The Subliminal Mr Dunn

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

2012-01-29T09:14:00.000+01:00

I have recently seen, in less than perfect conditions, the latest film adaptation of a John Le Carré book, and once again I came away disappointed. In my humble opinion, no Le Carré book has transferred successfully to the wide screen, with the possible exception of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (which I haven't seen) and The Tailor of Panama (which is more in the nature of a comedy).

Why is this? I think it is because his books are, when you come to think of it, short on action and long on atmosphere, description and dialogue, and this is not an easy mixture to translate to the cinema. In my view, the ideal format for Le Carré is the television series. Here, a talented director and gifted actors have the space and time to create the peculiar Le Carré world of betrayal and remorse. Television is often dismissed as the cinema's poor relation but its record in adapting classic works of literature - and I think we can include the Smiley books in their number - is often superior.

I also think Gary Oldman is too tall to play the part of George Smiley!

Impressions IV

2012-01-27T11:13:00.000+01:00

The coach trip from Stansted to Wolverhampton took me through Birmingham. The last time I was there was back in the mid-fifties. I have a dim recollection that the buses were dark brown but I must have been mistaken or else they have changed, for they are now decked out in a red and cream livery. That previous visit to Birmingham was arranged by my prep school on the occasion of a "Catholic Fair". I can't remember much about this apart from a brisk trade in Indulgences. Could it really be true that we were asked to fork out good money in return for a few hundred days off purgatory?
It could indeed. I have just found a "Prayer for the Canonization" of Edmund Campion, carrying an indulgence of 300 days. To be redeemed at check-in presumably?

Impressions III

2012-01-27T11:10:00.001+01:00

Braintree: the town has changed out of all recognition since my mother died 35 years ago, and my sister and I both thought she would be completely lost today. Have there ever been so many changes in such a short space of time?
Not many signs of recession either here or in Saffron Walden. I won't really believe all this talk of economic hardship until TV studios convening experts to pontificate on the "situation" have to be lit by candles and the participants wear a haggard, unshaven look, especially the men.
But of course it's impossible to judge the state of a nation on the strength of a cursory visit to a well-to-do part of the country. Subject to correction, I would put the beautiful county of Shropshire in the same category; so much more prosperous-looking than the down-at-heel area where I live.

In and around Ditton Priors, Shropshire

Impressions II

2012-01-27T10:24:00.000+01:00

I was seated next to a most interesting woman on the Eurostar taking me from Lille to London. Born and brought up in Kenya, she has lived in France for the last seven years, running an "Eco/Etho Research and Education Centre roughly half-way between Dieulefit and Crest in the Dröme department.
http://www.eco-etho-recherche.com/
She is also a keen horserider:
http://horseridingfrance.com/

Many of the people who come to stay or work on her farm are Willing Workers On Organic Farms, another organisation I'd never heard of.
http://wwoof.fr/eng/index.htm

Des Paroles et des Actes

2012-01-26T17:45:00.003+01:00

This is the name of a current affairs programme, devoted this evening to François Hollande, candidate (and at the time of writing favourite) for the French presidential elections. I personally am not a great fan of Hollande and still nourish the hope that he will explode in mid air, but at the same time feel I should make a conscious effort to watch the programme. Where news is concerned, I have a nasty tendency to avoid reading about or listening to events/views which unsettle me. For instance, I hate it when Roger Federer loses to Nadal (as he did again today) or when England lose at any sport (as they almost invariably do) and have to steel myself to "face the music".

So I shall be watching Hollande this evening, hoping against hope that Alain Juppé takes him to the cleaners.

Impressions I

2012-01-26T00:01:00.001+01:00

I'm writing this post - the first for many a moon - on a FlyBe flight from Birmingham International Airport to Paris CDG. My iPad 1, once the object of admiration and envy, now warrants no more than disdain or indifference. That's a relief really as I can get on with telling you something about my latest trip to England, now drawing to a close. The purpose of my visit was to see my family: my sister and brother-in-law in Braintree, my son and family at Widdington near Saffron Walden and my brother and family at Ditton Priors, near Bridgenorth in Shropshire. I had a lovely time from start to finish but family matters are not really the focus of this blog; at least not at the moment. Perhaps they should be.

I have written before of the unsettling effect of travelling, in particular of returning to one's home country after a prolonged absence. This time the experience was less disquieting than in the past, partly because my activities with the boating community in Saint Jean de Losne have given me the chance to speak and hear English more often than for many a year. And partly because I have in a sense given up the ghost and treat travelling to England as a more or less seamless experience, punctuated only by the need to change languages somewhere along the way, much as your mobile phone switches operators who are pleased to charge you exorbitant roaming fees.
To be continued

Life at the Top

2012-01-16T21:01:00.002+01:00

When S&P told me they were hiring I jumped at the chance. Money wasn't a prime consideration as I had already made all the money I could possibly need during my years at FIFA and the IOC, where of course the opportunities for corruption are virtually unlimited. With S&P I was looking for a different kind of challenge - the opportunity to publicly humiliate erstwhile proud nations in conditions of complete impunity. Here at S&P you don't have to be particularly bright but we do insist on complete personal integrity. All senior managers must be American citizens. We are often accused of bias but I cannot emphasise too strondly that our ratings are established on a completely random basis, via the same system used to telling effect by the National Lottery.

Linda Ronstadt

2012-01-13T20:22:00.000+01:00

Here is a very catchy little song by the great Linda Ronstadt. You might get a bit tired of it after a while, but I think it's rather nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA27GBr306E

And here's a beautiful song she sang for the film The Secret Garden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuVhHyTcT_o&feature=related

Winter Scenes in the Jura

2012-01-13T17:23:00.000+01:00

This Mighty Horse...

2012-01-13T17:13:00.002+01:00

... surveys his domain in the Jura mountains.

Football Memories

2012-01-11T15:46:00.001+01:00

It is 5 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon at my preparatory school, St Richards, some time in the mid 1950s. Along with one or two other sports-minded boys, I am sitting in our English teacher's room, listening to Sports Report. It is broadcast on the Light Programme and is introduced by Eamonn Andrews. The football results are read out by the peerless John Webster whose wonderful diction and clear delivery, in my opinion, have never been matched.

Why should I be the slightest bit interested in the results, since I know next to nothing about football nor indeed the British Isles, having scarcely ever set foot outside my native East Anglia apart from this school in the Malvern Hills and another one somewhere in Hampshire? And yet I am passionately committed to the fate of certain teams, solely on the basis of the way they SOUND. Two of my favourites are Preston North End and Charlton Athletic. I don't think Charlton is a major club but Preston, with Tom Finney, are one of the great teams of the 'fifties.

When I look back on that long-ago time, I am struck by the extraordinary preponderance of football clubs on either side of the Pennines and, to a lesser degree, in the Midlands and the North-East. They stand as a lasting testimony to the Industrial Revolution, and even today football teams in the effete and prosperous south remain relatively thin on the ground.

Freedom

2012-01-10T09:47:00.001+01:00

Freedom is the title of a bestseller by Jonathan Franzen. It is also the name of an application which prevents you from getting onto the Internet for up to 8 hours. Apparently it is used by other world class writers such as Nick Hornby, Zadie Smith and Nora Ephron in order to avoid the distractions of the web and get on with the serious business of writing. (Incidentally, at what point does one become a "world class" writer? Am I, for example, a world class writer or a fifth-rate blogger?)

Honestly, things have come to a pretty pass when you have to use this sort of application, and fork out good money (10 dollars) as well, to wean yourself off the web. Besides, what happens if you need to go online to check your e-mails or to see what's going on in the real world? Actually, all you have to do is to switch off your computer and switch it on again! What a racket.

http://macfreedom.com/

Floods at Esbarres

2012-01-06T20:11:00.002+01:00

The Invaders

2012-01-06T11:23:00.001+01:00

THE STORY SO FAR
Architect David Vincent (Roy Thinnes) is convinced that planet Earth is being taken over by invaders from outer space. These aliens look and speak exactly like ordinary human beings. Although Vincent has discovered that they do not bleed when cut, he acknowledges that another means of identification is required.

In my opinion, aliens are also characterised by a slight zombie look, as though they had taken heavy doses of Botox. The only "outed" alien at the present time - Arnold Schwarzenegger - certainly meets this description.

Other suspects:

In Denial

2012-01-05T10:58:00.000+01:00

Denying that you are getting old. Denying that you are eating too much. Denying that you are starting to smoke too much. Denying that your memory is vanishing at a rate of knots. Denying that the younger generation is just as intelligent as ours. Denying that the climate is changing almost out of recognition. Denying that politics is becoming a branch of the entertainment industry. Denying that the cable I bought to connect my iPad to a TV was a bad purchase because the display is only in black and white. Denying that I am addicted to the Internet.

I think that life would be impossible without a large dose of denial.

The Year In VistaVision

2012-01-03T17:51:00.002+01:00

My goodness, how things have changed since 2011. Christmas of that year, you may recall, was one of the best shopping seasons ever. There was such a dazzling array of goods on display that one sometimes did not know which way to look. But whatever one's choice, one could be sure of a warm welcome and a cheery "Merry Christmas" at the cash desk.

All that of course is long gone. Nowadays such people as one sees in the supermarket are all congregated in the pet food counter, stocking up with endless tins of Pal, Chum, Royal Canin, Pedigree, Growl and Snarl. I feel like telling the more shame-faced among them that they can buy the same products without any of the attendant embarrassment, for few if any of them have dogs to speak of, from their local Chinese takeaway.

Another change from those heady days is the startling fall in the number of bloggers. Not only are there fewer bloggers than ever before, but those that remain are blogging less often than in the past. This is scarcely surprising when one considers that no-one feels much like blogging after a back-breaking day in the fields digging potatoes.

On a personal front, 2011 was a year in which I could still hear significant chunks of what people were shouting at me. Nowadays, I have to make do with "Key Words and Phrases": dinner time - make the bed - do I have to shout? - mass unemployment - civil unrest - vote rigging - appeal for calm - sauces close to the Houses of Parliament.

Predictions for 2012

2012-01-01T10:20:00.001+01:00

Like 2011, only more so.

About Me

2012-01-01T10:18:00.001+01:00

Barnaby Capel-Dunn, the blogger, was born in the 20th century and edukated at Beaumont College (since disbanded). After a spell of duty at Durham University, he finally left these shores in 1969, a move he for one later bitterly regretted.

Fairly hinged for most of his life, he only became totally unhinged in 2012 when he was once again overlooked in the New Years Honours List.

2012-01-01T10:10:00.001+01:00

A World of Paradox

2011-12-30T13:08:00.001+01:00

If you are in any way interested in art, do have a look at Google's stunning Art Project (http://www.googleartproject.com/). The funny thing is, you'd expect the existence of this and other such sites to have an adverse effect on the number of people visiting museums, but in fact the opposite would seem to be the case. Could it be that that the end result is actually to whet our appetite for the real thing? Again, in spite of the prevalence of online shopping physical stores are fuller than ever. Could it be that we crave the cheerful human intercourse at the checkout desk? "You have a nice day, now." Bookshops are no doubt feeling the pinch but I have limited nostalgia for those cramped, old-fashioned book stores where one scarcely dared move for fear of upsetting a shelf full of books.
I myself am ambivalent about art but was pleased to learn that David Hockney composes his pictures on his iPad. I was particularly interested to learn that he has a special outsize pocket in his jacket, the better to store said iPad, and that he has weighted the other side of his jacket so as to avoid lurching to one side when out walking.

Chase a Crooked Shadow - Verdict

2011-12-29T15:57:00.000+01:00

As I had rather suspected, my second viewing of the film Chase a Crooked Shadow, some 50 years after I saw it as an impressionable schoolboy, was something of a disappointment. Very little of the suspense that once had me transfixed has survived down the years. Or would it be more truthful to write that my palate has become more jaded with the passage of time? But I could still admire the fine acting of Richard Todd, Anne Baxter and Herbert Lom, and the clever way the black and white camera caught the harsh light of the Costa Brava. From a purely nostalgic point of view, I also liked the feeling of emptiness and space conveyed by the film. It is this sense of a less crowded world that is one of the abiding memories of my childhood.

A classic film, book, etc. is one that retains at least some of its power to affect us even after many years. In this case, the comparison with Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo is most telling. The two films bear more than a passing resemblance, the difference being that Hitchcock was a genius whereas Michael Anderson (the director of Chase a Crooked Shadow) was simply an honest craftsman.

2011-12-28T19:57:00.000+01:00

Robert Peston, BBC Business Editor

The European Central Bank has provided a temporary sticking plaster not a eurozone cure with its ambitious programme of lending to eurozone banks, which in turn lend to eurozone governments. But at least we may be able to have a Christmas unspoiled by the threat of banking meltdown.

Stephanie Flanders, BBC Economics Editor

The high take-up of the ECB's first three-year lending programme for Europe's banks provides a good reason for the financial markets to be cheerful, which I highlighted in my blog on Monday 12 December. As I said then, this new lending coupled with the reduction in bank reserve requirements and the wider range of assets that will be accepted as collateral makes it much less likely that a major financial institution will run out of money in the very near future.

My question is: what's the difference between a business editor and an economics editor? And surely the BBC could save money by getting rid of one of them?

Ashes to Ashes

2011-12-27T13:44:00.001+01:00

Almshouse
Porridge
Players No. 6
Babycham
Alfred Dunhill
Sobranie
Dom Perignon
Sevruga
Beluga
Euro Crisis
Kriter Brut de Brut
Lumpfish caviar
Players No. 10
Rizla
Wendys
KFC
Catholic Relief
Poorhouse

Chase a Crooked Shadow

2011-12-24T08:27:00.001+01:00

Thanks to sites like Wikipedia, Youtube and Amazon, you can now find information on almost any subject in the world. I'm still not sure whether this is on balance a good or bad thing, but at least it has enabled me to buy a DVD of a film which terrified me when I was a boy at Beaumont. It will be interesting to see what effect (if any) it has on me and others in my family now.

Corruption

2011-12-20T17:09:00.000+01:00

Further to my thought-provoking post on the corruption index in Europe, http://capeldunn.blogspot.com/2011/12/is-europe-doomed.html
the question arises: how to explain the difference in levels of corruption between northern and southern Europe?
At first sight, the answer would be that Catholics (who predominate in the south) are more corrupt than their protestant neighbours in the north. But one only has to look at the long line of popes to see that this is not true.

I personally think the reason is to be found in the corrupting influence of wine compared to beer. Wine drinkers, it has been revealed in a well-funded study, are less likely to pay their income tax than beer swillers. Another study has pointed to the pernicious influence of olive oil on standards of morality.

So I think that the situation would change radically if, for example, priests in Sicily could be induced to eat sauerkraut.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-20T14:37:00.001+01:00

Christopher Hitchens

2011-12-20T10:09:00.000+01:00

I've got nothing much to say about Christopher Hitchens, who died a few days ago, and that's just the point. Unless you are prepared to make a conscious effort to THINK about somebody "in the public domain", you are likely to be swayed by the force of his prose (in Hitchens' case) or by what other people say about him rather than by the actual force of his argument.

The best way I have found to test the validity of what someone says is to imagine myself espousing and expounding a cause on his behalf. My advocacy and powers of persuasion are usually enough to reduce any argument to dust in the space of minutes!

The thing is, you've got to think critically, yes, but that's not enough; you also have to CARE. And there's a limit to the amount of things you can care about. Do you care about the European Union? Are you prepared to do battle in its cause? To resist torture rather than sully its name?

Is Europe Doomed?

2011-12-19T21:17:00.000+01:00

My old schoolfriend Finnbarr O'Driscoll says that the dream of a United States of Europe can never be realised because the historical, political and cultural gap between northern and southern Europe is too wide.

If one had any illusions about the huge obstacles in the way of creating a truly federal Europe one only has to look at the figures of the perceived levels of public sector corruption published by Transparency International for the different countries in 2011. Leaving aside the former Soviet-bloc countries, the north-south divide is revealed for all to see. The opportunities for corruption become ever greater as one travels south, so much so that a Norwegian pastor is in a state of something more than just culture shock by the time he reaches the gates of Naples!

The Scandinavian countries all score 9 or above out of 10 on the Transparency International Index, while the Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Germany are ranked between 8 and 9. Austria, the UK, Belgium and Ireland stand uneasily between 7 and 8, with France bringing up the rear on 7.0. After that the "Club Med" countries share the rankings with those of central and Eastern Europe, all the way down to Greece at 3.4 and Bulgaria at 3.3. One interesting result is the marked difference between Spain (6.2) and Italy (3.9).

About the only good thing to come out of the Euro crisis is the awareness of just what is involved in building a proper entity. At the moment, the whole thing is a mess from almost every point of view - politically, economically, financially, diplomatically and democratically. It's not all dire but if we are not prepared to make the necessary effort, we might as well stop pussyfooting about and forget the whole thing.

A Prediction for 2012

2011-12-18T15:17:00.000+01:00

In a few months from now when spring is upon us and a Frenchman's fancy turns to thoughts of elections, you might care to cast your mind back to the dark days of December and remember that this blog was virtually alone in predicting that the next President of France would be a certain............ FRANCOIS BAYROU.

Before you dismiss this prediction out of hand as the crazed utterance of a diseased mind, you would do well to bear in mind that I am the great nephew of a certain Margaret Lumley Brown who has been described as "the finest medium and psychic of the 20th century".

In the Doctor's Waiting Room

2011-12-16T20:21:00.000+01:00

Winter is here with a vengeance, so I thought I could do worse than go round to the doctor's for a routine check-up. Quite a lot of people in the appropriately named waiting room so I had plenty of time to catch up with the latest news. How to Succeed Your Barbecue Party; Seven Beauty Tips for Sexy Feet; DSK - The Next President of France?
The doctor was running late so I switched on my smartphone and fired up the Standard and Poor's website. "We're hiring!" they beamed. "We seek bright and enthusiastic people with diverse educational backgrounds, work experience, and personal interests to join our global team. A modicum of interest in economics would be an advantage." I'm their man!

Why do we need THREE rating agencies?

Robert "to put it another way" Peston

2011-12-16T11:41:00.000+01:00

The BBC Business Editor Robert Peston makes a point of starting off nice and slowly so that even imbeciles like me can follow his drift. But then the drugs begin to kick in, the pupils of his eyes dilate and before you know it he has switched to the language spoken by the natives of Gibberland, or - to put it another way - gibberish.

A Lovely Way to Spend the Day

2011-12-15T21:53:00.000+01:00

First you click on the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway

Next, browse through all the "castaways" dating from the 1940s right up to the present day. Of course you could listen to a programme and that in itself can be a richly rewarding and illuminating experience. It is endlessly fascinating to discover a famous person's taste in music? (I've just seen that you can't actually listen to a programme until the late 1980s.)

But you can always look through the different playlists and pick out a song or piece of music that particularly appeals you.
Now open Youtube in another tab and type or paste in the title of the music you would like to hear. In most cases you'll find what you are looking for, though you might have to scroll through the selection to find the exact version.

For example, here is a song chosen by Barbara Mullen in 1946:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?uv=gPqrTaVXJhI

And here is some music chosen by Harry Secombe in 1997:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7wUEMUdHos&feature=fvst

This is my Christmas present to all my fans worldwide.

The State of the Brain (update)

2011-12-14T08:37:00.002+01:00

How is your brain these days? Mine is in a terrible state of disrepair.
How do you know?
How do I know what?
That your brain is in a state of disrepair.
Oh I see. Well, I was listening to the radio this morning and there was a very interesting item about Christmas shopping intentions this year in a time of economic hardship. The report said that people would be spending less on presents and food than in previous year. I reflected that this was very much a PC response, i.e. giving the pollster the answer that he or she expected to hear, and that come February we would learn that spending at Christmas 2011 had broken all records.
Suitably impressed by my own cleverness, I switched my attention back to radio, only to find that I had missed all the rest of the news! How is it possible to digest and react to what you hear and AT THE SAME TIME listen out for what is said next? Thank goodness human conversation doesn't work like that. People usually have the decency to wait for you to respond before they move on. Well, most people anyway.

UPDATE

I have found a solution to my problem. As you probably know, most of what you hear on the radio is available on a "listen again" basis, or faiming that, can be downloaded as a podcast. From there it's an easy matter to hit the "pause" button whilst you gather your scattered wits. By this simple expedient you can revolutionise your "listening" experience and, contrary to what I wrote above, make it more enjoyable than a real live conversation. In real life, I find, people are rarely if ever inclined to shut up when I endeavour to talk to them.

Graduation Day

2011-12-13T15:29:00.002+01:00

Noted academic Elizabeth Taylor graduates from University High School, Hollywood, in 1950. She looks bored out of her mind.
Courtesy of Life Photo Archive

Those Who Came to Scoff...

2011-12-10T08:08:00.001+01:00

... remained to pray.

I see that Stephen King's 11/22/63 has been named one of the Ten Best Books of 2011 by the New York Times, no less. So you see, I don't read rubbish after all!

When in Rome...

2011-12-09T13:53:00.001+01:00

Sorry. I meant ghostly, not ghastly.
... You might like to treat yourself to a visit of the excavations below St Peter's. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/institutions_connected/uffscavi/documents/rc_ic_uffscavi_doc_gen-information_20040112_en.html

You can join a tour of the ancient necropolis that at one time covered the Vatican Hill and thrill to the ghastly frescoes and tombs of the past. One inscription, presumably made by a grief-stricken but nonetheless approving widow, states simply: "He never argued"...

You can also sign up for a private tour of the Vatican gardens, taking in a visit of the Pope's heliport ("Helicoptorum Portum").

Finally, you can get a free ticket for the Papal Audience every Wednesday. Here, the Pope displays his mastery of foreign languages by addressing the throng in English, French, Spanish, German, Polish, Portuguese, Italian and other languages.

A Damning Indictment

2011-12-06T16:24:00.001+01:00

The article below is extracted from a longer one published by Reuters today. I should emphasise that it is NOT an opinion piece, but instead has the full and disinterested weight of Reuters behind it. I'm afraid the translation is not very good; I used Google Translate and then did a minimum amount of "tidying up".

It is, I'm afraid, a damning indictment of Nicolas Sarkozy, but not of course a ringing endorsement of the Socialists as they would have done far worse.

The upshot is that we are lumbered with a largely discredited government and a completely useless opposition.

When Nicolas Sarkozy became president, the country already had a bad reputation: since the creation of the euro, France had systematically violated its commitments to reduce the deficit and even, sometimes, the Stability and Growth Pact which limited deficit to 3% of GDP and debt to 60%.
Far from reversing this trend, the newly elected Nicolas Sarkozy went to Brussels to inform his European partners that once again, France would not respect its commitments and instead pursue a policy of "growth".
In France, the election promises were quickly implemented: the "tax package" in the summer of 2007 lowered taxes for the rich and created new exemptions. The public deficit, which had dropped every year since 2003, started to rise again.
Swollen by the worsening crisis, new tax cuts and new expenditure, the deficit rose to a peak of 7.5% of GDP in 2009 (the highest in 50 years), barely falling in 2010 to 7.1%.
As the deficit and debt worsened, more warnings were issued.
WARNINGS BRUSHED ASIDE
The Court of Auditors, the independent body which audits the public accounts in France, the leading international institutions and economists all warned the authorities about the dangerous path of the public accounts of France.
The first president of the Court of Auditors, Philippe Séguin, warned the government in no uncertain terms: if nothing was done, France ran the risk of seeing its debt spiralling out of control.
His successor, Didier Migaud, said that the country's AAA rating could be threatened.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon seemed to get the message, saying in 2007 that he was running a "bankrupt" country.
But the government continued to enact costly measures.
Advertising on public television was partially removed, and despite alarm bells on public finances already ringing, the VAT rate for restaurants was lowered.
This measure alone neutralised the savings made by the suppression of 150,000 civil service posts in five years (intended to demonstrate the government's determination to reddress the public accounts).
.....
To those experts who warned of the dangers month after month, the government replied that they were being over-pessimistic and failed to give it credit for the "historic" efforts being made.
Public debt rose from from 63.9% of GDP at the end of 2007 to 86.2% at the end of June 2011.
....The government chose to redress the accounts slowly and gently, eschewing the drastic cuts introduced in Britain or the harsh austerity measures imposed on the "peripheral" countries.
The goal, it said, was to "go easy" on the French since consumption was the traditional lever for growth in France.
As long as the crisis appeared to be confined to the little countries on the periphery of Europe, this strategy was not strongly criticised by economists.
The pension reform, carried out in the teeth of strong opposition, showed that the government was capable of making tough decisions. But even here, more reforms will be required.
And as the crisis spread over Europe, the feeling gained ground that France was longer completely in control of its destiny.

Republican Hopefuls

2011-12-05T16:49:00.001+01:00

Mitt Romney

Rick Perry

Rick Santorum

Marcus Welby MD

PLUS...

Donald Trump

... who has not yet ruled out a run for the presidency, even though everyone else has.
I think that any one of the above would make an excellent President of the United States of America, one in whom the country, not to mention American hairdressers and dental surgeons could feel justifiably proud.

A Lost World?

2011-12-05T14:34:00.001+01:00

In a not untypical page from A Time of Gifts, I failed to recognise the following words: bobbin, sabretache, shako, uhlan czapka, tush, bustard and capercaillie. What does this list tell us about Patrick Leigh Fermor? What does it tell you about me? Perhaps I shouldn't be too hard on myself for, although the author was only 18 at the time of the events and places described in his book, he was much older and a noted scholar when he came to write it. Even so I can only gasp in amazement and envy at such erudition.

A few pages later Patrick Leigh Fermor writes: "It had struck me in Holland that an average non-expert, gallery-sauntering inhabitant of the British Isles would know the names, and a little of the work, of scores of Dutch, Flemish and Italian painters and of twenty Frenchmen at the very least. Equally certainly, of half a dozen Spaniards: all thanks to geography, religion, the Grand Tour and the vagaries of fashion." I'm pleased and a little surprised to realise that I do not after fall very short of that mark, though I don't think I could discourse with much conviction on many of them.
Now, if one were to replace "painters" by "footballers"....

Classical Music

2011-12-04T17:12:00.001+01:00

I heard this morning on the BBC of yet another attempt to interest the recalcitrant in classical music by way of fun happenings and the like. I was half expecting the studio panel to applaud this initiative but to my surprise they took a far more tough-minded stance. In essence, they said that one has to get children interested in and exposed to classical music at an early age. By the time they reach adolescence it is too late in all but exceptional cases. I would say this is true, although it is not politically correct to say so. Such interest as I possess in classical music is the result of listening to it in early childhood when I didn't have much say in the matter. If you haven't already acquired the habit of listening to music that, unlike pop music, DEVELOPS over time, it is unlikely that you will do so later on.
In the same way, if you don't learn a foreign language, a card game, a sport or many other "skills" when you are young, you will find it difficult to acquire them in later life. That is why I deserve such extraordinary credit for learning French at the ripe old age of 25!

Whatever Next?

2011-12-03T07:47:00.001+01:00

Here's a very clever advertisement for a new Peugeot car. I have selected the itinerary from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde (no imagination!) but you can choose any trip you like provided it's covered by Google's Streetview.

http://rczview.com/v/NjU5OA==

***

It didn't take me long to crack the code guaranteeing fast track admission to the British Secret Service. (Spoiler alert: the keyword is PHILBY.) But what's the point of applying? They're unlikely to recruit me at my advanced age even though my father single-handedly laid the foundations of the modern intelligence services. Besides, as a Roman Catholic I would be viewed with suspicion by the powers-that-be. In the last analysis, would my allegiance lie with the Pope or the Queen, with the Vatican or London?

Douglas Kennedy, Stephen King, Patrick Leigh Fermor and Sylvia Plath

2011-12-02T07:51:00.000+01:00

I am currently reading four books.
One is called The Moment by Douglas Kennedy. I only had time to read the first chapter before it was snatched inconsiderately from me by my daughter. But one chapter was all I needed to get well and truly hooked. Kennedy is a born storyteller but he can be much more than that, just as Patricia Highsmith was so much more than a crime writer. His storytelling art allows him to say some important things about human relations and relationships.

Stephen King is the Charles Dickens or Honoré de Balzac of our age: sprawling, uneven but beyond doubt a genius. His latest novel is called 11.22.63. Curiously enough, it is written 11/22/63 in the American edition. On the strength of the first few chapters, I do not find it quite up to the level of Under the Dome but that's the thing about King: you never quite know how what's going to happen next. I will say that, on this occasion, I think he owes a certain debt to a woefully underrated film called Groundhog Day.

I'm sorry to report that I'm rather marking time with A Time of Gifts. It is not such an easy read as the above two, and besides I'm engrossed in the first few pages (free on my iPad Kindle app) of The Unabridged Journals of the extraordinary, wonderful and tormented Sylvia Plath. Her words fly off the page and hit you with incredible force: "And when at last you find someone to whom you feel you can pour out your soul, you stop in shock at the words you utter - they are so rusty, so ugly, so meaningless and feeble from being kept in the small cramped dark inside you so long."

Toulouse

2011-12-01T08:39:00.001+01:00

For the second time in under two months I dreamt last night of Toulouse. I know there is nothing as boring asother people's dreams or nightmares, but this happens to be my dream which is quite different. Why should I once again find myself on a horrifying quest to find my way through the labyrinth of Toulouse University, a place I have never even visited?

Are there dream analysts, do you think, in the same way as there are dream teams? If so, I would only be interested in a senior analyst, the kind whose opinion is sought on economic and financial matters. I notice the media never ask junior analysts for their opinion, surely equally useless. I can't help wondering what fee analysts command and how much time is spent in negotiations with the media before they are prepared to vouchsafe their utterances, e.g. "the euro zone is in deep trouble". More weight should be attached to the opinions of strategists, in particular global strategists or strategic globalists, but of course their fees are commensurate with their status.

Who Wrote This?

2011-12-01T08:25:00.001+01:00

"Henry the 4th ascended the throne of England much to his own satisfaction in the year 1399, after having prevailed on his cousin and predecessor Richard the 2nd to resign it to him, & to retire for the rest of his life to Pomfret Castle, where he happened to be murdered."

I bet you don't know.

The New Translation of the Mass

2011-11-29T07:34:00.001+01:00

The changes have been met with the usual howls of anguish, but I wonder whether people of my age are doing any of the howling. The "new" translation actually brings the mass more into line with what it was before the changes of the 1960s. For example, we no longer say "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you" but "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof". This is what we said 50 years ago, except that we said it in Latin, not in English! I'm not sure that there was a great hunger for change among the boys at my school (or for the status quo for the matter!), while most of the priests wanted to retain the mass in Latin because of its universality: you could be sure of going into any Catholic church in any part of the world and not understanding a word of what was being said!
I now listen to mass in French, showing the same amount of interest as I did when a boy at Beaumont.

A Perfect Song?

2011-11-29T06:48:00.001+01:00

Is there such a thing as a perfect song? I think there is, and the funny thing is that such a song may not actually be among one's favourites. It may not even move you, perhaps because we are not moved by perfection.

Sparse, minimal accompaniment
Simple melodic line
Concise, memorable lyrics devoid of pretension
Diction as clear as a bell
The superb, unique voice of....... TENNESSEE ERNIE FORD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTCen9-RELM

The Hour

2011-11-28T08:14:00.001+01:00

As someone who lived through the 1950s as a child and young teenager, I am absolutely fascinated by the BBC's The Hour. Everything about the series is perfect except perhaps the title itself which doesn't ring quite true to me. The story unfolds against the backdrop of the Suez Crisis which I was too young to understand at the time. Like most children of that time I was deeply patriotic and, again like most children, echoed the views of my parents. I well remember how angry my stepfather became at what he believed was a betrayal. He was very much a child of the British Empire and he must have felt that his whole world was under threat. As indeed it was.

Looking back on that troubled time, I now see very clearly that the "establishment" view of Suez was not so much wrong as wrong-headed and against the tide of history, but it took me and many others like me more than a generation to understand, and more important, to accept this simple fact. We now live in a world of instant communication and rapid change, but just because things move so quickly it does not follow that we come to terms with social upheaval any faster than before. Only now, almost 70 years after the event, are the French beginning to lay to rest the ghost of the Second World War, and they still haven't really digested the Algerian War. The treatment of the Indians and the blacks, truly America's original sin, continues to this day to cast a long shadow over American society.

And now we have the "Arab Spring". How long before the tormented countries of North Africa and the Middle East find a semblance of peace? There seems to be no short cut to wisdom.

Roger Federer Wins...

2011-11-28T07:53:00.001+01:00

... And all's well with the world.

Barrister Pepe Gonzalez (Update)

2011-11-26T19:14:00.001+01:00

Further to my post on my friend Barrister Pepe Gonzalez, I received the following message:

"Worthy of note post. You have an remarkable appraisal on this topic then I will be subscribing to your feed as a consequence trust you will publish another time soon on related topics. But I am inquisitive on what your expose sources for the publish are? Thank you As a final note , let me thank you for your patience with my English as (I am convinced you have become aware this at this time ,), English is not my chief language as a result I am using Google Translate to shape out how to write what I genuinely wish to tell". on Barrister Pepe Gonzalez

Paris, November 2011

2011-11-26T16:18:00.001+01:00

Canal de l'Ourcq

Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir

Metro: Bibliothèque François Mitterand

Pont Alexandre III

Pont de Bir-Hakeim

Pont Rouelle and Pont Fe Grenelle

Pont dir Bir-Hakeim

Political Ploys

2011-11-25T14:47:00.001+01:00

1. Pointing to someone in the crowd and pretending to recognise him or her as a friend

2. Waving on arrival, even though there's no-one there. I have tried this ploy with mixed success in my own village...

3. Action this day: the buttoning of the jacket

Fun Draising

2011-11-25T10:15:00.001+01:00

Fun draising, in particular fun draising dinners, is or are an integral part of American political life, and I often think the world would be a poorer place without such dinners. My ambition is to attend one such function provided that the price is right. Warren Buffett is asking for over $28,000 per plate for one of his fun draisers and I"m not sure I could run to that, no matter how good the Kentucky Fried Chicken.

You have to be careful which fun draising party you agree to go as your presence might be construed as support for a political candidate rather than an endorsement of the chicken or, if the event happens to coincide with Thank sgiving Day, the turkey.

The Indefinable Charm of the Duke of Edinburgh

2011-11-24T20:02:00.001+01:00

Did you know that Prince Philip once subscribed to The Flying Saucer Review and on one occasion sent a member of his staff “to meet an extraterrestrial humanoid at a house in Ealing’’? I imagine there have been quite a few of them (flying saucers, I mean) inside Buckingham Palace over the years...

Like Alex Beam, to whom I owe this information, I rather like his sense of humour:
At an airport, a retainer once innocently asked the prince, “How was your flight?’’
“Have you ever flown in a plane?’’ Philip inquired.
“Yes.’’
“It was just like that.’’

Everything's under control

2011-11-23T21:35:00.001+01:00

There's absolutely no need to panic. We're in charge and I think you'll find we know exactly what we're doing. Please be guided by us.

Very best wishes from all us in the Euro Zone*

José Manuel Durão Barroso

*Temporarily relocated to the Dogger Bank

"Disastrous" German bond sale shakes confidence

By Stephen Brown and Noah Barkin

BERLIN - A "disastrous" German bond sale sparked fears that Europe's debt crisis was even beginning to threaten Berlin, with the leaders of the euro zone's two strongest economies still firmly at odds over a longer-term structural solution.

Fitch warned Wednesday that France risks losing its triple-A credit rating if Europe's leaders don't stop the eurozone crisis from worsening.

New Age Music

2011-11-23T17:11:00.001+01:00

I am the object of much derision and mockery in family circles because of my addiction to what is loosely described as New Age music. But I forgive my children for they are of tender years and little versed in the ways of the world. They do not understand that you do not have to take up residence in Sedona, Arizona or entertain visitors from outer space in the vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico in order to find some of this music deeply enjoyable.
It is of course difficult for those whose musical tastes extend no further than Status Quo's seminal You're in the Army* to appreciate the subtle soundscapes that are a feature of the best kind of New Age Music. The thing is, you have to learn to listen to New Age music in a different way, just as you have to learn to look at Impressionist paintings in a different way. The idea is not to listen intently but to allow the music to pervade your being while you are involved in some other activity, like taking a lift in a tall office block.

*now

Here is an example of New Age music at its best. It doesn't repay careful attention but it succeeds, in my opinion and without one really being aware of it, in building up an intense and evocative atmosphere:

http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=192325&q=hi&newref=1

Nouriel Roubini

2011-11-21T17:12:00.001+01:00

Nouriel Roubini is an economist of world repute who has worked at the IMF, the Federal Reserve, the World Bank and the Bank of Israel. So you would think that he knows what he's talking about especially if, like me, you are a complete ignoramus in economic affairs. For this reason I tend to read articles on economics or finance in a "non-critical" manner, assuming that the facts are correct even though one might not agree with the conclusions drawn from them. In short, a person has to write something pretty grotesque for me to sit up and take notice.

This is what Mr Roubini wrote in Slate Magazine last week (my italics, bold type and underlining):

"For the last decade, the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) were the eurozone's consumers of first and last resort, spending more than their income and running ever-larger current-account deficits. Meanwhile, the eurozone core (Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and France) comprised the producers of first and last resort, spending below their incomes and running ever-larger current-account surpluses."

I can't speak for Germany, the Netherlands or Austria, but in the case of France this is BLATANTLY UNTRUE. France's current acount DEFICIT in 2010 was actually -53.290 billion dollars. For goodness sake!

I have no particular axe to grind or point of view to defend but if economists can't at least get their facts straight we might as well all pack up and go home.

Barrister Pepe Gonzalez

2011-11-19T08:31:00.001+01:00

A very nice mail from Barrister this morning.
"I am confirming if you received my previous email regarding you having the same Surname with my late client/inheritance.Please email me for more information".

I was a bit surprised, though, as there are very few people with my surname and those few are to the best of my not inconsiderable knowledge all members of my family.
I was also rather nonplussed as the email was signed by another barrister, Barrister George Gordillo Garrigues, whom I don't remember having the pleasure of meeting either.

Still and all, it would be nice to come into an inheritance but I fear there is little chance of that happening to me or my descendants.

***

Coming back to a theme that haunts me more than most, I notice that even in a country as ravaged as Spain the rich are managing to get richer even as the poor and the not-so-poor are slipping into abject misery. Don't misunderstand me. I have nothing against the rich and indeed have several times aspired to become a member, only to be rejected for the most spurious of reasons (lack of money). Seriously, though, (for that was a joke), no society that is stagnating or in recession can long survive this stark division between rich and poor which is a feature of most developed countries. We ignore this danger at our peril.

One Thing Puzzles Me, Perry...

2011-11-17T17:18:00.001+01:00

"Yes, Paul?"
Well, Perry:
A prominent and much respected French commentator wrote recently (my translation):
"For years, decades even, [the markets] bought up sovereign debt, deeming it the best possible investment, not so much in terms of profitability as in terms of safety. But this investment is of course no longer safe, as witness Greece where the "markets" have been obliged to cough up 100 billion euros at a stroke. Naturally enough, the markets are now selling, offloading..."

My question is:
Who are the markets selling and offloading to?

A Chinese Proverb

2011-11-11T07:11:00.001+01:00

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now."

What on earth is that supposed to mean?

Trying to Make Sense of it All

2011-11-10T08:24:00.000+01:00

I think most of us try to make some sort of sense of the world around us. Somewhere down the line we need a "world view" even if, as in my case, we are only dimly aware of what that view is. I keep returning to the European debt crisis partly because, I admit, I find it a fascinating intellectual challenge even as we sink ever deeper into the quagmire! I mean, we can't just go on saying "it's all the fault of...." or "all we need to do is...", even though the temptation to do just that is sometimes almost irresistible.

All of this is a lead-in to an interview (rather clumsily translated) with a French economist called Christian Saint-Etienne. What he has to say is in my view extraordinarily interesting, not least because it dates back to early July of this year. What do you think?

In your view, what problems do the euro present in its current form?

The euro zone has a structural problem: it joins countries that have no business being in the same monetary zone. On the one hand, the northern countries, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, that have chosen an industrial export model; on the other, the southern countries, France, Italy, Spain, etc., and their consumption model, whose motor in France is public expenditure. The former, because of their strong industries, have the means to remain competitive with a euro at $1.50. The others are not beyond $1.30. The 2008 crisis made this schism worse. The euro cannot continue as it is.

What do you recommend?

The ideal solution would be to federalize the zone, which the Germans refuse to do. It would be a partial federalization of nine countries, grouping France, Benelux, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal. The Greeks would be left with a euro that would be, as a result, devalued. And a "new euro" would be created, with an economic government and a real federal budget of 7% to 8% of the GDP. This would permit the redistribution of the money among member-states to make up for their differences of economic structure. The central bank remains independent, even if one can imagine rewriting Maastricht so as to give it, in addition to its mandate of stable prices, a mission of economic growth. Such a zone would become the world's second power. But let's be clear: the probability of such a zone is just about zero.

So what are the other scenarios?

The southern countries can adopt the northern model, which is technically impossible with a euro at $1.40. It would have to come down, but that's not in Germany's interest. Or the northern countries can leave the euro. In that case, devaluation becomes possible. We're getting close to that now. The attack on Italy's debt no doubt foreshadows the same thing against Spain or France.

Then it's a partial blow-up of the euro zone?

That's the only coherent solution, which avoids intolerable disorder in Europe. There would be therefore be two euro zones: one in the north with a strong euro, the other in the south with a devalued euro that would allow those countries to restructure their finances and rebuild an industrial base. The third solution is to continue to force austerity on people until they rebel.

Which of the different options mentioned seems to you the most likely in the short term?
If Italy's debt is attacked, it's no longer possible to patch things up as has been done so far. Federalization being very improbable, there remains Germany's exit. I estimate the chances of Germany's departure in the next three years at 30%.

Is France very exposed, in your view?

Our country has one of the highest deficit levels in the world, an exploding debt, a record public debt. It has deindustrialized itself spectacularly and has lost a third of its export shares in twelve years. In case of attacks, we would turn toward Germany, but this time, it's between 2000 and 3000 billion euros that would have to be lined up. It is entirely possible for Germany to say: I'm not paying, I'm leaving. There's a moment at which it will ask itself that question. The rest is worthless political chatter.

Should either national or European protectionism be established?

I'm for a carbon tax and a tax on countries that don't have social protection. But against a protectionism like the one the Front National is proposing, or the far left. People have to understand that we can't go on like this and continue spending our vacations in Thailand and buying Asian cellphones. If we close the borders, since we're no longer manufacturing almost anything of what we consume, good-bye to bananas and T-shirts produced for a euro in China and sold here for 7 or 8 euros. For most people, I think that the choice wouldn't be hard. Before raising barriers, we need to rebuild a productive system in France.

The Debt Crisis (continued)

2011-11-09T16:10:00.001+01:00

People often ask me about the difference between debt and deficit. My answer (oh all right, the answer I found on the internet) is:

The National Debt is the total amount of money owed by the government; the deficit is the yearly amount by which spending exceeds revenue. Add up all the deficits (and subtract those few budget surpluses we've had) and you'll get the current National Debt.

Well, all I can say is we seem to have a lot of both.

And what does the future hold for Europe?

According to Angela Merkel, all of us face ten years of hardship before we are free of the debts we piled up during the boom years. “This debt crisis will not simply go away. It will certainly be a decade before we are in a better position”.

For what my opinion is worth, I think she's certainly right. And how refreshing to hear a politican in office actually trying to tell the truth.

Europe Seen from China

2011-11-07T16:45:00.000+01:00

This is what Jin Liqun, supervising chairman of China's sovereign wealth fund, has to say about Europe's debt crisis:
"This is purely because of the accumulated troubles of the worn out welfare society... The labour laws induce, sloth, indolence, rather than hard working."
Is this true? It's difficult to say so without being branded as the worst sort of reactionary, but insofar as our present standard of living has been achieved on credit rather than by hard work, I find it difficult to refute the strength of Jin's remarks. In spite of everything, we are still about ten times better off than the Chinese, but we certainly won't be for much longer.
The question is, what on earth are we going to do about it? Any suggestions?

A Simple Life (update)

2011-11-05T11:38:00.001+01:00

I know one is not supposed to own up to liking New Age music, but I think this one is just beautiful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlDH---Ppjs

And since we're in the mood:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XS2KqPMYU4

Antiques Roadshow

2011-11-04T19:50:00.000+01:00

One of my favourite TV programmes is Antiques Roadshow. The series has evolved quite a bit since it began in 1977 but the basic format remains the same. Local people bring in well-loved family exhibits to be "evaluated for authenticity and interest". The exhibits in question vary widely in value and age, but I would say that on the whole they are typically under 100 years old.
Participants are sometimes crestfallen when prized and in certain cases well-loved possessions do not fetch as much as they had hoped for. On occasion, indeed, as in the pictures below, they have to be exchanged for a cricket bat or a clock.

Paris Metro Line 15

2011-11-01T17:58:00.000+01:00

Balaise
Clébard
Comtesse du Barry
Léon de Bruxelles
Jeff de Bruges
Réenchantement (Place François Hollande)
Remoray-Boujeons
Les Rats
Misère
Exactement
Absolument
Alors
Repas des Seniors (Repas des Anciens)
Un Certain Nombre
Jacques Dessange
Jean Louis David

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

2011-11-01T08:36:00.000+01:00

Sunrise at Argenteuil

Lever de soleil à Argenteuil (1910), Hong Kong Museum of Modern Art

What's This?

2011-11-01T08:21:00.003+01:00

Autumn

2011-11-01T08:20:00.000+01:00

The Burgundy Canal near Longecourt-en-Plaine

The Burgundy Canal, Saint-Usage

Plane trees near Saint-Jean-de-Losne
If you look carefully, you will notice a cyclist on the right.
This cyclist is me.

Downstream from Saint-Jean-de-Losne

Saint-Jean-de-Losne seen from Losne

The Big Four

2011-10-26T07:54:00.000+02:00

Dave dreaded these Brussels meetings. There was always a faint but unmistakable smell of garlic in the air and surely he was not alone in being offended by the aggressive cut of the Giorgio Armani suits? Plus, it was quite clear that neither Nicolas nor Sivio - nor indeed any of the others whose names he could never remember - could by any stretch of the imagination be described as a chap.
Nicolas, for his part resented what he perceived as Dave's British arrogance. At one point he had taken Dave aside and said: "Ecoutez Dave, either you join the club either you shut your mouth. And while you're at it, why don't you try learning a foreign language?"
But whatever their differences, Nicolas and Dave were united in their dislike of Silvio. They were offended by his deodorant (Right Guard?) and hair lotion (Brylcreem?), and could not altogether escape the impression that he was actually embalmed.
And as for Angela, well there were a lot of things all three could say about Angela. The trouble was, she was the only one with any money. If only she would be a sport and just hand over their pocket money so they could whizz back to the tuck shop for some more sweets. But no, matron seemed to take a sadistic delight in berating them for their lax behaviour. The bell rang and they trudged glumly into matron's study.

Woolacombe Bay

2011-10-23T09:46:00.001+02:00

I have never been to or heard of Woolacombe Bay in North of Devon but, as my grandmother spent a holiday there in 1950, I thought I would look it up. It looks a nice enough place but I'm not sure I would like to go there now. Why should that be? I think it is partly because I am easily afflicted by nostalgia, even for places I have never been to. But no doubt it is mainly because this time of year, beautiful as it is, always weighe me down. The sooner we're over with the falling leaves the better, as far as I'm concerned. Bring on winter!

When Dragons Dictate

2011-10-21T11:13:00.000+02:00

Transcribing my grandmother's diaries can sometimes turn into something of a chore, so I thought it might be a good idea to use a "voice recognition" application, in this instance Dragon Dictate. Incidentally, shouldn't that be "Dragon Dictates"? Unless perhaps the dragon manager is in imperative mood: "Dragon - Dictate"?

Anyway this is how the dragon took down my recording of my grandmother's diary for 16th September 1950:

"Lovely morning when I start in the garden at a train to Waterloo station and I called the 1050 train to more men will make me at school story we reached molto at 430 standing out in the teeth of the Queen had tiered kids side and then and then went out on the palm for a few minutes but the wind was too much for me our rooms are very small and the lighting is there but to see you magnificent Mabel spoke to Enid and Eve on the telephone we had a very good supper."

A pretty fair rendering, I thought.

How to Write a Successful Blog

2011-10-21T08:22:00.002+02:00

People often ask me what is the secret of a successful blog, or rather what the secret of a successful blog is. I always tell them that they should try to post as often as possible.
"What", they ask, "even if, as in your case, you have nothing to say?"
"Yes", I reply, "readers always like to know whether you are still alive."

"When was your heyday?" I am also asked.
The question is not as absurd as it sounds. The truth is, most creative artists burn themselves out at a very young age, witness The Rolling Stones and Martin Amis. Notoriety provides them with a modicum of income in later life, but each succeeding book deal or recording contract becomes harder to negotiate.

Personally, I think I was writing at the peak of my powers about ten years ago*, since when I have not been alone in noting a certain hardening of the arteries. Indeed, brain scans have revealed an alarming amount of extraneous matter around the er brain, in marked contrast to the pristine state of brains to be found on the Harvard and Stanford campuses.

* i.e. before I started writiong this blog

Slide Shows

2011-10-20T16:15:00.003+02:00

Having watched Ray Mears's BBC series about survival in a hostile environment, I thought it might be a good idea to emphasise that the tasteful photographs adorning the "Slide Show" feature of my blog are the work of my wife Anne.

She will shortly be treating us to some stunning views of Paris, taken during a beautiful weekend this October.

Incidentally, if you would like to see any of the photos in greater detail, just click on it.

2011-10-19T14:53:00.001+02:00

Some wines, it is said, travel better than others, and some people travel better than others. I have always loved travelling and would find it hard to envisage a life in which, like Montaigne, I never strayed from home. Visiting other places and countries is not always an unalloyed joy, though, for it means being confronted with one's own insignificance and running the risk of being thrown off balance.

In another sense, however, I do not travel very well. I find that the further I get from home the less handsome I become. By the time I get to Phoenix or Paris, the face that launched a thousand barges back in the soft Burgundy light has got these self-same barges paddling frantically in the opposite direction. Quite why this should be so I could not say. Is it that the harsh Parisian light is less forgiving, the mirrors more distorted? I suppose I could post a couple of photos of myself in this blog, one taken in Aubigny and the other in Paris, and let my readers judge for themselves. But I don't think I'll do that.

The Haut-Doubs, Autumn 2011

2011-10-12T20:13:00.000+02:00

Ginkgo Biloba

2011-10-12T19:56:00.000+02:00

As one who was once capable of memorising the names of a class of 20 students in a matter of minutes but now has difficulty in remembering how I wanted to finish this sentence, I decided to splash out on some Ginkgo Biloba capsules. These are supposed to be excellent for the memory, but of course you have to remember to take them in the first place...

Steve Jobs: The Last Word?

2011-10-12T16:02:00.003+02:00

A riveting and ultimately moving insight into the making of Steve Jobs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/opinion/prosperos-tempestuous-family.html?_r=1&hp

Maureen Dowd's extraordinary article ends with this sentence:

Beyond the gushing encomiums for the Prospero of Palo Alto, there roiled a family tempest that might have even shocked Shakespeare.

Elaeagnus Umbellata

2011-10-09T07:21:00.000+02:00

I always thought that the scent of broom was the most evocative of all flower and shrub fragrances, but as we were out cycling the other day I was overwhelmed by the subtlest and most elusive of smells, no sooner carried to us by the breeze than it was snatched away from us. We eventually managed to track down the shrub which, after a little bit of detective work, we identified as the oleaster.

The fruit is said to contain between 7 and 17 times more antioxidant than tomatoes.

The 800 Years War

2011-10-08T09:08:00.002+02:00

Writing just a few minutes before the start of the England-France rugby match, I am reminded of this story: a French schoolboy walks up to an English boy waiting to board the ferry in Calais and pushes him into the sea.
"Why on earth did you do that?", his mother berates him.
"It's because of Joan of Arc", her son replies.
"Joan of Arc? but that was hundreds of years ago".
"Yes, but I only learnt about it at school this morning".

Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T17:19:00.002+02:00

Leaving aside Steve Jobs's extraordinary achievements as the founder and leader of Apple, I think it is fair to say that, on this side of the Atlantic at any rate, few of us have much idea of what sort of person he was. Insofar as we gave the matter much thought, we probably saw him as a brash, "in your face" member of the post-hippie generation, but the following statements made by him serve to cast him in a different light:

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Wonderful advice, but how difficult to follow!

The Stuff of Dreams

2011-10-06T08:33:00.000+02:00

A strange dream last night. I was in Toulouse with my brother-in-law and another person. We were looking for student lodgings although I dreaded the prospect of going back to "school". I was driving an old Renault 16, pronounced by my companions to be unsafe at any speed. (This last sentence actually corresponds to reality.) As we drove around the town on our fruitless quest, we saw many instances of the work of the renowned international architect Neville Coghill. Neville Coghill? It's one of those names with which I am vaguely familiar on a purely subconscious level (he turns out to be a literary scholar who died some time ago), but how and why on earth did I dredge him up from the depths of my mind?

Pavlov, Dog of

2011-10-04T20:30:00.002+02:00

Although I have been reading and enjoying the International Herald Tribune on my iPad for the last 10 months or so, I have always been aware of a vague sense of unease, a feeling of dissatisfaction which I couldn't quite nail down. Well, I now know the source of my dissatisfaction. As of today I have to pay for the IHT and you cannot imagine the relief! You see, free news, like free anything else, can't be worth much. Indeed, it's worthless. What's more it was distressing to think that I was sharing the news and views with assorted freeloaders and riff-raff. All that is now thankfully a thing of the past.

Has the IHT made any improvements to coincide with the eagerly awaited launch of the pay service? As far as I can see there are two new features: the paper is now updated in the course of the day, and there is a new section called Business Navigator which gives useful advice to people wishing to do business in, say, the UAE or Saudi Arabia. I didn't know, for example, that the business week in Saudi Arabia runs from Saturday to Wednesday instead of from Sunday to Thursday (as in the UAE).

A Busy Evening in Front of the Screen

2011-09-30T09:49:00.002+02:00

I begin with Episode 1, Season 2 of Downton Abbey which I have been streaming onto my computer (I presume this is legal?). It's as enjoyable as ever but, as I wrote so presciently before, it's best to consider it as soap opera and, as my brother says, it's pretty easy to guess what's going to happen next. For example, Mary has given Matthew a good luck charm to keep him safe in the trenches. I'm afraid he's going to forget it on one occasion, with disastrous results. What saves Downton Abbey is the superb acting of the entire cast.

Waterloo Rd (BBC1) is good fun and would be even more enjoyable if only I could make out what everyone was saying. (The latest example of the Manchester United School of English is provided by Paul Scholes springing to the defence of Carlos Tevez on the BBC WORLD Service for goodness sake. It was impossible to understand a single word of what he was saying.)

Finally, a catch-up session of Spooks (BBC1) on my iPad. Tom, Zoë and Danny are no longer with us. They will be sorely missed. My fellow Beaumont stalwart Maytrees tells me that John le Carré is not best pleased with Spooks, and one can well understand why. Apart from anything else, the UK depicted in the series hardly seems worth saving! Le Carré's main point, I think, is that real-life spying has nothing to do with the high-tech wizardry and manipulation employed by the boys and girls at Thames House. I'm sure he's right but that doesn't detract from the entertainment value of Spooks. John le Carré is IMHO our greatest living author but, purely in terms of entertainment, he is describing an analog world whereas with Spooks we are well and truly into the digital age. I owe this brilliant aperçu to Gary Oldman, who plays George Smiley in the new film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Of News and Newspapers

2011-09-26T09:23:00.002+02:00

An interesting news bulletin on the French RTL radio station at 7.30 this morning. Not a word about the emerging "plan" to save the eurozone. Not a word about Syria. Not a word about Libya. Obviously one accepts that a domestic radio station will concentrate on home news, but even so... I'm bound to say that the BBC Radio 4 news half an hour later at 8 am was far more balanced.

Newspapers: I notice a change in my reading habits. For many years I turned first to the sports pages, sublimely uninterested in any other news. When I started subscribing to the International Herald Tribune about ten years, after my years in the wilderness when I never read anything, I still moved to the sports pages pretty quickly but, possibly because there was too much American Football, baseball and basket ball to my taste, I began to explore other sections of the newspaper. I looked in particular at the arts and travel pages, but I never in any circumstances visited the business section. Indeed I once wrote to the IHT complaining about what I considered the inordinate amount of space devoted to finance in their paper. All those stocks and shares...

Nowadays, the financial section is the first item I turn to, or rather access on my iPad. This is where the action is; this is the most exciting part of the news. Sign of the times!

On the Eve of the New Zealand-France Match (Update)

2011-09-24T10:26:00.001+02:00

I love this story of the French coach a few years ago attempting to galvanize his troops as they prepared to confront the mighty All Blacks.

"There's nothing to be scared about", he shouted. "Remember, boys, there are only fifteen of them, just like us. They've only got fifteen arms, just like us".

And whilst I'm about it, this quote from Mark Twain, new to me but no doubt not to my American friends:

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter".

The Long Trek

2011-09-19T16:32:00.001+02:00

This article in the NYT caught my jaundiced eye:

A calico cat named Willow, who disappeared from a home near the Rocky Mountains five years ago, was found on Wednesday on a Manhattan street and will soon be returned to her family, where two of the three children and one of the two dogs may remember her.
How she got to New York, more than 1,800 miles away, and the kind of life she lived in the city are mysteries.

Ms. Squires said she and her husband, Chris, were shocked (my italics and underlining) when they received a call about Willow on Wednesday from Animal Care and Control, which runs New York City’s animal rescue and shelter system.

Shocked? You would have expected them to be delighted, surely? If I were Calico I think I'd stay in New York.

Here is a picture of the cat, looking suitably fed up with the whole business, as indeed I would be.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/nyregion/willow-lost-cat-from-colorado-resurfaces-in-manhattan.html?_r=1&hp

Memories

2011-09-18T10:37:00.001+02:00

Every year about this time I get up before dawn to drive our neighbours into the pretty town of Dole on the river Doubs where they catch the coach to take them to the Costa Brava for their annual holiday. Even today, it's still possible to find little country roads which will take you almost into the heart of town without having to go through the ghastly ribbon development which afflicts so many French towns. Towards the end of the 40-minute drive, and still in open country, I go down a steep hill and under a railway bridge barely a minute from the town centre.

I think it must be this close juxtaposition of town and country, as much as the hill itself, that brings memories flooding back of the time when, as a little boy, I caught the bus into Cochester from my aunt's house on the Essex-Suffolk border to attend a convent school. Quite why I should have been staying with my aunt, and how long I stayed at this school - would it have been as long as a term or only a matter of weeks? - I cannot now remember. Of the school itself I recall very little, apart from the fact that we wore brown blazers. But how strange that, whereas I have relatively few memories of those far-off days of the early 'fifties, these bus journeys should remain so vividly fixed in my mind!

This Just In

2011-09-15T20:03:00.001+02:00

A competition was run earlier in the year to design a coin to commemorate 10 years of the euro. "It is estimated that 90 million of these coins will be put into circulation".

As the website says:

The winning design symbolises the way in which the euro has become a true global player in the last ten years and its importance in ordinary people's lives (represented by the people in the design), trade (the ship), industry (the factory) and energy (wind power stations).

The winning design has just been announced and the winner, appropriately enough, is a certain Mr Raphael Cretinon of France.

Source: http://www.eurocoin-competition.eu/home

And a Master of Country: John Anderson

2011-09-15T09:20:00.000+02:00

Seminole Wind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdqBCdjU5XI&feature=related

Mississippi Moon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufOY7w3NPNQ

Master of Light Music: Leroy Anderson

2011-09-13T15:28:00.001+02:00

The Penny Whistle Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHg2zZLLI-8&feature=related

Forgotten Dreams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMDMSQWgBQ0

Glen Baxter

2011-09-13T14:49:00.000+02:00

For anyone not familiar with the works of Glen Baxter, here are a couple of examples:

Downton Abbey

2011-09-10T17:42:00.001+02:00

I have just finished watching the first season of Downton Abbey and can't wait for the next episodes. It's easy to see why it has proved so popular: a closed, hierarchical world; fine acting and casting; lavish production and sumptuous décor, etc. When all the ingredients are in place, we will always be suckers for this kind of period drama. Part of us yearns for a world in which everyone knew, and was happy, in their place, even though such a world probably never fully existed and we wouldn't necessarily be happy in it even if it did (after all, we can't all be the Earl of Grantham!).

Although I think the series could be improved if the many short scenes were from time to time interspersed with longer sequences, the fact is we come to care about the characters and what happens to them. At heart Downton Abbey may indeed be soap opera, the television equivalent of comfort reading, but it is very high-class soap opera.

My 10 Point plan for Britain (update)

2011-09-10T06:55:00.001+02:00

11. Introduce wolves to the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall's estate12. Ban cowls for all but monks13. Make the Boat Race a weekly event 14. Being back Semprini Serenade

Holiday Reading

2011-09-06T16:09:00.000+02:00

Actually it's only very recently that I've managed to do any reading at all, unless you count Strawberry Shortcake and Petit Ours Brun. I've put Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts to one side for the moment, having got as far as Swabia in Germany as it then was and now is once again.

The two books I have read are Third Girl and The Thirteen Problems, both by a certain Agatha Christie. The former is not perhaps vintage Christie but it is still unmistakably the work of a genius. It is also interesting for being written against the background of the Swinging Sixties. Dame Agatha leaves us in no doubt as to her views on the Permissive Society! By my reckoning Hercule Poirot must have been well into his nineties by this time.

The Thirteen Problems are all solved by Miss Marple. I don't quite know why it is but I have a very vivid picture in my mind's eye of what Miss Marple looks like.
Certainly nothing like Margaret Rutherford or Joan Hickson:

For me the ideal Miss Marple would have been Barbara Mullen who played the housekeeper Janet in Dr Finlay's Casebook. Curiously enough, she did actually play Miss Marple in the West End adaptation of Murder at the Vicarage.
Do you agree with me?

My Ten-Point Plan for Britain

2011-09-04T16:34:00.000+02:00

Here is my 10-point plan to get Britain back on its feet as a force for good in the world, and to increase our haul of medals in next year's Olympic Games (to be held in London).

Bring back National Service
Raise Mary Whitehouse to the peerage
Strip Mick Jagger of his knighthood
Bring back Two-Way Family Favourites
Bring back public flogging followed by capital punishment
Hold a referendum to choose the best form of capital punishment
Bring back the National Anthem at the end of all film shows
Bring back the British Board of Film Censors, including (if possible) John Trevelyan
Drastically reduce Prince Andrew's stipend
Bring back my bonnie to me
Improve the teaching of arithmetic at school

This and That

2011-08-31T21:20:00.005+02:00

Amidst all the terrible news of recent times - the riots, the mountains of debt, the euro debacle, the hacking scandal etc. - at least we don't have to worry about global warming any more, now safely behind us.

***

I have never been a great fan of Charlie Chaplin, finding his early films tragic and his later ones sometimes unintentionally comic. But he wrote some beautiful if somewhat melodramatic music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAxKHyuBV0A&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKVF6FvqG6c

These songs have been covered by just about every singer in show business!

***

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man or woman in search of the Republican presidential nomination had better have an imposing thatch of hair.

***

When asked whether they would prefer to be raised in a free range environment or under factory conditions, a startling 100% of all hens polled expressed no opinion.

What I Think (2)

2011-08-31T17:35:00.000+02:00

It is difficult for me to get inside the mindset of young people today, striving to better themselves and wondering whether they can look forward to a higher salary and greater prospects in the years ahead, just as it is difficult for me to think back to my own outlook when I started out in professional life in the late 'sixties. As far as I can remember, in spite of my being a gormless wonder completely devoid of ambition, I had unbounded confidence in the future. I don't see how today's generation can have that same confidence. The question is, it seems to me, whether our society can hold together at a time when, so to speak, the tide is going out and not coming in.

What I Think

2011-08-28T15:02:00.000+02:00

I started this post two weeks ago and then got sidetracked by other matters.

I have seen and read very little about the recent riots in England and so was particularly interested to hear what my good friend Maytrees and my brother Robin had to say on the subject.

This blog's stock in trade is flippancy, fecklessness and mockery (usually of myself), none of which characteristics are appropriate in the present circumstances. So what can I usefully add to the discussion?

When any social, political, religious or economic event touching our own arises, we tend to react instantaneously with a point of view that reflects or confirms our own prejudices. If we think that young people are lazy layabouts, these riots provide us will plenty of ammunition. Ditto if we think that this is all the fault of immigration, of the invasion of black culture, of the breakdown of parental authority, of a society of greed, and so on. One or more of the above may even be right for all I know. How would I know? I don't even live in England and the only one of the "trouble spots" that I have ever been to is Clapham Junction.

In one way, it doesn't matter very much what you or I think about these riots as it is unlikely that we will be called upon to do anything about them. (In another, deeper sense, it does matter very much.) But it matters very much what those in a position to act think. If their analysis is wrong, whether by accident or design, the consequences can be horrific. To take a somewhat less explosive example: the euro debacle. It should have been obvious to those in the know that the euro, as conceived back in the 1990s, could not possibly survive a major financial crisis. I didn't realise this at the time, of course, but then I have no track record as an economist.

Here are a few facts culled from an interesting article by Phillip Blond:

Since 1997 a single mother of two has seen her benefits increase by 85 percent. At the same time, the tax burden placed on a one-earner family (two parents + two children) on an average wage is 39 percent higher in Britain than that in other O.E.C.D. countries.
The result is that children in Britain are now more than three times as likely to live in one-parent households than they were in 1972; a third to a half of all British children will at some point live in a one-parent family; and a third of all British children at any one time are living with just one parent. In 1971, less than 10 percent of all births in England and Wales were outside marriage; in 2008, 45 percent of all births were.
This matters because unmarried parents have great trouble staying together. By the time a child is five, 43 percent of unmarried parents have broken up, versus 8 percent for married couples.
Over 7 million Britons now live alone, compared to three million in 1971, creating widespread social anonymity and fragmentation. Since 70 percent of young offenders come from one-parent families and a third of all prisoners come from families so dysfunctional they were taken into care by the state, family structure is not something the state can afford to ignore.

That's one side of the picture. Here's the other:

The bottom 50 percent of the British population had 12 percent of liquid wealth, excluding property, in 1976. By 2003, that share had fallen to 1 percent, shutting the path to prosperity for those at the bottom.
An O.E.C.D. survey in 2010 found that Britain has the highest correlation between parental income and outcomes for children, and therefore the lowest rate of social mobility in the developed world.
From the perspective of those who rioted, perhaps the most evident indication of how the game has moved against them is migration. Thirty years ago unskilled working-class kids could at least get jobs in shops or factories. Today these youths have lost out to new migrants — an astounding 99.9 percent of the rise of employment (not jobs) in Labour years is accounted for by foreign-born workers.
In conclusion, the rioters are shamefully emblematic of modern Britain. Their values have striking parallels with Britain’s current elite — not least because the creation of a morally denuded and economically marooned class at the bottom of society is the outcome of an elite that has embraced self-serving economics and the value system that endorses it: libertarianism under the guise of liberalism

I would like to come back to this question at a later date.

Obviously not Massive Enough

2011-08-19T11:46:00.002+02:00

Yes, But Surely not THAT Shocked?

2011-08-19T11:34:00.000+02:00