St. Bartholomew’s, Burwash January 28, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in England, Literature, Rudyard Kipling.Tags: 'My Boy Jack', Bateman's, Battle Abbey, Battle of Hastings, Battle of Loos, Carrie Kipling, East Sussex, Irish Guards, iron-master, John Kipling, Kipling, Literature, Normans, Rudyard Kipling, Senlac Hill, St Bartholomew's, Victorians, war memorial, World War One
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St Bartholomew's, Burwash, East Sussex
That this church is beautiful there can be no doubt, but if the Victorians had left more than just the Norman tower to St Bartholomew’s, and not ‘restored’ it, I think we would all have enjoyed it even more. Dating from 1090 – only 24 years after the ‘dread fight on Senlac Hill’, the Battle of Hastings, it was built in the local style of stone and clay-tile. Senlac Hill, and Battle Abbey, are only 8 miles away, so this area was amongst the very first to feel the grip of the Normans.
Burwash had a world-famous inhabitant in Rudyard Kipling, who lived at nearby ‘Bateman’s’ a former iron-master’s house. The war memorial outside St Bartholomew’s bears an inscription to 2nd Lt John Kipling, Irish Guards – the author’s only son, who was reported wounded and missing on his first day in action, 27th September, 1915, during the Battle of Loos. Rudyard and Carrie Kipling searched for years for him, hoping that he was only incapacitated or a prisoner of war; it wasn’t until 1919 that they accepted his death. Kipling’s poem ‘My Boy Jack’, written in 1915, is extremely poignant.
Temple to Mithras, Carrawburgh January 8, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in England, Great Britain, Literature, Rudyard Kipling.Tags: Brocolitia, Carrawburgh, England, Hadrian's Wall, initiation, Kipling, Literature, Mason, Masonic, mithraem, Mithranism, Mithras, Northumberland, Puck of Pook's Hill, Rewards and Fairies, Roman Legions, Romans, Rudyard Kipling, temple
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The mithraeum, Carrawburgh
Temples to the god Mithras, or mithrae, were common amongst the Roman Legions. Wherever they went, they were sure to erect a temple to this Persian deity. Sacred rites, always conducted in near darkness, involved the initiation and ‘raising’ of members of this cult from one of the seven grades to the next. Central to this worship was the sacrifice of a bull, and special chambers were constructed to allow for this event.
Here we see part of a tiny mithraem just south of Hadrian’s wall near what was the Roman fort of Brocolitia (now Carrawburgh). The columns you can see are concrete replicas – the originals having been removed for display elsewhere.
I always think of Kipling when I see a temple or votive carving dedicated to this god, beloved of the Legions. Several of the short stories in ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’ and ‘Rewards and Faries’ are centred on The Wall and involve characters who are devotees of Mithras. In some ways there are echoes of Mithranism in the various Masonic rites, with their initiation and ‘raising’ and secret methods of identifying fellow-initiates. It is no surprise, therefore, to learn that Rudyard Kipling, who wove Mithranism into some of his stories, also wrote others with a Masonic theme, or that he was, himself, a Mason.
Author of ‘Lords and Ladies’ becomes a Knight! January 2, 2009
Posted by shortfinals in Literature, Terry Pratchett.Tags: Discworld, knighthood, Literature, Samuel Vimes, science fiction, Terry Pratchett
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Well, well, what a wonderful piece of news! One of my favourite people, Terry Pratchett, is knighted in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List. Along with all those deserving post office workers, tea ladies and lifeboatmen, the Honours Committee got this one right~
Oh, yes, and I suppose it is only fair that Sir Terry’s enoblement should parallel that of his alter ego, Samuel Vimes (although Sam has made it all the way to Duke, now).
This couldn’t have happened to a nicer person; congratulations to Sir Terry and to Lady Lyn, too!
Giovanni Guareschi December 8, 2008
Posted by shortfinals in Giovanni Guareschi, Literature.Tags: artillery, bankruptcy, BBC TV, Brian Blessed, British, cartoonist, character actor, co-production, comedian, Communist, Don Camillo, editor, family history, Fascist, Fernandel, films, financial considerations, French, Geneva Convention, German, Giovanni Guareschi, gravitas, Il Candido, Italian, Italian army, Italian/German descent, Literature, magazine, Magazine publishing, mayor, Mussolini, My Secret Diary, nemesis, officer, parish priest, Peppone, Poland, PoW, principal role, Protecting Power, radio adaptations, River Po, Second World War, Terence Hill
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Giovanni Guareschi is one of my favourite authors. A complex family history involving bankruptcy, and severely changed circumstances, meant that he was virtually forced into the world of magazine publishing and writing. He criticised Mussolini’s government during WW2, which was a very risky proposition, and only his entry into the Italian Army, as an artillery officer, saved him. On the collapse of the Fascist regime he and thousands of others were captured by German forces, and imprisoned in camps in Poland. Their condition was deplorable, as unlike other PoWs they had no Geneva Convention ‘Protecting Power’ to look after their interests. The wonderful book “My Secret Diary’ (US edition, 1958), which he wrote for his son, is based on his experiences and is incredibly moving. An accomplished cartoonist and editor, he took over the editorship of the magazine ‘Il Candido’, post-war, and began writing about his beloved valley of the River Po; according to him, just to fill in the gaps in the magazine!
Don Camillo, the turbulent parish priest, his nemesis, the Communist mayor, Peppone and a cast of warm and beautifully drawn characters filled many shorts stories, which were published to great acclaim. Four films followed in the 50s and 60s, which were joint French/Italian co-productions. Despite the involvement of the author in the casting process, I must, politely, disagree with the selection of the French comedian and actor, Fernandel. He had neither the gravitas, nor the physical size to be believable as Don Camillo; doubtless, financial considerations trumped artistic ones. (Another film, in 1983, starred Terence Hill, who is actually of Italian/German descent, as Don Camillo). There have been other TV and radio adaptations (some posthumously ), and the award for single best performance, in any of the principals roles, must go to the great British character actor, Brian Blessed, who gave a tremendous reading as Peppone, in the BBC TV series, broadcast in 1981.
Robert Anson Heinlein December 7, 2008
Posted by shortfinals in Robert Heinlein.Tags: 'The Purple Rose of Cairo', Literature, pantheistic solipsism, Robert Heinlein, science fiction, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
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Robert Anson Heinlein was his own man, that’s for sure. Invalided out of the US Navy with TB, he was an aeronautical engineer during WW2, but afterwards he turned to writing – and what writing. A stream of science fiction stories, some of them written specifically for boys ,but others of a decidedly erotic bent poured from his pen. He created many novels which he fitted onto a series of time-lines involving parellel continua, colonization of the Moon (The Moon Is Harsh Mistress, my own favourite) and outer planets, the industrial use of magic, and many others. He believed in what he called ‘pantheistic solipsism’; this is the theory that a writer only has to envisage a world, and, somewhere it springs into being! For practical expression of this, consider the 1985 Woody Allen film ‘The Purple Rose of Cairo’.
Sadly, Heinlein’s novels have not been served well by the film world. The two that have been shot, ‘Starship Troopers’ (1997) and ‘Puppet Masters’ (1994), were compromised in one case by an insufficiently large budget to provide for core portions of the plot (the powered suits and weaponry in ‘Starship Troopers’) and in the other by strange casting choices.
Despite dubious political stances and views on sexuality which were unconventional to say the least, Heinlein was a true master of science fiction. He died of emphysema in 1988.
Bateman’s – Rudyard Kipling’s home December 5, 2008
Posted by shortfinals in England, Literature, Rudyard Kipling.Tags: Bateman's, cartouche, cream tea, electricity, England, flour, formal gardens, iron-master, Jacobean, Kipling, Literature, mill, National Trust, Puck of Pook's Hill, Rewards and Fairies, River Dudwell, roses, stoneground, Sussex, tea rooms, turbine, watermill
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The cartouche over the front door at Batemans
For those with an interest in Kipling, a visit to Bateman’s is something of a major pilgrimage. This Jacobean ironmaster’s house (the setting for ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’ and ‘Rewards and Fairies’) is a magical place. Whether your taste runs to formal gardens, or the wilderness beyond, Bateman’s will weave it’s spell over you. The interior delights, with its treasures almost piled one on top of the other. Whatever you do, make sure to visit the watermill across the little River Dudwell, where you can purchase stoneground flour (the mill was used to provide electricity to the house in Kipling’s day, via a turbine). Nothing completes a visit to Bateman’s like a visit to the Tea Rooms on site – the National Trust serves a splendid cream tea!
Terry Pratchett – the ultimate Disc jockey? December 2, 2008
Posted by shortfinals in England, Literature, Terry Pratchett.Tags: CMOT Dibbler, Discworld, England, Literature, science fiction, Terry Pratchett, Unseen University, Wiltshire
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I suppost that there is a tenuous connection between Terry Pratchett and I – about as tenuous as the connection between one of CMOT Dibbler’s pies and actual meat! We both lived in Wiltshire for many years (OK, so did quite a few thousand OTHER people), and I once had a job as a night security guard (shades of the Night Watch, here – sorry about the pun), in the building where Terry had his office. Alright, I’ll settle for ‘extremely tenuous’ then…..
Along with millions of others, I enjoy Terry’s writing – especially the Discworld novels – immensely, although you do have to have a basic knowledge of pop culture, science and European history to get the most from the layers of puns (like a comedic lasagne, really). The description of the harsh, baked, landscape of XXXX, and the inhabitants (the Australia analogue in ‘The Last Continent’) proved particularly enjoyable, with the Oz version of Unseen University being one of my favourites. I was extremely distressed to hear of Terry’s diagnosis – all we can do now is pray for (and work towards) a breakthrough cure; and soon. I hope the carnivorous plants are doing well……….
Rudyard Kipling – author, visionary, enigma December 2, 2008
Posted by shortfinals in Literature, Rudyard Kipling.Tags: Bateman's, England, Kipling, Literature
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Batemans, Front Elevation
The more you read and study Rudyard Kipling, the more you become puzzled. The man is an enigma, some might call him the most Jingoistic of Victorian authors, yet here is someone who refused the post of Poet Laureate. I think that if you have never read any Kipling, you really shouldn’t begin with any of the Indian stories, but instead try two slim volumes, ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’ and its sequel ‘Rewards & Fairies’, set in and around Bateman’s and his beloved Sussex. These are, as the author described them, ‘children’s tales written for adults’. Little slices of English history, linked by polished jewels of poems. Enjoy!
