No Passport Required

I finally finished Molesworth and what a surreal ending it has. I also read two more Horrible Histories and learnt loads about Scotland and all the English kings since William the Conqueror who I didn't know was illiterate. King John could not read either so he never signed the Magna Carta (Latin for large wagon - making John the first white van man). We were always told at school that Richard I was the nice one and John was the nasty piece of work. Recently I have started to realise that this is all just propaganda. The whole lot of them seem to have been ignorant thugs, thieves and murderers. 'Gawd Bless yer Maam.' seems a little empty after this. All this does not show too many repuplican sympathies; the Royal family do NOT rule the country do they? The fact that an airhead Royal was number three in the poll of Great Britons is a little worrying. The other Royal in the list was by no means an airhead though she did show some thuggish tendencies. She is of course this person :-


(From Amazon.co.uk)

In his programme about Windsor Castle, Dan Cruickshank sauntered past this painting hanging on the wall of one the state rooms without comment which should not have annoyed me but it did. I am not one to equivocate the past so I will move on to current reading matter.

I have, at last, started 'The Girl in a Swing' which has a far deeper intellectual meaning than I ever guessed when I read it at 19; All this stuff about The Agamemnon and the various allusions to other high-brow literary stuff. It actually struck me on starting this second reading that it is actually a bit plummy but I am sure that is deliberate in order to contrast the up-tight Englishman with the abandoned behaviour of his Danish Lover. What I did get from it all those years ago, was the unique atmosphere of Southern England Summers which pervades the book. I don't recall anything which made me think it was winter though I am sure some of it was set in that season. I have also discovered that the original edition of the book had to be withdrawn as the subject of a lawsuit by a woman called Kä the (it has the space) which was the name originally used for Karin. Some articles say that the name was changed from Kä the Geutner to Karin Forster because it was easier for English speaking audiences. For a book with so many literary references, this seems unlikely. Just shows how history is written. I am only a tenth of the way through it and Karin has yet to appear. More after more.