Just Finished re-Reading: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (FP: 1949) [239pp] 

As a low-level functionary in the Ministry of Truth (responsible for all propaganda), Winston Smith has seen things which have disturbed him. His job is to ‘correct’ the past to more reflect the present – and then ensure that all evidence of that ‘correction’ is destroyed. But Smith has a problem, he remembers things and sometimes gets confused. Has Oceania *always* been at war with Eastasia or was it, as he remembers, Eurasia? He worries that the reported production targets – always met or exceeded – have singular failed to improve things despite the news from the telescreens. If things had never been better, why was he constantly asked for razorblades by his colleagues? Then there’s Julia. What did she possibly see in him? Was she really a member of the Thought Police leading him astray – not that he’d much leading. He was already guilty of thoughtcrime, already one of the walking dead. It was only a matter of time before they caught him. Big Brother was infallible and Big Brother was everywhere...  

The story of 1984 is SO well known it hardly bears repeating. I’m not sure if it struck a chord when originally published not long after World War Two, but since then it has woven its way into Western culture and DEEP into its psyche. Part of its pervasiveness can be explained by the fact that both the Left AND the Right use it as a warning of creeping (and sometime blatant) authoritarianism from the other side. But I suppose the fear of such a thing is universal. 

This is a re-read for me and is, I believe my third time. On this occasion I’m buddy (re)reading it with Stephen over at Reading Freely. It’s a re-read for him too I believe. The first time I was introduced to this classic dystopia I was 13 or so (so, around 50 years ago) when my English teacher at the time leant her copy to me. Why she did so I can’t remember. I can only guess that she thought that of all of the other working-class kids in her class that I might appreciate it more than most. It’s not often that I can say, hand on heart, that a book truly changed my life but this one most certainly did. It was one of THE foundations of my present political beliefs (I’m a Socialist if you were unaware). I must have read it a second time when I bought my present copy (published in 1978) possibly prompted by the rather fractious politics of the time! Although it didn’t have the same impact the 3rd time around it's still VERY relevant (especially with the present swing to the Right across the West) and more than once I found myself thinking how some world ‘leaders’ (I’m looking at YOU Donald) seem to be using 1984 as a playbook rather than a warning. 

With my 3rd read and a (possibly) more mature head on my shoulders I did notice a few things that passed me by before. I didn’t realise that the date – even the year of 1984 – was uncertain throughout the book and not just during Smith’s time at the Ministry of Love (responsible for interrogation and torture). That surprised me and made me think of the first Matrix film. Britain being called ‘Airstrip One’ always made me laugh, especially as we’d been called an unsinkable aircraft carrier during WW2 (I believe). What had really failed to register was that the world in the book took place after a nuclear war. I certainly had no memory of that from previous readings! The bombing of Colchester was mentioned (why Colchester I thought) as well as lingering radiation in London, but later a global conflict was mentioned which gave rise to the present Smith was living through. 

Naturally the idea of doublethink and most especially the control (or attempted control) of past events – crowd sizes, comments during interviews etc – was constantly on my mind. I think the one thing that jumped out at me that hadn’t really crossed my mind before was that Smith had been set up. I did wonder (and actually still wonder) if Julia was part of the plot. But there was a reference to Smith being under scrutiny for seven years before he was arrested. My guess is that he showed his native intelligence (in his work at the Ministry of Truth) a little too often to be ignored. The LAST thing the Party wanted was an intelligent person in their (lower) ranks. One amusing thing that made me smile more than once was the constant reference to helicopters spying on people. I’m guessing that as the technology was very new in 1949, they symbolised the ‘future’. I wonder what Orwell would make of drones? One of the interesting sections (for me at least) actually stopped the narrative DEAD – when Winston read through the supposed banned book by Big Brothers arch enemy Emmanuel Goldstein (a few hints/tinges of antisemitism throughout the text made me winch a bit) which honestly made a LOT of sense. I’m guessing that this was straight from the brain of Orwell himself?  

Overall, I was impressed by the depth and the still palpable power of the book. No doubt Orwell drew on his personal experiences in the Imperial police in Burma, his time in Spain during the Civil War (especially his experience with Soviet forces), his investigation into the poor published in ‘Down & Out’ and ‘Wigan Pier’ and, of course, his time with the BBC (AKA the Ministry of Truth) doling out wartime propaganda. This is one of those timeless classics that everyone – no matter their political beliefs – should read at least once in their lives. It should definitely (and always) be a set book for school children to read in their mid-teens. Definitely recommended (obviously).

Happy Birthday: Elisabeth Clara Heath-Sladen (1 February 1946 – 19 April 2011) was an English actress. She became best known as Sarah Jane Smith in the British television series Doctor Who, appearing as a regular cast member from 1973 to 1976, alongside both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and reprising the role many times in subsequent decades, both on Doctor Who and its spin-offs, K-9 and Company (1981) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011).

Sladen was interested in ballet and theatre from childhood, and began to appear on stage in the mid-1960s, although she was more often a stage manager at this time. She moved to London in 1970 and won several television roles, with her acting in the police drama Z-Cars leading to her being recommended for the role in Doctor Who. After leaving the series, she had other roles on both television and radio before semi-retiring to bring up a family in the mid-1980s.

Sladen returned to the public eye in the 2000s with more Doctor Who related appearances, which culminated in taking a regular lead role in The Sarah Jane Adventures. In 2010, the show earned the Royal Television Society Award for Best Children's Drama. She also made regular guest appearances on the main television series and provided voice-over commentaries and interviews for its releases to DVD. She died of cancer on 19 April 2011.

[Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith was one of my early teen crushes and I loved the character dearly. I was especially pleased by the idea that she was from Liverpool. She was such a great character - smart, feisty, fun.... not to mention cute. What's not to like?]

Yeah, we MADE it..... It's finally February! That means its one of my favourite periods here at SaLT: Love & Relationships Month. So, be prepared for the warm and fuzzies, the humour and the usual sarcasm but with a 'romantic' twist. Oh, and it appears that my spirit animal is a Koala.... Cute! 

Just Finished Reading: Poe’s Cat by Brenda Walker (FP: 1999) [234pp] 

Normally with my fiction reviews I’d start with a quick synopsis (spoiler free as possible) before moving onto my thoughts and feelings about the text. I’d throw in what I liked, what I didn’t like, styles etc... and then finish off with my recommendation (or not). But as this was my strangest read of the year (so far!) I’m going to need to do something different.  

The main characters/protagonists are cousins Thea and Finn. When they were growing up, they had spent many summers at their grandparent's house in the country. Now as adults they find themselves back there after their grandparents have died. As they go through various rooms and pick up various items, they both muse about the past and their complicated family history. But that’s only really the top-level story which kind of holds the essentially non-linear narrative together. Both Thea and Finn are authors. Finn has been commissioned to write a biography of an Australian General (the main story takes place in Australia but no actual geographic location is mentioned) whilst Thea is looking for ideas for her next novel. Whilst looking through her grandfather’s bookcases she comes across a whole set of books either by or about the American author Edgar Allen Poe. What fascinates Thea is not Poe himself but his young wife Virginia who Poe married at the age of 13(!). Prompted by what she finds, Thea begins writing stories around Virginia’s life with Poe and especially towards the end when Virginia was dying from TB. In these stories Virginia also tells stories she has created to anyone who is around at the time. When no one else is available Virginia tells the stories to the family cat. Mixed in with these tales are retellings of some of Poe’s stories from different points of view or as if they were actual historical events (which some of them were actually based on). 

All of the above sounds messy – incoherent even. The surprising thing is – it REALLY works. The author has a wonderfully lyrical way with language. There’s a dreamlike quality throughout the book which almost feels like floating in a hot bath at the end of a long day and hovering at the edge of sleep. Reading it felt like you were surrounded in that weird light you sometimes get on late summer evenings when it seems like time has stopped or slowed to a snail's pace and will last forever. Haunting is a word that continually came to mind. It was, as I’m hoping I’m getting across, quite the experience. I actually picked this up in one of those ‘book exchange’ things that appear for a while and then (sometimes) vanish. The title intrigued me (and the word ‘cat’ definitely helped) and I was attracted by the cover. I’m really glad I chose it even if it took me a few more years to actually getting around to reading it. Definitely recommended if you can source a copy. This is her third book and I’ll be looking out for her others but I think they’re quite difficult to find. 

"In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird."

George Orwell, Nineteen Eight-Four.  

"In the end the Party would announce that two and two make five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy."

George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Just Finished Reading: Divine Might – Goddesses in Greek Myth by Natalie Haynes (FP: 2023) [277pp] 

You would thing, or at least I would, that when we created gods to explain our world, we would have imagined them to be better than us. Sure, we often ended up making them stronger and faster than us but in other ways we were much their superiors. Greek gods (and goddesses) tended to have the morals of feral teenagers and the emotional temperaments of toddlers. Being noticed by a god was bad enough – even when they liked you (mostly a fleeting thing) - but being disliked, well THAT was often a death sentence or worse! The main reason they were worshiped (it seemed) was not to get on their bad side. They were deities who firmly believed that it was much better to be feared than to be loved. I suppose the fact that they were immortal and couldn’t easily be hurt never mind killed helped explain much. If you had almost unlimited power and an eternity to use it in then it's not surprising that you would end up pulling wings off flies, starting years long wars (for entertainment purposes) or meddling in the lives of short-lived mortals. Oh, and then there was the fun of turning said mortals into trees, cows or magpies when they offended you... Anything really to have something to distract you for a moment or (if lucky) two. 

It's difficult not to be fascinated with them though, and I definitely share the authors interests if not (maybe) to the same degree. We tend to absorb the tales of the Greek gods without even thinking of it. Like the author I grew up with movies like ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ and ‘Clash of the Titans’ which couldn’t help colour my appreciation of later divine encounters in books, comics and more modern cinematic interpretations. Greek gods, and honestly to a somewhat lessor extent goddesses, are a pervasive recurring theme through our culture so it’s nice to have someone like the author looking at the original stories (in MANY variations) who can put them into their original context, draw out more modern interpretations and then place them within western cultural thought down the ages.  

A goodly portion of the details of the goddesses portrayed here were new to me – despite being pretty familiar with the individual icons themselves – which was a plus and I’ll be following this up with more investigations both in fiction and non-fiction. We do seem to be living through a new revival of all things Greek mythish which is fun. It’s especially good that we’re seeing many of the lessor known or ignored mythic characters (oddly mostly women – who'd have thought it, right?) which I know several of my readers (and I!) have been enjoying. Hopefully at some point we’ll move beyond the Greek world into other areas like Egypt or points East. We’ll see (I hope). Anyway, if you have any interest in Greek gods and goddesses this is definitely the book for you. Full of interesting stories, strange characters and quite a bit of humour. Definitely recommended and much more to come. 

Happy Birthday: Adeline Virginia Woolf (née Stephen; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English writer. She is considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors. She pioneered the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.

Woolf was born into an affluent household in South Kensington, London. She was the seventh child of Julia Prinsep Jackson and Leslie Stephen in a blended family of eight that included the modernist painter Vanessa Bell. She was home-schooled in English classics and Victorian literature from a young age. From 1897 to 1901, she attended the Ladies' Department of King's College London. There, she studied classics and history, coming into contact with early reformers of women's higher education and the women's rights movement.

Woolf began writing professionally in 1900. During the inter-war period, Woolf was an important part of London's literary and artistic society, and its anti-war position. In 1915, she published her first novel, The Voyage Out, through her half-brother's publishing house, Gerald Duckworth and Company. Her best-known works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928). She is also known for her essays, such as A Room of One's Own (1929).

[I've only read - and enjoyed - her first novel, but intend reading them all in publication order. It should be quite the adventure...]

Just Finished Reading: Guns Off Cape Ann by Kenneth Poolman (FP: 1961) [154pp] 

After years of having their ships harassed and their crews ‘pressed’ into service American patience finally gave way and war was declared. Already deep into its own war with Napoleon, Great Britain was dismissive of this latest act of an upstart nation and with good reason. The Royal Navy, who would be taking the first actions of the conflict, had over a thousand vessels it could call upon whilst the newly formed United States Navy had SIXTEEN. The ‘war’ was going to cause barely a ripple.  

The shock of the first ship to ship fight can be imagined. When the two frigates faced off the outcome was confidently expected – an easy and clear victory for the British. Unfortunately for the pundits at the Admiralty in London it was quite the reverse with the British ship being comprehensively defeated. Tricks, it was proposed, or bad luck! Yet when the navies met again, and again, each time the British ship was roundly defeated. Disbelief was followed by panic. Could the minute American navy really represent a credible threat? More ships were sent across the Atlantic to bolster the overwhelming force already present but it wasn’t a matter of numbers, not at all. It was a matter of neglect, pride and complacency. Something needed to be done to regain the pride and place of the senior service and the British had just the man to do it. 

Captain Philip Broke of the British frigate Shannon was a man who knew his ship and his crew very well indeed. They had sailed together and trained together for years and the ship was renowned for its skill in gunnery. Facing him, presently in Boston harbour, was his opposite number Captain James Lawrence of the American frigate Chesapeake. He was new to the ship (only taking command a matter of days previously) and had hardly begun to know the officers or crew who manned her. Without the benefit of a shakedown cruise or a much-needed refit, Lawrence was determined to make his mark and his name by continuing Britain’s humiliation. Sailing out of harbour he was determined that he would use no tricks, no finesse, no clever tactics but would face his British adversary broadside to broadside. That would be a fatal mistake. 

A mere 13 minutes after the sound of the first cannon shot had faded both ships were wrecked and over a hundred men lay dead or dying. But the Chesapeake took by far the most damage. Barely able to keep afloat and with all of its officers either dead, dying or injured (including its captain who was mortally wounded), boarded and with its ensign struck it was eventually towed to Halifax, Nova Scotia as a prize. Honour had been restored at a great cost to all involved and many lessons had been learned – at least for the British. 

The War of 1812 seems to have been largely forgotten by the world and by historians. Naturally it was overshadowed by the much larger and much more significant Napoleonic Wars but still it does seem somewhat more than an oversight. I can’t help wondering if both sides aren’t more than a little embarrassed about it all. The notable absence (or at least rarity) of books on the subject seems to point that way. I came across this old, slim and out of print volume almost by accident and have only managed to acquire two more books – one almost as old – on the subject. It was an interesting little scrap for a number of reasons and I’m interested to find out more about it. This book filled in a very small part of the story but I need something a bit more expansive. I hope that will be covered by my next book on the subject. A recommended read, especially for all Age of Sail enthusiasts, if you can source a copy.   

The Universe (or The Matrix) is being particularly playful today....! I'm presently reading a book about Greek Goddesses and was just finishing up a chapter on Aphrodite when my radio - tuned to Classic FM - started playing Venus (Aphrodite's Roman name) from the Planet Suite by Holst. If that wasn't enough I have just returned home with a pair of books by Julian Stockwin from my local charity shop. They're Age of Sail historical adventures books 2 & 3 in the series (I *think* I already have the first book). The 2nd books title is Artemis - which just so happens to be the NEXT Goddess in the book I'm reading.... Well played Universe... Well played..... [rotflmao]

Just Finished Reading: Spynest – British and German Espionage From Neutral Holland 1914-1918 by Edwin Ruis (FP: 2012) [239pp] 

Spies are apparently the second oldest profession but the kind of espionage we easily associate with World War Two was very new during the Great War. Part of the problem was, it seemed, that “Gentlemen do not read each other's letters”. So, what is a covert organisation to do? Hire, use or otherwise acquire people who are most definitely NOT gentlemen to do the dirty work for you. In both the case of the Germans and the British, and indeed the Dutch who kept an eye on both parties as they operated in their country, they employed conmen, swindlers, thieves and, when required, prostitutes. Very few of these would be considered ‘professional’ spies in the modern sense. What we now regard as such is a surprisingly modern arrival. 

Needless to say, such people were anything but reliable – either they simply took the money on offer and ran or reported back with completely or partially fabricated ‘information’. They were, as a class, either practically useless or positively harmful. Such activities couldn’t really last and, after much trial and error, a more professional organisation – on all sides began to emerge using military and ex-police as operatives although a thief or professional burglar still had their uses. 

The Dutch position was an interesting one. Unlike in the Second World War Holland remained unoccupied and neutral. They knew that their neutrality was somewhat fragile and made great efforts to neither antagonise the Central Powers or the Triple Entante. They did, however, have their favourite. It was considered that Germany posed the greater threat to their sovereignty despite a sometimes-adversarial history with Great Britain. In both cases they made a simple deal – share your findings with us (the Dutch) and don’t use violence on our streets and you can do as you please (within reason). The British accepted the deal with pleasure, the Germans were much more reluctant and suffered for it. It was over the war period a difficult balancing act – especially as both the British and Germans used Dutch nationals in their endeavours to spy and counter-spy on each other but the alternative was far more dangerous. They had Belgium, their next-door neighbour, as an example of what might happen if their neutrality went up in flames. 

As I knew almost nothing about Great War espionage (or, to be honest, the role of Holland in the war) this was often a most interesting read. A few things surprised me including just how amateur espionage was in the early years of the war. The other thing that really struck me was the number of spies executed in England – by firing squad at the Tower of London no less!  - for often very minor spying activity. What was clear from the outset was that Germany wasn’t very good at the whole spying game and their efforts generally fell flat (as they did by and large in the re-match 20 years later). The Brits, eventually, go their act together although overall espionage didn’t (apparently) account for very much in the end. A fairly quick read and (often) quite the eye-opener. More on this subject – from those involved – to come. Recommended for those interested in early espionage and who like reading around the edges of the World Wars. 

Happy Birthday: Takeshi Kitano (born January 18, 1947), also known as Beat Takeshi in Japan, is a Japanese comedian, actor, and filmmaker. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host.

During his time as a student at Meiji University, he became a comedian at the strip theater France-za in Asakusa, Tokyo. In 1973, he formed a comedy duo called Two Beat with Kiyoshi Kaneko, who later became Beat Kiyoshi. Kitano adopted the stage name Beat Takeshi. Riding the wave of the comedy boom, he gained popularity with satirical and sharp-tongued black humor. In the 1980s, he appeared in TV shows such as Oretachi Hyōkin-zoku which recorded the highest viewership rating of 29.1%, and Takeshi's Castle which recorded 24.7%, becoming explosively popular on television. He gained recognition as an actor in director Nagisa Ōshima's film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983). In 1989, he made his directorial debut with the film Violent Cop after Kinji Fukasaku stepped down. He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his film Hana-bi (1997), becoming the third Japanese director to receive this honor after Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi Inagaki. In October 2017, Kitano completed his Outrage crime trilogy with the release of Outrage Coda. He is also known internationally for hosting the game show Takeshi's Castle (1986–1990) and starring in the film Battle Royale (2000).

Takeshi co-starred in the live action adaptation of the manga Ghost in the Shell, marking his return to American cinema nearly twenty years after Johnny Mnemonic in 1995. Although he has expressed his dislike of anime and manga in the past, he accepted the role because "even though this stylish piece of entertainment is totally different from the films I've directed, I thought it was interesting that Aramaki, the role I play, is a character who gives off a peculiar vibe and, in various episodes, is set at the core of the characters' relationships. I'm looking forward to see how the movie turns out."

Just Finished Reading: How to Survive a Crisis – Lessons in Resilience and Avoiding Disaster by David Omand (FP: 2023/2024) [315pp] 

Crisis seems to be THE word of the 21st century, be it economic, environmental or political. Crisis is everywhere and those without direct experience of its effects are becoming quite the rarity. But if crisis is becoming more common, which seems to be the case, what can be done about it? This is the question raised, and largely addressed, in this interesting book. Somewhat disappointingly, however, it doesn’t look at things from the street level as I’d hoped. Instead, the author, who REALLY knows his stuff, looks at crisis survival from the level of governments and business leaders which is understandable given his expertise. 

Despite the disappointment I felt on putting the book down I did find many parts of it quite fascinating. Not only did the author range over a huge landscape of crisis after crisis – from nuclear accidents (and near misses), to various wars (Indo-China, Vietnam, the Falklands, Ukraine, Iraq/Afghanistan), Covid-19, Cyber-attacks, depressions and supply chain failures, Brexit, and much else besides – he was actually ‘in the room’ for some of it actually advising the UK government and other agencies about how they should cope with an emergency (to avoid it becoming a crisis), how to clean up afterwards or how to prepare for things ahead of a crisis.  

As you might imagine a lot of this was high-level and theoretical, calling on real-world events where applicable. The author worked through the ‘arc’ of a crisis pointing out break points, areas of opportunity when an emergency could be prevented from becoming a full-blown crisis and most definitely not a disaster! He looked at ways that organisations and states could increase their resilience to weather the initial shock so enabling them to respond to events in a co-ordinated planned manner. He looked at the difference between a slow-burn crisis and one that arrives completely out of the ‘blue’ and how to monitor the slower burning one so it doesn’t end up sneaking up on you. To drive the points home, at the end of each chapter are ‘takeaways’ to enable the building of plans and strategies to cope with, recover from and (hopefully) avoid any crisis coming our way. 

Although this was more interesting than useful this was still worth the effort of reading. The main themes of watching for the often overlooked slow-burn crisis and the building up of resilience (in practical terms as well as psychologically) are important ones that can be applied even down at ‘our’ level at the individual shallow end. If you’re a member of a larger organisation, and most especially if you’re involved in any kind of support role, there are many lessons that can be taken on board here and applied to your profession. One of the things I did find particularly interesting – with several crisis events ongoing – was regarding media use. Seeing/hearing various organisations using the playbook the author mentioned when using various types of media was instructive especially when hearing the same type of language used by very different organisations dealing with apparently very different circumstances. Recommended for a number of reasons.  

Happy World Logic Day............... Yeah, good luck with that... [lol]

I'm old enough to remember 'life' before remote control. It was the age of the smallest kid in the room being tasked to change channel at an order from the parent (or older sibling). Kids of today have NO idea what it was like back then.... THREE channels and if you missed the show or showed up late you missed it - FOR EVER......