Love this book

Tags

autobiography, Cold war, John LeCarré, MI5 MI6, The pigeon tunnel, UK, USSR

I am just finishing The Pigeon tunnel; stories from my life by John LeCarré, published in 2016.

The Pigeon tunnel is LeCarré’s autobiography, he was being interviewed on the CBC, Writers and Company by Eleanor Wachtel last week and spoke about it. She reminded him that in 2013 he had said this was is last interview and here he was giving another one to her.

LeCarré is his nom de plume, his real name is David John Moore Cornwell, he was born in 1931 in Poole, Dorset, UK. He served in the Security Service MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 between 1958-1964. He has published numerous books, many have been made into movies, etc. In 1964 LeCarré left the service to work full-time as a novelist, his intelligence-officer career at an end as the result of the betrayal of British agents’ covers to the KGB by Kim Philby, the infamous British double agent (one of the Cambridge Five).

Kim Philby, now that was a name I heard repeatedly during my time in the Canadian Foreign Service. We were made aware of the deviousness of the USSR during the Cold War and how we always had to be on our guard. Philby died some years ago, he did a lot of harm to the intelligence community and is seen in Russia today as a National Hero for his service to the USSR.

I come late to the books of LeCarré during my career everyone was reading them. I only read one book of his some 15 years ago and nothing since, not because his books are not good, no they are very good read. I was just reading other authors and not in the intelligence novel genre.

I love The Pigeon tunnel, a real page turner of an autobiography about his life from childhood to adulthood, about his father Ronnie who was quite the charmer and con artist always one step ahead of the Law, his mother Olive and his brother Tony. LeCarré also has step-siblings. He was married twice and has four sons all did very well for themselves.

I think I love this book, because for me it brought back a lot of memories of events and people, some of whom I met and knew. It was a fascinating world. His novels on the other hand are works of fiction, his characters are modelled on real people but the rest is all made up, of course his previous career in MI6 helped with the inspiration, though it is fiction sometimes it is close to the truth. LeCarré in his autobiography does explain that in his novels he is to this day bound by his Oath of Secrecy, as we all are not to reveal what we saw or know, let the politicians blab.

I now want to read his latest novel A legacy of Spies published recently. It tells the story of retired spies who 30 years after the events are called back by a new generation to explain why they did this or that, the young generation does not understand nor know what happened then. We do live in the PC age, Canada is a good example not a month goes by now that the Trudeau government thinks it has to apologize for the past, sometime very distant.

 

 

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Dates, Anniversaries

Tags

Anniversary, Canada., Rome, UK

Today on the 18 April 1881 in London the British Museum opened. What a great institution it is.

Also on the 18 April 1506, the construction on the new Saint Peter’s Basilica started, it would last  100 years and a further 30 years was required to do the interior decorations the interior was decorated by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. In 1561 Michelangelo was asked to come and work on the building, he designed part of the dome but died before it was completed. The old Saint Peter which had been built in the 4th century AD was destroyed, the building was so old and in a state of disrepair, it had become unsafe.

Here is a fresco in the Church of San Martino in Rome showing the inside of the Old Saint Peter’s basilica before it was demolished.

Some 35 years ago on 17 April 1982 the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which is enshrined in our Constitution.

Queen Elizabeth II signs the Proclamation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms on Parliament Hill, sitting at the table is Prime Minister Pierre E. Trudeau.

 

 

 

 

 

Things or Topics unrelated

Tags

Canada., divorce, EIIR, Felice de Fredis, Hanover, Hungary, Laocöon, Mariage, show business, UK, USA, Vatican, Zsa Zsa Gabor

Today this photo was published of the Sovereign and the Heir. HM Queen Elizabeth II is 90 years old this year and HRH Prince Charles is 68 years old. If the Queen lives another 10 years, which is quite possible since her own mother HM Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother lived to be 101, that would mean that Prince Charles would be 78 yrs old when he would ascend the Throne. He already assumes quite a few of the responsibility of the Sovereign and is delegated by his mother for many tasks. Queen Victoria quickly passed on to her own children many of her own responsibilities after the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1864, she was then 45 years old, she lived until 1901, but did not do very much, her state of mind not being the best, though the fiction was maintained by the British Government that all was well.

HM King George III (1738-1820) also relinquished all his duties to his son HRH Prince George, the Prince Regent in 1810, he would become in 1820 as King George IV. Though the Prime Minister controlled all the affairs of State.

This means that HRH Prince William who is now 34 years old could easily be in his sixties when he becomes King one day. His grandfather HRH Prince Philip is 95 years old. They do live into grand old age in the Royal Family, most be the good German genes from Hanover.

Now for something completely different, the New York Times today reported that the last of the Gabor sisters, Zsa Zsa died of heart failure.

Zsa Zsa Gabor was 99 years old, born in Hungary in 1917 perhaps, was Miss Hungary 1936, immigrated to the USA in 1939 and had been married 8 times. At a US Lawyer’s Convention she was the guest speaker and famously said that ”A girls best friend was not diamonds but a good lawyer”, she knew what she was talking about.

When my parents lived on East 70th street in Manhattan many years ago, my mother had met and knew Jolie Gabor the mother of the three Gabor sisters, Magda, Eva and Zsa Zsa. Jolie ran a Jewellery shop and daughter Magda was often there. Zsa Zsa had a talent for promoting herself and marrying rich men.

Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1939.

I also saw this photo this week of a tomb of a famous person, which you can see if you visit in Rome the Church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli (St Mary at the Altar of Heaven) located on the site of the Temple of the Augurs, completed in the 12th Century. It stands on the Capitoline Hill where the most important temples of Rome once stood, like Jupiter best and great.

The church has many famous people buried there, as is the custom in most churches in Rome. This tomb is to the man who discovered in 1506 the famous classical sculpture of the Laocöon and his sons , which is now housed in the Vatican Museum.

The story of the Trojan Priest Laocöon and his sons is a classical one, this art work was praised in antiquity by Pliny the Elder. The group is life size and a very impressive sculpture, it originally stood in the Palace of Emperor Titus on the Palatine Hill.

The group has been “the prototypical icon of human agony” in Western art and unlike the agony often depicted in Christian art showing the Passion of Jesus and martyrs, this suffering has no redemptive power or reward. The story of Laocoön, a Trojan priest, came from the Greek Epic Cycle on the Trojan Wars. Laocoön was a priest of Poseidon who was killed with both his sons after attempting to expose the ruse of the Trojan Horse by striking it with a spear. The two giant snakes are sent by the gods to punish him.

The group was unearthed in February 1506 in the vineyard of Felice De Fredis near Santa Maria Maggiore; informed of the fact, Pope Julius II, an enthusiastic classicist, sent for his court artists. Michelangelo was called to the site of the unearthing of the statue immediately after its discovery, along with the Florentine architect Giuliano da Sangallo.

Pope Julius acquired the group on March 23, giving De Fredis a job as a scribe as well as the customs revenues from one of the gates of Rome. By August the group was placed for public viewing in a niche in the wall of the brand new Belvedere Garden at the Vatican.

When Felice de Fredis died he was buried in the Church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli and today when you visit the Church you can see his tomb.

This is what I like about those Roman Churches, so many interesting things to see and read about, knowing Latin does help a lot.

London and Southampton

Tags

Chelsea, Islamic Art, Kensington, London, Museums, UK, V&A

One thing we both noticed during our trip through Ireland and then the UK is how foreign workers most of whom are EU Citizens work in the service industry. Gone are the days when Irish or British worked in that sector. It got us thinking that in the  event of Brexit, Britain will find itself in a very difficult position, all those EU workers in the service industry would go home or move to other EU countries. What will Britain do to replace them? The Brits are not going to take those jobs there has been in the last 30 years a culture change and you will find Brits working abroad but not at home and not necessarily in the service sector. In Hotels, restaurants, etc. staff is from a variety of European countries, not a Brit in site. It will be interesting to see how this situation evolves.

While in London we also stopped at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A covers 12.5 acres (5.1 ha)[3] and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. The holdings of ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking, drawings and photographs are among the largest and most comprehensive in the world. The museum owns the world’s largest collection of post-classical sculpture, with the holdings of Italian Renaissance items being the largest outside Italy. The departments of Asia include art from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea and the Islamic world. The East Asian collections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics and metalwork, while the Islamic collection is amongst the largest in the Western world.

The V&A has its origins in the Great Exhibition of 1851, with which Henry Cole, the museum’s first director, was involved in planning; initially it was known as the Museum of Manufactures, first opening in May 1852 at Marlborough House, but by September had been transferred to Somerset House. At this stage the collections covered both applied art and science. Several of the exhibits from the Exhibition were purchased to form the nucleus of the collection. By February 1854 discussions were underway to transfer the museum to the current site and it was renamed South Kensington Museum.

The official opening by Queen Victoria was on 22 June 1857. In the following year, late night openings were introduced, made possible by the use of gas lighting. This was to enable in the words of Cole “to ascertain practically what hours are most convenient to the working classes”.

It is an immense museum and you have to choose what you want to see in the various galleries, one can become overwhelmed by the wealth of the collections. We picked to visit the Asian galleries on our visit and looked into Islamic Art. What is on display is of very high quality and is beautifully curated. It is also very well explained and the collections are part of established British policy to bring back to London treasures of conquered lands which at the time came under British rule. You can say the same thing about the French, German, Spaniards, etc who also had colonial empires. This is why museums in Europe have such extensive collections of Art from abroad.

Ceremonial dagger encrusted with semi precious stones, carved ivory, enamel, a gift from Fath Ali Shah of Persia (Iran) to Captain John Malcolm of the East India Company in 1810.

Gold and pink sapphires bracelet, Madras, India.

Chintz costume, a man’s morning gown made from Indian painted cotton, very popular in England, France and Holland around 1660. It is recorded in Samuel Peppys journal that he bought himself one around 1661. Much later chintz will become popular with ladies.

Fine stone carved window panels, exquisite design, Iran. This fashion of carving appears also in India, Syria, Egypt.

  

 Men’s Mughal Costume, was based on the Jama a tailored gown tied at the side and the Paijama trousers loose at the top but tapered at the lower leg. An elaborate turban (Pagri) was also worn at Court and a long decorative waist sash (Patka). Fine kashmir wool shawl were often draped over the shoulder, a fashion started by Emperor Akbar (1542-1605).

There were many other objects to see, making the visit most interesting. All this in only one part of the V&A museum.

We then went to lunch or Brunch this being Sunday with our friends J. and David Nice.

The House of Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882 in Chelsea

The Thames at low tide.

On the Thames this sculpture by Korean artist Ik Joong Kan, entitled Floating dreams. It is in front of the New Tate Modern Museum.

A small front garden of a house in Chelsea.

A street by our hotel in London

Now comes the time for our last leg of our trip, going home from Southampton on the Queen Mary 2. A 7 day crossing of the North Atlantic our destination New York.

London and Southwark

Tags

Globe theatre, London, London Bridge, plays, Sam Wanamaker, Shakespeare, Southwark, theatre, UK

I was going to visit JP and Guido in Bermondsey which is in Southwark (Suthick), an old acquaintance of mine Marcus Gheeraerts painted this scene of their restaurant in 1570 in Bermondsey. I think the Spanish Armada had arrived in town at that point. The famous JP can be read at https://itsmyhusbandandme.wordpress.com I would rename his blog Adventures in Bermondsey.

You can see the Tower of London on the other side of the Thames. This is more or less the period of Elizabeth I and William Shakespeare. Unfortunately JP was not in London the day we came by. So we went to visit the reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, the project championed by actor Sam Wanamaker.

A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named “Shakespeare’s Globe”, opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet (230 m) from the site of the original theatre. The exact location of the original Globe Theatre is not known.

I would not have visited this site if it had not been for Will, he wanted to see it and this was our chance. Since English is not my mother tongue, I have great difficulty understanding Shakespeare and grasping the meaning of his plays, I think Corneille use to say It’s Greek to me. I always say why can’t they make it into modern English for all to grasp. Nonetheless, it was a fascinating visit and I learned a great deal about the period and life in London at the time. Tours are given and the guide gave us a very good description of how plays were performed and who came to the theatre then. It was a theatre for the masses and people were packed like sardines inside. The whole business was to present a play and make as much money as possible by selling as many tickets, it was rough and ready entertainment for the age, in a brutal world.

The South side of the Thames was a suburb of London and fell outside of the Lord Mayor’s purview, so you could present plays and other spectacle like bear baiting and dog fights and have all manner of immoral and illicit entertainment which would not have been tolerated in London proper. London then was a very small town starting at the Tower of London and ending at Westminster, a small area easily walkable. The only bridge across the Thames was London Bridge which was always congested with traffic. It was easier to hire a barge and row across.

This maquette of London shows the Thames frozen solid which would happen some Winters, with all kinds of activities taking place on the frozen river. The South bank or Southwark.

It was a difficult time politically, Queen Elizabeth I was very suspicious of all around her to the point of paranoia, she saw plots everywhere. Wars of religion was still a fact of life between Catholics and Protestants and Puritans and Presbyterians were constantly agitating for a narrow minded social agenda either in Parliament or at City Hall. Actors and theatres were a favourite target and the threat of closure was always present. Under Oliver Cromwell in 1647 all theatres will be closed and some demolished, bigotry and fanaticism in London led to such extreme measures.

Writing plays as Shakespeare did could also be very dangerous, at any time you could be accuse of fomenting sedition which meant arrest and death for the author. Shakespeare was careful to always tow a prudent political line and flatter the Monarch so as not to become a target. He also sought the protection of powerful patrons and financiers. Complete original manuscripts in the hand of William Shakespeare do not exist, there are no substantial surviving manuscripts, so his plays are known from printed editions done during or just after his death. Seven years after his death, two of his friends and fellow actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell produced a collection of 36 of his plays, this became known as the First Folio.

In other words London and England at the time was a nasty brutish place. Contrary to what was shown in the movie Shakespeare in love, Queen Elizabeth I never came to the Globe. The theatre was brought to her in her Palace at Whitehall, this for reasons of security but mostly because the prestige of the Sovereign did not permit that she would stoop to the level of actors who were in the same class as prostitutes, criminals and other miscreants. The first English monarch to come to the Globe will be HM Elizabeth II in 1997 at the opening of the reconstructed theatre.

The highly symbolic painted decorations of the stage would have been easily recognized by people at the time of Shakespeare, above the heavens with the gods, the spheres and the constellations, below the stage was Hell with its malign influences. In between was the resultant disarray of earthly existence, its trials and follies, tragedies and comedies played out on stage.

The exhibits at the Globe are very interesting from explanations on costumes and how they were made, to the make-up worn by actors, most of it made from highly toxic and poisonous ingredients, lead mercury, arsenic.

Also describe the crowds attending, there were various prices for seats and high prices for those special boxes by the stage reserved for wealthy nobles. Then there was the pit the area directly in front of the stage. People packed in so tightly you could not move. Our guide described for us what you could experience. People did not wash and were covered in lice, bad breath and strong body odour, because you could not move or leave during the show, you simply relieved yourself where you stood. People brought food and drink and spoke loudly during plays. In the upper balcony of the theatre all manner of immoral encounters occurred, the guide being a sensible fellow left it to our imagination to fathom what might have happened up there.

Here is a view of the more expensive boxes for Nobles with painted interiors. The Globe is not a big theatre but in Shakespeare’s time 3000 people could be packed inside for one performance. Today only about 1600 people can attend due to fire regulations.

Stage is being set-up for the 1927 silent movie, Passion of Joan of Arc by Carl Theodor Dreyer with accompanying orchestra.

While at the Globe book shop, I picked up Catharine Arnold, Globe, Life in Shakespeare London and The time traveller’s guide to Elizabethan England, by Ian Mortimer. I enjoyed them both.

A wood model of what the final reconstruction of the Globe and adjacent buildings would look like, most of it has been re-built, I am not sure if the rest will be completed.

The area today with the famous Shard building in the background. All in all a fantastic visit and most interesting.

Will and I on the footbridge crossing back the Thames at St-Paul’s Cathedral.

London in September

Tags

Bailey's Hotel, Botany, Carl Linnaeus, Chelsea Physic Garden, London, New Tate Modern, The Globe theatre, UK, V&A Museum

I always love to travel to London at any time of the year. In the last 47 years I have been to London numerous times in all Seasons. There is no end of things to do and see, be it the opera, the theatre and yes we have seen extremely good theatre in London, museums and collections or just the pleasure of discovering a corner of the city not seen by tourists. Seeing friends and having a nice visit with them as we did again this time with J. and D.N., how Enigma Variations of me to just give out initials.

We stayed at the Bailey’s Hotel, 140 Gloucester Road in South Kensington, an hotel Will remembered well. It is very central and close to so many things, the underground is just across the street, lots of shops, restaurants, etc.

We visited the Globe theatre, it was my first visit to the site on the South side of the Thames just across from St-Paul’s Cathedral. Southwark (pronounced Suthick) is an interesting neighbourhood. The Globe is next door to Tate Modern Museum which is located in a former power plant. The whole area has been revitalized and is nothing like it was some 30 years ago, very vibrant.

We also discovered with our friend D.N. who has a most interesting blog and who recommends great books to read, he has the nose for books, his suggestions never fail to interest. http://davidnice.blogspot.ca  A garden which has been a fixture of London for centuries, I had never heard of it and it is a fascinating place, Chelsea Physic Garden founded in 1673, located at 66 Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea and across the Thames from Battersea Park.

Tucked away beside the Thames, Chelsea Physic Garden is a celebration of the beauty and importance of plants. Founded in 1673 it is one of London’s oldest botanic gardens and contains a unique living collection of around 5,000 different edible, useful, medicinal and historical plants within its sheltering walls.

Omnia mirari etiam tritissima ( wonder at everything, even the most everyday things), motto of botanist Carl Linnaeus 1707-1778. 

Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalized the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the epithet “father of modern taxonomy”.

Sir Hans Sloane, 1660-1753, eminent physician is another person who was involved with the creation of this garden. To this day the Chelsea Physic Garden remains a wonder to visit.

We also walked some 22 km in London, it is a good city for walking. We also visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, there is always something fascinating to see and it is so well curated.

We only had 2 days this time in London and it was a busy time but so delightful.

 

 

 

We are back Home

Tags

CBSA, Ireland, NYC, QM2, Southamton, tourism, trip, UK, US Border

This is the first of several instalments on our 23 day trip to Ireland, UK and Atlantic crossing back to North America. So I am starting by our return home.

Returned home, our last stop was New York City the Cruise Terminal in Brooklyn. We arrived in NYC on the Queen Mary2 at 05:30am, the ship docked opposite Governor’s Island and the Tip of Manhattan Island with the new tower replacing the World Trade Centre lost in the clouds. The Captain had stopped the ship first in front of the Statue of Liberty so we could get a few good photos of this famous monument. It was the first time I saw it in person despite having been to NYC many times.

Statue of Liberty at 05:30am as the Queen Mary 2 docks at the Cruise Terminal, Brooklyn.

We then left the ship at 12:30 an hour later than scheduled due to the fact that US Customs and Border inspection only had 9 Officers instead of 17 to process 3000 passengers, it took 5 hours to complete this process of going through Customs for all passengers. I just thought that this type of obtuse management of tourists by the US Customs is an abuse. Passengers coming off an expensive Ocean liner being inconvenienced is in fact killing tourism and giving a poor first impression of the USA. All passport information had been available to the US Authorities 8 days in advance. Many including ourselves who had planned to spend the day in Manhattan decided to simply go directly to the airport. In heavy choking traffic on poorly maintained roadways, we made it to LaGuardia with 90 minute to spare before our departure for Canada. It is unfortunate because I had not been in NYC in 22 years and now it is unlikely I will ever return, too much of a hassle, not worth it.

The flight to Toronto was uneventful, though I find Toronto Airport an unpleasant experience. To be fair Canadian Border Agency is no better and grossly understaffed, 4 officers to handle hundreds of travellers at the Security check point on the second floor for connecting flights. The flight to PEI was fun, passengers mostly from the Island returning home, it seems that everyone knew everyone else on the flight.

So after a day of line ups in Customs and airport security circus, it’s for your safety don’t you know, this is what our lives have become, cynicism and inefficiency is a virtue, we made it home safe and sound, quite happy to be here in our own beds with our puppies.

All this said, it was a wonderful trip, thanks to Will who organized it all and made it a success, it was another great trip like so many he has planned in the past. We can say that it was the celebration of our many years of adventures together. Thank you Will!

At the Cliffs of Moher, Liscannor, Co. Clare, Ireland.

 

An excess of Democracy

Tags

Brexit, Cameron, EU, Referendum, UK

In the Italian newspapers this morning was a quote by a known Italian politician who said that what happened in the UK was an excess of democracy and that the people will now have to pay for it. Like all things in life the middle position is always best and in this case we saw a PM, David Cameron gambling the future to save his own political career. So despite his professed love of England, he has like all power hungry politicians more attachment to his political career and survival, unfortunately for him, he will be remembered as the one who created this horrible mess. As for ex-Mayor of London, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farange the leader of UKIP, they were both opportunists and irresponsible during the campaign. However their victory is to assure them of political power, that is the name of the game. The future will show that dark days are ahead for England, nothing will ever be the same. There was no need for this referendum, Mr Cameron thought it would resolve a dispute within the Conservative Party, he did not seem to understand that the consequences could be this serious for the Nation.

On the voting figures, London is now effectively an enclave of its own – a city-state wholly divorced culturally, politically, financially and by its inclusive outlook from England. By those same figures, the young are in potentially irreconcilable conflict with their grandparents; the university educated with those bereft of higher education; and, if to a lesser degree, the urban with the rural.

This seems to a trend even in Canada, if one looks at the great cities like Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal or the division by class and by level of education. What is truly worrying is the level of Civic Illiteracy amongst the average person who do not know how our Parliamentary democracy works or what the Constitution says about how we govern ourselves.

In this sense this was an excess of democracy, you do not launch into a referendum process when the population can be so easily manipulated and is ignorant of the most basic facts. When far right politicians like Farange are willing to play on the fear of people at their most basic, fear of the other, or invent stories about what membership cost. For those who believe that England can return with this vote to the mythical days of Empire and Mary Poppins or other symbols of a Britain of long ago, that will not happen.

Again in our Parliamentary system in Canada like in Britain, tradition is for the Government to lead in Parliament and to take action.  You do not hold referendums, Parliament is Sovereign and is elected to govern.

We now have a broken country, deeply divided and the exit vote is far too close to be considered valid. Scotland is now talking of holding another referendum to secede from the UK, since 62% of Scots voted to remain in the European Union. There is also the prospect that Ulster could unite with the Republic of Ireland to the South a strong member of the EU. That leaves England and Wales to go at it alone, a much diminished country.

What will also happen to the millions of Briton who work and own property in the EU? Not to mention all the other citizens of EU countries who work and reside in Britain. Lost of that workforce in the UK and returning British citizens will create an economic crisis.

How truly incompetent David Cameron and his government are and how opportunistic the Opposition, it will be interesting to see now what plan Boris Johnson or Nigel Farange come up with, I strongly suspect they do not have one.

Here is a map of England before 1707 and possibly the map of the England of tomorrow. I cannot imagine the Queen being terribly happy at that prospect.

 

 

two view points

Tags

Canada., documentary, Germany, Marshall Plan, Nazi, post war, UK, USA, war, WWII

Recently I was surfing on You Tube and found two short documentary films both made in 1946. One is British and the other is American, same topic, same story but completely different approach. The British one is highly moralistic and full of condescension, preachy and negative. The American one is Bon Enfant in tone that American way of being optimistic and full of yes we can do this and all will be well now, no worries folks, we are here to make friends and build the future. I often long for that America which appears to have vanished.

Of course the two documentaries are about Germany 1946, the war is over, the Nazi regime defeated, its leadership dead or in jail. Now it is time for re-construction and with that post war view of all is possible. The American want to bring prosperity to the defeated nation, it shows us a German family, father, mother and two kids. Father works in a factory, responsible fellow, mom the good housewife and the kids happy. The nightmare of the Nazi dictatorship which lasted 12 years is over. The narrator even inserts German words into the dialogue so the viewer can see that the former enemy is now just a simply guy wanting to get on with life. The family has a meal together, father smokes a pipe, kids do homework and their home is simple but clean. For all you know this could be an American family. The American documentary is somewhat naive, you think of innocents abroad as Mark Twain use to say.

Contrast this with the British documentary, it is full of reproach against that awful people who inflicted two world wars on the World in the space of 20 years. Forgetting that the First World War was about Europe including the British sleepwalking into a conflict that could have been averted. The narrator then goes on to mention the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 as further proof of the perfidious Germans. Forgetting to tell us that Queen Victoria, the most German of British Monarchs cheered Bismarck on that one and only changed her tune when her Ministers told her the public could not understand her pro-German sentiment.

The British documentary shows you a lot of devastated German cities, people walking about aimlessly, stunned by the defeat and the catastrophe they brought on themselves. The narrator says “What are we to do with these people” “should we let them starve”, ” Kill them all”. All rhetorical questions of course, the narrator goes on to say it is our duty to reform them and educated them so they can set aside their terrible ideas. He also brings in Christian principals and values, all is presented as a burden for the civilized British people. Redemption of the German people will come through atonement for sins, the narrator then goes on to name German Industrialists like Krupp who made money from the war, comical really, as if no one in Britain ever made a huge profit from the war. Everyone must be punished! Emphatically states the narrator almost in hysterical tones.

Looking at it I thought, well here we go again, same nonsense from the British and the French we saw in 1919 which lead directly to hardship and the rise of Nazism. Luckily this time the new Super Power America is there to set the tone and by 1948 Britain will be pushed to the margins as the Empire crumbles, same fate awaits the French and their colonial empire.

You certainly do not see in the British documentary any spirit of Internationalism, it is still about revenge and the old European rivalries. The documentary in itself speaks to a British audience, holding fast certain beliefs about the enemy, which cannot be revisited or re-interpreted. In Canada we also bought into the British interpretation of the war and to this day presentation follows orthodox lines. The Americans being a new Super Power can be magnanimous, they have no past sins.

The British documentary forgets to mention that the war could not be won by Britain alone, all the Commonwealth countries and Canada came to the rescue. Britain was almost defeated by Germany during the Battle of Britain. They also forget to mention that Edward VIII and Ms Simpson’s were Nazi sympathizers and if Britain fell they would have been happy to help Herr Hitler, sanitize Britain and get rid of Churchill and brother George VI. Unclassified documents today show what had long been suspected but never mentioned publicly.

I just found those two documentaries fascinating and indicative of the post-war period.

This British exclusionary spirit still exist today, the latest is the Brexit vote on 23 June, will Britain leave the European Union over some imagined fantasy of not being able to control their own destiny? As if Britain today could go at it alone, what of all the British citizens now living, working for years in other EU countries, out of the EU means they go home to the Sceptre Isle which would certainly created an economic crisis of large proportions. Again it is this idea that people have to play by our rules and Britain is not open to working with others unless it can dictate the terms.

General DeGaulle back in 1969 said that Britain should not be allowed to enter into the Common Market as the EU was then called. He could foresee problems because of British attitudes. In Europe the rivalries die hard, sad really.

 

 

 

Food and tradition

Tags

BBC, Clarissa Dickson Wright, cuisine, Food, history, Two Fat ladies, UK

Found this great BBC documentary with the late Clarissa Dickson-Wright who had a TV show entitled The Two Fat Ladies with her partner Jennifer Patterson.

It is all about food and why we eat what we do today. How food travels through social classes and time, influenced by fashion, money and religion. This being Thanksgiving Season just loved watching it. Some of the recipes presented I tried and loved. Fortnum and Mason so wonderful to shop in and their restaurant is first class.