/2015/09/writing-online-for-niche-market.html" target="_blank"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span>Writing Online for a Niche Market</span></span></a></span></span>
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</span></span>Lucas Diehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03952852213344027979noreply@blogger.com0