Lance Greenfield's Blog, page 86
May 2, 2015
This photo says “Love”
This two and a half year old sister is protected by her four year old brother in Nepal.
If ever there were a photo which said “Love”, this really is it. It is so beautiful. I confess that it had tears flowing from my eyes. Even more so, as it reminds me of a time when I once held my sister thus. Our situation was nowhere near as serious as this. It was merely that our Mum and Dad were fighting. For these two, their world seems to be falling apart around them, literally.
April 29, 2015
Review: The Ghost
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
For the most part, this is a story which will draw you in and keep your attention, but I felt that it petered out a bit towards the end.
I don’t know why there is any discussion amongst readers about whether any parallels can be drawn between this fictional world and real world politics. The basis for the story is so blatantly obvious. Adam Lang is, beyond doubt, a parody of Tony Blair. Ruth is Cheri. And so on.
The story is narrated in the first person by the ghost writer who is commissioned to write the former prime minister’s memoirs. The name of the ghost writer is never revealed, but he is a replacement for the original ghost, who had been Lang’s aide and who had met an unfortunate end when he fell, or was pushed, from a ferry.
The ghost’s escapade is fraught with danger. His greatest problem, and this is a great part of the book because it really stirred me up, is that he brings a lot of that peril upon himself by his foolish actions. I found myself having to exercise great self-restraint as I resisted the temptation to yell at the pages of my book, “No! Don’t do that!”, “Don’t go there!”, “Don’t make that call!”, “Don’t send that email!, and so on. He’s an intelligent man, but he can be so foolish.
There are a few major shocks, and there are a few incidents in the book which, I am sure, Harris intended to be shocking, but were entirely predictable.
As I indicated in my introduction, following the biggest twist of all towards the end of the book, it fades away and the last few pages are a bit disappointing when compared to the excitement that rolls through most of the story up to that point. It is easy to believe that most of the events described in The Ghost could really have happened.
All in all, this was a great read. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys thrillers, and I shall certainly be reading more books by Robert Harris. My dilemma is whether to choose Fatherland or The Fear Index.
Do UKIP have all the answers? Possibly!
The honest answer to my own question is that
I don’t know!
I really do not know, and it is quite possible that none of us will never know.
It is their own fault. All they seem to be able to tell us about are the negative impacts of immigration into the United Kingdom. These are, in my opinion, insignificant when weighed against the tremendous positive impacts that these people have on our national economy.
Apart from the tiny minority who are reported upon by the media and by UKIP, we have huge numbers of people coming from abroad who work hard, pay their taxes into our treasury, and buy domestic goods and services. Yes, they send some money home, but that is after they have made these contributions.
Without the immigrant workforce, many of our services, for example the NHS and public transport, would collapse. They are doing jobs which our native youth will not accept.
If I ask a UKIP candidate what she will do about the state of British education, she will tell me that she will send the immigrants home because they are flooding the system and preventing British kids from attending their school of choice.
If I ask a UKIP candidate what he will do about the state of the British health services, he will tell me that he will send the immigrants home because they are taking the beds of the British people who have paid for them all of their lives.
What I’d like to know is, once the UKIP government have sent all of these immigrants “home”, would they take steps recall all of the estimated six million British citizens who are living and working abroad? I suppose they would. It is only fair!
And what puzzles me most of all is trying to understand why so many thousands of British voters seem to be taken in by these crazy UKIP arguments. Of course, many of them, like the candidates themselves, are disaffected Tories, but that still does not explain this strange phenomenon.
April 25, 2015
Flutter Away
A tribute to a little bird, who became weaker, and smaller, until eventually, she fluttered away to grace the universe with her beauty.
I found you at the bottom of my garden.
You were very weak.
You tiny little bird.
Did you fall from your nest?
I took you indoors,
And put you in a shoebox.
You would not eat the worms that I caught,
But you took a few drops of milk.
You grew stronger.
Day by day,
You grew stronger.
But your wings were broken.
I hoped that you’d survive,
But I knew that you would die.
Your eyes sparkled at me,
But I knew that you would die.
Your spirit grew stronger,
But your body became weaker.
Even the milk dribbled onto your feathers.
I knew that you would die.
I watched as your spirit rose
From your failing body.
You fluttered away, joyfully free,
Into the sky.
So now, at last,
Your wings are strong.
You can fly through space and time:
Flutter away across the universe.
Review: Medicus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Looking forward to the next in the series!
Medicus and the Disappearing Dancing Girls is the first of a series of novels that follows the misfortunes of a Roman Army Medical Officer, Gaius Petreius Ruso, after his posting from the warm climes of North Africa to the dreary grey drizzle of Deva (pron. Dewa); that’s modern day Chester.
Ruso is down on his luck and doesn’t own much more than a few mounting debts. As well as trying to support his own life in the British garrison town, he is obliged to send funds home to his brother in southern Gaul lest his family find themselves destitute and homeless.
His medical colleague at the garrison hospital, who shares his squalid house with Ruso, takes life as it comes and has a wicked sense of humour, and is no help at all. Consequently, Ruso has very little support from anyone as he tries to traverse his difficult life. Almost by accident he finds himself burdened with further unmanageable debts, becomes the reluctant owner of an injured slave, Tilla, and is in continual conflict with the hospital administrator and many of the local Britons.
There are many reflections of twenty-first century society in this book, ranging from the financial and administrative pressures on the health service to the very serious issue of the white slave trade. I am sure that these parallels are deliberately drawn by the author to provoke the reader into thoughts beyond the main storyline.
Ruso becomes an unwilling detective, trying to track down the truth behind the disappearance of several dancing girls from the local brothel and bar. The story moves at a leisurely pace and, in the main, insinuates the brutality of the age rather than going into explicit detail.
I have always been a big fan of historical novels as, with conversations and images, they bring history to life around those dry, boring dates and names that I had to learn in the school classroom. Medicus does this for me and, at the same time, introduces some interesting characters whom I very much look forward to meeting again as the series unfolds. I strongly suspect that Ruso’s slave, Tilla, will become his driving force.
This is an excellent detective story, and the links between Roman Britain and Modern Britain are particularly pleasing. I would recommend Medicus to anyone who enjoys a good historical fiction.
Review: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The story of Auschwitz: told as never before
It is light. It is funny. It is deep. It is sad. It is dark. It is serious. It is naïve. It is simple. It is complex. It is tragic. It is all of these, and much, much more.
The horrors of Auschwitz are seen through the naïve eyes of the Commandant’s ten-year-old son, Bruno.
Don’t let me tell you any more about it. Just read it. You won’t regret taking me up on this recommendation: I promise!
April 24, 2015
Android v Apple – a splash too far?
I expect that somebody at Google Maps is going to be in serious trouble over this. If you go into the Maps section of Google and search for “Shapur, Rawalpindi, Pakistan”, you will see this.
Phoney wars?
Yes, it really is a giant android peeing on an Apple logo.
April 23, 2015
My song of the week: Preacherman by Melody Gardot and Chuck Staab
The video may seem to start off a bit slowly, but you should watch it all. The introduction is very relevant. He song touched me deep inside.
It is based upon the murder of Emmett Till, over 60 years ago. The saddest part of all is that such attitudes are still abundant, especially in the Deep South of the USA.
Melody Gardot – photographed by Franco P. Tettamanti
You can read much more about this song and its background in this excellent article by Eric R. Danton in the Speakeasy section of The Wall Street Journal.
April 22, 2015
UK Elections – I am a candidate!
Yes. It is true. I am standing as a candidate to become a Councillor on Test Valley Borough Council, representing the Andover Harroway ward.
Also standing for the Green Party in this ward are Joy Mitchell and Laura Marriner.
It is time to have Green voices on the Council, so, if you live in this area, please vote for all three of us if you are an elector in this ward.
In Andover Millway ward, there are two Green Party candidates standing: Dean Marriner and Carol Bartholomew.
If you are voting in Millway, and want Green voices on the council, this is VERY IMPORTANT: only use TWO of your three available votes. Don’t just put your third cross against another candidate because that knocks a hole in the totals for Dean and Carol, and warms the seat for one of the other candidates. Just an oddity of our voting system.
But this is trivial compared to the really big news.
My friend, Dan Hill, is the Green Party candidate for the Parliamentary (General) Election.
Dan is the only truly LOCAL candidate standing for Parliament in the NW Hampshire constituency. The rest have been parachuted in to the constituency by their parties, and have only tenuous links with the area. If you live in the constituency, please vote for him. He is the ONLY candidate qualified to represent YOU, the people of NW Hampshire.
April 19, 2015
Writing retreats – a waste of time
I have no opinion one way or the other. I’ve heard great things about the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, which I would attend this year had I not already been booked for something else. But that is a course, with tutors, speakers, wifi and structure. This article discusses retreats, which are a different beast. So I take Max’s point.
So what do you think? I am genuinely looking for opinions. Should I sign up for a course or a retreat? Tell us all about your experiences and opinions.
Originally posted on Max Dunbar:
From Joel Rickett’s Guardian Bookseller column:
Writing retreats are now wildly popular. On any given week there’ll be small groups of budding scribes strewn around the Lake District, Wales, and even Tuscany, searching for that elusive blend of solitude and writerly companionship. Now they can go further afield with the launch of “writing adventure holidays” from the Literary Consultancy, which promises “the company of some of our best-known writers and artists . . . in a stunning setting which will open mind and senses”.
I’ve always been suspicious of writers’ retreats and my gut instincts tell me that they are a waste of time and money. This isn’t a popular view – after all, who could object to the idea of writers from all over the country getting together to work in a tranquil environment?
These writing adventure holidays are a new thing. But as I’m discussing writing retreats in…
View original 891 more words
