I have settled in Kandahar as much as I can at the moment. The last week has been busy as I have been learning the ropes and meeting the people here. I came down by myself as there is already a group of employees that are working here.
The flight down from Kabul was very scenic, with snow everywhere and great vistas before the clouds blocked it all. Approaching Kandahar the snow disappeared and the dry dusty landscape appeared. There is about 800m difference between Kabul and Kandahar and the temperature is so much warmer. Summer must be unbearable. I have been in shorts and a t-shirt and tomorrow the high is forecast for 23 degrees!
Apparently this is the busiest single runway airport in the world for take-off and landings, mainly due to the military traffic. I have always loved aircraft and in particular jet fighters so as I am new to this region the sound of the jets roaring overhead makes me gaze at the sky to catch a glimpse of them, It's like an airshow everyday! Kandahar is fairly quiet with most of the fighting occurring in Helmand province which is around 300km away.
The area is not densely populated where I am so I don't have many opportunities to take photos. So far I am enjoying it even though life is very basic and isolated. Mr Mwezi
American images from Richard French's ipod, but no text.
Tues 23rd Richard emailed the following enigmatic message:
I am told it was Nancy Friskey who sang Freight Train and Joan Baez who made it famous. Probably so. R
On Wed 24th he emailed again (very tantalising):
Did you get Flagstaff bit – re-sent this am Tues from Tombstone (Tombstone the Town too Tough to Die they call it.) R
I’m afraid, this week we have to imaginatively fill in the blanks until his ipod whirrs into action again (ed)
Saturday eve, good news - Richard's copy finally arrived ....(ed)
It's all in the songs. ‘Get Your Kicks on Route Sixty Six’ Nat Cole used to croon so sweetly. Not any more. R66 is now by-passed by Interstate 40 which is where we are getting our kicks. But not without taking the odd loop off the freeway to places marked ‘Historical 66’. Historical indeed. In this neck of the woods, rip it down and rebuild at the slightest pretext is the rule. So the once little and lively town of Seligman with it's Neon signed motels and gas stations which might have been painted by Edward Hopper or Norman Rockwell died a sudden death when the new road came through in 1976. Now the few remaining locals are trying to keep the road alive with diners and stores reminiscent of the oh- so-long ago 1960's.
We stopped for coffee at the Road Kill Cafe ("what's on your fender, we make so tender") and photographed peeling signs of the Stars and Stripes with yellow ribbons painted so fondly and proudly fresh during the Viet Nam war. It's not all bad - decaying America is a snapper’s dream. Nearby a mile-long freight train - ‘Freight Train, Freight Train Going so Fast’ sang Joan Baez - not really.Powered by three mighty red Santa Fe diesel locomotives, it was crawling up a long incline making heavy-weather of its mile-long load and a wondrous deep-throated bellowing as it ran through town. Of course the road of steel came here long before two-lane black-top and its arrival must have signalled ‘welcome prosperity and employment’. Now Interstate 40 speeds us to where want to go faster and with greater convenience but with none of the romance of Route 66.
’I love LA’ sang Randy Newman at a concert we went to at UCLA the night before we left Los Angeles. For us the real thrill was being bang in the middle of a campus - no, a city within a city - which has a student population of 80,00 as well as it's own police, fire department and hospital. And so much of it funded by private donation, such a major factor in the lives of the very rich in the under (public)-funded City of the Angels where so many have so much and so many more live in hope and expectation. Indeed some without either.
’Everything Great In America’ sang the Puerto Rican kids in West Side Story. Just so. In the best stocked supermarket we have ever been in, it was virtually impossible to buy a small pack of anything. We wonder if this a reason why so many Americans are so big. It's a chicken and egg sort of problem. Which came first the Jumbo or the Jumbo pack.
Every thing Great in America. So far, for us, it really is. We have met nothing but good nature, however dumb the question and nobody who admits to have ever having liked Baby Bush. Sure they think Barack should be tougher and so do we. The attempted come-back of the appalling Dick Cheney and the curious rise and rise of Sarah Palin would be funny if not so very worrying. But it so hard not to like America - warts and all. ‘Born in the USA’. Maybe not so bad after all. Richard French
It is four years since my previous visit to Thailand. I had visited there for 4 consecutive years, prior to this. This of course included the Tsunami year. I have been going to Koh Lanta, staying at a small beach hut resort for the budget conscious. I have to say, until my visit this year I believed Thai people to be the most genuinely friendly people I have ever come across throughout the world. Thailand certainly deserved being known as ‘Land of Smiles’.
As it is one of the cheaper sunshine destinations in the world it also attracts an extremely wide variety of people from all walks of life. When I first went there I must admit I found the large number of dread locked, heavily tattooed people a little disconcerting. In the cheaper beach resorts where many of these people were hanging out, large numbers of Thais in the tourism industry were sporting dreadlocks and were also heavily tattooed. What a strange and warped perception the poor Thais had of western society. Heavy drinking and sex tourism added another seedy element that made me wonder how on earth the Thai people kept their smile.
Well this time I noticed a few changes. There are fewer of the dreadlocked variety of tourist. Trends might account for a part of this but the Thai government have also made much stricter rules for visas. Entering and long-staying is much harder now.
In Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Lanta, Phuket and Koh Pipi I experienced impatience and even rudeness from some Thai people directly involved with tourism. This reminded me of the graph I saw drawn in Tourism studies at LincolnUniversity in New Zealand in 1994. It showed the level of ‘content’ of hosts in a tourism environment over a period of time. Of course it starts out positive, improves even more as locals begin to make more money and then drops off and decreases with increased numbers and time. Well I sure noticed it this time. Thai people are still overall friendly and it is a pleasant place to visit but it no longer ranks in my top 5 on that basis alone.
Another thing I noticed could also be directly linked with the contentment of the people. Traffic. Bangkok is now a nightmare to cross by road. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people who own vehicles. Some of the staff I have known all these years also proudly showed me their newly acquired second hand cars. They then told me about the large loans they had taken out to have these.....Loans, pressure, stress, less smiling. It was all adding up for me.
I don’t blame them. I would be fed up too if I had had to deal with all the unsavoury tourists that flock to Thailand every year, behaving inappropriately.
Gotta go, Mary is calling me to go out for dinner …
Anyone who enjoys classic comedy might have read about ‘The Garage Tapes’ as reported in several UK newspapers last week. It's a very interesting story about the discovery of lost comedy treasures, which began when Doreen Wise, widow of Ernie Wise, began to clear out her garage prior to moving house.
Amongst the piled-up crates and boxes, Doreen had found some old fruit boxes and a red suitcase packed with early Morecambe and Wise recordings on old acetate discs and cumbersome reel-to-reel tapes. There were over 45 hours of recordings going back to the early 1950s. These included sketches from Eric and Ernie's first radio show, from 1953, You're Only Young Once, featuring Bob Monkhouse and Harry Secombe as guests.
Eric and Ernie's comedy partnership began in 1941. In their early radio days they apparently used to pay the studio engineers a few bob to be given some of the recordings to sneak out of the studio and keep for themselves. But television soon beckoned the comedy duo and so Ernie's smuggled tapes remained stored in wooden fruit boxes for over 50 years.
Doreen wisely contacted an independent radio production company, Whistledown, to find out whether anything could be done with the newly-found material. Not all of the recordings could be restored to broadcast quality, but there was enough previously unheard material to make about 25 programmes.
Some of the highlights have been packaged initially to make a one-hour programme, to be introduced by impressionist Jon Culshaw and broadcast on Radio 4 on May 4th.
After that, of course, it is highly probable that Morecambe and Wise - The Garage Tapes will be welcomed as a repeat on Radio 7.
This happy tale of re-discovered tapes reminded me of a similar discovery in which I was involved in 1993. I was working at BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, in the department which was then called the ‘Radio Collection’ , responsible for releasing archive comedy and drama programmes on cassette and CD.
Comedy tapes were our best-sellers and we were always on the look-out for ‘new’ classic radio comedy material to release. One afternoon a very pleasant and rather posh lady phoned me at the office to say that she had a large, battered leather suitcase full of old recordings of her late husband's radio shows. Would I perhaps be interested in them? When I found out whose radio shows they were, I was certainly interested. Her late husband was the ‘ Sausage-Maker from Salford’ Northern comedian, Al Read, who died in 1987.
In the 1950s and 1960s The Al Read Show was one of the most popular shows in the UK, bringing in about 35 million listeners a week - possibly more popular than the Clitheroe Kid!
His wry and well-observed humour, mostly about working class domestic situations is still funny and relevant today - even although his catch-phrases of "Right Monkey - You'll be lucky, I say you'll be lucky" haven’t really stood the test of time.
Al's charming widow (a former model who still looked stunning at seventy) told me that she was leaving Yorkshire to settle in their beautiful second home in Spain and when clearing out the garage she had found this large suitcase stuffed full of tapes. Unfortunately the garage roof had been somewhat leaky, and quite a few tapes had been badly damaged by water.
However, in conjunction with the BBC Sound Archive, we were able to painstakingly restore a fair amount of the recordings to a high enough standard to make the tapes available commercially on cassette.
There were enough restored programmes for 3 double-cassette volumes, all of which sold very well, and as classic comedy fans are aware, those Al Read Shows, saved from the garage, are now heard regularly on Radio 7
"You'll be lucky - I say you''ll be lucky"
So if any of you have been tempted by TV reality shows to make a few bob by looking for Cash in the Attic, don’t forget that treasures can also be found from a Rummage in the Garage.
"Right Monkey?"
Mary Kalemkerian Head of Programmes
BBC Radio 7 Room 4015, Broadcasting House, London W1A 1AA
The oil market also was watching developments in France, where an open-ended strike by workers at energy giant Total entered a sixth day Monday and gasoline supplies were drying up.
"The sentiment is quite bullish at this time because of the refinery strikes in France and the concerns over Iran's nuclear issues," said Victor Shum, an analyst at Purvin and Gertz energy consultants.
Striking refinery workers sought to choke off the fuel supply to force Total, the world's sixth-largest oil firm by sales, to guarantee their jobs.
The CGT, a key union, has also called for a strike on Tuesday at the two refineries in France run by ExxonMobil, the biggest US oil company.
After the strike sparked a weekend run on petrol pumps, the French Petroleum Industry Union estimated on Monday that France's depots had only seven to 10 days' worth of stocks left, its president Jean-Louis Schilansky told AFP.
Industry Minister Christian Estrosi said in a radio interview Monday that "the government will take measures so that France will not get stuck" without gasoline. Total supplies about half of France's filling stations.
Prince William and Premier of NSW, Kristina Keneally
From Sydney, capital city of the corrupt state of NSW.
The Labour party of NSW of Australia is one of the old worst Governments I have had the displeasure to observe. Anyone who has watched the HBO series The Wire would have been given a glimpse of the type of incompetence and dishonesty which pervades the NSW state government. The conservative opposition enables this disgraceful state of affairs to continue by focusing on their middle and right factions’ struggle for power by Christian Right instead of simply highlighting the mistakes of Labor (note the new American spelling).
Rule by ‘Press release’ seems to be the norm worldwide and the methodology of the local state government is to announce a major public works project which gives rosy headlines for a week or so. Then the project is not mentioned until about a year later when either it is withdrawn, or more commonly the case, the Premier would re-announce it as if was a new initiative to distract from some scandal or as pretence to governing.
There have been 13 major transport initiatives in the past 15 years. Each one has been either withdrawn or re-announced.
Taking over from ‘garbagehead man’ Rees the latest Labor Premier is a young American migrant who has been in politics for the past few years. http://www.topnews.in/files/images/Kristina-Keneally.jpg. So desperate to quell rising fury the labor right has been reduced to promoting a woman. Kristina flies the state providing photo ops of her touch-footy skills or comments on floods and droughts. Hers has been a traditional substance-free premiership thus far.
Kristina is from an American Polish catholic background who loves Presidential style pronouncements. Her response to the latest report into a traffic plan was (surprise, surprise) to announce a reappraisal of the report. This of course means that she will be able to announce the ‘reappraisal’ at some time in the future when a distraction is necessary.
The only way to find out what the most likely future plans for the state are, would be to track the real-estate purchases of those closely associated with the right wing of NSW state labour.
For an understanding of how this corruption became systemic in NSW one could do worse than reading The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes. This book shows the beginning of corruption in the state
On a federal level the farce that is national government politics continues. Ex rock singer, Peter Garret the favourite fund raiser for the Labour party has struggled with the number of deaths arising from his policy of ‘free’ insulating of peoples’ houses. I was recently rung by a company offering to insulate our house. When I said that I had been dudded by insulation installers before and that I would not be paying for any shonky work I was reassured that it was ‘free’ so “no worries cos I had nothing to lose”.
The most dangerous technique employed by these cowboys is to staple large pieces of alfoil to ceiling floors. Four attics were turned into death traps when the staples connected the alfoil to the power supply and killed 4 people in the past month.
The conservative opposition now has a new leader with the ‘mad monk’ Tony Abbott replacing Malcolm ‘the toff’ Turnbull after Turnbull agreed to support Labor’s anti- global warming proposals. The mad monk is pork barrelling at a rate not seen recently, offering un-costed plans to subsidising ‘big pollutors’ so that they might change their ways.
On a personal front I am on my third set of antibiotics, which I am sure will provide reassurance to you all.
Finally our central heating is installed -we are running 10 radiators off this efficient wood-burning stove. What a mission. Well done Roger and thanks for your very-welcome visit and help Matthew.
As the Auckland Sunday Star Times recently published this photo of Karl (CKStead) which Roger took last September, I now feel it is ok to put it in my blog.
Novelist and poet, Karl was the first recipient of the Seresin Landfall Residency in Tuscany, Italy. This was in a very beautiful eleventh century millhouse, the Molino a Sesta, Gaiole in Chianti.
During the recording of Ruby Baby - Joseph Cohen-Cole, producer Fiona Kelcher and Melissa Advani
Short Cuts: Ruby Baby New to Radio 7 This exciting new commission by Louisa Young is a two-part thriller, set during a beautiful summer in Tuscany, where several students are working as volunteers in a castle vineyard. As the holiday continues, dark undertones become increasingly apparent in this idyllic setting. Tessa Nicholson, Joseph Cohen-Cole, Melissa Advani, Rhys Jennings, Kate Layden and Emerald O'Hanrahan star in Fiona Kelcher’s production (pictured above at the recording), a powerful story of emotional conflict and suspense.
In addition to the two main episodes, broadcast a week apart, we will be linking the story with six short dramas by young writers, chosen from our collaboration with the Penguin Books Spinebreakers team, the National Theatre's Discover Programme and Hampstead Theatre's Education Department. These short dramas – written by Indiana Seresin, Rebecca Clee, Amy Deakin, Bridget Minnamore, Lucinda Higgie and Danny Shaw – speculate on the events of part one and can be heard throughout the week.
Episode One: Monday at 1.30pm, 8.30pm and 1.30am – and you can hear the short dramas at the same times from Tuesday to Sunday. Mary Kalemkerian Head of Programmes, BBC Radio7
In the month of the Carry A Poem celebrations, I was in Edinburgh's St Andrews Square today, which is delightfully refurbished with trees and diagonal walk -ways and a coffee shop. Noticed new little trees with tiny laminated cards on each branch .
They were poetry pieces chosen by all sorts of people who had found the Carry a Poem campaign over the week-end, and added their own favourites.
One wee boy had written out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and hung it on a tree.
Others quoted Alan Spence, Carol Ann Duffy etc. It was absolutely charming, with loads of old codgers like me bending over the trees reading what was hanging on each branch and SMILING!
I was interested in the variation of Kiwi menus from top to pretty basic and the contrast between our van parked on one side of our hotel and the floating Leviathan that parked on the other. I think the NZ navy must be the last in the world that allows its sailors go ashore in uniform (long stopped in UK, USA etc as an anti-terrorist move) and eating pink ice cream to boot. The colours of the bars of soap in Fiji are extraordinary . ‘No Standing or Sitting’says it all about Fiji.
(The following piece arrived late from Perth by which time Richard and Gay had already moved on to NZ, then Fiji ...ed)
Pleasantville
What is it about perfection that is so imperfect? I am staying in a small boutique hotel that is spotless. The desk clerks are pretty, multi-sexed and multi-national. The elevator with my own special security card is a pristine and silent stainless steel box. It whisks me from my room to my specially reserved parking space in seconds. My hire car is spotless, automatic, silent, zooms effortlessly to 100 kph and does about a 1000 kilometres to a gallon. I have no idea who made it or where and it will never go wrong. It will glide us along a
traffic-free avenue with empty and clearly marked parking spaces to a cool brunch place where immaculate boy/girl waitstaff will pamper us with fresh orange juice, freshly ground coffee and eggs just however we want them. The sun does nothing but shine from the crack of dawn when everybody rides and runs or hits the gym en route to a perfect office in a clean new air-conditioned building, breaking only for an alcohol free healthy lunch in an immaculate sidewalk cafe. This is Perth, Australia and I think I hate it. I so miss Africa with its reality of heat and lust and just about controlled chaos and France,surely the last bastion of Communism with it's non-service non-economy, mud, closed all day Monday, complaining, old cars, beat- up houses. Scowling French, wind, rain, fire. Real life. I love it. Richard French
We have left Aussie Macho behind and the Gentle Politesse of New Zealand is in our wake, having jetted to Fiji in the capable hands of a very large lady pilot at the wheel of a Qantas Boeing 767. It is only after adding a few days of real experience of this island to our Rough Guide and Lonely Planet briefing that our own views begin to make sense. Sure, we knew the recent history of four coup d'etats in ten years. Sure, we knew about the ethnic differences that had enabled just under half the population of so-called non-indigenous Indians, keen on work and education, to get the upper hand on the 450,000 native Fijians. Many of these people are still selfishly repressed by tribal Chiefs who claim an inherited right to rule, (Speaking of non-electeds, QE 2 decorates the money here. I speak of Her Majesty not the ship). So it seems that almost everybody (but probably excluding the aforementioned Chiefs and their chums , hangers-on and rellies) is in favour of the current top honcho - a non-elected leader of the Army.
We are told that this chap is going about getting rid of discrimination and corruption on a grand scale and I think we believe it. For instance he has done away with kids having to pay bus fares to and from school and for the first time all school books are paid for by the State. Education, education, education as someone (now who was that?) once said. There is a spanking new university, Fiji's second, but there is still a way to go.
It feels curious for an ex-South African escapee, badly and wrongly educated about the wicked and barbarous ways of the Xhosa and Zulu to realise how much more barbarous were these grass (now plastic) skirt-wearing and gently smiling members of the South Sea brigade. Here, until as late as 1850, eating people was a regular way of life, or death if it was you that was being eaten. Ritual consumption of the losers in battle in order to obtain their strength was all the rage. Those Chiefs had a lot to answer for and although they have dropped some of their more delicate habits it does not irritate (them at least) to sport a shiny new Toyota 4 x 4 while all around the villagers are just about making it by growing a few scrawny roots and the odd pineapple.
The entire island of Fiji is still something of a beat-up joint. It’s hotter than Hell. Shopping ain’t up to much or anything really. The only International airport is two hundred miles from the capital, Suva. Never mind, it can be reached by choosing one of two narrow and winding roads. The King's Road or the Queens Road, take your choice. But all of the folks seem happy enough. Those we have met anyway. Some of the smarter guys seem to be running the taxi fleets in Auckland which is where we got our first briefing. It’s a curious place here, and we are still battling to reach a concluding point of view. Of course we are (forays apart) in a tourist enclave where saronged and talkative ladies glide past our air-conditioned bungalow and on our bedtime pillow - too hot for the regulation chocolate, appears a hand-picked bunch of hibiscus and frangipani flowers. We are just South of the Equator and the pale blue Pacific laps a few metres from our door. Beleaguered yachties gather in the open air bar to bum free beers and tell tales of the High Seas to Boeing-riding tourists. There was some sort of ghastly phoney show that intruded at dinner last night. Huge men stripped to the waist did a sort of fire dance thing (not sure where those early islanders got hold of paraffin but there you go. (Perhaps they did a fine fire-line in coco-nut oil, ed) and all around us (not us - we scowled under a banyan tree) international travellers and locals alike did a sort of hula thing. Then there was a lot of loud and savage screeching, yelling and foot stamping going on. Not for me. But then I always thought the Haka was a sort of girly thing. (Did you mention that to anyone in NZ? ed)
So where are we - Fiji? Bali? SouthCoast of Natal. Anywhere in Paradise? Too little money. Too much heat. Too little education. Too few tourists. Number one industry, sugar, loses money. Number two is tourism - too few to make difference. Number three - bottled water. Buy it if you can. Not a great recipe for nation building. But it has been extremely interesting. We are glad we came but may not pass this way again, which is sad because if ever a place needed an injection of foreign cash this be it. We learned last night from the yachties that locals will barter almost anything for electronics, computers, DVD players and the like. It used to be copper wire, mirrors and beads. Not enough changes in this neck of the woods.
Last week, in Mary Kalemkerian’s article ‘Edinburgh Carries a Poem’, although I tried and tried until I was demented, I could not get the ‘layout’ to accept the following Rabbie Burns’ poems set out as ‘poems’. It automatically set them out as prose. Hopefully, this time, I will succeed (ed).
My Love Is Like a Red Red Rose
That's newly spring in June
My Love is Like a Melody
That's sweetly played in tune
So fair thou art my bonnie lass (or lad if you like)
Sae deep in love am I
And I will love thee still my dear, till a' the seas gang dry. Robert Burns
Oft hae I roved by Bonnie Doon
Tae see the Rose and woodbine twine
And every bird sang o' its love
As fondly sae did I o' mine.
Wi a lightsome heart I pu'd a rose
Full sweet upon it's thorny tree -
But my false lover stole that rose
And ahh - he left the thorn wi' me.
My middle ear infection continues to ruin my life - I am on my second pack of antibiotics. Can't hear in left ear so I am like real old in the shops. 'what's that dear?' Jack has his licence and has claimed the Jeep which somehow escaped the 'prohibited' list for 'p' platers . A 4 litre engine which gets you into trouble very fast coupled with a 1950's set of brakes (no wonder Detroit failed) is officially safe folks. SO WATCH OUT SYDNEY!!!!!!!
We 'rocked' into the city to get Jack's art work from his old school. Standing in the corridor waiting for him to get it. Nymphs passing so I am like - pervert in the corner waiting to get arrested. I avert my eye but I have to look up occasionally. The plain-clothes security guy checks me out but he must have recognised me because he did not speak. It’s so bad being around young people. PERVERT.
I was in a toilet near a pool I went to when I was four, in 'The Gardens', Christchurch, New Zealand last week (‘Vatican of the South Seas’ reckoned Johnny Ray the American fifties pop idol. “I’m lost” ed.) and there was a young boy getting changed from his swimmers (‘cosie’ in NZ). I did not know whether to run before the police came or stay and protect him until they came. What sinners we were changing in public dressing rooms - and noticing.
Very hot here, beach full even on a school day. Tourists I reckon. Took my old Mercedes into the garage for a service and it was full ‘Mercs’ as far as the eye can see! Is everybody driving a second hand Mercedes? My wife's clk needed a piece that controlled the fuel supply to the carburator when you plant your foot. I thought thats what an accelerator was for - but no! this $600 piece told the carburator what was coming and got its information from the cable passing through a reader. What a magical very expensive thing to have. So now when you want to speed you can relax 'cos your carburator will understand. How could we have lived without this? Does a Hyundi Excel have one? I THINK NOT.
Had planned to meet up with a friend and partake of something soothing but can't make it. 'Its too darn hot its toooooouuu darn hot' (Ella Fitzgerald).
I hear Bright Star is dividing people in France as the great French film finder for Cannes, Pierre Rissient said it would. 75/25 he said. But what if you didn't divide your audience, the film would not be edgy although I think 90/10 is a better spread, but I am a beneficiary so what would I know. ”Copy right rules” said the Courts in the 18th Century and us beneficiaries thank them. The New Yorker criticizes Avatar for running old story lines but where would we be without Shakespeare's recycling. Tossing up pleading with the University to let me continue in spite of my ‘Probationary ' status. I thought I might try French but really, French at 63 living in Australie - maybe not. Off for a swim and a painkiller. Stephen
Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw (Fanny and Keats) in Bright Star
There’s nothing like a deadline to rattle our cage. I decided that a ten-year gap was a decent enough mourning for our Meatworks the Musicaland so on the 8 February 2010 (easily remembered as it is also our son Matt’s birthday) we put 5 songs from the original 42 songs on Youtube.
These are:
Move on Man, Cut to the Bone, One Man’s Meat, I ain’t saying I’m a Virgin, Whatever Turns you on.
The first friend we showed them to said she thought the show would do well at the Brighton Festival. I had to restrain myself from kissing her to death and nonchalantly said ‘Ah, do you think so?’
Last time round Roger and I co-produced it and Roger directed. I wrote the book and the lyrics and Stephen Small who had worked with Roger on all his theatre productions, composed and arranged the music. Our executive producer was Jan Hay.
Raising the money through private investment and arts sponsorship and commercial sponsorship was a huge and exhausting undertaking.
Right now, there seems to be an interest in musicals again. Curiously that evidently happens in a financial crisis. Although the story is set in small-town NZ, Meatworks has an international flavour and the story-lines are universal. Big boss comes to close down the Meatworks which will kill the small community . The workers unite to fight. Animal Rights activists arrive to stir the mix. There’s women trainee butchers disguised as men, there’s love in the air and a Halal hero butcher ….
With the aim of encouraging literary exchanges and cross-cultural initiatives between cities, a few years ago UNESCO launched a new world-wide award, for a City of Literature. In order to be considered for this accolade, a city had to meet the following criteria:
It has to be an urban environment in which literature plays an integral part. It must be a centre with a reputation for hosting literary events and festivals. A wide range of libraries, bookstores and cultural centres must be accessible to all citizens. There should be diversity in publishing initiatives, using new media to promote and strengthen the literary market.
The city which was awarded the first City of Literature, certainly meets all of the criteriaand more. It is often described as ‘a city built on books’ and with the first printing press set up there in 1507, it became recognised as a world centre for publishing. It has a rich literary heritage and thriving contemporary book scene.
Many great writers created their best-known characters there:
Arthur Conan Doyle brought us Sherlock Holmes, J.M. Barrie created Peter Pan, and Robert Louis Stevenson delivered Jekyll and Hyde.
The city also nurtures contemporary writers who have made their mark on literature; Muriel Spark, J.K. Rowling, Alexander McCall Smith and Ian Rankin to name only a few.
Ian Rankin said: "I feel part of a tradition which is as vibrant now as ever before. Edinburgh is a city of the mind, a writer's city.”
And, yes, in 2004, Edinburgh was the proud city to be granted the status as the world's first UNESCO City of Literature. Since then various campaigns to encourage reading and enjoyment of literature have been set up annually in the city. Throughout February this year, the campaign is ‘Carry a Poem!’
Sparking off a month of poetry events, such fun happenings as Poetree Swaps, Poetry Pub Quizzes and a Poetry Olympics have been planned, and thousands of free books and poetry pocket-cards are being given away. ‘On the Carry a Poem’ website, people are asked to post messages explaining where they carry their poems, and which poems they are carrying. How they are carried vary from such obvious places as in pockets, purses, pinned to jackets, to the more radical and permanent place - a tattoo!
I liked Scottish actor Alan Cumming's response that he carries his poem "in his heart" Awww!
The website also has a lengthy list of ‘the most carried poets’ which includes many of my personal favourites: Carol Anne Duffy, Dylan Thomas, Edwin Morgan, John Betjeman, Johne Dunne, Norman MacCaig, Robert Frost, Wendy Cope - and leaving the best until last - Robert Burns.
Now, with Valentine's Day coming up, I have a suggestion as to how you can impress your object of desire. Forget the supermarket roses, Carry a Poem! Deliver your rose in a love poem, pulled out with a flourish from your pocket. Here’s my recommendation to impress; Burns' most quoted love poem:
My Love Is Like a Red Red Rose
That's newly spring in June
My Love is Like a Melody
That's sweetly played in tune
So fair thou art my bonnie lass (or lad if you like)
Sae deep in love am I
And I will love thee still my dear, till a' the seas gang dry.
Should bring a wee thrill to even the most jaded cynic. However, if you're in the unfortunate position of having been ‘dumped’ by the love of your life, well you can pin another Burns poem to your sleeve, this time with added angst. Burns had a poem for every occasion and in these lines he also conjures up a rose, which, sadly, is now no longer a symbol of love. The abandoned lover is wandering by the banks of the River Doon, recalling the good times which have ended in heartbreak:
Oft hae I roved by Bonnie Doon
Tae see the Rose and woodbine twine
And every bird sang o' its love
As fondly sae did I o' mine.
Wi a lightsome heart I pu'd a rose
Full sweet upon it's thorny tree -
But my false lover stole that rose
And ahh - he left the thorn wi' me.
Bastard! (my expression, not the Bard's) Of course Valentine's Day isn’t the only day you could carry a poem, nor do you have to live in Edinburgh to join in this February poetry fest. You can brighten up the chilly grey month by acting on some of the inspirational ideas from the Carry a Poem website www.carryapoem.com
So, who is for setting up a Poetry Olympics? Poem and Spoon Race, Tossing the Poem anyone?
But there is one place where a poem will be carried that must surely top all others - this Sunday, Valentines Day, when dusk falls, to celebrate the importance of love in all its forms, lines from a poem will be projected on the north face of the great rock of Edinburgh Castle.
The chosen lines are from the poem, Disenchantments by the brilliant Scottish poet, Douglas Dunn:
‘Look to the living, love them, and hold on’
Like the castle rock, love endures. Happy Valentine's Day
20th January 2012, a very innocuous sort of date. Christmas and New Year’s Eve are already a distant memory and spring is a big stretch of the imagination. January can be a long month so thank god we have been having these amazing blue sky, sunny afternoons. Plenty of ice in the mornings (hence Roger’s cover shot) but as our central heating is working a treat, we are cosy during the night and cheered up during the afternoon.
In fact, I am already on ‘travel-mode’ as we take off for the UK Saturday week. We’ll be gone for 3 weeks and although I could knuckle-down and post, quite frankly, I’d rather kick up my heels and have fun. We don’t have any more travel plans lined up for the rest of the year and I am hopeless martyr-material, so the next post is very arbitrary indeed, as I want to make the most of our friends and whatever exciting events fall into our lap. There is a possibility that I might do a posting in Oxford on Friday 10 February – otherwise it will be on my return (sometime after 18 Feb) am definitely not wasting Chelsea-time blog posting!)
Meanwhile on pre-travel time, I have been painting the bathroom, so I will gloss over that, as it is one of my least favourite activites.
Costa Concordia has been dominating the news this week.A sad tragedy of a luxury ocean liner hitting a rock, sinking and passengers losing their lives – many bodies have not yet been recovered. The Captain has been shamed and his life will never be the same – not since we heard a broadcast of a conversation with him and the Coast Guard, when the Coast Guard said, “ Vada a bordo, Cazzo.” ( “Get back on board for fuck’s sake.”)
In Britain things are still rather shite – a daily newspaper reported that nearly two thirds on UK children who are living in poverty are from working families. That’s bad. It was also reported that Philip Clarke who is the CEO of Tesco earns (! How?) £6.9 mil. Yet, evidently Tesco does not pay the London living wage. That is totally sick and totally unacceptable.
Perhaps it is time to boycott Tesco until they start to even things up somewhat. Like what does Philip Clarke do with his
£6.9 mil every year? How can he look any of those Tesco workers in the eye, knowing what he knows. There’s some cruel, greedy bastards around.
Talking of which I have to find out what to do about the google ads that appear on my blog and which have done for the two and a half years – even though I have only have had one payment, which was (I think) 76c.
So good luck with the rest of January, Joselyn Morton
Contents, 13 Jan 2012
Ireland: Daren Blake
Degas: JD Morton
Thailand: Chris Mougne
Richard French’s London
Skri Lanka: Graham White
Cover: Roger Morton
13 Jan, 2012
Friday thirteenth, Black Friday – so we indulged our superstition and stayed inside all day. In the countryside, in the middle of winter, it is very easy to do. Occasionally I glanced at the television and yes France was having a bad day. The American Credit Agency, Standard & Poor (are they having a laugh?) were down-grading the euro. Yes France has lost its AAA rating.
If I had lots of euros I could maybe feel more distraught. However, this rating thing could have a silver lining for France – it may lose Sarkozy the Presidential election; it will certainly effect his rating, which has never been lower.
Meanwhile the French ferry company Sea France has gone bust with upwards of 8,000 employees losing their jobs. Curiously Sarkozy suggested these employees should pool their redundancy to raise the €40mill needed to keep the company going. Curious because this was the thread of our Rock Musical Meatworks, produced and performed in 2000 – does that make us right-wing? Bloody hell, sobering thought.
Interestingly last year a proposal to refloat the company with €200mill of Government aid was blocked by the European Commission after a complaint by the other shipping line P&O – well they would complain, wouldn’t they, they are their competition.
Our neighbours popped in the night before last – they are normally very cheerful, but not at the moment – they are very worried about the state of the economy in France. For example, the figures of mal-logement are horrifying large. I believe it is around 8 million. The famous footballer Erik Cantona has taken up the cause and in fact looks as though he is becoming quite an all-round political animal – as opposed to Beckham who seems happy to be a sexual object and being more blatant than subtle is opening up his own underwear range. Jesus wept.
The Loony American Republicans are still drumming up ‘war on Iran’ rants. Sadly another Iranian scientist was killed as a result of a bomb. No one is suggesting he was killed by Americans but he certainly wasn’t killed by Iranians. Days later there is video footage of American soldiers pissing on dead Afghanis. It is all very barbaric.
It is time the world grew up, isn’t it? I’m the first one to want to kick up my heels and have fun but at the same time I try not to shrink my responsibilities (or the kids.)
Let the bad times stop and the good times roll. Please. Joselyn Morton
Contents:3 Jan, 2012
Thailand: Chris Mougne
Sri Lanka: Graham White
The Owl in the tree: JD Morton
India: Graham White
BBC Radio4 Extra: Mary Kalemkerian
3 January, 2012
Happy New Year and Bonne Année everybody and sorry I didn’t do this on the day. Anyway, I reckon you would all have had much more important stuff to do – and it is only today when boredom set in, that you will have felt inclined to look at what’s on the All Extremely Precarious blog.
Graham White, who last year got snowed in for 40 days on the trot, in The Borders (or was it 40 weeks?) …. Anyway, read how he is now relishing hot and beautiful Sri Lanka, seemingly engulfed in flowers and surf. Enjoy it, Graham, you deserve it. Managed to pin down busy Chrissie Mougne and she has fascinating photos of Thailand. The woman speaks Thai and smiling is her natural expression, so doors open.
Our friend Daren visited from Ireland and even though their economy is shrinking at the speed of light, he came armed with presents – deep, dense, black Irish peat (I didn’t know one could buy such a thing, It’s like buying ‘away- in- the-manger’ fresh straw) for the fire; a Killarney, Kerry Woollen Mills 100% Merino and lambswool rug for my legs (I’ll never be cold again) a bottle of Irish Meadow blend wine and whiskey (I’ll always be drunk) and an enormous tin of Cadbury’s roses (I’m showing definite signs of being a habitual chocoholic.)
I’ve just realised the vacuum cleaner may have been sitting in the sitting room (mmmm!) for the whole year already. I must use it or move it.
There was a good joke in the latest London Review of Books Something to do with “ Mao said well if it had been Kruschev who had died instead of Kennedy, Onasis certainly wouldn’t have married Mrs Kruschev!”
I’m glad I bought yesterday’s 2 janvier Sud Ouest as it had a retrospective of Iturria’s best cartoon’s for 2011. He’s a funny dude with an international-based source of humour. I liked the one where he had drawn a ‘pillory’ and as well as holes for the head and arms there was a little hole for a willy. It said “ Nouveau pilori a l’usage des hommes politiques” and underneath was added “ Juin: L’affaire DSK n’en finit pas de faire couler de l’encre.
There was also a very good review of Paul Smith’s book Notes. (We love him as he has bought a few of Roger’s photos).
I think most people are relieved that 2011 is over. However no one is jubilant about the sound of 2012 (probably because of all the new-age scaremongery that has gone on about the world coming to an end.) Maybe it is time to consider ‘the rights’ of the world. The term is ecocide and hopefully profit-driven companies are going to be caught and made to stop committing ecocide. Fracking was maybe the new 2011 word – as in ‘I love my water, stop fracking with it.’ US landowners have been leasing their land to shale gas developers in the NE of the USA. The process blasts chemicals, sand and water into shale rocks to release the oil and gas they contain. Consequently there have been earthquakes in Oklahoma in the US and Blackpool in the UK.
Maybe even more shocking was to see TV images of black-robed priests in the big church in Bethlehem bashing each other with brooms – at Christmas. They were all Christians, they weren’t young drunk adolescents. These were holy men in a church. They had some difference of opinion. It was a very depressing sight. Almost as bad as reading that in Britain every year around 2,000 young Muslim girls get their genitals mutilated by their mothers in order to make them marriageable. They are called ‘cutting parties’. Inexcusable.
Then in Israel, little 8 year old girls were being spat at by black-suited men because their clothes were not modest enough for their Jewish Orthodox religion. It was heartening to see the hundreds of people who demonstrated to show how despicable they thought the men’s actions were to these little girls on their way to school.
So that’s 3 major religions all fucking up. Let’s hope they can get something sorted, so that everyone can have the Happy New Year that we have all been enthusiastically wishing on them.
Bonne Anneé a tous, Joselyn Morton
Contents
les z'brides: Laurence Cappelletto
Mel Philipps in Nepal
I feel sad: Joselyn Duffy Morton
Richard French in London
Stephen O’r’s Sydney
BBC Radio 4 Extra: Mary Kalemkerian
Cover: Roger Morton
Five more days to Xmas, which is a bit of an indictement on me because I should have posted the blog days ago. I have, however, been busy. I’ve edited another ebook; assessed a script for Oxford Editors, spent a day in bed recovering from drinking too much white wine. Visited my (new!) homoeopath in Angouleme; went with Roger to his specialist in Perigueux, visited the Post office on a daily basis (such a nice experience compared to Post Offices in London. Christine, tells me the cheapest way, where to buy the roll of brown paper, ‘scotches’ it all up for me. And I’m sorted.) found Laurence’s expo, did a big shop, found the Xmas presents we needed; went to the kinesithereapeute M Vimber for the 5mm gap in the tendon in my left shoulder twice a week – talked politics with him for half an hour (in French. Be impressed!) found our Xmas decorations (if you saw the state of our attic, you would be doubly impressed; persuaded M Larrouy to come and give us devi for windows in the attic (progress!). This evening we popped in on our neighbour Joelle and she promptly gave us a dish of deer and rabbit to take home, from a batch she was making. That takes care of tomorrow’s lunch. And throughout it all, we are being kept warm by the wood-fuelled central heating. Thank fucking Christ. What a difference.
I’ve also watched bits of the News of the world trial on the tele. Today it was Piers Morgan. Am afraid, he might be found to be very involved. That is unless Heather ex- Maka wife comes forward and says she gave him her phone to listen to. Two world leaders died this week – the much-loved Czech poet and playwright Vaclav Havel and North Korean’s not-so-loved Mr Kim il Sung. However because Mr Kim il Sung has nuclear weapons and powerful Chinese allies, America has never dared invade (even though they declared N Korea to be in the axis of evil. Thank you Bush). They were not the only world figures to die in the last few days. The cancer that Christopher Hitchens had been fighting finally won. I didn’t agree with him on everything but applauded his sentiment that “religion was nothing but trouble”
Conversely David Cameron was in Oxford for a speech on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. He said “We are a Christian country and should not be afraid to say so.” Let the ripples commence …
This coming week, when everything quietens down, I plan to watch some episodes of Channel 4’s Fresh Meat because Robin and Buffie’s youngest daughter Charlotte is in it. I am pleased for its success especially as it has just won ‘best new comedy programme. My secret hope is that it will pave the way for our wonderful Rock Musical Meatworks because by the time we raise funding for that, people will have got accustomed to the word Meat….Meat… Meat.
Catchy, huh.
Stay warm Joselyn Morton
Contents 9 Dec, 2011
Tribunal Decision from GrahamWhite
Good wishes: Claudia Ward
Sexy: J D Morton
Bad Bankers
Richard French in London
Fukushima nuclear: J Morton
Licorne exposition: R&JMorton
Stephen O’R’s Sydney
BBC Radio4 Extra: Mary Kalemkerian
We’re going out in a few minutes, so I’ve got to be quick. Right now we are putting half the stuff that is in the rose bedroom into our bedroom. We have already taken loads of stuff out of our bedroom so that this could happen (including a few kilos of manky dust). I don’t have any religion or strong superstitions except that every year, a few days before New Year’s Eve, I seem compelled to have a big clear-out.
I also need to have a big clear-out with this blog because it seems to be bunged up. I realise I posted quite a large amount today but sadly it doesn’t show them all at once. When you reach the (apparent) end of today’s posting, you have to click on ‘older posts’ for Richard French’s first week in London to appear (likewise what’s going on in Fukushima, plus the exhibition in Lusignac, Stephen O’R’s tête a tête with his plumber as the rain gushed down and Mary Kalemkerian’s advice to find something to laugh about.
Annoying especially as I am very pleased that we’ve got some witty words coming in from Richard once again. It has been great over the last three days to get updates from Graham White on what has been going on in Bangalore with the Permanent People’s Tribunal against the Big 6 Pesticide companies. Very brave of those people (including Graham) who went there to testify. Some of those companies have budgets equal to that of a small country. The amounts of money involved in the sale of Pesticides is immense – as is the amounts of money involved in the sale of arms, pharmaceuticals and investment banking. This is why the guys who run these companies are the guys who lobby their own government to get the laws passed that they want passed. For example the money Goldman Sachs donated Barak Obama’s Democratic campaign is immense which is why on Piers Morgan the other day, when he was interviewing Michael Moore, Michael Moore succinctly asked the question “Why can't Wall Street put up a good candidate for the contest for President? Then replied. They already have. Barak Obama! He has had more funding from Goldman Sachs, than all the Republican candidates put together. No Goldman Sachs people have yet gone to jail. Right, gotta go, I’m really late.
Have a good weekend, Joselyn Morton
Contents 3 Dec 2011
Permanent People’s Tribunal
A Rogue Fly J D Morton
Stephen O’R’s past
BBC Radio4 Extra: Mary Kalemkerian
3 Dec , 2011
Another December. Already, so soon. For some people it may be a time of reckoning. I am still too concerned with simply getting on with stuff. However, it could be a time for international soul-searching. Nobody knows where the world stands in China’s eyes. Until today, Europe evidently thought China was going to bail them out. Yeah right. Why would they after all the centuries of insults they have suffered at the hands of Europeans. But it’s about money not insults, isn’t it? For interesting insight into Japan, read October 17 issue of New Yorker, the article ‘The Fallout’ by Evan Osnos. It is sad and scary. At the time of the tsunami, some of the workers at the Fukushima plant were earning the equivalent of $11 an hour – the same as part-timers in Tokyo’s McDonald’s. Plus Japanese management had for years been forging receipts for repairs to reactors. Repairs that were never made. All about money, right.
Let’s hope the Permanent People’s Tribunal is successful against the Big 6 (see main article). Meanwhile the Olympic sponsor, Dow Chemicals is getting flack from protestors because they didn’t honourably settle after the Bhopal disaster – all about money. A fresh shipment of US-made tear gas arrived in Egypt on 25 November for the police to use against protestors. Totally about money. How does the weapons and arms industry get away with ‘crimes against humanity’. Laughable.
I didn’t know that Baron von Reuter’s (Reuter’s news agency) built Persia’s railway. (Thank you Robert Fisk) at a great profit. In 1953 the democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh nationalised Britain’s oil in Iran. This was a pivotal time because the US and the UK then conspired to help overthrow him and since then there has been no love lost between them and Iran. I feel chilled when I hear about demands to declare war on Iran because of their nuclear industry. Some of the most interesting people I know are Iranians. One doesn’t declare war on a country. One declares war on its people.
A cheery note was seeing a retired US police chief in full uniform protesting with the Wall Street protestors because he feels “Corporate America has to be stopped.” It really is all about money. A friend in Ireland skyped the other day, he is very worried about what will happen to the Irish euro.
When I was a kid, working in a bank was considered boring beyond belief. I never entertained the idea, even for a second. Yet bank bosses bonuses must have helped a little with the boredom factor. (Let’s bang off some boredom with this blingy billion.)
Then there’s stress. Stress is major cause of concern in the world today. I’m not surprised. It is stressy out there. Thank god there are still people who can make us laugh. I could become a laughter groupie. Watch me. Joselyn Morton
Contents 21 Nov 2011
Photos: Roger Morton
My husband: JD Morton
Stephen O’R’s Sydney
BBC Radio 4 Extra: Mary Kalemkerian
21/11/2011
I have got a cold and so I am in a world of hot head and snot that world politics and poverty cannot penetrate. God help me if I ever get anything more serious. Besides which anything I write might be total waffle. I was intending to find out about Archbishop of York because he mentioned that in 2000 he was stopped by the police 8 times. He is from Uganda. He is black. I was also going to write about the UK NHS now planning to offer women the option of a caesarean birth. This is ‘cuts’ gone mad. Especially as it would cost an extra £800, not to mention the extra few minutes of GP time explaining what it involves or that afterwards, you would feel like shit and not want to cuddle your new-born baby because it might hurt to move or lift him or her. (Of course. If you started with a tight young vagina that is what you would still have, as opposed to a saggy old gumboot.) Oh these cold germs do make me feel bitter which is sad because we had such a pleasant week. We visited friends in Andernos who took us down to the beach where wetasted oysters fresh from their beds. However, we did wander round the old village of Canon in the rain, so that might be how I caught this frigging cold.At the time, I didn’t notice, I was too enamoured with the tiny colourful houses which seemed to be built straight onto the sand.
From there we hurried through the drizzle to see the magical-looking Algerian church. I learnt that the mansion built on the beach by the same architect got ripped down in the 60s and a very boring block of apartments put up in its place. Shameful but maybe that was in the guilty aftermath and misplaced emotions of the Algerian War.
And here we are still plagued by war. The Egyptians are having a hellish time. Peaceful solutions seem so difficult to achieve. Who made ‘peace’ into such a bad word? They have a lot to answer for.
Why can’t Americans concentrate on eradicating poverty in America instead of toying with the idea of going to war with Iran? For a modern country, their thinking is barbaric.
Meanwhile I am pleased to see that the scandal of unpaid interns is being revealed. Although evidently UK Job Centres are planning to place young people in unpaid positions for 8 weeks at Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s etc. They could lose their £50 weekly benefit if they refuse.
Tesco’s profits in April were over £3billion.Inland Revenue should put a stop to this unpaid work and to unpaid interns. Why? If people work but are not being paid, they don’t need to pay taxes. The State loses out. The young people lose out. Big businesses profit.
The other dirty word alongside peace, is Unions. If the Unions still had some power, this unpaid workwould not be allowed. (bollocks to experience. They are stacking shelves, sometimes working 12-hr days).
Anyway one of these days, some rich philanthropist will have an epiphany that ‘Poverty’ is a dirty word and throw some of their billions at it. I’m not holding my breath (well I’m not because I am endlessly blowing my nose.) Joselyn Morton ed
Contents: 11 Nov 2011
Stephen O'R's Sydney
BBC Radio4 Extra
Protest St Paul’s
Imperial College
Children in Need
Environment
Birds do Still Sing
Food
Freize Art
BBC Radio4 Extra
Cover: Roger Morton
11/11/11
A meaningful date. It is more than a month since I last posted anything new on my blog. Shameful. In that month, the world has not gone to hell in a hand-basket. Not quite. However there is flooding in Thailand and in the south of France and earthquakes in Turkey.
Steve Jobs who was once quoted as saying “I am not interested in being the richest man in the cemetery.” has died. He was only 56 years old. I guess he achieved more than a cluster of ninety year olds. Nonetheless it would be good if the cancer that killed him could be whipped out of existence.
The goddaughter of a friend has just died of cancer aged 24, only 5 weeks after she was diagnosed. She was in the womb when Chernobyl went off. Maybe other 24 year olds should be checked in case they were affected but could be treated in time.
Even so, it is still possible to have some grand times. In the last 3 weeks we have. Here is a brief summary of a few things we did. We were taken to breakfast on a Dorset beach café, the Hive, in the autumn sunshine. We walked the long jetty at Lyme Regis where The French Lieutenant was filmed (in which our kids played the young children that Merle Streep was tutoring). We admired a friend’s boat shed and her rowing dinghy on Southwold beach. We even walked along a crumbling Suffolk cliff. We stayed in Chelsea for a couple of days and caught a bus to the V & A where we enjoyed the Power of Making exhibition more than the Postmodernism one. We babysat in Oxford. We had yummy family meals in Muswell Hill. Sadly, we didn’t make it to Scotland to cousin Mabel’s 80th. As always, it was a real buzz and now I am back to nitty gritty reality in which I attempt to train myself to be positive and not dwell on all my undone tasks. Not easy. Sometimes, I turn up trumps – like two days before we left, we heard that we would miss K and K if we didn’t get there a day early. Somehow we did and had a jolly lunch with them in Paddington before K set off to Frankfort Book Fair to represent NZ (taking over from Iceland). Each year, the book fair concentrates on a particular country. Karl (CK Stead) as one of NZ’s most interesting authors is a very worthy representative. Already all that is in the past and I now share a sitting room with 3 weeks of Guardian and Independent newspapers (Roger’s favourites) and I inch my way around a kitchen which is inhabited by gigantic orange pumpkins. Something has to give.Joselyn Morton
