Week beginning 9 October 2024

Jane Loeb Rubin Threadbare, A Gilded City Series, Level Best Books Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Members’ Titles, May 2024.

Thank you, Net Galley , for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

Jane Loeb Rubin has taken the incomplete information she has about her great-grandmother and, together with meticulous and sensitive research, has written a captivating story with a heroine who earns affection and admiration.  Tillie Isaacson’s story is told in four parts: October 1879 to August 1882; October 1882 to February 1883; January 1890 to August 1890; September 1890 to February 1892. Over this period she accompanies her mother to hospital, Bellevue, rather than Mount Sinai, the latter being for those who could afford it; grows to maturity and marries; accomplishes a creative and productive business; cares for a family while conducting her business; succeeds through the depression as well as thwarting unprincipled business associates; survives ill health; and sees her younger sister into the beginnings of a profession. See Books: Reviews for the complete review.

Further material: Bob McMullan, American politics; Agatha Christie, Mousetrap story; The Duchess of Malfi; Cindy Lou eats in London.

Bob McMullan – American Politics

US election review at 6^th October

The election is now less than a month away. Elections often begin to take shape at about this stage. At the moment no such shape or pattern is clearly evident.

However, unless you believe that Donald Trump will again overperform the polls it is fair to say that you would rather be in Kamala Harris’ position than Trump’s.

Will Trump overperform the polling trends? This, of course, is ultimately unknowable until after the event. However, there are some indicators. First and foremost, the history of the 2016 and 2020 elections illustrate that such an outcome is possible. In 2016 Trump took everyone, including himself by surprise by winning states such as Wisconsin which prior polling had suggested was extremely unlikely.

A similar trend was evident in 2020. Although Biden still won his margin in the key industrial states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin was less than predicted.

Most analysts argue that in 2016 the pollsters underrepresented white males without a college degree, in their samples. This was not seen as important before the event because the divergence in vote patterns based on educational qualifications had not previously been a major factor.

In 2020 attempts were made to remedy this effect but it seems they were only partially effective.

Elections between 2020 and now paint a different picture. If anything, Republicans have underperformed against expectations. The much predicted Republican wave in the mid-term congressional elections never appeared. It is also interesting that on several occasions, such as the Kansas abortion referendum, it is the progressive side of politics which has overperformed when compared to the forecasts.

Some on the Democratic side of politics allege that pro-Republican polling is “flooding the zone” with polls of dubious quality in an attempt to influence the narrative about the election in key states.

There is some evidence for this, but I regard it as a dangerous theory. It is never wise to only believe the polls which say what you want.

On this basis I come back to the view that no decisive pattern in the likely electoral college outcome has yet emerged. Although there is little doubt that Kamala Harris will win the national vote there is no prize for this. Nate Silver and most of the others attempting to assess the probabilities of success in the electoral college have Harris ahead with 55-58% probability of winning the electoral college. This is much too close for comfort.

There has been considerable speculation about the likely impact of the vice-presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz on the election outcome. I think there will be little or no effect as the debate was seen as a virtual draw and opinions are too firmly established to be changed much by a debate between two men who are not the leaders of their respective tickets.

The best overall description of the current situation was a CNN summary which said in spite of wars, hurricanes and shipping strikes the electoral situation seems impervious.

However, one possibly worrying early trend is a slight improvement in support for Trump in a number of the battleground states. So far, it has not been sufficient to change the status of the four in which Harris is leading, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (which would be enough for a 276-262 victory in the electoral college). If it should be sustained rather than a one-off that would be a concern. Only time will tell.

A follow up story to my having at long last seen The Mousetrap in London recently (story in post, ).

Boy whose Mousetrap show at school led to legal threat joins West End cast

Alasdair Buchan, who directed his version aged 11 in 1997, will play mysterious stranger in long-running whodunnit

Vanessa Thorpe Sat 5 Oct 2024 18.00 BSTShare

As the curtain falls on every performance of The Mousetrap, the world’s longest-running play, applauding audience members are famously urged not to go on to reveal the secret solution to the murder mystery.

This autumn, however, a fresh element of intrigue has been added to the plot of Agatha Christie’s enduring hit, which first opened in 1952 at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal.

The new twist was seeded back in 1997, when an eager 11-year-old schoolboy decided to stage his own production in his school hall in Windsor. And only now is the final act being played out.

“I’d suddenly got into reading Agatha Christie and I was already obsessed with the theatre, so I bought a collection of her plays and copied pages of the script,” said Alasdair Buchan, now 37. “I really wanted to do it, but I don’t think my teachers at the small choir school that’s attached to the castle’s St George’s Chapel were hugely keen.”

The show went on regardless, for one night only, with a cast of 11-year-old boys, including Buchan, who also directed.

Buchan and the cast also travelled up to the capital to watch the real professional production a few days before their own performance. After the London show, they met the stars at the stage door. Each boy got an autograph and they promised to send them the programme they had made.

History does not record how the school play went down in Windsor, but a few weeks later the headteacher received an unexpected and stern “cease and desist” letter from the lawyers of the London producers. It threatened future action over the pupils’ recent staging.

“I was called in to see the headmaster and was terribly worried,” said Buchan.

“Back then my school managed to smooth things over and, thankfully, I was not blacklisted by the producers.”

In fact, Buchan will now join the West End cast of The Mousetrap at St Martin’s Theatre in the role of Mr Paravicini, the mysterious foreign stranger.

Buchan will take to the stage for nine shows a week over six months. “Funnily enough, when I read the script through before the audition, I remembered the lines I’d once had. Also, because I’d directed it, whole passages of dialogue came back and I was amazed how much of the structure I still knew.”

In Buchan’s school production, the eight boys played all the characters. “It was a co-ed school, but we boarders were boys. So my brother played the character of Miss Casewell.”

The schoolboys had been accompanied up to see the West End show by Buchan’s mother. “My own experience of stage doors now is that there’s usually no one there, unless you have a particular celebrity in the cast. It was manic, for example, when I was in Richard II with Martin Freeman, but most of the time it’s fairly dead.

“So I imagine the actors in 1997 were rather surprised to find eight pre-teen boys holding out our messy, A4 scripts to be signed.”

Some jobsworth clearly saw our programme and a legal letter went out, demanding royalties and asking what money we made

Alasdair Buchan

Buchan later sent in the colourful programme he had made for his show. “Some jobsworth then clearly saw it and a serious legal letter went out, demanding royalties and asking what money we had made.”

By Christie’s death in 1976, The Mousetrap had made more than £3m. But she had earlier given the copyright to her nine-year-old grandson, Mathew Prichard, as a birthday present. He later set up the Colwinston Charitable Trust in 1995 to use the royalties to support arts charities, chiefly in Wales. The show is now run by Mousetrap Productions.

Buchan, who co-founded the online theatre initiative “ReadThrough” during the pandemic lockdown of 2021, recalls often being bored at school, believing he wasn’t as musical as other pupils. For him, mounting The Mousetrap was an escape. “When I think back to it, I am amazed at the enormous amount of work we all did on it,” he said.

“And it was a success, in as far as we got from the beginning to the end. There [were] certainly boys who did not know their lines and we lost the plot a little bit at the end.

“I remember standing in the wings and trying to improve the acting by shouting at my brother, ‘Cry! Cry!’ I was quite a nice brother otherwise.”

This time I went to see The Duchess of Malfi at The Trafalgar Playhouse, just around the corner from where I am staying. This was a modern adaptation of the play, which I felt missed foreshadowing the tragic consequences of Giovanna’s brothers’ misogyny in favour of comedy. On reflection, was the emphasis on comedy a reference to the worn phrase, ‘it’s only a joke’? or, a reminder that what might be recognised as cruelty if enacted for long enough and accepted for long enough becomes accepted as normal? ‘I am still a Duchess’, proclaimed by Giovanna in her rags and having been imprisoned for several years, might also be a statement about class and gender – being a Duchess did not help her escape the sexist behaviour of her brothers. I remain convinced that there needed to be stronger foreshadowing, as the only instance of impending tragedy was when Ferdinand carried the twins in his arms, eventually going to the window with one of them. Jodie Whittaker was a great Duchess, in both acts – as a lover and comic actor, and as tragic heroine.

Cindy Lou eats casually in London

Firstly, a large flat white is available at Black Sheep Coffee, unlike at most London venues. They serve only one size – small, while Black Sheep Coffee has three sizes, similarly to their other coffees. Costa can make a large flat white and we found one at cafe Concerto.

Wahaca Covent Garden

We enjoyed the food at Wahaca Paddington, so this was a natural choice when we came upon Wahaca in Covent Garden. The dishes are to share, are delicious, and of a grand variety.

Caffe Concerto Trafalgar Square

Low on charm and service, but very good food, including one of the rare large flat whites in London. The garden breakfast was very good, and the range of pastries and cakes sublime.

Foyle’s Bookshop

Foyle’s Bookshop has a delightful cafe, with a large range of drinks and food. I enjoyed the pink lemonade but shall have to return to try more items on the menu.

Bakers + Baristas, Canterbury

Really friendly service, so much so that I forgave the immensely long wait for my soup. The bowl was almost overflowing, so another tick for generosity! The cake and pastry range is magnificent, and the various sandwiches and baguettes looked terrific.

Fumo Covent Garden

Fumo had a lunch special of four dishes for a set price for two. The service was friendly and helpful, fairly speedy, and very helpful. The seating is comfortable, and the environment pleasant, with enough space between the tables. This was a really positive experience, including the gracious way in which the uneaten Pasta Norma was packaged for our consumption later – yes, the dishes were very generous. Our dishes were meatballs with pasta, calamari, pasta Norma and a salad. By the time I took the photos the salad had been served, so its generous portion is not on view. I forgot to take a photo of the meatballs, but they were large and succulent, although not so plentiful as those in a Spanish tapas. The calamari was very good indeed.

We enjoyed the Pasta Norma on our last night in the Club Quarters, Trafalgar Square. Our room came with a refrigerator and microwave – excellent in this city where food prices have increased so much since our holiday here in 2023.