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WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF WHITBOURN
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What's New OR: 'Yo, ladies ... What's happenin ? Whatever Next ? [ Downs Lord Triptych / The Two Confessions / Amy-Faith & the Stronghold] | Dispatch dated 3rd October 2004 ****** In my last update I made a request of anyone with knowledge of Old English. Noting the trend of people 'Gaelicising' or 'Scotticising' their names, plus little books of 'Names for Cornish Children' and such, I asked if a similar thing was possible with English personal names, grafting on some degree of 'Old Englishness' ? As if by magic, there came news of 'GIVE YOUR CHILD AN ANGLO-SAXON NAME', published by Joseph Biddulph Publications of Pontypridd ( ! ) this very month. I've known of Mr Biddulph for some years ( and indeed suggested such a book to him ), and thoroughly recommend his range of modestly priced esoteric linguistic and heraldic works. Personal favorites include a hypothetical 'What-if-the-English-never-arrived' Devonian language and, best of all, ELDSAY, a purification of modern English to exclude Norman-French impositions. A catalogue may be obtained for a stamped addressed envelope from: Joseph Biddulph 32 Stryd Ebeneser Pontypridd Wales CF37 5PB As may 'GIVE YOUR CHILD AN ANGLO-SAXON NAME', for a mere £4.34 ! including postage. You can even ask for a short greeting to be added, so that the book can be sent a gift to a third party. As Mr Biddulph puts it: 'A little book to give to parents and parents-to-be everywhere'. Buy ELDSAY whilst you're at it, for a joint price of under a tenner ! Less than a round in a pub but infinitely more beneficial and long lasting. ****** Coming soon, in SFX magazine no. 124 probably, a JAW interview with ace author Phil Rickman (see A hymn to merrily) and, from the same poisoned source, a review of Stephen King's hernia-inducing seventh and concluding book of 'The Dark Tower Cycle'. Strange as it may seem, it's called 'THE DARK TOWER' and isn't at all bad. ****** A start has been made on the implausible and perhaps impossible work now provisionally entitled 'NELSON IN LIMBO' or 'NELSON & THE SECRET OF LIFE' ( see Dispatch dated 10th June 2003 ) '
... even so the mad idea of a new book occurred to me:
'NELSON & THE MEANING OF LIFE', subtitled 'THE
REIGN OF REASON BREEDS MONSTERS' ( nicked and twisted from Goya's famous
painting. ) Without
giving the game away too much ( my argument needs proper exposition and
explanation ) the gist is the potential ... fineness of a life lived free of
Reason's straitjacket. Naturally, I
exclude that quality of 'Reason' discussed by the ancient stoics but refer
instead to the dreary dogma bequeathed us ( cheers ! ) by the
ideologues of the 18th century so-called 'Age of Reason, such as Voltaire, and
descending in grey line to Polly Toynbee and Salman Rushdie today. Plus
! Perceived continuities between
Nelson's personality and his Old English ancestors, the concept of 'Southern
English Stoicism' (most of the Royal Navy's captains were south country men) and the intertwining of three
'nesses': fearlessness, kindness and
ruthlessness, that can on rare occasions combine to make a loveable human
predator ... In
fact, I really ought to prioritise this project because the 'anti-book' to
'NELSON & THE MEANING OF LIFE' has already been written - 'Nelson' by Terry
Coleman ( a Guardian journalist, surprise, surprise ), Bloomsbury (suspiciously
apt ), 2001. A 427 page long
ungenerous and low-minded whinge, siphoning the Immortal Memory of style or
interest. I understand it's
favoured reading material amongst the Null. Hmmm ... Well, so far, a character called 'Talleyrand II' has recruited a motley collection of tourists from around Cleopatra's Needle on the pretence of a guided tour, only to whisk them into other dimensions to explore aspects of Nelson's after-life. The standard sedate Jane Austen-ish plot in other words ... ****** I've also made a tentative start ( or at least set the stone rolling )on that long postponed essay 'Guildford - Birthplace of English Democracy ! Surrey and the Levellers in 1647' ( see Dispatch dated December 2000 ). In a nutshell, in 1647 radical delegates elected by five New Model Army cavalry regiments billeted in Surrey and surrounds met in Guildford, together with civilians from the Leveller Party, and released a document called 'The Case of the Army Truly Stated'. Amongst other treasures it included an all-England-first demand for ( almost ) universal ( male ) suffrage and, prefigured the 1832 Great Reform Act by calling for fairer Parliamentary constituencies. 'The Case' then directly fed into the famous and nationally important 'Putney Debates' later that year. Strangely though, the event seems to have totally disappeared from Guildford collective memory and isn't mentioned in any of the town histories. Quite aside from the intrinsic significance of the event, Guildford's past isn't exactly overstocked with the dramatic ( happily for those who lived there then ) and so I'd like to make the event more widely known. ‘Oft when on my couch I lie, in vacant or pensive mood,’ I have visions of Guildford Borough Council signs saying: 'WELCOME TO GUILDFORD - BIRTHPLACE OF ENGLISH DEMOCRACY Well, if Jane Austen can lay claim to the whole of Hampshire ( always a bit of a spine-chiller as you drive past the road signs ... ), why not ?
****** Plus I've posted another serving of quotations to 'Quote Qorner' , Batch the Eighth, including, as a departure, a selection of toasts to either gild or kill-stone-dead ( or both, simultaneously ) any social gathering. You're welcome.
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