A year in Provence and Tourjours Provence Revisited

It is still cold but the snow has departed, time for Scottish porridge oats breakfast and lots of French onion soup. It is became a day for one new film and one old.

In 1993 the BBC produced an engaging escapist mini TV series starring John Thaw as Peter Mayale, who after 15 years in advertising had packed up and described his first year as a writer in Province in Southern France, entitled a Year in Province, based on his seventh book. This was followed by a sequel Tourjours Province. I have both books which are delightful with black and white line drawings. I had stayed in province in 1991 and my novel written in 1991 an 1993 was based on a hill town in the same area.

When the film based on his book. A good year came to motion picture screen in 2006 I intended to view and it has been on my list for sometime. It is romantic Peter Mayale where the South of France hinterland is always summer and locals work hard but have a great time when not working. Russell Crowe is convincing as an unscrupulous city trader but his conversion into a romantic small vineyard estate owner is less than convincing. Some who is as ruthless and successful as portrayed odes not change that easily. However if the story is to believed that he had a wonderful childhood with the now deceased owner of the villa it is equally difficult to understand how or why he became such a ruthless market operator and general exploiter and user of anyone and everyone. However having said this was very enjoyable and aroused much hankering to have been a Peter Mayale is some parallel dimension instead of having only made five visits during my lifetime, two weeks in a caravan neat Saint Tropez, to weeks in camp site Las Salisis, one week there and another further towards the Spanish Border, a few days camping in a car and two week is Villa with its private swimming pool. Just thinking about I feel the sun, remember going for the crusty bread and spending days in and out of the pool eating the bread with salami, olives and cheese, drinking wine.

Sign, sigh, sigh. Oh to escape again the sense of responsibility and duty for those who presently starve and are sick, exploited and persecuted.

The second film is a British curiosity which can be taken two ways and was the subject of controversy, the Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Idealism versus contemporary reality.
My impression that that the British and the North Americans remain two collections of people who retain a strong sense of romantic idealism and chivalry in their character, Christian based. Of course if you examine the history of both nations the practice is very different and during the evening I watched another side of Boris Johnston London’s Mayor programme on The Crusades in which Christian and Muslim the two great slaughtering religions of the past two thousands took to exterminating religious ethnic cleansing on a scale which we were only to see matched by the Christian German people in World War II, While during the Crusades the main slaughtering in the tens of thousands was between Christian and Muslim and Christian and Christian both Christian and Muslim took the opportunity to slaughter as many of the Jew as came their way. Interestingly is was during the 300 years when the Moors occupied most of Spain that the Muslim learnt to live along the Jew to a degree.

In Colonel Blimp Roger Liversey un unlikely Errol Flynn Gary Cooper type of hero plays a high principled military officer who wins the Victoria cross in the Boer war and on an official visit to Germany is forced to fight a point of honour duel with someone he has never met selected by lot. To disguise the real reason for the duel so as not exacerbate Anglo German relations after the Boer War , a German speaking English Governess is required o pretend to be his girl friend , the faked cause of the dispute, the period of weeks in which he and the German officer convalesce in a nursing home from their injuries which led to the duel being declared a draw and honour satisfied.

To pass the time the female friend played by a young Deborah Kerr, Roger. the German Officer, played by British Cinema Screen heartthrob Anton Walbrook and the female friend of the German spend the evenings playing Bridge and become great friends. When it is time for Roger and Deborah to depart too late Roger discovers that he has fallen in love with the English woman, because she and the German officer have become engaged, and she remains behind , marries and has two sons.

Then when World War I breaks out Liversey clings to the military code of honour while this post World War 2 film argues that it its Germans who introduced indiscriminate bombing, the use of mustard gas and the torturing of prisoners. And thus began the British and USA dilemma of the past 100 years.
Does one fight fire with fire or try and maintains standards which help retain the moral high ground. This is something has divided the British nation strongly as seen by the number of people on the streets during the Suez Crisis and the decision to go to War in Iraq.

As the armistice is signed Roger makes his way home and sees a nurses who looks identical to Deborah Kerr, which is not surprising as she also plays this part and he makes great efforts to find her when he returns home and they marry, arranging a house in London, but postpone a Paris honeymoon, when he finds that he German friend is still a prisoner of war of England. They go to see him but he refuses acknowledge, humiliated and ashamed in defeats, However he contacts Roger as he is about to be returned home with the disbandment of the army and Roger invites him to his home during a dinner party of senior officers in the armed services and colonial government and they do their best to raise the moral of their recent enemy. When he rejoins his comrades on their way back to Germany he mocks the attitudes and standards of the British, suggesting that it will be easier for the Germany win the war to come when they regain their military strength.

The film then jumps to just before World War II when the German officer is seeking asylum in London and is before a hearing in which he is question why it took him so long to reach against Hitler to which he rejoins that while it took him several months it took the British five years. He refers to the loss of his wife and that his two sons have become loyal Nazis. And he speaks of his admiration of British standards and way of life in contrast to that of the new Germany. Liversey arrives to confirm his friend and to take him home. Only to find that first he is prevented from making a BBC broadcast and then is retired from the services. Meanwhile we learn that his wife has also died while making a an unexplained visit to Jamaica. He appointed to lead the Home Guard in London and he finds drive who looks exactly like, you’ve guess it, played by Deborah Kerr who has boyfriend who is on the other side in a training exercise between the Home Guard and would be invading army. The exercise is due to commence at midnight but the boyfriend leading the exercise attacked in the evening rounding up the officers who are having Turkish bath at their club. The film ends and it began with the modern British army about to start to win the Second World War by brining itself up to-date with weapons and tactics against the old older of Colonel Blimp. The film can be interpreted as a statement that the old value need to be retained but applied in contemporary situations making use of the best available equipment, intelligence technology, and British ingenuity and determination as well as skill.

I watched part of the X factor where the voting public continues to demonstrate that popularity has nothing to do with ability, skill, creativity, excellence and more to do with likeability. It also high lights the generation gap between those with minimum standards and those without, The 15 year old of limited ability but will be liked by children and their mums and won through tot he final against four female singers of international quality and potential. Similarly an ordinary group of boys have been pushed forward because no group has won the competition and because of the ethnic origins. This week the semi final the most original and unique of the females was consequently discarded, admitted by the public. Democracy is a hard task master.

Merlin was interesting this week because it reinforced the need for everyone to make their own decision, after taking Counsel, even wise counsel. My long lost friend, the author of Smallcreeps Day used to and may still do hire out his authentic alchemists laboratory. Alchemy was in part the subject of the programme this week aided by Magic.

I listened to Newcastle playing Stoke and alas after a splendid first half with two Michael Owen goals their opponents rallied to achieve a draw in the last seconds of the game. I was impressed with Roy Keane during the period when he rescued Sunderland who were sliding back into the old third division and took them to the top of the Championship playing frenetic cut and thrust traditional football. During their first season back in the Premiership when they only survived because of pressing hard until the end and scoring crucial goals in the final minutes, often in extra time. I understood the need to experiment with players in an attempt to find the best balanced team which could make progress, but the extent of the changes and the nature of some of the changes did nor herald a good season when it commenced in summer. The idea that Cisse and Kenwyn Jones could work together was a major error and with the loss of six games including three at home his departure was only a matter of time, oddly as a volatile character on the field of play he was too laid back, too cool on the sidelines to establish himself as a personality who could move players to perform several notches above their natural level. Whereas I was not in favour he move of Sam Alladyce to Newcastle he may be the man now for Sunderland/ Yesterday team held out for 90 minutes at Old Trafford without making one serious attempt on the Man U goal. Fortunately I could do other things while the one of those most entertaining matches oft he year took place.

My work is progressing at a good level, but not great way, although I have put in many hours on my writing over recent weeks at the expense of other project work. I continue to try and increase the number of friends to match the number of Blogs but I am still significantly behind with some 494 friends and 576 Blogs completed. I make time to enjoy the wonderful art work, information and music that is on the majority of the additional sites and which puts my own effort to shame. Hieronymus Bosh, Paul Gauguin, Diego Rivera, Henri Rousseau, Salvador Dali, Degas, De Chirico, David, Toulouse Lautrec and Bernini are among recent artist, Marcel Proust, Allen Ginsberg, Thomas Grady, Lord Byron and Albert Camus from Literature, and a wide range of music from REM, Diana Krall to Billy Bragg, Beethoven and Elton john and Miss Sophie and the Dixie Chicks. I have not succeeded with the cinema as hope so will try further, but additions have included Robert Altman, Antonioni , Hitchcock, Sophie Loren and John Houstin who merited some Blog work mentions, with Orson Wells and Edward G Robinson still to do. Their are two President Elect Barack Obama, one his official MySpace site and Daniel Pearl and the music days.

I was successfully in only one of the four computer games selected in achieve 101 wins without a draw and defeat in Free Cell but stopped the run until I have succeeded in at least one of the others. At chess my best run is 46 wins and current at 97% overall, with some 110 games played back to level one; at Spider the best run was 71 with at present 31 games and 95% of some 130 games overall. Heart was my Achilles heel with previously an 11% percentage increased to just under 50%. I am much better but still 89% with a best run of 11 games from the 47 played.

Ed Balls appears to be taking an increasing grip on child acre social work and to be explaining why they allowed the situation at Harringey to go on for over a year after Baby P died. First they have placed the blame squarely on Harringey who provided incorrect information which let to the three star rating of the department, but they also admit it was scandalous of the Inspectorate have relied on written data given the previous horror and have immediately introduced the annual spot check on all departments. He also appears to have worked out that training bodies, supervised practice while in training, close supervision during the first year of practice and continued supervision of everyone undertaking direct client contact or direct decision taking is essential and ordered a national review. Hopefully he will ensure that his Inspectorate take a close look at what happened between 1970 and 2000, especially on the influence of the Newcastle Mafia on the direction of child care with the strangle hold on both the Association of Directors of Social Services and the Local Government Association

Later Ed Balls appeared at the beginning of the politics show and I continue to be impressed both with his understanding and proposed action. Both the Politics show and the World at one featured David Cameron saying that he wanted to have confidence in the Speak of the Commons which is not the same as saying that he had confidence and about a quarter of over 100 Labour backbenchers surveyed expressed significant reservation about what ahs happened. I had reservations about the way he appeared to be passing the buck to the Sergeant at arms and the Police and at lunchtime there was an impressive contribution from a former deputy Speaker which said all there was to say on the subject, It is odd that some Members of the Government, The Prime Minister and now Ed balls have come out in favour of the Speaker while others Harriet Harman notably appeared to adopt the role of Pontius Pilot on all aspects as had the Home Secretary. I suspect a lot will depend on whether the present amendment to for the government to have a majority on the investigation committee and for it not to sit until the police come to a decision on the issue of criminal proceedings. If it is upheld I doubt if the Speaker will survive into the next Parliament, If a compromise can be reached including the opportunity for all those who wish to comment to have their say in the subsequent debate then. The Executive will need to also handle the proceedings and debate with care if they are to maintain the this is largely a party political divide, similarly Mr Cameron and the Senior Tories must concentrate on the role of Parliament and Members of the House of Commons. The issues raised are above Party politics.

Smallcreeps Day

Over reaction is not something which President Elect Obama can be accused of, so far. One of my strengths used to be that of not getting in a panic when faced with the unexpected and to establish all the available relevant information, to go through options and to try and predict consequences, however unlikely. I try and remind myself of this when I now become overwhelmed, usually with my own increasing physical frailty.

I awoke determined to do something about my weight and lack of physical fitness, restricting food to a cuppa soup and one slice of unbuttered bread around 11 am and then resisting the call of some filled pasta shells at midday and going to Sunderland by bus to make a purchase. The temperature was above 50 degrees and in the autumnal sunshine it was very pleasant making my way to the bus station where the 35 route bus arrived just as I was about to sit down. I enjoy this route although it does not take the coast road. Once passed the shops and the Town Hall and the War Memorial, the bus turned into Harton Village which all part of the continuous residential housing does have its own villagy feel with the posh wash laundrette to indicate that this area is the most prosperous part of South Shields with large villas and even larger gardens and the former grammar school. There are just a few shops here and the local police station, before The Nook another shopping area going from East to West across the road from Cleadon Park. In fairness to its name this once notorious but now demolished housing estate does have the vast acres of open parkland which runs for a mile on one side of main road before reaching Jarrow and with the Cleadon Hills to the other from where an area from the Tyne River to the Wear River and beyond can be viewed. What caught my eye in this instance is that a second all singing and dancing health centre is to be built at the junction and I assume it will be as spectacular as my own, or more accurately the one I attend at the bottom of the hill to my home. A new estate of contemporary designed houses for sale is in the process of creation with old a few of older houses still standing waiting for demolition.

The bus did not take the main route but went along the Nook and then took the road to Cleadon Village where some of the most expensive properties on Tyneside can be found, together with the Sunderland Football Club Training centre and Academy. My attention was fixed on the back of a woman sitting ahead in the bus who I later discovered was about my own age. Her head was fitted into a cap similar to that worn by Charleston girls, full of charms and glitter and which also had side pieces of gauze like material also covered with sparkles. She appeared to be wearing a woollen top or coat and on this was also sewn badges and butterflies. She had with her shopping a shopping trolley with the top covered with metal badges and she also had a large bunch of dried flowers. She formed a wonderful sight, long since adjusted to her own eccentricity and I wished I had the time to attempt to find out more about her. We were soon on our way along the main Newcastle to Sunderland Road, passed the Grange pub where within the last decade it was possible to get two three course meals for £10 or two main course for 5 from a selection of ten including fish and chops and three sausages, mash and onion gravy. I wondered how the Newcastle Road traditional swimming baths are faring since the creation of the Olympic size pool and fitness centre was completed a mile further next to the Stadium of Light, home of Sunderland Football Club.

I got off the bus at Joplings store and thought about their cream teas and also thought further along such lines on passing the new coffee lounge with armchairs in the main covered thoroughfare of the shopping centre which was once a road with traffic when I arrived in 1974. I held firm and made my way to the recently opened Collectables store to make my purchase.

I was also on the look out for a second hand or specialist furniture store in search of an empty cutlery box and consequently made my way out of the precinct at the other hand towards a street where I hope I might find such an enterprise, Before then I had looked in at the crush in a card shop already full of Christmas thingies which confirmed the need to get on with the making of a list and then the getting. The local supermarket had removed all indications of Halloween including the lifelike ghost with three half aisles devoted to the season, and outside the Sunderland shopping one of the main Christmas trees in the town was already installed with lights attached but not switched on. I also had a little detour to see what had happened to the central Leisure centre This was a vast practical building divided by a covered way with the former ice skating rink on one side and a large Mediterranean style pool complete with wave machine on the other, fitness centre, sauna and café. You could see inside if you used the covered walkway. A notice explained that the pool and fitness centre had moved but there were sports halls, meetings rooms and the sauna remaining. The windows had been covered for two thirds of their height so the walkway was now cold, badly lit and an obvious place for drug addicts and drunks to congregate.

I did not find the require store but passing a greengrocers I could not resist the offer of three cartons of seedless red grapes for £1, especially as the supermarket charged £3 for two cartons of a similar size and this was a discount of ten percent on the individual carton price. I made my way to the bus station and walked in the wrong direction for the buses to South Shields. That added to the exercise factor The four routes home were all scheduled about the same time and I decided on the E6 which although the longest route took me passed some areas I wished to see. The route out from Sunderland to the river Bridge is common and then this route travels to Fulwell and Dykelands Road and the sea front close to my former home. Here there were four individuals in wet suit with the large colourful wind catching type kites but where one was standing on a water board driven along by the wind. It was not clear if the others intended to do likewise.

I nearly forgot the mental note to try Wilkinsons in Shields and Sunderland as places that might have the kind of box required. Yesterday on AOL UK there was a front page advertisement showing a number of mansions available for purchase in England from a Thames side penthouse to the mansion at Whitburn going for £3.5 million and one I would buy if winning at least £10 million in the Euro lottery. What dreams may come. You can get the briefest of glimpses from the coast road if you know where to look.

From Whitburn village the bus turns away from the coast road and runs parallel between extensive farmland up to the Cleadon Hills and overlooking the coast. It then passes through the South Shields and Whitburn golf courses and reaches the road back to the Nook. However the route is not direct into Shields but to Chichester and Bolden Lane where I travelled each day between August 2004 and August 2007 to visit my mother. This reminds that I met a former member of staff in the town centre last week who said that most of the staff from that time had now left, so I decided I would not visit this Christmas but just send a card, It was during this latter part of the journey that for the second time in the day my curiosity was aroused as first a family of a father complete with case and guitar, son and teenage daughter all with rucksacks and bags got one and sat together. And then at an interval but the same stop a woman with bags who I immediate assumed was the wife and mother and then later, at a different stop a gentleman of about my age with shaven polished head also got on with a bag, acknowledge the foursome but engaged in conversation with other passengers who he knew. All five got off at the Chichester Metro and one of the other passengers said hope you have a good trip after being informed they were away until Monday. Where were they going? To Catch a train or take the link to the Airport? Was it a holiday or some performance with the guitar?

I returned home as the sun had disappeared under cloud and made myself a cup of tea but could not resist one mince pie. Later I had half a dozen olives stuffed with garlic and the pasta as a side dish to the sea bream covered with a Parsley sauce. I had opened the wrong packet first time round for an instant curry I ended the meal with some grapes and later a coffee, I will not buy more instant packet sauces when present supply ends.

On return and switching on the computer there was a new My Space message which opened an amazing doorway into my past. On Thursday I had received a friend request from the Constant Father, a 12 minute film, adding a note that the writer had been interested to find that I had listed Smallcreeps Day, a novel as one of my 101 books and which was considered to be one of the most interesting books the writer had read. This stopped me in my tracks

Smallcreeps Day was written by Peter Currell Brown and published by Victor Gollancz in 1965, Peter had been a close friend during 1960 and 1961 and we had made several trips together, travelling to Scotland, Wales and various parts of England, and frequently sharing accommodation. He had married in 1962 and we lost contact during the 1960's. While the book had received some favourable criticism at the time it was Peter's only work published. How had the writer come across this work?

An internet search provided the explanation. The book had been printed as a paperback and recently reprinted to considerable critical acclaim and in 1980 Michael Rutherford a founder member of Genesis had produced a solo album called Smallcreeps Day on the first side was a suite inspired by the novel. On You Tube I found a short film of Peter reading a favourite passage from the book and looking as I remembered albeit some four decades ago. Although Peter had worked in a factory on which his surreal novel is based he loved working with his hands especially using a potter's wheel and clay and he was the earliest environmentalist I have known. According to Wikipedia Peter worked for a time at Peter Scott's Wildfowl Trust at Slimbridge and set up his own Pottery, the Snake Pottery and since the later 1980s has been involved in a range of activities, a master craftsman living in cottage on the edge of woodland. WOW.

I hope I have resolved the getting on line difficulties and did some e mail housekeeping clearing the Spam file only to find that a Travel Lodge advance notice of £9 a night rooms February to the beginning of April had been misdirected but fortunately I was only a day out and able to book several nights in March for a trip to greater London within yards of a railway station so I have the choice of travelling by car, by coach or train,

I wrote recently of my first visit to Newark and while shaving recently I listened to a BBC radio five story where the local council had moved the Poppy Day stall from its traditional position to a new one on grounds of Safety thus causing a significant loss income. Those responsible at the Council should be ashamed. I was talking to a former colleague manning out local stall this week, ideally situation under cover in a strategic position in the town centre supermarket who reported that here had been a significant increase in donations and while there a young man in in early twenties arrived, possibly younger and put a ten pound note in one of the collecting boxes. I live in an area in what used to have the highest levels of social deprivation in the UK although through efforts of the local authority and with help from central government the situation has improved and the local paper announced a new yesterday 400 job hi tec factory was to be built and follows on a 400 job call centre in a purpose built office on the Riverside close to where I live and a few miles away the Nissan car factory which announced last year it was moving from two shift to a three shift assembly having become one of the most efficient car producing plants in the world.
I was also in Nottingham this summer, for the cricket, and where the ground is a short distance from Nottingham Forest football club where along with Derby County Brian Clough took the clubs to the top winning things within a remarkably short period of time. Fans of the club have raised £70000 for a statue of Brian which was unveiled in the town centre this week, in the company of many former players and the present day team. It was great to see and to learn that his widow, his Football manager son, and other family members were thrilled by the what has been created. Last year a similar statue was unveiled in a park in Middlesborough where Brian played before becoming a manager.

Earlier in the day I had debated going to see W the Oliver Stone film about George Bush which brings to mind the science fiction series V in which was about a race of Lizards taking human form in order to colonise the world. So after the Lizard came George, although I assume in this instance the W stands for his second Christian name initial. What will a whole generation of standup comics and satirist now do when George leave office in January. I cannot believe they will attempt to poke fun at Barrack and expect to survive professionally.

Brideshead Revisisted final thoughts

Book and film reviews usually tell you much about their author, sometimes more than they tell you about the nature and the quality of the work in question. This is as it should be because each of us will have an experience governed by what has gone before, what we have become, and what has been our purpose and expectation in deciding to use valuable time on this activity instead of another.

When engaged in some work in depth, as I try to understand and evaluate from the viewpoint of the creator, the judgement of others and my own, I prefer to make a commentary as I go along with a loose leaf notebook and then reconsider what has been written and form a judgement which I can live with. The taking of notes can spoil the emotional involvement but I need them as a means of absorbing information and fact, supplemented later through the internet, my library and other records. I wish I had a photographic memory and an encyclopaedic ability to recall knowledge. Sometimes I know there are other references, relationships, similarities with other work, but usually I have to move on, unable to justify to myself the time required to substantiate what may be no more than a feeling.

With Brideshead Revisited, the work has become the main activity of three days it was essential to read the final page and experience again the last scene of the TV adaptation to understand the significance of aspects of what has gone before and the author's primary objective. He may have commenced the work with only a concept or the rough outline of what he wanted to achieve. But for me it is work where the final words are the springboard of everything that happens before and was constructed to achieve than end.

Throughout the book in all his talks with each member of the family you feel he protests his agnosticism too much. He likes Cordelia, the youngest member of the family because of their shared love for Sebastian and he respects her faith although is puzzled by it and questions her about the sense of vocations she has which takes her to the convent and then work in Spain during the Civil war and then to North Africa with Julia and Bridey during world war 2. Bridey who is serious about his faith, contemplating becoming a Jesuit but accepting his duty as first son is progress to the title and look after the estate, however he only occupies a small suite of room at the top of the house after his mother dies. He changes his approach when he gets married to a woman older than he, wanting to take over Brideshead, but his hopes of son are questionable to have a son, not realising that the widow is past child bearing and just interested in finding security for herself and her children. The marriage is blessed by the Pope although the instigation for this appears to be his wife whose original marriage was blessed as one of a group of 70 new brides. He appears to accept without a fight when his father decided to entail the estate to Julia and not his first born because of dislike for his wife as Common. It is Bridey telling his sister, Lady Julia, that his wife will not be able to meet Julia while she lives in sin that precipitates the emotional and spiritual break down. Bridey disapproves that Charles has not religion but he treats him with respect and is instrumental in kick starting his career as a fashionable painter inviting him to undertake paintings of the London Home, Marchmain House before it is pulled down.

Despite professing indifference to what Lady Marchmain has to say he dopes not ridicule her Catholicism to her face and is embarks upon the mission to try and bring Sebastian to see before she dies. One has the impression that had Charles been willing to convert to Catholicism she would have accept his marriage to Julia whether as she remained opposed to the marriage of her daughter to Rex Mottram recognising the kind of man he was. That Sebastian is so hostile to his mother and the Catholic church, doing everything he can to rebel, indicates the strength of his boyhood beliefs which only changed when his father insisted on sending him to that bastion of the British Aristocratic, Political and Church of England establishment, Eton, followed by Christ Church generally accepted as the Oxford playground for the upper class, day. It is therefore no surprise that he is shown as becoming deeply spiritual and being cared for by an order of Brothers. I see more of Sebastian in me that I like.

The TV adaptation suggests that he takes up with Julia on the voyage from New York after two years on his won painting, his wife who has come to see him as a wife in society and a mother at a point when he is seeking passion as part of a total relationship experience which makes him feel alive. She has an unhappy marriage and un unhappy affair which took her to New York. One suspects that he would have had had an affair with anyone who had become available but Julia offers more, connection with his past relationship with Sebastian and the family and a life at Brideshead. He makes no effort to understand the hold Catholicism has had on her or how to cope when she breaks down after Bridey brings out her underlying conflict over her way of life and Catholic heritage and upbringing. ( As an aside I kept thinking of Princess Margaret who became something of a rebel, unable to marry the man of her choice because he was divorced, then taking up with an society artist photographer, then having affairs off shore, but always letting no one forget she was the Queen's sister with status and duties).

The first of two scenes at the end of the book upon which reveals the purpose of the whole work begins when it is Charles who objects on behalf of Lord Marchmain when Bridey and Cordelia insist that a priest try to give him the final absolution for his sins. He is delighted when Lord Marchmain dismisses the priest and horrified when it is Julia who takes the lead in arranging a second try as her father's health deteriorates. While it can be argued that Julia is only showing respect for her mother's belief and gratitude to her father for entailing the estate to her rather than Bridey, we are aware, as Charles is shown to be aware, that this is more about Julia's own inner turmoil as it is about saving the soul of her father.

When father makes the sign of the cross in response to the request to give some physical indication that he is sorry for his sins and wants forgiveness of God, it is a vindication for the life and beliefs of Lord Brideshead and Lady Cordelia and its confirms what lady Julia has been feeling, that she has to return to the fundamentals of her former faith. Charles finds himself in conflict hoping that Lord Marchmain resists and vindicate his own position that this is all mumbo jumbo, but he also hopes there will be some sign because he knows how important this is for Cordelia, Bridey and Julia, who he has deep feelings for.

However it only when the sign of the cross is made that he feels its force and significance and knows that his relationship with Julia will never be the same again. It is however at the point that I begin to understand Evelyn Waugh who through the character of Charles finds it difficult to feel as others feels, he has always felt an outsider, looking on, envious, wishing he was part of something other than his life, wishing he could feel the passion and abandonment of others, whether for their faith, as an artist, as a drunkard or as a lover. He is attracted to Sebastian first because the man is an exhibitionist going around Oxford carrying a teddy bear and wearing clothes which draw everyone's attention and soon he is wearing the same clothes and behaving in the same way ; he is seen out and about with Antoine, Anthony Blanche, an open gay exhibitionist who gets him ducked in the river; he goes around with Boy Mulcaster loud, obnoxious member of the aristocracy who takes him and Sebastian to a hostess dive which gets him before the courts after the car in which they are taking three women away for an orgy is involved in a near accident. He continues to behave as an outsider in the Army, separate from the men and fellow officers. These and other instances show that Charles, and I suggest Evelyn Waugh want to belong to something more than painting, marriage, fatherhood and pleasures.

We therefore come to that last page in the book and last scene in TV Adaptation, and which is inadequately handled in the film. The significance of the oil lamp light in the Brideshead Chapel. Unless you are a Catholic, one does not appreciate its significance, (the Olympic flame is a secular form) The blessed light in her chapel symbolises faith and justice.. A Catholic does not expect worldly success and most Catholics are prepared for suffering in life and at death. They do not expect happiness or look for it but to be in a state of grace. This is also of importance in other religions. The Muslim fundamentalist also sees his sacrifice as achieving a state to grace for himself and also for his family. Both believe it their duty to convert others to their faith to prevent souls being lost and in fairness Catholics and Christians have used the sword to achieve this objective in past times, However those who feel their faith know and understand that you can never force another to change beliefs and have to find a faith for themselves.

When Charles Ryder see that flame still lit in the Chapel at Brideshead he goes off in a Churchillian statement about its significance for all those fighting against the contemporary tyranny of the day, but he also understand its significance against injustice and tyranny throughout time and as a statement of undying faith.

He also understands and feels it statement of faith and what Catholicism can mean and is on his way to a meaningful conversion acceptable to the church and in literary terms acceptable Julia and by implication he is on his way to achieving his dream or marrying Julia if he can convince her of his faith after the war and they both survive.

He also learnt that Brideshead was part of the means and not an end in itself, d something which Julia has her doubts about, do you want me or Brideshead more she asks, would you give Brideshead up and give my faith a chance? Alas he is not yet ready and a Hollywood ending is not the point. I do not know what kind of Catholic Evelyn Waugh became but he seems to me one of those who recognise that churches, bibles and rituals can become obstacles to the practice of faith.

Having read the book and viewed the TV adaptation once more I maintain the opinion that the new film is a good attempt to communicate the main points and objectives of the book and it is possible to forgive the liberties taken with crucial aspects of the story.

Brideshead Revisited again

Brideshead Revisited was published as three books. The first opens with the return of Charles Ryder, during World War Two as preparations to free Europe from Fascism are underway, and he begins to look back how he first came to visit the property and developed relationships with all the members of the Catholic aristocratic family in residence. The focus is the relationship with Lord Sebastian Flyte, the younger son, during their idyllic first year at Oxford, and long summer vacation spent at Brideshead and two weeks at Venice. The relationship ends as Sebastian becomes an unhappy alcoholic driven between his need for pleasure and unhappiness arising from his Catholic based guilt, constantly reinforced by the fundamental beliefs and practices of his mother Lady Marchmain. While the end of their day to day relations top is instigated by Lady Marchmain, Charles realises that he cannot help his friend to break the addiction and that Sebastian wants him to collude with the addiction and end contact with other family members. Throughout the book there is an examination of what Catholicism means to the six members of the Flyte family compared to the agnosticism of Charles and his dismissal of Catholic faith and ritual as mumbo jumbo.

The second book is a Transition during which time Charles progress as painter studying in Paris after leaving Oxford at he end of his second year. He loses all contact with Sebastian who se subsequently finds at the request of the dying Lady Marchmain living in dreadful conditions in North Africa, without his allowance, after stealing £300 pounds from the fiancée of the eldest sister, Lady Julie. Sebastian is too weak to return home and his mother dies before he is in a position to decide what to do. Charles is commissioned to paint pictures of the internal and external views of the Marchmain House, their London home which is to be turned into a block of flats. He makes his name as a fashionable artist painting views of Stately homes. We learn that Julia the eldest sister has married the socially ambitious fiancée despite parental opposition. This marriage takes place in a Church of England Chapel after the discovery that the fiancée was married and divorced.

Charles had had limited contact with Julia and therefore the new film significantly misrepresents the position suggesting that the deterioration of Sebastian is caused by discovering that Julia and Charles have fallen in love on the trip to Venice when in fact the trip only involved Charles and Sebastian and Julia was in the South Of France meeting her future fiancée Rex Mottram for the first time. Both Lady Marchmain and the atonement young sister Cordelia attempt to convert Charles to Catholicism.

Throughout the book we learn about the main characters and their relationships with each other and their friends, the society of the upper middle class and the aristocracy but a constant thread is the agnosticism of Charles and the Catholicism of the Brideshead Family. First Lady Marchmain and then younger sister Cordelia set about trying to convert Charles and there is much consideration of the problems when faith along with romantic love ends. The second book ends with a discussion about a Catholic life vocation between the younger sister and Charles.

The third book is not a detailed chronology of subsequent events but series of jumps into situation over the subsequent decade and half. Charles is dissatisfied with his work as an architectural painter and with his life overall, and goes off for two years to Mexico and Central America, not Africa as stated in the film. The books talks of the paintings without describing their content so that the TV Adaptation and the Film have very different interpretation of what they look like. This book informs us that Charles has married the Aristocratic sister of Lord Boy Mulcaster the young man who was part of Sebastian's set at Oxford. They have a son of the marriage and since his expedition commenced, a daughter, with a question mark over whether this child is his or that of an affairs between his wife and someone else. She is a great socialite with Royal Household connections who attend the private view of the exhibitions of his paintings made in America.

In an attempt to renew their relationship his wife journeys to the United States and New York to meet her husband and they return first class on a transatlantic liner with the Q E 2 being used which is a coincidence, considering that the ship recently returned to the Tyne on its last voyage around the UK before being converted into a hotel in Dubai.

On this journey they meet with Lady Julia who his wife regards as a friend from before she met Charles unaware the there had been previous contact however limited. Confined bed because of the weather his wife gives approval on hearing that Charles and Julia have spent the day together. It is now evident how Charles came to know to know so much about Julia and her relationship with Rex Mottram and his attempt to convert to Catholicism. In the third book we learn that Rex felt that Julia had failed him as she was unable to give birth to a living child or accept the continuing relationship between Rex and his former mistress, He was primarily concerned with developing his business and political career using Brideshead as a base for parties which would have scandalised Lady Marchmain. They had taken over Brideshead as Rex had the means to run the house while the bachelor elder son and heir to the title, called within the family Bridey, who occupies a small suite of rooms at the top of the house next to his former nanny. While their marriage has become one in name only, Lady Julia, in the same way as Charles' wife is an excellent hostess. Charles and Julia admit that they do not like his wife as they become lovers on the ship and set up home together as Brideshead.

Cordelia the young sister tried to become a nun but then goes to Spain to operate a ambulance on the side pf the state in much the same way that Charles had joined in trying to keep services going and break the General Strike. On her return to Brideshead with a Medal she tells Charles how she went in search of Sebastian and found him still an alcoholic by living as part of a Christian brotherhood and regarded as spiritual being. Given the reinstatement of his allowance he lived and travelled with his German friend who had gone to prison in Greece after a fight and then expelled back to Germany where the Nazis were ensuring that all citizens were returned their homeland to he trained as Nazi and allocated to the service of their Fuehrer in preparation for the war. Sebastian had gone to Germany in search of his friend but found that he had hanged himself and this event had led to further deterioration and the return to the Middle East.

Charles and Julia gain divorces and plan to marry and live in grand style at Brideshead. Bridey announces that he is to marry a widow with children and because she is devout Catholic she could not be invited to Brideshead to meet Julia because she was living in sin with Charles. This upsets Julia into an hysterical outburst and emotional breakdown and we learn the extent to which her anti Catholicism hides great guilt and uncertainty.

It is at this point that Lord Marchmain returns home to die and the world of Charles and Julia is turned inside out and upside down.

I wrote the first draft of this in the early hours of Monday morning, grabbing a few hours of rest before rising to put out the bin and environment recycling box and preparing for my Midland mini trip. The recycle box was cleared but the wheelie bin remained un emptied as I was ready to depart so with the assistance of neighbours I transferred the waste sack to their bins and returned mine to the garage. I had set off for a mile or two when I thought that I may not have closed the garage door in all the rush and returned to find that I was mistaken. The journey south was a good one in fine autumn sunshine and I remained fresh and alert through the three hour journey. I had bought a sandwich pack at the supermarket, consumed at a midway stop, as well as visiting a cash machine. Later in the evening I enjoyed a carvery roast with two thick slices of beef and a plate full, but not overfull, of roasted vegetables and two small balls of stiffing at village inn. The news en route sounded hopeful with a good market response as France, Germany and Spain followed the approach taken by Britain, and the prospect of a similar approach by the USA on Tuesday.

Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead

My mind is still boggling over the size of Hedge Fund market and the extent of the borrowing involved to multiply profits, especially as much of the trading is also in buying the warrants to buy share at a certain price within a period so it is possible to effectively increase the quantity of purchases. Listened to the Sunday discussion about Football on Sky it is said that the owner of Chelsea has lost £12 billion on the Russian stock market and that West Ham is back on the market for around £50 million compared to the £300 plus for Newcastle with its players said to be worth £100 million, I wish. However I was unwilling to devote any more of this day to serious matters of the present day.

It is time to switch back into the era and culture of Brideshead with attention turning to Lady Julia Flyte so what do I know about her. Unlike Cordelia she appear to know something of life despite only being a year or two older than Sebastian and more able to cope by fitting in with her mother's life, and having a London Season as debutante. We know that she tries to avoid unpleasantness herself but enjoys scandal and is tempted by wickedness wanting to know about the women arrested with Charles and Sebastian after their visit to the hostess dive. She is not religious like her mother, elder brother and Cordelia but she conforms tot hem but there is a hint of rebellion as she is willing to marry Rex, a non Catholic with money and some ten years older and with a mistress who is even older. She appears to have all the self confidence of her class. And unlike Sebastian appears not to be full of angst and guilt, not sure what angst means when I think of it but sounds right.

When the second book opens Charles reminds of his first contact with Julia when she was eighteen and in first Season and where she was regarded a great success. The main point of the London Season was to find an appropriate husband, one with the money and status to keep her in style of life she was accustomed. Lady Julia had two challenging disadvantages over which she had not control. The first was that her father had run off and set up with a Italian mistress. It would have been different if he had remained married, attending the various national and other social occasions and visiting mistress of whatever nationality in secret. But to do it so openly was socially unforgivable. Being a Catholic was also a major problem and it was only during the life of Queen Victoria that the position of Catholics improved, tied up as it was with the Monarch being head of the Church of England. Despite her social position she would not be eligible to marry the eldest son of someone of the same rank. There was also the problem that Julia had her own ideas of who she wanted to marry and who she did not. It is only if you know the rest of the story from the book or TV adaptation that one can understand how Charles who is voice of this fictionalised autobiography knows so much about Julia during the time when, for example, he and Sebastian were enthralled with each other's company during that first idyllic Summer at Brideshead.

It may be remembered that Julia had wanted to rush off as soon as Charles arrived on her way to a House Party in the South of France and in the next Villa taken by a newspaper magnate and full of politicians and their ladies was Rex Mottram and his mistress, Mrs Champion. He was known as gambler and ladies' man as well as being a Politicians and business man, an ex colonial to boot, a mixture which most of society regardless of their religion regarded at best with suspicion. Rex needed not just a wife but a wife could advance his political career and position within society. In this respect he could be regarded as similar to Charles. He set his mind on marrying Julia and pursued her juggling his political life, business interests, gambling and mistress, none of which he intended to disturb. Julia was to be a value added addition.

Julia is intrigued and to Lady Marchmain this is but one friend within their circle. It is only when she finds that his relationship with Mrs Champion is continuing that she wants him and sets on plan which involves not answering his telephone calls and not agreeing to see him when calls, something her mother says, without understanding the situation, a lady does not do. Julia warns that there could be a scene and scene there is as they not only become lovers in the library of Marchmain House but engaged, news of which horrifies her mother and elder brother who make it clear such a relationship is not possible.

For the next year their continuing engagement is kept secret, and they are forbidden to be seen in public together. This creates psychological as well as emotional problems for Julia as defying parental authority is to Sebastian in being tied up with their religious faith, something which needed to be admitted to at the confessional and where however indulgent the priest he would urge her to respect her mother's views and not yield to temptation again, although as Rex comments, the price of purging such sin was the standard three Hail Mary's.

This was awarded to me throughout all my years whether during the times when I made up sins because not to feel sinful was to put oneself above others, but even when I admitted to some of the forbidden sins of adolescence and early manhood even if sins of thought rather than deed, the penalty remained the same, make an act of contrition and say three Hail Mary's.

Their relationship comes to a head when she finds out that instead of spending the weekend at his constituency he been at a country house party with other politicians and city men but also with his former mistress with whom he first claimed there had been little contact implying she was a close friend of his host, something which he did not know about beforehand, and then in a moment of candour he complains that what is he to do if she will not have the passionate relationship with him they both desire? Is he in effect to live as a monk. She turns to her confessing priest, hoping for approval but he can only state the position of the church with its insistence on observing its rules and standards but also its understanding of human nature and its constant inability to live at the standards required by the faith. Try not to sin, sins committed, be genuinely contrite and repeat the cycle time and time again. Julia does not confess to this priest and the over Christmas she does not take Holy Communion thus the gulf with her mother widens who forbids all contact with the ambitious and designing Rex Mottram.

The story moves forward to a meeting between Rex and the elder brother, ostensibly to report the losing of the whereabouts of Sebastian with the £300 pounds of gambling money, sufficient for someone to live quietly drinking in some foreign climate for some time, if not years. Bridey. as the heir is known, informs Rex that Lady Marchmain is taking Julia away for the rest of the Winter thus severing all contact with Rex who then drops the bombshell that he is been to Venice and obtained the written consent of Lord Marchmain to the marriage which will take place as soon as the marriage settlement is agreed. This becomes an obstacle as lawyers for Julia's family, who control the family finances arising from the divorce settlement, are insisting that Rex provides capital security safely invested at a rate of three and half percent. Rex is scornful at this attitude, refusing to tie up his capital in this way because he can get twenty percent through more speculative investment.

While there were no Hedge funds in that era and the Great crash and economic depression was still around the corner for capitalists to make their fortunes grow. You lived off some of the interest and profits. This was something still alien to the landed gentry and aristocracy because their wealth was not capital but land. There is much talk of pre nuptial agreements being introduced in the UK as has been more common in the USA, as if this was something knew whereas the aristocracy have always gone in for marriage settlements especially in situations where the eldest son inherited the estate intact and therefore it was essential that when the other children married, it was to someone who could provide the same quality of life and pass on children and grand children, thus the whole extended family prospered not just through the eldest son. It was important to build up available resources to be called upon if the head or major branches fell on hard times. That is the theory and the standard parental approach, but as we all know one cannot impose such a structure when passions are aroused, especially when this is coupled with romantic love.

It is also the time when the issue of religion and faith again comes to the fore as Rex decides that in order to have a good wedding with a Cardinal officiating he has to convert and asks Lady Marchmain how he can achieve this, " give me the paper and I will sign it" and is horrified when her Ladyship tells him he must take instruction over a period of time and sends him to the priest where she has sent Julia and other members of her family beforehand. He asks Rex to tell him about his understanding of prayer so Rex responds, tell me.

The priest explains that prayer is being in communion with God, seeking forgiveness and his mercy. Rex says great, that's prayer what is next!
Then on the question of Papal infallibility the priest says what if the Pope looks up and sees a cloud and says it is going to rain. Rex says then it will rain so the priests says but what if it does not rain? So quick as a flash Rex replies I suppose it raining in the religious sense and we are too sinful to see it.

Things taken a humorous turn when Rex chides the priest for not telling him about other fundamentals of faith such as the requirement to always sleep with one's feet pointing East because that is the direction of heaven so if you die in the night you can walk there, and what about the Pope who made one of his horses a Cardinal and the Offertory box in the church where if you put in a pound with someone's name written they will go to hell. He explains he has been told these things by a devout and well educated Catholic. The Priest and Lady Marchmain are perplexed about this turn of events wondering who on earth could be the author of such nonsense. Cordelia owns up saying it never occurred that he would take seriously what she had said. This prompts Lady Marchmain to advise the priest to treat Rex as a stupid child.

The conversion to Catholicism is approved and wedding of the year planned with presents arriving on an appropriate scale for those invited but Bridey drops the bombshell that it cannot go ahead because he has learnt that Rex was married when young and this his wife is living. Rex protests that he is divorced. Rex and the family do not understand why the priest did not explain this to Rex and Rex says well he was told that as a Catholic he could not get divorced and he was not a catholic when the divorce took place. He is told that the only way is for the marriage to be annulled and this is not something readily obtained. So they marry quietly in a church of England Chapel, her father having expressed delight at this course of action.

The story then moves forward to when Charles hurries back from England to help run the country against the lower classes who have started the General Strike. I remember how excited everyone became when we were taught about the General Strike at school and the Priest said he had driven a bus while at university. I therefore quite understood why it would not occur to someone of the Charles' class being immediately on the side of the government against the Trade Unionists.

His father is delighted to see Charles so soon again. Charles reminds his last visit was fifteen months before.

When he goes to the nearest organising dept he finds that they have too many volunteers and is about to be sent elsewhere when Boy Mulcaster arrives braving the pickets as a member of the Defence corps Milk delivery service and Charles is equipped with his helmet and truncheon to battle his way through the Communists. Later at a London party ( which emphases that during a period of great suffering and real conflict some were able to treat the strike as a jape, a wheeze, and whizo, reverting back to public school and college days, and something which was not affecting the rest of their lives) he comes across Anthony Blanche who is able to tell him the last whereabouts of Sebastian.

Lady Marchmain is dying and Rex tied up as part of the government keeping essential services going during the General Strike does his best to find the location of Sebastian but in desperation Julia at the suggestion of her mother turns to Charles for help, on learning that he is back in England from Paris. He agrees to go to North Africa in search. These are the day when travel in this part of the world was still an individual matter and of a primitive nature so that from Casablanca (a place that has always haunted me since the film, just as Tangier is place where one of my mother's brothers resided with his family running the Ferry line with Gibraltar and Algeciras and Ceuta, and where my mother visited just before she came to England in 1938, something which I have wondered if the purpose had been more than to say goodbye) he journeys in a bus full of people, goods and live stock.

From Casablanca he goes to see the British Consul at Fez and in those days the Consul was able to keep track of British citizens, especially a member of the Aristocracy. Charles is told that Sebastian has taken rooms in a house in the "native" quarter with a disdainful servant caused by Sebastian's friendship with a German young man with a bad leg and syphilis who treats Sebastian as if he too is his servant. Sebastian. away being cared for at the hospital run by a religious order of brothers, has been laid low in a fever because his body is weakened through alcoholism, is cheered up on the news that a friend is visiting, expected this to be his German friend and is not overjoyed to see Charles anticipating that he is an emissary from the family. He is weak and unfit to travel but does not immediately rule out returning home when better, so meanwhile Charles visits everyday, having advised Julia of the situation, agreeing to smuggle in bottles of brandy which leads to Sebastian being evicted and returned to the subordinate relationship. That same day he is notified that Lady Marchmain has died and again we feel as sense of eras in transition moving towards their end.

I still have the feeling that Charles is playing at life, never truly engaged with anyone, even Sebastian to whom he owed his involvement with Brideshead and acceptance in the circle of the aristocracy. Until this errand he has no attempt to keep in contact.

We now move to a part of the book and TV adaptation about which I have no memory, no moments of recognition. This is odd. When Charles returned home he visited Bridey Marchmain House in London to plead on behalf of his former friend for the reinstitution of his allowance and this is agreed. Bride takes the opportunity to mention that the decision has been taken to sell the house for development into a block of flats and Charles is commissioned to create paintings of external and internal views so that the family will have some memory visual record. He feels inspired as an artist to do this work which enables him to become an established architectural painter. While he does this professionally with skill he recognises that it is not great art as such because it lacks inspiration and he also recognises that the only time in his life that he felt alive, responsive to everything and everyone around him, with an intensity in which you never want any moment to end was during his early relationship with Brideshead and discovery of Brideshead. While painting the inside of Marchmain House Cordelia arrives and also mentions the family's adverse financial circumstances, understandable because no one appears responsible for maintaining and creating new wealth. One plan is for Lady Julia and Rex to take over half of Brideshead with Bridey in the other although the future of Cordelia is in question and she considers becoming a nun. She asks Charles to take her out to dinner and the go to the Savoy Grill another fashionable place in these years, alone with the Ritz Hotel, one of many which captured my imagination as a child and young man where heard or read about them. Thus Book two ends

I continued to watch and read eating up what was left and preparing for a two day trip. There was sufficient ingredients to leave for a stir fry when I returned and later I made one slice of bread into an open sandwich and later still defrosted ands toasted two further slices grilling two of the remaining tomatoes. I had previously divided a small packet of instant custard into two and this I made up with two of Mr Kipling's delicious apple pies. Throughout the day I have been search of a missing coffee cup, one of a set of three originally four. It is very puzzling as I have looked at all the places where I could have taken the cup during a move around the house from the three rooms, work room, day room and kitchen where it would normally be located. including bathroom and bedroom, and the patio. Later I received a telephone call from a member of my extended family with new which has upset greatly.