Books reviewed this week are Nadia Cohen’s The Real Enid Blyton and a review I wrote for Goodreads which links nicely to the biography of Enid Blyton sent to me for review by NetGalley.
Nadia Cohen The Real Enid BlytonPen & Sword, Pen & Sword History 30 Oct 2022.
Thank you Net Galley and Pen & Sword for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.
I was pleased to receive this book for review, even though I am reasonably familiar with the story of this prolific writer who won children’s, if not adults’, hearts with her amazing output. Mysteries to be solved by children; magical and imaginative adventures in a wishing chair or faraway tree; school sagas; reinterpretation of bible and classical stories; and a host of appealing and unappealing toy characters whose behaviour covers a wide gamut of naughtiness, moral strength and comic moments were a source of great reading for many children.
Nadia Cohen’s story of Blyton’s writing, covering so many examples of the fiction, is an engaging read. It is here that one of the strengths of the biography lies. Too often the writer’s story seems to be told without much attention to the fiction written. Cohen deftly weaves the story of a writer with character flaws together with appealing insights into the work she produced. See Books: Reviews.
Malory Towers – an antidote to completing a PhD.*
A friend mentioned this series as an antidote to finishing her PhD, and I realised I’d not read the books. I was thrilled to find something for a slightly older reader than my previous Enid Blyton reads, The Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair; and a school story rather than the adventures in The Famous Five etc.
The girls of Malory Towers are great fun, all have some faults, most have really positive features. There is the occasional girl whom we think will never adjust her negative behaviour and will provide a focus for ‘the nasty girl’ throughout the series. The ‘nasty’ girl in this collection managed to redeem herself in the third book – a satisfying outcome.
The series provides the young reader with a range of characters with whom to identify, none perfect, all human, and most ready to follow Blyton’s excellent suggestions for becoming thoughtful, smart young women.
Friendships, and the evolution of these into worthwhile relationships is an important theme. Newcomer, Darrell, is keen to follow a very bright sparky girl initially, but finds enduring friendship in a calmer girl. Friendships are explored well in this series, the perceived shortcomings of some girls being questioned and then, through events understood and reevaluated. See Books: Reviews for the complete review.
*My antidote is reading an Agatha Christie! See Further Commentary and Articles about Authors and Books for articles on Agatha Christie. Of particular interest is the racism, classism, and sexism apparent in the Christie books which are also part of the criticism of Enid Blyton in the review above. See Books: Reviews
After Covid report: Cindy Lou review of Braddon Merchant, Braddon; Bob McMullan, US Senate prospects at November 1.
Covid in Canberra
There were 731 new cases recorded this week, bringing the totla number of Covid cases in Canberra since March 2020 to 208,495.
Forty-three people are in hospital with Covid, with one person in ICU.
Vaccinations of three doses for people over sixteen is at 78.4%, with 61.1% of people over fifty having received four doses.
Cindy Lou eats out in Canberra
Fortunately, I managed to get out to dinner before succumbing to a dreadful virus – not Covid, according to the RAT – which has resulted in home cooked meals, and shortened blogs for this period.
This is the second time I have been to Braddon Merchant, and this time was as enjoyable as on the first occasion. The restaurant provides a three-course set menu, with choices within each course. A friendly and well-informed wait person gave us the very welcome information that the variety of the menu can be enjoyed, at the same time as limiting the amount of food to be consumed. Sharing an entree and a dessert, while ordering an individual main course (thus ordering two instead of three courses) is an excellent idea. We chose to do this on this occasion.
The seating is comfortable, the ambience is pleasant, and the staff really nice to deal with. Most importantly, the food is delicious.
Entree and sides – zucchini flowers, polenta chips and tomato salad
Fish main course
Cauliflower main course – plenty of delicious sauce this time, an improvement on the Perth example of a roasted cauliflower dish.
Delicious dessert – large enough for sharing
Bob McMullan
US Senate prospects at 1 November
It is now exactly one week until the mid-term elections
In the Senate what was a quite promising scenario is looking increasingly difficult for the Democrats, although not yet impossible.
The interesting tension in the key races appears to be between a likely voting cohort who slightly favour Republicans, driven by economic concerns, and a suite of Republican candidates who seem capable of losing even in these positive times for Republicans.
The number of states in which the result of the senate election appears still to be in doubt has slimmed down. Unless the polling is wildly and consistently wrong, Colorado now appears safe for Democrats, while Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin are probably going to the Republicans.
This leaves six in doubt. Of these the Democrats need to win four to retain the 50/50 split which has enabled the Vice President to cast the deciding vote on key measures over the last two years.
These six states are:
Arizona; Georgia; Nevada; New Hampshire; Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Democrats are currently leading in three of these states according to the RCP polling averages, and in four according to 538 polling averages.
Arizona: RCP has Democrat, Mark Kelly ahead by2.3% while 538 has him ahead by 3.
Georgia: RCP has Republican Herschel Walker ahead by 1.6% while 538 has Raphael Warnock, the Democrat ahead by 1.2%.
Nevada: Both polling averages have Laxalt, the Republican ahead by betweem0.2% and 1.3%.
New Hampshire: Both averages have Democrat Maggie Hassan ahead by 2-3%.
Ohio: Both averages have JD Vance, the Republican ahead by about 2%. Pennsylvania: Both averages have John Fetterman, the Democrat ahead by just over 1%.
If the averages prove to be correct the Republicans would gain one seat (Nevada) and the Democrats would gain one (Pennsylvania) with a run-off election in January in Georgia which would determine the balance in the Senate.
The late trends seem to be slightly favoring the Republicans, but what appears to be a high voter turn-out in early voting probably benefits the Democrats.
On balance, I will be watching the results come in next Wednesday (Australian time) with the usual mixture of hope and apprehension.
Several art galleries are covered this week, both of the Australian galleries feature a commitment to children’s activities. The Art Gallery Western Australia features a particularly inspirational activity which encourages caring for the environment in a child centred activity.
Straw and ribbon creatures made by children to encourage caring for the environment
The books reviewed this week are Louise Douglas’ The Lost Notebook and Forever Hold your Peace by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke. I found both books disappointing, so these reviews are more of a warning than an accolade for the novels. At the same time, I remain appreciative of NetGalley having provided the uncorrected proofs to me for review.
Louise Douglas The Lost Notebook Boldwood Books, 2022.
The lost notebook belongs to an elderly woman, considered almost a vagrant, who lives in a modified horsebox in a wooded part of a coastal environment. The natural environment, with the sea as a focus, makes an important contribution to the narrative. It is a source of fear to the living characters, at the same time as suggesting a freedom that they are unable to enjoy. They are so bound up in their personal conflicts that they rarely look outwards. The characters who do appear to have lived life to the full, have drowned, leaving behind them the difficult relationships that are developed in the story. In circumstances considered suspicious by the woman telling the story, but ignored by the police, the elderly woman dies, and the notebook disappears. Books: Reviews
Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke Forever Hold Your Peace 2023 Alcove Press.
Forever Hold Your Peace begins well. A young couple fall in love after meeting on holiday, become engaged after a short time, and both are hesitant about telling one or other of their parents. A question that implies that this might not be the only problem the couple face is raised at the end of this section.
Unfortunately, this promising beginning is followed by a story line that although it has some merit, is packed with far too many ideas with little attention to maintaining a well-executed plot, believable characterisation, and a satisfactory ending. The story moves between past and present, with the parents of the young couple harbouring a past that intrudes upon their plans and happiness. Books: Reviews
Covid update for Canberra
The ACT has recorded 579 new cases this week. There are 49 people with Covid in hospital, one of whom is in ICU. One life was lost this week, bringing the total number of cases lost in the ACT because of Covid to 127 since March 2022.
Art Galleries visited – Perth, Canberra and London
Art Gallery of Western Australia
This gallery usually has something different and appealing to offer, and I visit it every time I go to Perth. The galley is located close to public transport, places to eat, and other interesting sites such as the Western Australian Museum and the Battye Library.
On this occasion there was an intriguing workshop for children, Totem Boonongur. This encouraged the participants to think about the creatures and plants that they love, the sky, and themselves in a peaceful but productive environment. Sharyn Egan says:
‘As Humans we are the ones with the opposable thumbs and have more responsibility to take care of all creatures and our shared environments. Plants and animals are our family, our brothers and sisters. Having a totem connects you to land, to earth. You are related to nature in the same way you are related to family.’
Art Gallery of WA galleries also featured Australian artists, with historical paintings such as Droving into the Light by Hans Heysen, linked with Indigenous paintings.
Droving into the Light (from AGWA information)
Droving into the Light
German-born Hans Heysen painted this idyllic vision of the Australian landscape in his studio at Hahndorf, a village near Adelaide where he painted for much of his life. Heysen first completed the painting in 1914, but after it was rejected for acquisition by the National Gallery of Victoria, he made several changes to the composition, finishing it in 1921. The version we see today is a hymn to light and land. The hazy sunset view of a stockman and his flock heading home suggests that for Heysen this country’s economic and spiritual wealth was to be found in rural Australia. (August 2018)
German-born Hans Heysen painted this work in his studio at Hahndorf, a village near Adelaide where he painted for much of his life. Painted from a combination of direct observation and several studies from nature, Heysen’s main consideration was the placement of the lights and darks and the structural line leading the eye out into the light. The work embodies an idyllic rural state and Heysen’s relentless preoccupation with light and colour. After being rejected for acquisition by the National Gallery of Victoria, Heysen realised the weakness of the composition and made several changes including enlarging the central tree and the rider and horse, and altering the shape of the two trees on the left. As Heysen later wrote, this “helped to bind the two sides and made a great improvement, materially enhancing the whole conception”.
Title Droving into the light
Artist/Maker and role Hans HEYSEN: artist
Date 1914-1921
Medium oil on canvas
Measurements 155.0 x 122 cm (sight)177.3 x 210 cm (framed)
This week the books to be reviewed are Peter J. Leithart’s Jane Austen A Literary Celebrity and Marple: Twelve New Stories by Agatha Christie; Naomi Alderman; Leigh Bardugo; Alyssa Cole; Lucy Foley; Elly Griffiths; Natalie Haynes; Jean Kwok; Val McDermid; Karen M. McManus; Dreda Say Mitchell; Kate Mosse; Ruth Ware, HarperCollins Sep 2022. Both were provided to me by NetGalley as uncorrected proofs for review.
Peter J. Leithart Jane Austen A Literary CelebrityNelson Books, Thomas Nelson Aug 2022.
Peter J. Leithart’s biography of Jane Austen is a charming story, replete with a feel for family and Jane’s place in it, as well as her ensuring that her contribution to the world is fully acknowledged. Leithart gives the public Jane Austen another persona when he refers to her as Jenny, the name by which she was known as a member of her close family. In most cases ‘Jenny’ is used well as it is tied to Jane Austen’s younger images. However, the motif works less well on occasions. Sometimes the link was not so well made, and the move between Jane and Jenny was frustrating. However, this is a small quibble with an otherwise comfortable and engrossing read. See Books: Reviews for complete review.
Marple: Twelve New Stories by Agatha Christie; Naomi Alderman; Leigh Bardugo; Alyssa Cole; Lucy Foley; Elly Griffiths; Natalie Haynes; Jean Kwok; Val McDermid; Karen M. McManus; Dreda Say Mitchell; Kate Mosse; Ruth Ware, HarperCollins Sep 2022.
Miss Marple has been dealt with extremely well by the writers in this collection. They have been helped by the selection of the Miss Marple story written by Agatha Christie with which the collection begins. The story presents a stronger Miss Marple, with less dithering and twittering than is apparent in the novels depicting this village detective. The writers have emulated this image, taking guidance from the short story, rather than reflecting upon the imagery in the novels. Together with this, some have given Miss Marple some strong views about antisemitic, classist and sexist behaviour. Here I feel that they are being kind to Agatha Christie whose writing sometimes includes all of these failures. However, the inclusion of more modern approach does not detract from the excellent characterisation of this appealing detective who uses her village analogies to great effect in unravelling mysteries. Books: Reviews
Covid in Canberra
From Friday 14th October 2022 people who have tested positive to Covid in the ACT are no longer required to isolate. ACT Health recommends that people with symptoms stay home, and people with symptoms are encouraged to minimise contact with others until the symptoms have disappeared.
On 14 October there were 657 new Covid cases, with 50 people in hospital with Covid and 2 in ICU.
Since March 2022 126 lives have been lost.
Articles which appear after the Canberra Covid Report: Trip to Perth with visits to Kings Park, UWA, Wireless Hill and Edicole; some Perth architecture; Cindy Lou eats out in Perth; Fran Kelly and Frankly – ageism; Carmen
Trip to Perth
Visiting Perth is always a delight, and this time the few days seemed to be packed with activities, including long, reasonably energetic walks. On my return to Canberra, and walking Leah, I realised that these were over for a while. Also, sitting in the warmth for a coffee will be put on the backburner. In the meantime, the Perth trip gave Leah a lot of running free on a farm, and me a lot of exercise to make up for the marvellous meals in various restaurants and sitting by the ocean eating fish and chips in Fremantle. I also have the opportunity to name drop, which is always a delight! I met Gordon D’Venables, author; Blake McMullan, YouTube chef; and lunched with a friend. Amongst her many attributes, she is the mother of Jody D’Arcy, photographer.
Kings Park Walk
This was a short walk, but nevertheless provided us with enough of the special flavour of Kings Park. The walk from the city up to the entrance was interesting – new buildings, old houses refurbished, and beautiful gardens. Our walk took us to the Memorial, several lookouts, and back past the amazing shop and new eating places. For an easier trip, use the CAT, the free bus service.
The gardens, even in the small section that we visited, are magnificent. We did not see the blue kangaroo paw, which I was told, flourishes in the park. However, there were the familiar red ones, and green, as well as the familiar leschenaultia, and less familiar abundance of varieties of bush foliage.
One of the most intriguing exhibitions at the shop was Rosie and Posie. There were also very tasteful glass and pottery items, as well as calendars and books.
Short visit to UWA
A You Tube chef who cooked for our family gathering
I was thrilled to be able to taste some of the recipes that I have followed on YouTube but have not got around to cooking. The marshmallows were particularly amazing. They are far fluffier, and less sweet, than the shop bought variety. Another positive feature – somehow two stick together (no more than two) meaning that one can have two when ostensibly diving into the dish for one.
The other offerings were savoury – a fried rice and even more attractive, a savoury Japanese Pancake. The pancake came out in elegant slices – no two for one with this recipe. However, it was so popular probably this was just as well.
Fried rice and Japanese Pancake
Lunch with a friend with a great connection of both kinds-friendship and a link with a professional photographer
Rottnest Rose by Jody D’Arcy Innerspace
Jody D’Arcy – photographer whose work adorned my hotel room!
A brush with celebrity was a day I spent with a friend from many years ago. Admiring the photographs on her walls, I found that her daughter, Jody D’arcy, is professional photographer – and that the Parmelia Hilton features her photographs. I was pleased to photograph the following that was on the wall of my room there and found more examples on Jody’s website. I shall have to stay in many different rooms so as to experience the real joy of the work.
Jody D’Arcy also has a site that describes her work. I regularly receive her beautifully designed magazine, Havenist.
Little Salmon Bay – this photograph was on my hotel room wall
Salt Lakes (copied from Jody D’Arcy’s site).
Cindy Lou eats out in Perth
Cicirello’s fish and chips – Fremantle
Public transport can get you to this hive of fish and chips outlets in Fremantle. The train from Perth to Fremantle is a picturesque run, as it passes the beaches at times, and a multitude of building – old and new. The Dingo Flour factory seems to have always been there on the Stirling Highway, and it is as prominent now as in the past. Alighting from the train, the Fremantle CAT is located nearby, and it loops through the Cappuccino strip, and down to the fish and chips area.
The portions are generous, and sauce, vinegar and salt are provided. Tap water is available also. The fish and chips were delicious – but the scenery was the real magnet.
8 Knots Tavern
Pizzas on the river at East Fremantle
This was a delightful place to eat – and we chose Monday when pizzas were only $18! They are succulent, with generous toppings, and served attractively – just covering the plate which lends itself to eating with fingers, although knives and forks are provided. We chose a vegetarian, one with prawns and a plainer pizza with extra toppings of olives and anchovies.
Mr Walker, South Perth
I have been to Mr Walker on previous trips to Perth and was pleased to be able to repeat the positive experience I have had on those occasions. With four people we were able to really indulge ourselves – particularly when it came to dessert.
The trip on the ferry is a delightful beginning.
The food is not the only positive feature of Mr Walker. I had to change the booking, and this was done with the minimum of fuss, and a minor change of time to fit into the Saturday timetable. The service is friendly and well informed. As we were sharing plates this last was particularly useful, as we could rely on the waitperson to give us the information to choose just enough. He had nothing to do with the dessert but applauded our choice!
We chose garlic rolls, grilled prawns with lime and pepper, spiced grilled fish, pork scotch bites, smoked sirloin with red cabbage, honey glazed pumpkin, beans with garlic and chilli and …the Mr W Icecream Sundae for multiple guests. Everything else was so good that the spiced fish was a bit of a disappointment. The pumpkin was the standout for some of us. The prawns were large and succulent. Of the meat dishes, the smoked sirloin and cabbage was the star.
Samuels on Mill
Samuels is the restaurant in the Parmelia Hilton. We were fortunate to be staying there so could take advantage of having dinner in a lovely restaurant on the premises. Samuels really lived up to its reputation. The service is good, pleasant and efficient; the menu caters for many tastes; the meals are a suitable size, with generous entrees; and the wine list included a very nice sauvignon blanc, as well as a good champagne.
On the first occasion we dined with Gordon D’Venables whose new novel, Hunted, is soon to hit the bookshops. I discussed his first novel in a previous blog, and I certainly look forward to this one. Diane has been an avid proofreader as well as far more, in this enterprise, ensuring that the second novel will be a great success. We were pleased to celebrate with them.
The food was, in general, very successful, although the roasted cauliflower needed a more generous serving of the delicious sauce. The salmon tataki was excellent. I enjoyed my chicken immensely, and everyone else was pleased with their choices. The dessert was a delight -two serves of petit fours for the four of us made a lovely end to the meal.
Entrees
Main courses
Dessert
Another night at Samuels on Mill
On another occasion four of us had a small meal of shared entrees and some of the mains from the bar menu. The Moutabel – spicy eggplant dip, olive oil, and rosemary bread was delicious. But the Fresh Mozzarella was the dish we wanted again. The marinated sundried tomatoes were amazing, served with a generous piece of mozzarella and olive and caramelised onion bread.
Some architecture observed on walking through Perth and suburbs
A visit to Wireless Hill
This would usually require a little walking. However, the day was bleak and cold so there was little exercise – despite the splendid lunch my friend had prepared. I did almost get to the top of the tower.
From Australia’s Guide
The Guide says:
‘Take in the view of Perth city and see wildflowers at Wireless Hill Park, just 15 kilometres from Perth. Delve into Aboriginal history and discover the communication station’s pivotal role in WW1 and WW2.
You can drive directly to the top of the hill, where a breathtaking panorama of the city and Swan River awaits or enjoy a leisurely walk on the many paths that crisscross the park.
There’s 38 hectares of Banksia and Eucalypt bushland to explore and, in spring, you’ll find vibrant blooms of native wildflowers throughout the park including many striking varieties of Orchids.
For thousands of years, this hill had was used by the local Nyoongar Aboriginal people as a lookout and smoke-signalling location. It later developed into one of Australia’s first radio technology centres in 1912.’
The photos of the city are from the second level of the tower.
Parks in Perth
Perth and the surrounding suburbs are full of parks and trees along the roadsides. Kings Park stands out of course, but the smaller parks that can be found everywhere are lovely places to walk through, read in, play games or picnic. One in Subiaco adjoins a church which has been adapted to provide an op shop, recycled goods providing arches, magnificent mythical animals and receptacles for vegetation, and a garden.
Church which has been adapted for use as an op shop.
Garden and unicorn in a tree beside the church.
The adjoining park – Between Hammersley and Bagot Roads, Subiaco
Edicole
Edicole is a lovely bookshop in the old Treasury building in St Georges Terrace. A coffee shop is at its entrance, a flower shop is nearby, and the building boasts services as different as a barber and a fine restaurant. The bookshop exhibits the books based on colour, so a shelf can display a wide variety of topics, offering a unique and interesting way to browse.
Criticism of Fran Kelly’s new gig Frankly drips with ageism — a stubborn form of discrimination we need to call out
The ABC’s decision to appoint Fran Kelly as presenter of a new talk show was met with criticism that seemed to suggest she was past her use-by date and a “safe” choice. (ABC TV)
There’s an old adage that if you can’t see it, you can’t be it.
Diversity matters not just because any thriving society will include all because it’s the right thing to do, but because it also delivers the best results — a range of perspectives, a plethora of lived experience and ideas.
But there appears to be a wink wink, nudge nudge acceptance of one particular form of discrimination in Australia that needs to be called out and strongly denounced: ageism.
There is a mainstream acceptance of the idea that when people reach a certain age they are past their use-by date and should be carted off — that their time is up, they should vacate the space. It is, of course, at odds with contemporary thinking on how modern workplaces should operate, and it is steeped in problematic stereotypes.
When my friend and colleague Fran Kelly was recently announced as the new host of the ABC talk show Frankly, there was a rush of commentary suggesting that older people shouldn’t be getting new gigs.
What the male analysts missed in their takes on Fran Kelly’s appointment was the signal putting a 64 year-old woman on TV sends to women across the country.(ABC News: Steven Siewert)
While the ABC’s programming decisions should absolutely be open to scrutiny, and people are entitled to barrack for their preferred style of host, their arguments should also be subjected to scrutiny. Those who criticised the ABC’s decision to appoint Kelly as presenter seemed to suggest she was past her use-by date and a “safe” choice.
Pitting the old against the young
A reporter at the Sydney Morning Herald, Thomas Mitchell, argued choosing Kelly as host was a missed opportunity for the ABC to reach a younger audience and promote emerging talent:
“Perhaps it would be a 20-something comedian like Aaron Chen or Nina Oyama? What about an up-and-coming YouTuber who might go on to greatness? Dare I say it? Maybe someone at ABC could log on to TikTok and unearth Australia’s next great TV talent. The possibilities are … oh wait, it’s Fran Kelly.”
Mitchell then noted Kelly’s age, used the word “boomer” and suddenly we were in a generational war prism pitting old and young people against each other — rather than looking at the more complex story of representation.
In a column for the Guardian, Luke Buckmaster wrote: “Fran Kelly’s new talk show reminds us that ABC TV programming is depressingly risk-averse, seemingly built on the assumption that people will eventually get old and tune in.”
The ABC should absolutely be platforming younger people in key roles, but that doesn’t mean older people should be carted out on the basis of age. It’s not a zero-sum game.
The other piece missing from this commentary is merit and experience. After 20 years at the top of her game as one of Australia’s leading interviewers, Kelly has a unique skill set honed through years on the radio, in one of the toughest gigs there is. Good organisations both develop talent and promote younger and more experienced workers.
How often do we see women in their 60s on prime time TV? Rarely.
What struck me about the many column inches devoted to all this was the complete absence of any gendered analysis. Older men are a mainstay of our TV screens but women over 50 become culturally invisible.
Carmen Callil, founder of renowned feminist publisher Virago, dies. She was 84
Amy Ripley
CARMEN CALLIL: July 15, 1938 – October 17, 2022
“I always wanted to change the world, I didn’t think the world was good enough,” the publisher and writer Carmen Callil once said. As the founder of renowned feminist publisher Virago Press, she did more than anyone else to bring the stories and history of women writers out of the darkness and into the light.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Callil was one of the legendary 1960s Australian exports to London, along with Robert Hughes, Clive James, Barry Humphreys and Germaine Greer (with whom she was at school and university). Like them, she prospered in England and never went home.
Callil set up Virago – translated as ‘female warrior’ in Latin – in 1973 with a bank overdraft, working from the dining room table of her cramped attic flat, off the King’s Road in Chelsea. After publishing their first book Fenwomen by Mary Chamberlain, Virago went on to publish luminaries including Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, Maya Angelou (Angelou) and Shirley Hazzard.
In 1978, she established Virago Modern Classics to champion neglected books by women. Famed for their distinctive green book spines – an inevitable sight on the bookshelves of a certain kind of middle-class household – the Classics were another roaring success. Callil did not forget her Australian sisters with the Classics either, publishing Letty Fox and The People with the Dogs by Christina Stead and My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin as part of the list.
Callil was also ahead of the game when it came to publishing women writers of colour – something which was barely a consideration forty years ago. She brought the much-loved I Know why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou to British readers in 1984, followed by Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston in Modern Classics in 1986.
A shrewd businesswoman who knew how to cut a good deal, her direct Australian manner caused a stir in the genteel world of English publishing – she frowned on lunch and staff were often to be found crying in the office loo. Her forthright views on everything from feminism to the monarchy to British imperialism frequently made headlines. In 2011, she resigned in protest from the International Booker Prize judging panel after her male co-judges insisted on awarding the prize to Philip Roth. Exasperated, Callil summed up Roth’s writing as: “He goes on and on and on about the same subject in almost every single book. It’s as though he’s sitting on your face and you can’t breathe”.
In retirement, she started writing – something she said she would never do. After co-authoring The Modern Library: The 200 best novels in Englishsince 1950 with Colm Tóibín in 1999, she turned her hand to biography.
Her first book, Bad Faith, was published in 2006. A critically acclaimed biography of Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, the Vichy government’s commissioner for Jewish affairs, Callil had a distant but disturbing link to his daughter, Dr Anne Darquier. Anne was Callil’s therapist until she took her own life in 1970 and this connection haunts the book.
In 2020, she published Oh Happy Day: Those Times and These Times which traced the story of her impoverished 19th-century British ancestors, who, through a variety of ways – both independently, or as convicts – began new lives in Australia. Beginning with her great-great-grandmother, a Leicestershire stocking-frame worker, the book drew contemporary parallels with how the poor, asylum seekers and refugees are treated today.
Carmen Callil was born on July 15, 1938, in Melbourne. Named after the opera, her surname should have been Kahlil but the customs official who processed her Lebanese paternal grandfather’s arrival at the Port of Melbourne anglicised it to “Callil”.
Her father Frederik Callil taught Law at Melbourne University. Her mother Lorraine Allen was of Irish and English extraction. Callil grew up in a house full of books in a well-to-do suburb, with a sister and two brothers – Yvonne was born in 1935, Julian in 1937 and Adrian in 1942.
In 1947, Frederik died, after a slow, painful battle with Hodgkinson’s Disease. There was little money left after this so Callil became a boarder at school, attending the Star of the Sea Convent and Loreto Mandeville Hall. She hated them both, later writing: “It was the sort of Catholic convent that should have been in deepest Ireland but was, in fact, in one of the more elegant suburbs of Melbourne…Mass every morning at 6.20 am, a tomato for supper on Sunday nights and much Irish brown bread the rest of the time. Rules, censorship and silence, and above all a sense of disapproval.”
After school, she went to the University of Melbourne, which she compared to a ghetto; finding it narrow, boring and provincial. She read English, with Australian history as a minor. Learning about the history of her country was a profound experience and she used to sit in the library, sobbing in horror at the awful tales of transportation. She was less impressed with her English course, finding her lecturers in thrall to the stifling influence of F.R. Leavis.
On the day of her graduation in 1959, Callil headed to Europe where she taught English in Italy. A late developer, who had never met a Protestant before she left home, she made up for lost time and promptly lost her virginity. “I was young and alive and had a wonderful time,” she recalled.
In 1960, she arrived in London, living in flat shares with fellow Australians. “It was like something out of a Muriel Spark novel, The Girls of Slender Means… We lived in a house on Edith Grove, five girls all together, in a tiny flat up about 1000 flights of stairs, and we were always falling in and out of love and weeping in the bathroom.”
After a stint as a buyer for the department store Marks & Spencer, she started working in publishing as a “publicity girl” – one of the few roles open to women who did not want to be secretaries.
London in the 1960s was a heady, intoxicating place to be. The protests in Paris, the burgeoning anti-apartheid movement and the underground press of Oz, Frendz and the International Times all provided an exciting backdrop to life for wide-eyed antipodeans. Callil spent her time with her “Australian mafia” – libertarian anarchists who had actually sprung from the comfortable Australian bourgeoise. “Some of us were hippies, but most of us were writers, journalists, or in television. We lived well, worked and drank hard, and would not be seen dead in anything but the very best Ossie Clark,” she wrote.
It was this Australian mafia that led Callil to feminism. When several of her friends decided to launch Ink – an offshoot of Oz – Callil, now freelance, was asked to do the publicity.
“Whatever we women did for Ink – and there were many of us – in my memory the lovely men of the left and of hippiedom treated us like fluttering tinkerbells, good for making tea and providing sex. Ink then collapsed after the Oz trial for obscenity and went into liquidation in 1972. Another Australian, Marsha Rowe, was so furious at her experiences there that she established the feminist magazine Spare Rib as a riposte. She was joined by the journalist Rosie Boycott and they asked Callil to manage the publicity.
This gave Callil her lightbulb moment. Sitting in a pub in Goodge Street in London’s Fitzrovia one afternoon in 1972, she realised that if Spare Rib could publish essays and articles by women, she could do the same with books.
After Virago was founded, Callil appointed Rowe and Boycott as board members and was eventually joined by Harriet Spicer, Ursula Owen, Lennie Goodings and Alexandra Pringle – all of whom, like Callil, would become major figures in British publishing.
In 1982, Callil was head-hunted by Chatto & Windus and became managing director, bringing Virago in as a subsidiary. Now part of the larger Hachette Group, Virago remains just as successful today.
Callil continued to perch on the barricades throughout her life, lobbing the occasional grenade whenever the mood took her. An enthusiastic co-signatory of letters to the editor in the British press, she was vocal in her support of Extinction Rebellion, unafraid to criticise the state of Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians and defended JK Rowling energetically against claims she was transphobic.
She was also happy to prod the sacred cows of her own golden generation. Although she adored Robert Hughes and Barry Humphries (“not politically, of course. He’s to the right of Genghis Khan”) she could not bear Clive James. Speaking in 2020 she said: “I disliked him intensely and he disliked me. What’s the name for men who drape women over desks?”
In 2017, Callil was made a Dame for services to literature in the Queen’s birthday honours.
Callil never married or had children and was refreshingly unconcerned by this. “I wouldn’t have wanted to be married, I wouldn’t have been any good at it…I never worried about children. I don’t mind one way or the other.”
She never returned to Australia, saying: “I think I made a great mistake in coming here. But I don’t think I made a great mistake in not staying in Australia because my generation was meant to marry and have 700 children and be a good Catholic, and I didn’t want to do any of that.”
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Two Australian authors’ books are reviewed this week. Catch Us The Foxes, by Nicola West, and Tricia Stringer’s Keeping up Appearances, are markedly different. However, both use the distinctive Australian landscape as part of their story. Thank you, Simon & Schuster (Catch Us The Foxes) and HQ Fiction (Keeping up Appearances) and NetGalley for these uncorrected proofs for review.
Nicola West Catch Us The Foxes Simon & Schuster 2021.
The prologue introduces Marlowe Robertson, ‘author, journalist and Co-creator of The Lily Foundation’.
She is interviewed on the seventh anniversary of Lily’s death, as the person who exposed her killer. Marlowe, colloquially known as Lo, dressed in clothing reminiscent of her past friendship with Lily, is asked to return to the moment she found Lily’s body. She finds it easy to talk about Lily, her death, the causes, and events because ‘she had been reliving them through her bestselling novel The Showgirl’s Secret.’ Books: Reviews
Tricia Stringer Keeping up Appearances HQ Fiction, Harper Collins, 2022.
Reading an Australian author is so often an experience of Australian landscape, geographical as well as cultural. Tricia Stringer brings a small country town, with a nearby larger coastal town, to life in this story of family, friends, secrets, and gossip. And, never far from the action, are the sausage rolls and freshly baked biscuits shared with tea and coffee over tables in various homes, the hall after an exercise class, at the beach, and in the bush.
Families are linked through long term residency in Badara, marriage, friendships and biology. Some family links are peripheral to the town but provide the impetus in developing friendships in the town. These and relationships within the families living in Badara create tension that, while uncomfortable at times, readers of Stringer will know will be resolved. Family links do not always mean that friendships flourish, quite often they are testy and difficult, harbouring problems that must be solved for the tenor of the community to continue. Books: Reviews
Articles and comment after the Covid Report: Cindy Lou Eats Out in London and Cambridge; Bob McMullan – US Senate prospects; Oxford Trip; Tom Nichols, The Atlantic Daily -Clowns and Charlatans.
Covid Report for Canberra
At the 7th of October, 563 new cases had been reported, with 312 active cases. There are 53 people in hospital with 1 in ICU.
59.7% of people over fifty have had their winter doses of vaccine, that is, four doses.
A $8.75 million fund has been established to support the wellbeing of ACT health workers and recovery.
Cindy Lou’s eating out on London – a catch up
Mere, Fitzrovia
The peak of eating out in London was at Monica Galleti’s Mere in Fitzrovia. I had planned to eat there three years ago, but Covid prevented my doing so on that occasion. I was so pleased to be able to arrange this occasion with friends. My experience was so positive I expect to make Mere a feature of future visits to London.
The restaurant features a very pleasant bar area, with comfortable seating, efficient staff, and an attractive array of drinks. The dining area is downstairs, with a lift for people who need it – I plan to keep going to London and Mere until I need this assistance. There is a lovely skylight so that the downstairs nature of the dining area is open to the sky and trees.
What a delightful menu! Galletti has used her intimacy with Samoan flavours to enhance the menu that features an exciting range of choices. The courses we chose were interspersed with an amuse bouche and another chef’s choice, adding to the variety we were able to experience. Again, the staff were efficient and friendly, ensuring that the evening was perfect.
The Winter Garden, Landmark Hotel, Marylebone
The menu is exciting, and well prepared and presented. When we were living in London this restaurant had excellent offers, which we always enjoyed, and kept returning when there were none. The set menu (with several choices in each course) came with a champagne – a very good one.
Brick Lane – Taste of Jaipur
This was the first open restaurant we came across as we wandered into Brick Lane. It was not necessarily the best, but we had a good experience, with friendly and efficient staff, and a good range of dishes. There were some stand out features. The papadums and pickles and chutneys were generous and flavoursome. The vegetarian meal was deliciously hot – as that was wanted. On the other hand, I prefer a mild curry, and my butter chicken provided that option. It could have had more flavour, and was a little sweet for some reason. I was a little disappointed. The meat meal – lamb biriani, was good. As always, I enjoyed the mango lassi.
As we walked further after our meal we saw that there were many more restaurants open so there certainly is a wide choice.
Cambridge – eating at Fitzbillies and University Arms
Fitzbillies
Fitzbillies is familiar from when I lived in Cambridge several years ago. It is always nice to return. This time we all excelled ourselves, taking full advantage of the splendid menu and that it was time for brunch rather than just a coffee and a bun. This was the Fitzbillies in Dowling Street, a short walk from where I was staying at the Hilton.
The photos illustrate the generosity of the servings, and the variety of meal available.
The University Arms
This was a new experience – and one that we thoroughly enjoyed. As can be seen by the half-eaten meals below, I was so busy talking that I forgot to take photos. The salad was fresh and full of attractive components. My only complaint was that it was ordered by three of us, but was served all together. Compounding the problem was that it arrived with only two eggs! The meals were generous apart from that, and full of flavour.
Bob McMullan – US Senate prospects at 9 October
The contest for control of the United States Senate continues to be fascinating and many of the state contests look extremely close.
However, there appears to be a real chance that all the contests will amount to sound and fury signifying nothing (or very little). Shakespeare has something to say for all occasions.
Notwithstanding that there are 10 seats in which the margins are sufficiently narrow that the result is genuinely in doubt, current indications suggest that it may all result in little change in the make-up of the Senate.
The two poll aggregating websites, RCP and 538 both as at 9 October indicate that there may be little change. RCP averages suggest that the Republicans would win Nevada from the Democrats while losing Pennsylvania.
538 agrees with the Nevada and Pennsylvania possibilities but its averages suggest that the Republicans could lose Ohio.
Both these outcomes would leave the Democrats in control of the Senate.
However, I am not convinced that that the current averages will be reflected in the final outcomes. On the basis of current trends the ten key seats look likely to break like this:
Strong for Democrats : Arizona; Colorado; New Hampshire Strong for Republicans: Florida In doubt: Georgia; Nevada; North Carolina; Ohio; Pennsylvania; Wisconsin.
The Republicans will need to win five of the six seats in doubt to win a majority in the Senate, unless they can break through in one of the stronger Democrat seats.
Current poll trends suggest they are ahead in three of the four “in doubt” seats they hold: North Carolina (by 1-1.5%); Ohio (by 1-2%) and Wisconsin (by2-3%). They also appear to be ahead in the Democrat state of Nevada (by 1-2%).
See article from The Atlantic Daily about the Senate Candidate for Ohio, JD Vance-RR
Visit to Oxford
This was just a day trip rather than the few days that we had planned to stay in Oxford. The train trip was fast, and there is a bus outside the station that goes into the city centre. One ticket covers both forms of transport. This was a day for revisiting familiar places, such as Blackwell’s Book shop and the Alice Shop; walking down ‘the Broad’ and ‘the High’; passing what was the Bodleian and the new library; and walking through the gardens.
Blackwell’s remains a marvellous bookshop, but the independent coffee shop is now part of a chain, and rather ordinary. However, the barista was able to make a flat white which was a change from other UK coffee outlets.
Ohio’s U.S. Senate candidates, Tim Ryan and J. D. Vance, held their first debate last night in Cleveland. I wrote last year about why I find Vance so execrable, but my friend Jim Swift, a native Ohioan, argued today that while “Ryan gave a serviceable performance,” he “didn’t beat Vance into the ground, and given how far Ohio has gone in a MAGA direction, that’s what he needed to do.”
One moment, however, struck me. At a rally in Ohio last month, Donald Trump declared, “J. D. is kissing my ass, he wants my support so bad”—while Vance was standing right by the stage. Last night, Ryan slammed Vance for selling his dignity:I don’t know anybody I grew up with—I don’t know anybody I went to high school with—that would allow somebody to take their dignity like that and then get back up onstage. We need leaders who have courage to take on their own party. And I’ve proven that. And he was called an “ass kisser” by the former president.
I understood Ryan’s exasperation. I’m not from Ohio, but I was raised in a working-class neighborhood. Where I grew up, if you sneered that a man was kissing your ass—and said it to his face—that other fellow might react by knocking you on that particular part of your anatomy. But Vance’s reaction to Trump calling him out as a spineless loser at his own rally was to run up to Trump like a puppy that just got a treat, wagging his tail for another tasty biscuit. It is possible, even likely, that Vance will gain a Senate seat. But he can never regain his dignity. He doesn’t seem to care—and neither, apparently, do voters.
Americans once expected politicians to carry themselves with a seriousness that indicated their ability and willingness to tackle problems, whether poverty or war, that were too difficult for the rest of us. We elected such people not because we wanted them to be like us but because we hoped that they were better than us: smarter, tougher, and capable of being leaders and role models.We often failed, and sometimes we even enjoyed electing scoundrels, such as James Traficant and James Michael Curley. Democracies always welcome a certain amount of playacting and mischief as reassurance that our leaders are not too far removed from our own experiences as citizens. And yes, many politicians have used that as cover for their misdeeds. But even some of the most flawed people we elevated to high office at least pretended to be better people, and thus were capable of inspiring us to be a better nation.
Today, we no longer expect or even want our politicians to be better than we are. The new American right, however, has blown past the relatively innocuous populism of the past 40 years and added a fetid cynicism about almost everything related to public life. Not only are the MAGA Republicans seemingly repelled by the idea of voting for someone better than they are; they support candidates who are often manifestly worse people than the average citizen, so that they may slather their fears about their own shortcomings and prejudices under a sludgy and undifferentiated hatred about almost everyone in public office.
These populists not only look past the sins of their candidates but also defend and even celebrate them. Let us leave aside the cult around Trump, which has now reached such levels of weirdness that the specter of Jim Jones is probably pacing about the netherworld in awe. Instead, consider how many people cheer on unhinged cranks such as Marjorie Taylor Greene or allow themselves to be courted by smarmy opportunists such as Vance and Ted Cruz.This new populism, centered in the modern Republican Party, has no recognizable policy content beyond the thrill of cruelty and a juvenile boorishness meant largely to enrage others.
The GOP’s goals now boil down to power for its elected royalty and cheap coliseum pleasures for its rank and file. Republicans, therefore, are forced to lower their—and our—standards for admission to public office, because the destruction of dignity is the only way they can find the candidates who will do what decent men and women will not, including abasing themselves to Donald Trump.The same Republicans who claim to venerate the Founders and the Constitution have intentionally turned our politics into a scuzzy burlesque.
Last night, Fox News—home to some of the loudest carny barkers on the freak-show midway—played a snippet of a 2018 phone call from Joe Biden to his son Hunter. The message revealed a father’s love and worry; the Fox host Sean Hannity tried to make it seem scandalous. Meanwhile, GOP leaders continue to defend the Georgia candidate Herschel Walker, whose callousness to his own children (and their mothers) is on full display. They ridicule Biden—a decent and good man who was worried that his son was going to die from addiction—and make excuses for Walker, who seemingly forgot about multiple children he’s fathered and has made incoherent responses to charges from the mother of one of those children that he financed an abortion for her. She has also said that he later asked her to undergo a second abortion; Walker continues to deny all of these claims.
I’m an adult. I get it. Our elected officials aren’t saints, and only rarely are they heroes. But must they now be a cavalcade of clowns and charlatans, joyously parading their embrace of vice and their rejection of virtue? The Republican Party seems to think so.
This article was edited to omit the photo of JD Vance – a most unappealing candidate, indeed.
The reviews this week are Claire McGowan’s I Know You and the non-fiction, Michael Greaney’s An A-Z of Jane Austen.
Thank you, NetGalley for these uncorrected advance proofs for review.
Claire McGowan I Know You Thomas & Mercer, Seattle, 2021
I Know You has a large amount of wonderfully poignant material, a little bit of dross, some good plotting, characterisation and social commentary, and a story line that works reasonably well.
I found I Know You a good read, although I have some reservations. First to those reservations, which centre mainly around the main character. I found the almost constant reiteration of Casey’s plea that she was young, naïve, small, unable to cope somewhat tedious, even while I sympathised with her situation. Rachel’s misunderstanding the reason for Anna’s stress and demands was also difficult to believe and did not sit well with the way in which her character had been developed in the earlier part of her life. Books: Reviews
Michael Greaney An A-Z of Jane Austen Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.
What a delightful read!
An A-Z of Jane Austen is informative, fun and captivating, delivering an accessible and thoughtful approach to some of Jane Austen’s ideas. It provides a fine starting off point to debate about the meaning of so many of the features that appear time and again in Austen’s novels, shorter works in the Juvenilia, Love and Freindship, letters and unfinished work.
The book is arranged alphabetically, naming and developing one feature and referring to the works in which it appears. There is a brief analysis of the role, meaning and import of the feature. The wealth of examples raises questions, and sometimes answers, about the way in which Austen viewed seemingly simple aspects of her work. After all, what can a section on Horses tell us? And Risk? Kindness? Servant, Theatre, and Bath are familiar to Austen readers, along with Matchmaking and Visit. But X is for Xis? Z for ZigZag? Books: Reviews
Covid in Canberra weekly update
After two and a half years the ACT’s Public Health Emergency Declaration has been revoked.
The ACT has recorded 616 new cases, with 342 active cases. There are 55 patients with Covid in hospital, with one in ICU. One life has been lost this week.
Vaccination numbers are: 77.6% vaccinations, two doses, aged 5 to 15; 78.3% three doses aged 16+; 59.4% Winter doses – four doses aged 50+.
Poor photograph as I had to keep my distance – however, aren’t they magical?
Wigmore Hall Concert
Sunday concerts at Wigmore Hall were a feature of our time in London. They were rather elegant affairs, with a glass of sherry afterwards in the ornate lobby.
The Monday concert we were able to attend was a less festive occasion, but also a lovely contribution to our holiday. The program was Christopher Pregardien tenor, originally with the pianist, Michael Gees. The latter had to be replaced at short notice and this involved some changes in a small part of the program. The program was Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustave Mahler (slight changes to the songs here).
The written program provided as part of the ticket price was detailed and well worth keeping. The introduction by Michael Downes was informative, and interesting. The words to the pieces were provided in German and English. Wigmore Hall concerts are a wonderful way to enjoy an hour during the day and will remain a feature of our London trips. As well as lunch time concerts Wigmore Hall has a splendid New Year’s Eve concert, as well as programs on most evenings. Wigmore Hall is a short walk from the public transport in Oxford Street, or on this occasion for us a longer, but pleasant, walk from Paddington.
Cindy Lou eats out in London
Gail’s Regents Canal, Paddington
Gail’s is, like so many venues in London, a chain. However, despite the dreadful flat white served (only one place in London makes a decent flat white, and somehow cannot provide it in anything other than the small size) and indifferent latte, the food is very good indeed. Together with the lovely location on the canal, this makes Gail’s a pleasant place for breakfast, morning coffee or lunch.
There is seating inside and out, but on a chilly London morning we chose to be inside. There is a vast array of luscious looking cakes and pastries, including the rather magnificent chocolate bread. We chose savoury this time – baked eggs and rye toast, and avocado on rye with a side of smoked salmon. Booth meals were excellent – flavoursome, a reasonable portion, and served attractively.
Bonne Bouche, Praed Street Paddington
Bonne Bouche is another pastry filled venue – and a wonderful ‘standalone’ venue to have excellent coffee, and the choice of an abundance of delicious items, savoury and sweet. Next door is the bakery where all these morsels are baked and are sold for taking away.
I chose a lemon muffin, featured below, warmed and cut elegantly in the Bonne Bushe style.
British Labour Party Meeting Place
Labour meetings for Westminster were held here while we were living in London. They were interesting to attend, as was encouraging voters in this Tory constituency to vote Labour. The stalwarts who met there eventually won through and elected a Labour dominated Council.
Penny Wong – Senator for SA
Our Government is committed to embedding First Nations perspectives and experiences into our foreign policy.
We are at an early stage of this journey.
We will listen and learn.
It was inspiring to hear from friends from around the world, and discuss how we can build cooperation.
American Politics: House Passes Overhaul of Electoral Count, Moving to Avert Another Jan. 6 Crisis
WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday took the first major step to respond to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, voting mostly along party lines to overhaul the 135-year-old Electoral Count Act, the law that former President Donald J. Trump tried to exploit that day to overturn his defeat.
Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi presiding over the counting of Electoral College votes in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The legislation would define the vice president’s role as strictly ministerial. Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York Times
The bill was the most significant legislative answer yet to the riot and the monthslong campaign by Mr. Trump and his allies to invalidate the 2020 presidential election, but it also underscored the lingering partisan divide over Jan. 6 and the former president’s continuing grip on his party.
It cleared a divided House, passing on a 229 to 203 vote. All but nine Republicans opposed the measure, wary of angering Mr. Trump and unwilling to back legislation co-written by Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and a leader of the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 and what led to them.
The partisan division could complicate future negotiations with the Senate, which is moving ahead with its own bipartisan version of the legislation that differs from the House bill in some significant respects. Lawmakers now say they do not expect final approval before Congress returns for a lame-duck session after the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
The legislation is aimed at updating the law that governs Congress’s counting of the electoral votes cast by the states, the final step under the Constitution to confirm the results of a presidential election and historically a mostly ceremonial process. Democrats said that the aftermath of the 2020 election — in which Mr. Trump and his allies’ attempts to throw out legitimate electoral votes led to the violent disruption of the congressional count by his supporters on Jan. 6 — made clear that the statute needed to be changed.
“These are common-sense reforms that will preserve the rule of law for all elections moving forward,” said Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the Rules Committee. “Time is running out before the next election.”
One key provision in the bill, which is also contained in the Senate proposal, would clarify that the role of the vice president, who by law presides over the counting of the ballots in his capacity as president of the Senate, is strictly ministerial. After the 2020 election, Mr. Trump and his advisers tried but failed to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to accept electoral votes from states where Trump was falsely claiming victory.
The measure also would raise the threshold substantially for Congress to consider an objection to a state’s electoral votes, requiring that at least one-third of the House and Senate sign on to such a challenge, up dramatically from the one member of each chamber that is now required. The Senate proposal has a lower threshold, requiring one-fifth of the House and Senate to agree.
Members of both parties have raised objections in recent elections, though none have been sustained by a majority of the House and Senate. The House bill would also more narrowly define the grounds for an objection to those with a defined constitutional basis.
“Ultimately, this bill is about protecting the will of the American voters, which is a principle that is beyond partisanship,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren, the California Democrat who leads the Administration Committee and introduced the measure with Ms. Cheney. “The bottom line is if you want to object to the vote, you’d better have your colleagues and the Constitution on your side.”
Passage of the bill comes as the Jan. 6 committee is wrapping up its work after a summer of high-profile hearings and preparing an extensive report, which is expected to include recommendations for how to confront the threats to democracy raised by the riot and Mr. Trump’s drive to overturn the election. Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the panel, said the next and likely final hearing would take place on Sept. 28.
“We have substantial footage of what occurred that we haven’t used; we’ve had significant witness testimony that we haven’t used,” Mr. Thompson said in an interview. “This is an opportunity to use some of that material.”
The legislation was also a direct response to Mr. Trump’s efforts to orchestrate the submission of fake slates of electors in states won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. It would require that states choose their electors under laws in place before the election, a provision intended to prevent states from reversing course if they do not like the result. And the bill would allow candidates to sue state officials if they failed to submit their electors or certified electors that did not match the election results.
It also would lay out the circumstances in which a federal judge could extend an election following a catastrophe and force election officials to count ballots or certify an election if they refused to do so.
Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, sponsored the bill along with Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California.Credit…Kim Raff for The New York Times
Republicans said the legislation represented a renewed Democratic attempt to exert more federal control over elections that are usually the responsibility of state officials and courts.
Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, called it “another attempt to federalize elections at the expense of states.” Other Republicans accused Democrats of rushing the legislation to the floor without review by the appropriate committees or engaging Republicans.
They also accused Democrats of using the bill to take aim at Mr. Trump, portraying the legislation as an extension of the work of the special committee investigating Jan. 6, which most House Republicans denounce as a partisan exercise aimed at blaming Mr. Trump for the assault on the Capitol.
“This is nothing more than an attack on President Trump and the 2020 election, an attack on a man who has not been in office for nearly two years,” said Representative Guy Reschenthaler, Republican of Pennsylvania.
Lawmakers said the legislation’s close association with Ms. Cheney led House Republicans to abandon it in large numbers. Her aggressive criticism of Mr. Trump prompted Republicans to remove her from a party leadership position in May last year, and she lost her re-election primary last month.
But Ms. Cheney noted strong support for the measure from conservative jurists and analysts and called on Republicans to embrace it.
“If your aim is to prevent future efforts to steal elections, I would respectfully request that conservatives should support this bill,” she said on the House floor. “If instead your aim is to leave open the door for elections to be stolen in the future, you might decide not to support this or any other bill to address the Electoral Count Act.”
Leaders of the bipartisan group behind the Senate bill, which was made public in July, were surprised by the sudden House action on the legislation just days after it was introduced and after months with few details on how the House was proceeding. Backers of the Senate bill said the House approach could lead to more election lawsuits, a prospect that could increase Republican opposition. But they remained hopeful the bills could be reconciled.
“We can work together to try to bridge the considerable differences,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and one of the chief authors of the Senate bill. “But it would have been better if we had been consulted prior to the House sponsors deciding to drop their bill.”
The Senate Rules Committee is scheduled to consider that chamber’s version next week. Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota and the chairwoman of the panel, is preparing a new version that incorporates changes sought by election experts and other lawmakers in hopes of enhancing its chances of approval. The legislation so far has at least 10 Republican backers, meaning it could overcome a G.O.P. filibuster if all Democrats supported it.
Despite the differences, supporters of the legislation said it needed to become law.
“Failure is not an option,” said Representative Pete Aguilar of California, a member of the Democratic leadership and the Jan. 6 panel. “We’ve got to put a piece of reform on the president’s desk. We’ve got to protect democracy.”
Luke Broadwater contributed reporting.
Carl Hulse is chief Washington correspondent and a veteran of more than three decades of reporting in the capital. @hillhulse
My wife and I are about halfway through Ken Burns’s new three-part documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust, which concluded last night on PBS. We’re big fans of Burns, and although it feels icky to call any Holocaust film “enjoyable,” this one is very well done. (The familiar voice of Peter Coyote, a frequent narrator of Burns films, is as soothing a companion as always.)
The Holocaust is obviously not an overlooked historical event, and I have devoured countless books and films about it over the years. But Burns has still managed to unearth plenty of clips I’d never seen before, and his indictment of the U.S. response to the unfolding horror in Nazi Germany is quietly damning. As Dara Horn wrote in The Atlantic last week, Burns goes a little too easy on Franklin D. Roosevelt. His real aim, however, seems to be reminding viewers that America has always talked a bigger game about welcoming immigrants and refugees than it has actually played. That history clearly has relevance today, and it was never more apparent than during the 1930s and ’40s, when the desperate Jews of Europe looked to America and too often found its doors closed.
— Russell
Winchester Cathedral Jane Austen Memorial
Last week I wrote about our visit to Winchester Cathedral and this is the follow up about Jane Austen. I now have visited several of the sites associated with her. This one was particularly interesting, as because we constantly hear of Chawton and the Bath connections, Winchester hasn’t been one of the sites I have connected with Jane Austen.
The Cathedral also featured a donation box for the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, and as mentioned last week, reference to a service for Queen Elizabeth 11.
Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis at Everyman Cinema Maida Vaile
This was such a find, after we were prevented from going to the Tate and Tate Modern because of the lengthy queues and tube turmoil associated with the viewing of Queen Elizabeth 11’s coffin, we had to find other activities well away from the centre of London. Maida Vaile is a very pleasant walk from Paddington. The Everyman Cinema was a bohemian reminder of the old Electric Shadows that gave us so much pleasure over so many years in Canberra.
Elvis was an excellent film. We were pleased to have been given the opportunity to do something different, particularly when the result was so fulfilling. There will be plenty of time to visit the Tate next time. The disgusting sundae pictured below was mine – caramel topping, honey comb and ice-cream – I couldn’t resist, and was pleased to have a long walk back to Paddington afterwards.
This week I review Paul Kendall’s Queen Elizabeth I Life and Legacy of the Virgin Queen which fits nicely into thinking about the article by Jenny Hyde on the way in which news about the death of Queen Elizabeth 1 compares with news coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth 11.
Paul Kendall Queen Elizabeth I Life and Legacy of the Virgin QueenPen & Sword Frontline Books, 2022.
Thank you NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.
Paul Kendall’s prose misses the vivacity to which I have become accustomed in publications by Pen & Sword. Rather, he has written a book that outlines methodically the material he is investigating, while bringing it to the wider audience to whom the accessibility offered by these publications is important. Where Kendall has excelled is in the approach that he has taken to the material. Where other writers use photographs, artifacts documents and illustrations to enhance the text, Kendall has used them as the focus of the text – they are the ‘jumping off ‘ point for the information he has garnered about this fascinating period and figure. Books: Reviews
Covid Canberra
The new cases recorded on 23 September, for the period Thursday 15 September to 4pm Thursday 22 September, were 730. There are 69 people in hospital suffering from Covid, and none in ICU or ventilated. No lives were lost this week.
Jenny Hyde
Lecturer in Early Modern History, Lancaster University
The Conversation
In 2022 TV news rather than ballads communicate the details of a monarch’s death, but the challenge of communicating the royal succession draws on lessons from 400 years ago
How news of the death of Elizabeth I in the 17th century was communicated in ballads and proclamations
Published: September 17, 2022 1.17am AEST
When Queen Elizabeth II passed away on September 8, 2022, there can’t have been many people in the UK who hadn’t heard about it within hours of her death. The media was on high alert from around midday, when an announcement from Buckingham Palace made clear that the monarch’s health was under threat.
The BBC replaced normal programming with rolling news coverage. And as soon as the announcement of the Queen’s death was posted on the gates of Buckingham Palace, just before 6.30pm, news presenters interrupted programmes across the board to inform the public. The news, after all, is at our fingertips 24/7.
By contrast, when Queen Elizabeth I died in Richmond Palace, near London, on March 24, 1603, the news didn’t arrive in Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumberland, around 550km away, until two days later. The proclamation that brought news of her death and of James I’s accession took almost two weeks to reach Ireland.
The official notice on the gates of Buckingham Palace, announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Matt Crossick | Alamy
In the days before mass media and high levels of literacy, news travelled slowly. Like our current press, however, early tools for communicating this kind of momentous event trod the same tricky path of celebrating the late queen’s reign, mourning her passing and heralding the new king’s arrival. Striking the right tone to reflect the nation’s grief and commemorate a distinguished life has always been crucial.
How news spread in the 17th century
When Elizabeth I died in 1603, James VI of Scotland became James I King of England and Ireland as well. We know that many people across England, Wales and Ireland found out about this through proclamations, songs and other forms of oral communication.
Research shows how even pamphlets were often designed to be read aloud, for example, by using punctuation to instruct readers when to pause or breathe. They recognised that printed texts were shared socially among groups of family and friends.
A 17th copy of a 16th century portrait of Elizabeth I by an unknown author. Wikimedia
These items could be described as the social media of their day. The simple, popular songs known as ballads could be composed and printed within a matter of days. They were easy to distribute and cheap to buy. Above all, they were based on face-to-face communication and public performance.
Fanfares of drums and trumpets of the kind that preceded the principal proclamation of King Charles III at St James Court on September 10, 2022 were also often used to grab people’s attention for the proclamations which were heard in Tudor and Stuart marketplaces.
Ballads were ideal for disseminating this sort of news and information too. Like proclamations, they were performed in marketplaces, but they could also be heard at fairs and in taverns – anywhere where an audience could gather. Though the lyrics were often printed, they mostly spread by word of mouth. And they deliberately used techniques that made them easy to remember, including rhyme, rhythm and repetition.
The chorus of one ballad about Elizabeth I’s death, called A Mournful Ditty, combined repetition, alliteration and rhyme with a melody. It was perfectly crafted for singers to join in:
Lament, lament, lament you English peers, Lament your loss possessed so many years.
A dual focus
These days, of course, it would be rare to learn about a major news event from a song. But the lyrics of that ballad show how the fundamental problems facing the media today on the death of a sovereign were the same 400 years ago.
The immediate focus is on grief. For there to be mourning, there also needs to be a sense that something cherished has been lost. So even while celebrating the peace and stability of her impressive 44-year reign, the ditty praised Elizabeth I as “the paragon of time” and urged its listeners to:
Weep, wring your hands, all clad in mourning
But the death of one monarch marks the accession of another. And the focus of the cheapest print – ballads – quickly shifted to the new monarch. This is probably because James I faced one issue that Charles III does not.
Portrait of James I of England wearing the jewel called the Three Brothers in his hat, c. 1605, by John de Critz. Wikimedia
In contrast to Charles III – who is a familiar figure from his many years as the heir apparent – James was, to the English, Welsh and Irish, king of a foreign state. What is more, Elizabeth I had refused to name him as her successor. There were any number of rival claims to her throne.
Several ballads combined mourning the Queen’s passing with introducing the Scottish king to his new subjects. They highlighted continuities, including James’s English ancestry as great-great-grandson of Henry VII.
Pamphlets described his journey from Edinburgh and ceremonial entry into London in detail. One song even went so far as to falsely claim that Elizabeth I had “assigned all her state to our Noble King James”. Presumably this was part of a narrative that smoothed his accession by setting him up as the rightful heir to the throne.
One printed sheet, Weep with Joy, described Elizabeth as an example of piety, humility and mercy whose loss should be lamented. It also noted that James’s accession was a cause for celebration. His proclamation, the pamphlet states, was “read and received with great applause of the people”.
How true this was is debatable. One diarist noted that the proclamation was heard with “silent joy”, though this was in part down to relief that James had succeeded peacefully.
This narrative of continuity can now be seen in the way Charles III’s speeches and statements draw on his mother’s reputation. Although a succession crisis was never on the cards, his accession has been greeted with misgivings by some. Maybe even in the 21st century, the dual focus of news helps to strengthen the bond between the new monarch and the old, smoothing the transition of power even as it creates tensions for the media.
Republished from The Conversation under Creative Commons licence.
Visit to Winchester Cathedral
I did not know about the wedding chair used by Queen Mary 1 in her marriage to Philip of Spain (mentioned in the review of Queen Elizabeth I Life and Legacy of the Virgin Queen) so did not look for it on my visit to Winchester Cathedral. My focus was on Jane Austen and her burial there, and the memorials were worth the visit. They will feature next week , together with the review of a book about her.
Winchester is about an hour’s train trip from London, and again I wish I had read Kendall’s book before my visit. On the way back I could have imagined the arduous trip made by Mary and Philip, in comparison with mine on a smoothly running train, comfortable seating, a coffee bought on the platform in my hand, and upon arrival at Paddington, a short walk to my hotel. Best of all, no crowds of mixed intent along the wayside.
Hilary Mantel, Prize-Winning Author of Historical Fiction, Dies at 70
Hilary Mantel in 2020.Credit…Ellie Smith for The New York Times
The two-time Booker Prize-winning author was known for “Wolf Hall” and two other novels based on the life of Thomas Cromwell.
Hilary Mantel, the British author of “Wolf Hall,” “Bring Up the Bodies” and “The Mirror and the Light,” her trilogy based on the life of Thomas Cromwell, died on Thursday at a hospital in Exeter, England. She was 70.
Her death, from a stroke, was confirmed by Bill Hamilton, her longtime literary agent. “She had so many great novels ahead of her,” Mr. Hamilton said, adding that Ms. Mantel had been working on one at the time of her death. “It’s just an enormous loss to literature,” he added.
Ms. Mantel was one of Britain’s most decorated novelists. She twice won the Booker Prize, the country’s prestigious literary award, for “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies,” both of which went on to sell millions of copies. In 2020, she was also longlisted for the same prize for “The Mirror and the Light.”
American support for unions
Union approval highest in 57 years
Data: Gallup. Chart: Madison Dong/Axios Visuals71% of Americansapprove of labor unions — the highest reading since 1965, according to Gallup.Approval is 89% for Ds … 56% for Rs.Why it matters: Retail, warehouse and fast-food workers — empowered by the tight labor market — have made union inroads at Starbucks, Amazon and Chipotle.
Cressida Campbell exhibition at National Gallery of Australia cements underrated Australian artist’s place in the canon
Renowned Australian artist Margaret Olley was an early champion of Cressida Campbell’s work, buying it and donating it to public institutions.(Supplied: AGNSW/Cressida Campbell)
A mural-like painting of an intricately adorned kitchen shelf wraps the entrance to the National Gallery of Australia’s newest exhibition.
In it, an array of household objects are celebrated with exceptional precision: a leek is propped against a blue and white ceramic vessel, black kitchen scissors protrude from a white milk jug, a sprig of lavender rests idly.
The more you look, the more you see.
The mural is an enlarged version of Australian contemporary artist Cressida Campbell’s 2009 woodblock painting The Kitchen Shelf — here, lovingly recreated by her husband Warren Macris, who is a fine art and photographic printer and took more than 100 photographs of the original to make the mural.
Opening Saturday, the exhibition is a major retrospective of Campbell’s work, featuring more than 140 of her woodblock paintings and woodcut prints.
At 62, Campbell has been making art for more than 40 years, and in sales alone, she’s one of Australia’s most successful and sought-after artists (her commercial shows typically sell out, often before opening) — but this is the first time a retrospective of this scale has been mounted by a major Australian gallery.
In March, and again in August, one of Campbell’s woodblocks sold for $515,455 – the highest price for any work by a living Australian woman artist.(Supplied: NGA)
It’s also the first time the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) has programmed a living Australian artist for their summer ‘blockbuster’ exhibition — a spot usually reserved for broadly recognisable international artists (think: Picasso).
“[Campbell] is a very well-established artist and we believe that she’s contributed something very unique to the cultural tapestry of Australian art,” NGA director Nick Mitzevich tells ABC Arts.
“She’s at the peak of her powers and we want to celebrate that.”
Curated thematically across six rooms, the exhibition is autobiographical, featuring intimate domestic scenes, city- and landscapes from the places Campbell has lived, and even childhood drawings.
“It’s a bit like a documentary, but in paint,” the artist told ABC News.
Mitzevich says: “The exhibition reveals itself slowly to you and seduces you in because of the build-up of colour, the nuance of the way she models a form, or a shape, or a shadow, and how she captures beauty.
“For me, this exhibition is a journey of beauty.”
Working from her backyard studio in Sydney (Warrang), Campbell draws inspiration from her surroundings, including her garden and household objects.
There is an unexpected beauty in the mundanity of the scenes and objects she depicts: kitchen scraps in a plastic ice cream container; nasturtium cuttings cascading from a wine glass; a shock of grey fur (Campbell’s previous cat Otto) tucked behind a staircase railing.
The domesticity of her subjects is deeply intimate.
“Nature is the most exquisite thing. You can’t beat it, but you can show people another way of looking at it,” Campbell says.(Supplied: Cressida Campbell)
“[They’re things] people wouldn’t normally relate to as interesting subjects, but they actually look interesting to me,” Campbell says.
“So it’s a way of encouraging people to re-see things.”
Making the everyday extraordinary
Campbell’s creative process is highly unusual for a contemporary painter.
She first draws then etches scenes onto a block of plywood, before applying multiple layers of watercolour paint using fine sable brushes. She then mists the block with water and lays paper over the top, pressing and rolling the block by hand to create a mirror print.
There is a reverence in this approach, which draws on Ukiyo-e — a Japanese woodblock printing style that Campbell studied while living in Tokyo in the 80s.
She also cites Australian painter and printmaker Margaret Preston as a key stylistic influence. Campbell was particularly taken with Preston’s woodcuts after discovering them at an Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) exhibition in the late 70s, while studying art at East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School).
A teacher at East Sydney Technical College first suggested Campbell try her woodcarving and printmaking technique in the 70s.(Supplied: Cressida Campbell)
Campbell takes several months to make each woodblock and single-edition print, producing roughly five to six works per year.
“I actually spend a lot of time retouching and hand-painting the print because there’s often quite a lot of it that needs work,” she told her sister, the actor Nell Campbell, earlier this year.
It’s a painstaking process to capture what are, for the most part, everyday objects and scenes. (Piles of used paint tubes and brushes on display as part of the exhibition attest to the labour.)
But Campbell’s deliberateness and astonishing attention to detail render the everyday extraordinary.
Dr Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax, the NGA’s curator of Australian prints and drawings, says Campbell, who is not particularly comfortable in the limelight, lets her work speak for itself.
“Her work finds its way out into the world without having to do any sort of banging of the drums about it.
“I think lots of people will recognise her work, but not realise who made it. And I think that’s the beauty of doing a show like this: people will begin to know the name Cressida Campbell.”
Noordhuis-Fairfax collaborated with Campbell on the retrospective, which includes several of the artist’s childhood artworks. (Campbell has been drawing since she was six years old.)
“She’s an artist that just never stopped drawing,” Noordhuis-Fairfax says.
“They’re quite exceptional drawings, and you can see that real interest in the natural world and that [her] attention to detail started really young.”
In 2009, Campbell received her first survey show, at Sydney’s S.H. Ervin Gallery — a turning point in her career. (Pictured with Noordhuis-Fairfax)(Supplied: NGA)
Course correction
While Campbell may not be a household name, Mitzevich says he hopes the exhibition will help to change that.
“What I’m really heartened about is that the work and her practice will certainly take a big step in recognition through this major exhibition,” he says.
“We hope that hundreds of thousands of Australians will have the opportunity to see [Campbell’s] work and appreciate how unique her practice is.”
The NGA has acquired a new work, Bedroom Nocturne (2022), from the exhibition, bringing the total number of Campbell’s works held by the gallery to five.
Campbell’s process remains the same as when she started out – although her newer work is much larger and more intricate.(Supplied: Cressida Campbell)
Of the major Australian galleries, the Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) has collected nine of Campbell’s works (including four donated by Olley, an early champion of the artist), while Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) holds one.
Major Australian galleries such as the National Gallery of Victoria, Museum of Contemporary Art and the state galleries of Western Australia and South Australia do not currently hold any of Campbell’s work in their permanent collections.
Meanwhile, Mitzevich says, she is one of the most privately collected Australian artists.
The exhibition features the highest number of private loans the NGA has included in a single exhibition — 111 in total, representing 80 per cent of the works exhibited.
Having worked consistently over the past four decades, it’s fitting that Campbell’s retrospective has been programmed in the NGA’s 40th year. (Serendipitously, she attended the NGA’s opening in October 1982 as the plus-one of artist Martin Sharp.)
Campbell stayed with fellow artist and friend Margaret Olley while she painted four woodblocks of Olley’s home.(Supplied: Cressida Campbell)
Her exhibition is one of 18 projects announced to date that have been commissioned as part of the NGA’s Know My Name gender equity initiative, which was established in response to findings that only one-quarter of the gallery’s Australian collection and one-third of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection is by women artists.
Mitzevich says of Know My Name: “It’s not about being ‘woke’ or politically correct. It’s about acknowledging that, in our culture, the playing fields for various things are uneven … and it’s important to elevate the parts that haven’t been given a fair go.
“And we are unapologetic about that,” Mitzevich adds.
The exhibition is not just a significant professional milestone for Campbell but a personal one too. In August 2020, she developed a life-threatening brain abscess that paralysed one side of her body and required multiple operations.
She has spoken previously about the horrible moment, in the aftermath, when she realised she might never be able to paint again.
Those operations restored Campbell’s use of her right arm and leg, which in turn allowed her to complete the new work that features in the NGA exhibition.
Campbell told ABC News that being able to have a survey exhibition at NGA was an “amazing compliment”.
“I couldn’t feel more honoured. It’s incredible.”
Cressida Campbell runs until February 19, 2023 at the National Gallery of Australia.
Some novels, published in 2021, but good second hand reads in 2022 are reviewed this week: Louise Candlish The Heights, 2021; Carol Mason, between you and me, 2021 and Jane Isaacs, One Good Lie, 2021. Thank you, Net Galley for the uncorrected proofs for review.
Louise Candlish has had me immersed in her fictional worlds from when I was introduced to her work through Our House. Now I have had the pleasure of engagement in such novels as Those People, The Sudden Departure of the Frasers, and The Other Passenger. Of course, there are more, but one of the pleasurable features of opening yet another Louise Candlish novel is that each has something different to recommend it. Although they are often introduced with comments about the twists and turns, this phrase has become overused. What I want is a twist that is smooth, is logical, and has a background in the information I already have about the plot and characters. In The Heights Louise Candlish has accomplished this once again. Books: Reviews
Carol Mason between you and me Lake Union, 2021.
Carol Mason’s novel, woven around the topic of step parenting, combines a sensitive and thoughtful approach, from the perspectives of all the main characters, as well as those that become involved while those relationships develop. At times, Mason’s even handedness toward the characters might annoy, particularly if the reader is committed to one or other of the protagonists. However, while this almost neutrality sometimes seems to slow the story, it works to demonstrate the complexity of the topic. This novel shows the inability of even those with the advantages of professional lives and lack of economic anxieties to deal easily with the complications attendant on developing any new relationship combining first and second families. Books: Reviews
Jane Isaac One Good Lie Canelo, 2021.
A chilling prologue introduces a female victim and her captor – a man who is known to her. Subsequent chapters introduce male and female characters, two of whom must be those featured in the prologue. Who are they? What has caused this event? Will the incidents leading to the capture be worth following to find the answers? What will happen to the victim and her captor? Books: Reviews
After the Covid report: Last day in London 2022; Cindy Lou eats out in London; signs on Paddington Station; new Ken Burns documentary.
Covid in Canberra moves to weekly updates
It was interesting to see the different mask requirements/encouragements while in the UK and Italy. In the UK there were no mandated mask requirements, although some people wore them at Heathrow, and on the tube. In Bagni Di Lucca masks were required on the bus, and the drivers enforced the rule. People wore masks. Although there was a requirement to wear masks on trains, there was no enforcement, and only some people wore them. Hand sanitiser was available in most venues in both countries, although, as noted in the restaurant reviews, not all.
The weekly report for Canberra: new cases – 791; cases in hospital – 76, with one person in ICU and one ventilated. The number for the total lives lost since March 2020 is 125.
Last Day in London 2022
We were fortunate with our timing for departure on Sunday as flights were cancelled on Monday because the funeral of Queen Elizabeth 11 required clear airspace. A walk though Kensington Gardens was a familiar activity from our years in London and seemed a perfect way to end this visit. The Lido is an excellent place to eat, with an abundance of options, hot and cold, large and small. But most attractive is the setting. Walking through the park, past the Italian Gardens, viewing the Albert Memorial in the distance, and of course the many dogs walking and playing in the park is an absolute joy.
Cindy Lou eats out in London
Flavours of India, Paddington
This was a favourite when we were living in Paddington several years ago. As the crowds in Paddington milled around the restaurants on Regent’s Canal, and a lengthy queue snaked around the Italian restaurant we also liked, the rain drove us to Craven Road and Indian food.
Unfortunately this restaurant has not maintained its high standards of flavoursome food and variety of chutneys and pickle accompaniments. The meal was pleasant , and certainly generous. However, it lacked the special features I recall. The one stand out was the beautifully thin and crisp pappadum, which I have not seen replicated elsewhere. The service was friendly, but the restaurant was very busy, so that was a little disappointing also. The prices are reasonable, so this is worth a visit for an uncomplicated pleasant enough Indian meal.
Tuttons, Covent Garden
Tuttons was a find a few years ago, and we were pleased enough to return several times. On this occasion we sat outside, a lovely experience as the sun was out, the seating was comfortable, (the inside seating is very nice too) and the activities of Covent Garden swirled around us accompanied by operatic singing (possibly mimed). The mixed olives were luscious, and the bread included dark rye and crusty white. There was enough butter! The main courses were generous. The salmon was not overcooked but had a crispy skin; the salad provided a variety of tastes and textures. Tuttons is worth visiting. However, take your own hand sanitiser as none is available and the lavatories are a long and complicated walk down stairs.
Ask, Paddington
Ask is a chain serving Italian food. It is reasonably priced, the food is good, although not spectacular, and the service on this occasion was very efficient and delightfully friendly. I was pleased to be able to take away a bunch of the cheeky table napkins that I thought my grandchildren would find amusing. They are a great riposte to a person fixed on good manners to the detriment of enjoyment.
If sitting outside, the traffic is very close. However, the streetscape is pure London, and for me that was a deciding factor – I sat outside.
Bizzarro, Craven Road, Paddington
Bizzarro is a large, busy restaurant, often featuring a long queue waiting for a table. Fortunately, I had booked, arrived early, and was seated immediately. The staff are busy, but polite and friendly. They are also efficient, considering the pace at which this restaurant works. Lest this sound as though you will be hurried – no, one important feature of Bizzarro is that one feels welcome and looked after.
The starters were excellent – bruschetta with piles of fresh tomato and basil, and the most delicious buttered asparagus. The main courses, both pasta, were generous and flavoursome. Mine, with prawns, not large, but numerous, was particularly full of flavour. The green salad was fresh, plentiful, and varied – rocket, iceberg, tomato and cucumber. Balsamic and oil were provided. This was a lovely meal, and although no pasta seems to reach the heights of that I had in Italy, it was nicely cooked.
The desserts were in a glass case, and although they looked appealing the meal was pleasant without. After such filling pasta, a brisk walk back to the hotel was a more judicious option.
Trip to Amersham
This town is at the end of the Metropolitan Line, and according to the information is a place worth visiting. We did not find it so, although perhaps more investigation could have unearthed something. Friends who know Amersham were surprised that we had visited, although did say that there are some remarkably historic cottages there. The feature that we found rather different was the combination of a hairdressing salon and coffee shop. I had come across this before in London, where the wonderful Russian hairdresser I used to visit had a thriving coffee shop and salon.
The food was pleasant, the street vista worth a walk, and a longer walk out of the township, although not rewarding for any obvious historical features, was easy.
Signs at Paddington Station
I have seen numerous dogs in the stations, on the tube, and being carried on the escalators. They seem to adapt remarkably well to being regular travellers on public transport.
New Ken Burns Documentary
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick join Morning Joe to discuss the new three-part, six-hour PBS documentary series ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’.Sept. 21, 2022
This Sunday, PBS premieres, The U.S., and The Holocaust, Ken Burn’s three-part six-hour documentary, produced and directed by Burns, Lynn Novick and and Sarah Botstein.
You might wonder what, if anything, there still is to say about the Holocaust, after so many, many films have been made about it, all over the world. Having watched many of those films, and as the host and curator of an annual Holocaust Film Series at the Holocaust Museum LA, I can tell you that yes, there are many great films, narrative, and documentary about the Shoah, but Ken Burns’ does have something to say, if not completely new, then worth seeing and listening to.
Burns, Novick and Botstein have framed their film as a question of how America responded to the Holocaust, and that the American response is something we should all know about and confront – as part of the ongoing conversation of what sort of country we believe the United States is, and what kind of country it actually is.
The other question that instantly presents itself is: Why now? Why make a film about the American response to the Holocaust right now. I don’t know if when they began the film this was the producer’s intent, but clearly as they were making the film, the events of the last six years in the US – immigration, racism, the rise of right-wing demagogues, and the rise of white supremacists made the issues in “The US and The Holocaust” incredibly relevant.
There are many revelations in the film. Burns, Novick and Botstein explore at length the connections between the American Eugenics movement, American genocidal policies towards Native Americans, and Jim Crow laws and Hitler’s policies and Nazi laws. There is a frightening quote of Hitlers where he says, (and I am paraphrasing from memory) that America’s greatness as a country comes from its willingness to mass murder the Native population. And that America’s rebukes to Nazi policies towards the Jews were rendered hollow when German officials pointed to segregation in the United States.
Prior to this documentary, the received perception about the US and the Holocaust was that Americans didn’t really know what was occurring to the Jews, and the American government didn’t care, and that President Roosevelt knew but did little to help the Jews.
“The US and The Holocaust” makes the case that the American press did cover the Nazi regime and its murderous policies towards the Jews, and journalists such as Dorothy Thompson traveled the country speaking about it. The American public knew, and at first there was tremendous solidarity towards the plight of the Jews in Europe. They also spend time on the efforts of Varian Fry to rescue Jewish refugees in France, and Raoul Wallenberg’s rescues efforts in Budapest (I do fault them for not making the point that Raoul Wallenberg did so hand-in-hand with the Jewish Resistance).
As Botstein told me when we spoke, what struck her was that for so many Jews during the Holocaust, life or death came down to a piece of paper – a visa, transit papers, a false identity.
In Burns’ telling FDR and Rabbi Stephen Wise come off better than they do in other accounts, as wanting to do more but being blocked by the immigration policies of the Congress, and the active Anti-Semitism of the State Department. Novick and Botstein also go to great lengths to explain why FDR made the decision not to bomb the rail tracks to Auschwitz. I did not come away convinced that FDR couldn’t have done more, and I remain steadfast in believing that the Allies should have bombed the tracks (or even the camps themselves) but it is worth hearing the counter-argument.
Burns, Novick and Botstein do introduce John W. Pehle, a Treasury Department lawyer who found a way around the State Department to save many Jewish lives. And they provide damning evidence of Charles Lindbergh’s antisemitism.
To return to one of my original questions: Why now? In the last five minutes of the film, Burns, Novick and Botstein provide a montage of rising white suprematism and antisemitism presently in the US (including the marchers at Charlottesville) that, regrettably make “The US and The Holocaust” all too relevant to today.
Ken Burns’ “The U.S., and The Holocaust” airs on PBS September 18, 19 and 20. Check your local PBS stations for times and showings.
This will be worth watching out for on Australian and British television. The Civil War was a magnificent documentary (shown on SBS in Australia) and encouraged me to watch others of Ken burns’ work – even a documentary about baseball!
The reviews this week, one fiction, and the other non-fiction, are books to which I gave five stars in my reviews for NetGalley and Good Reads. I thoroughly enjoyed both. The first is Lisa Jewell’s Invisible Girl; the non-fiction is Changing Roles Women After the Great War by Dr Vivien Newman. Both books were sent to me by NetGalley as uncorrected proofs for review.
Lisa Jewell, Invisible Girl Random House UK, Cornerstone Century, 2021.
Once Lisa Jewell again presents us with social commentary, a host of characters who ring true, a story line that is feasible, and an engaging style which develops what initially appear to be everyday domestic vignettes into devastating forces with elements of a thriller. Books: Reviews
Dr Vivien Newman Changing Roles Women After the Great War Pen & Sword History, 2021.
How I loved this book.
Dr Vivien Newman incorporates the familiar accessible nature of the Pen & Sword publications with academic thoroughness; where appropriate, a deftly comic touch; and a range of interesting, arresting women whose post WW1 activities make a wonderful read.
The introduction sets the post WW1 scene – a time of claims about the wonders women had performed during the war, and the bitter reality they faced as they were expected to return to their former pursuits. Some of the women who refused to do so changed roles.
Articles and commentary after the Covid Canberra update – the Obama portraits; Conference in Bagni Di Lucca; Pisa photos at night; hotels in Bagni Di Lucca and Pisa; hotels Bagni Di lucca and Pisa; Winchester Cathedral – Queen Elizabeth Service and flowers.
Canberra Covid Update
Update on September 8th 2022 brought good news. New cases number only 137, with hospital numbers down to 85, and one person in ICU. No lives were lost on this period. The total lives lost since March 2020 number 125.
The Obama Portraits
At Heathrow preparing to travel to Pisa in the morning I saw the unveiling of the Michelle and Barack Obama portraits, and listened to the excellent speeches. CNN rather rudely cut into the ceremony as Dr Jill Biden was about to make hers, so I was unable to hear it at this time. Michelle Obama’s speech was wonderfully political. Presidents Biden and Obama gave speeches well worth listening to – their ability easily overriding the four years of former President Trump.
Conference in Bagni Di Lucca
This week I flew to Bagni Di Lucca in Italy. The flight to Pisa was uneventful, luggage appearing as expected at the end of the journey. Heathrow was rather chaotic, I think partly because there is not enough signage about what is expected at each point. For example, it was not until I was dispensing bags into the trays that I was informed that my laptop had to be put in separately, and out of its cover. The emphasis was on liquids, with signs everywhere. Even with this a family was hastily finishing yoghurts and drinks in line! On the other side, all was relatively peaceful, and the flight boarded with no more fuss. Entry to Italy was easy and efficient. A train trip to Lucca, and a winding and attractive bus route brought me to where I was to stay and attend a conference for two days.
Please note that these excerpts from the poster and program were photographed under poor conditions, and as I am not at home, cannot be improved.
The speakers used Italian in many cases. However, there were several English speakers, and many of the Italian speakers addressed questions from English speakers in English. In addition, some quotes and comments were in English where power point was used, and the program information was in both Italian and English.
Jocelynne Scutt, Buckingham University, was a speaker on the topic, “When The Novel or the Play’s The Thing – Fin de siècle Artistry and Rebellion. Sex, Class, and Literary Ambition”, using The Forsyte Saga, Howards End and A Doll’s House as references.
From the program notes
We have been mulling over The Forsyte Saga ever since, although the question I asked was about the point Jocelynne made about the pivotal role played in the lives of three daughters of academics of men of indeterminant class in each of the examples. Philip Bossiney the architect in The Forsyte Saga; Leonard Bast, whose umbrella begins the relationship between him and the sisters, Margaret and Helen; and the lawyer, Krogstad, whose actions precipitate Nora’s departure from The Doll’s House.
This paper was the source of much discussion, with class dominating as an issue. I cannot draw upon any of the papers at length as papers from the conference are to be published. However, some of the main points appear below, together with Jocelynne’s appearance at the conference.
Another English speaking contributor was Neil Sammells from Bath University. Having recently reviewed Hermione Lee – Tom Stoppard A Life, Books: Reviews, March 2, 2022, I was particularly interested in his having written about Stoppard (1988).
Visual for part of Neil Sammells’ presentation
His topic was “Oscar Wilde: Be Cool”, drawing upon ‘the dandy’ as a motif running from Baudelaire, Wilde, and Dali to modern artists and celebrities such as David Bowie and Miles Davis. His reference to ‘Wilde’s cultivation of dandyism [being] analogous with black “cool” ‘ links to some of the themes in Robert S. McElvaine The Times They Were a-Changin’ 1964, the Year the Sixties Arrived and the Battle Lines of Today Were Drawn, Books: Reviews, August 3, 2022.
From the program notes
Neil’s presentation left a great deal of room for further discussion, and raised some well-informed questions.
Visual for part of Paul Bugliani’s presentation
Paolo Bugliani, University of Pisa, was a great speaker – making me determined to learn more Italian. A Reluctant Decadent? Henry James on “The Yellow Book” was his title. However, his quote in English, associated with David Lodge’s book, Author, Author, encouraged me to ask about the topic in the quote, the role of biographers. According to the quote the role of biographers could be seen as worthy of criticism as trenchant as that aimed at journalists and their ilk. I wondered if Lodge thought the same about autobiographers, who also adapt their material, leave out some, embellish other aspects etc. We had also discussed the pleasure of eating pomodoro versus the crusty bread on which they were served at lunch the day before. All of which makes me interested in reading David Lodge’s book, a favorite of Paolo’s.
From the program notes
The conference was held at the Bagni Di Lucca Library. Exhibited were examples of The Yellow Book, The Savoy, and Aubrey Beardsley’s work.
Overnight in Pisa
Hotels in Bagni Di Lucca and Pisa
I have stayed at both of these hotels on previous occasions and found them pleasant places to stay at a reasonable price.
The Hotel Regina in Bagni Di Lucca is located on the main road and if you have a front room noise can be an issue. In the summer when the shutters need to be open, this presents a problem for visitors who are disturbed by noise. On the other hand, it could be exciting for others – vicarious singing and happy laughter, and rather wild rides.
On the positive side, the beds are comfortable, the shower works, there are numerous towels, and the rooms are spacious. There is a lift to all floors, and the staircase is wide and well designed for a comfortable walk up and down.
Breakfast is provided as part of the package, and is served in a dining area inside, or on the terrace near the pool. Pomodoro with basil is served with two choices of bread, boiled eggs, meat and cheese complete the savoury offerings. The cake and tart range is generous, and delicious. There is fruit salad and the beverages include fruit juices, and coffee. This is served – no awful machine coffee.
Roberto the proprietor, is friendly and helpful. He speaks English, and tolerates my bad Italian attempts. The prices are very reasonable.
The bus stop is nearby if you take the bus from Lucca to Bagni Di Lucca. The railway station is a taxi drive away. A supermarket is close, and the restaurant next door serves a wide range of pastas, risottos, pizzas and salads. Coffee shops, clothing shops and cafes are nearby, and there is a fruit and vegetable market held weekly in the vicinity
I have enjoyed my several stays here, and intend to return.
Hotel Bologna in Pisa was a find several years ago. The star of the hotel was its magnificent breakfast. However, this has been replaced with something a little more ordinary with a change of ownership. Nevertheless, this remains a very attractive place to stay in Pisa. It is a short and simple walk from the station, the staff are friendly, there is a shuttle bus to the airport for 2 euros and there is an abundance of shops and eating venues in close proximity.
The rooms are large with firm but comfortable beds, with extra pillows and blankets – something missing from many of the hotels I have stayed in recently. The bathroom is decent enough, with good towels and a shower that works well.
There is a lift in part of the building, but be warned that the additional accommodation apart from the main building has no lift and there are rooms several flights up. We struggled up the stairs to one of these on our most recent visit.
Although I was disappointed in the change to what was a very grand breakfast, I would stay here the next time I go to Pisa.
Queen Elizabeth and Winchester Cathedral *
Flowers had been placed around the fences of Winchester Cathedral, and inside, a service for Queen Elizabeth 11 was advertised. This was a quiet and peaceful recognition, unlike the crowds, helicopter and large police presence last night as we walked through the rainy streets of Paddington.
The news coverage in Bagni Di Lucca and Pisa was muted – BBC stories about Queen Elizabeth, the ceremonial processes, the family, and memories, taking their place with other world news. On returning to London, and reading about the coverage in Australia, it appears that this was a kindly aberration. On the other hand, one can always read a book if the television is boring, an experience that has confronted everyone before this event, I imagine.
As we left the Cathedral flowers were being gathered ignominiously into a black garbage bag. A rather sad reflection on a determination to be tidy.
*There will be more coverage of Winchester Cathedral next week.
Wattle in Canberra instead of sunflowers this time – may the latter flourish
Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.
It is a long time since I read Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent for the first time, and not so long ago that I re-read what I still believe is a very smart novel with an excellent twist. I hesitate to refer to the twist, as that phrase has become so trite with so many novels claimed to have such a feature – or even several – that it is no longer something I find particularly enthralling. Of course, when there really is a twist, when it is placed there for a purpose (as in Presumed Innocent) other than a headline in a review, I am as impressed as anyone. Perhaps my admiration for the smartness of Presumed Innocent spoiled me for Suspect, although thankfully it does not have a confected twist! Rather, this is a straightforward investigation of the possible set up of the Chief Inspector, Lucia Gomez-Barrerra, during mayoral election year in an American community of around 120,000 people. See Books: Reviews for complete review.
Following the Covid update: Cindy Lou eats out in Paddington; Train trip to Deal; Bob McMullan – US Senate election update; visit to Wallingford; feminist sign on Regents Canal.
Covid update Canberra
Cindy Lou eats out in London, with Paddington as her base
Paddington is alive with eating places, with its pubs, chains, and the excellent Pear Liang which is the star of the lower concourse of eating places in Sheldon Square – perhaps of all !
Pearl Liang Sheldon Square
The Pearl Liang is lively, but the level of noise is easy to manage as the tables are placed at a distance, and there is no music. There are three areas of seating so a less busy section could be requested. The dishes are generous, so it is easy to over order.
With starters of prawns, and sate chicken, vegetables, and two chicken dishes with rice, this is exactly what happened on this occasion. The prawns were succulent, with light pastry casings -and six of them! It was interesting to see the difference between the sate chicken served here, with its light sauce, and the somewhat heavier version served in Amsterdam’s sate chicken. The sweet and sour chicken was also deliciously lightly sauced, with the sesame chicken being generously coated with sesame seeds. The garlic sauce with this dish was a little disappointing. However, everything else was delicious, and this restaurant remains a favorite.
Wine and fortune cookies
Service is efficient and friendly and seating is comfortable. The restaurant has been well patronised each time we have visited, some patrons ordering the more exotic dishes such as razor clams, which is a fascinating sight for those of us who are not so well versed in Chinese cuisine.
MassisSheldon Square
Massis serves fresh delicious food that can be easily shared. The menu is extensive, and includes salads, chicken, beef and lamb dishes, a range of dips, warm Lebanese bread, and traditional desserts. There is inside and outside seating, the wait staff are friendly, and the seating is comfortable. This is an excellent venue for groups, but as pleasant for couples. The table settings are bright and attractive.
The food below is a tabouli – thick with crisp, fresh parsley and served with a lemon wedge; a Fattoush salad with a generous amount of pomegranate seeds; tender chicken pieces with coleslaw and bread; and succulent haloumi.
Pizza Express is a pizza chain which offers more than pizza. I recall it being referred to as an upmarket pizza restaurant by the Barbara Pym Society, when years ago we all gathered at the Oxford location for a pre-conference meal. On that occasion Pizza Express managed a multitude of orders with panache. When two of us visited the venue in Merchant Square, a lovely partially cobbled walk from Paddington Station it offered the same service.
It was great to sit outside across from the water feature in Merchant Square. Tower blocks of apartments jostle with shopping, making this a vibrant place to eat and contemplate being in London.
We order the slow roasted tomatoes with garlic and oregano (67 calories) and a Leggero Pomodoro pizza, with the hole in the middle resplendent with a green salad (573 calories). This was an excellent sharing menu for a fasting day on the 5:2 diet.
Note the roof gardens on the apartments.
A train trip to Deal
Deal is a town in Kent, England, which lies where the North Sea and the English Channel meet, 8 miles (13 km) north-east of Dover and 8 miles (13 km) south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town whose history is closely linked to the anchorage in the Downs. (Wikipedia)
We were interested in seeing the French coast from the town – possibly the smudge on the horizon was France. The following references to Deal in fiction are possible more likely to be able to be seen. references to Deal
References to Deal in Fiction (edited version from Wikipedia)
Dickens, garrisons Richard Carstone in Deal in Bleak House. Deal is the setting for local novelist George Chittenden’s smuggling saga, which is set in the late 18th century when the town was a haven for criminal gangs smuggling contraband across the English Channel. In Chittenden’s debut The Boy Who Led Them a child rises through the ranks to control the biggest smuggling gang on the Kent coast, fighting wars with rival gangs and revenue men at every turn. Jane Austen refers to Deal in Persuasion. Deal is the setting for Moonraker (Ian Fleming, 1955). Horatio Hornblower , The Commodore by C.S. Forester, departs from Deal on his voyage to the Baltic.
The Timeball Tower was a particularly attractive part of our visit as it reminded us of the great time we had in Greenwich with one of our daughter’s family several years ago. From recall, that was a very cold occasion, while this trip took place on a very hot summers day.
The architecture was another interesting feature, with the decorative tiles adorning the older buildings.
An interesting addition to our knowledge about Deal
Of no cultural or historical relevance what so ever, but irresistible to me when we stopped for a drink.
Pebbly the beach might be, but the seawater is just as good for washing hands after an encounter with a very generous two scoops of ice-cream – which was the best ice-cream I have tasted.
Deal Castle – a formidable building, indeed. We walked to the castle from the station, and around it, but did not venture inside. I now understand that it has a floor of some note. This trip, after three years away, has been one of hits and misses, and encouragement to return with a more well researched agenda.
Bob McMullan
US Senate Elections – Further Thoughts
Further thoughts on the 2022 mid-term Senate election
People whose views I respect have queried why I am writing about the US Senate elections.
I agree that Australian media is too concerned with US and UK politics when other countries deserve more attention than they receive. However, the consequences of Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine or overthrow US democracy are globally important and some lessons can be learned for Australia and other democracies.
US elections also provide a data rich environment which assists with the understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of polling in the digital world. The 2022 mid-term election should also provide a better understanding of the political consequences of attempts to ban abortion or to undermine confidence in elections.
To update my previous contributions about the 2022 US Senate elections it is important first to note that the Democrats have been doing unexpectedly well in all the by-elections since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade.
Most recently the Democrats won the special election in Alaska which followed the death of a Republican incumbent. A countervailing thought is that there are more than two months until the US elections in November and the normal pattern of electoral behaviour in the US would suggest that the Republican position should improve as the elections approach.
On the senate seats in doubt in November, there have been some interesting developments. The preferential, or ranked choice, voting system suggests Lisa Murkowski should win the Alaska Senate contest. Whether she wins as a Republican or an Independent is not clear at this stage, but I assume she will caucus with the Republicans. Missouri, Utah and Iowa look out of reach for the Democrats unless something dramatic happens to change the shape of the election. I will continue to monitor them but only comment if something changes.
With regard to the other hotly contested Senate seats the developments have been mixed.
In Arizona the Democrat incumbent, Mark Kelly, retains a strong lead across most of the polls. However, the averages in both RCP polls and 538 have narrowed, driven by a Trafalgar poll which has him only ahead by3%. Trafalgar is renowned for delivering results more favorable to Republicans, but this does not mean their results can be ignored. It seems to me that if even Trafalgar has Kelly ahead, he looks strong at this stage.
In Colorado, which has been strong for the Democrats recently the Republicans have just announced funding for a major campaign against incumbent Democrat, Michael Bennett. He is not invulnerable, his current lead is around 5%, but the Republican campaign effort there, where they have a mainstream Republican candidate, suggests that they are concerned about the situation in states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Pennsylvania has been the focus of attention recently with major speeches by Biden and Trump. This focus is undoubtedly driven by a growing realisation on both sides of the aisle that an upset is possible. The retiring Senator is a Republican and in this electoral climate it should be a comfortable win for the Republicans, but all polling suggests that the Democrat, John Fetterman, is ahead of his Trump imposed Republican opponent by from 7-9%. If this doesn’t change soon the Republican strategy of focussing on overturning Democrat incumbents in Colorado, New Hampshire and even Washington state will be reinforced.
Among the other states in serious contest in November the situation is most complex in Ohio. 538 polling average has the Democrat, Ryan, ahead while RCP has the Republican, Vance, ahead.
What is clear is that the Trump imposed candidate is causing problems for the Republicans in a state they would expect to win.
In the other key states the picture is mixed. Democrats are holding a small but steady lead in Nevada, and appear to be doing so in New Hampshire, although the candidates have not been finally chosen yet, In Florida the Democrat challenger, Deemings appears to be closing the gap on the Republican incumbent, Rubio, while the reverse is happening in Georgia with the Republican candidate, Walker, closing the gap on the Democrat incumbent, Warnock.
The interesting new developments are in North Carolina and Wisconsin. In North Carolina the race seems to be a dead-heat after a long period in which the Republican had a small but steady lead. In Wisconsin, now that the candidates have been chosen a range of early polling suggest a 4-6% lead for the Democrat, Mandela Barnes, over the Republican incumbent, Ron Johnson.
This interesting situation, together with recent Democrat successes has led some commentators to forecast a probable Democrat majority in the Senate. I think this is too big a call at the moment, but it appears clear that the continuing prominence and influence of Donald Trump is significantly improving the Democrats chances of success in November.
Trip to Wallingford
This was a pleasant trip, recalling many happy months I spent staying with Australian, and then English friends while I researched Barbara Pym’s papers in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Wallingford is the site of a ruined castle of archeological interest, the locale for many episodes of Midsommer Murders, renowned for the annual Bunkfest, and the source of pleasant walks from bridge to bridge along the Thames. It is a rattly bus ride from Oxford or Reading.
A garden fit for hedgehogs, and a spreading oak on St John’s Green for picnic shade.
Set up is over, now the Bunkfest paraphernalia is being dismantled – but another festive treat is in store!
Wallingford Castle has some remains – the moats are apparent, as are the ramparts, and there are some parts of the buildings are intact. However, cows chewing in the fields are more abundant than the building remains.
The Corn Exchange features regularly in Midsomer Murders, the Thames is a place for wandering and pontificating by the detectives, and the buildings are bound to be seen somewhere in the series. The Town Hall is worth a visit.
Walking along Regents Canal is always worthwhile. Sighted this morning on our short walk…
An addition to the brickwork beside the Regents Canal
Sun Flowers , Van Gogh, from the exhibition in the NGA
In this week’s blog: Eurostar to Amsterdam; book reviews; Amsterdam – hotel, food tour, Rijksmuseum, Cindy Lou reviews; Maggie O’Farrell; Well behaved women…; brief news from Australia.
On our way back to London, after a short, but fulfilling visit to Amsterdam.
We stayed in the Museum Quarter, which has excellent public transport – trams and train.
We also found some good restaurants, one excellent, another was fun, and another served a huge lettuce salad which I have missed. The hotel made a pleasant pizza, which we ate on our last night, with the free drinks offered in exchange for foregoing daily housekeeping.
Leaving Amsterdam. Do take a book for this journey!
Book Reviews
A non-fiction book, Sarah Milne’s The Book Lover’s Guide to London, and What’s Left Unsaid, by Emily Bleeker, a novel, are reviewed this week. Net Galley provided me with the uncorrected proofs for review.
Sarah Milne The Book Lover’s Guide to London White Owl, an Imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd.
I was thrilled when my request for this book was granted. Perhaps the height of my expectations made my disappointment sharper. I feel that readers of this review need to take this into consideration as I must admit to being disappointed.
Briefly, taking a positive approach, The Book lover’s Guide to London does provide an extensive list of authors and locations that feature in fiction and characters that would be useful to any person, tourist, or relatively knowledgeable London visitor, in investigating London through literature. However, I felt that there was too much dependence on familiar sources such as Dickens for the more colourful commentary; a greater variety of works and authors given such treatment would have been a welcome addition. See Books: Reviews
Emily Bleeker What’s Left Unsaid Lake Union, 2021.
Hannah Williamson is a journalist who has been forced to leave her prestigious position in the city and accept work with a small-town newspaper. She is caring for her grandmother, Mamaw ‘Mable’; missing (and internet stalking) her former partner, Alex; and recovering from her father’s death. Although a local, Guy Franklin, is helping build an addition to ‘Mable’s’ house for Hannah’s use, she looks forward to her grandmother’s recovery and moving on. While dutifully, but initially unwillingly, sorting files in the basement of the newspaper office Hannah finds some pages signed by Evelyn. They are pages of a story offered to the paper in the past. The letters appear to have been unacknowledged and the story unpublished. Hannah becomes intrigued by Evelyn’s story of a hitherto happy home life destroyed by her mother’s death and father’s remarriage. This, with the addition of a mysterious shooting, encourages Hannah to resume her journalistic doggedness. See Books: Reviews
Eurostar to Amsterdam
This is a good alternative to flying, and we were pleased to experience the Eurostar again. My previous trip had been to Paris, travelling Standard. This time I chose Standard Premium for the four hour journey. Included is a meal and snacks, and more importantly, far more space in comfortable seating. The WIFI is intermittent, so one cannot rely on using the four hours to undertake any work that might need to be saved. I found it impossible to work safely on this blog. The meal and snacks were simple, but served by pleasant staff, and on the journey to Amsterdam there was a choice. Not so on the homeward leg, but what was available was fine. Upon arrival at Central Station (Centrum) there was no apparent taxi rank. However, trams are plentiful, and the subway is on the spot. A ticket for up to three days can be purchased very easily.
There is a subway station close to the Museum Quarter, and plenty of trams so our stay (although fraught to begin with – where were the taxis? why was google so frustrating?) became very easy .
NH Hotel Museum Quarter
This hotel is so close to the art galleries, it was the prefect place to stay. We has booked it a couple of years ago, but were unable to use it because Covid intervened. The hotel provided credit to be used at this particular venue. I did not have a refundable booking, and was so pleased to have been encouraged to take up the booking on this occasion. The hotel is shabby in some ways, but has so much of the features that, for me, make a stay worthwhile. The rooms are large, the windows are huge and the view across the canal is very attractive. The bed was comfortable, the towels plentiful, and the shower (although one of those mad combinations for hot/cold/bath/shower) worked well. There were dressing gowns, which is a great addition to what was the standard room. Although one of my pet dislikes, soap and shampoo in large bottles attached to the wall, was there, my other dislike (hangers which cannot be taken out of the wardrobe) was not a feature. The hotel had an environmental policy where if one chose not to have daily housekeeping a free drink was [provided. We enjoyed this, with a simple pizza from the bar menu on our last night in Amsterdam.
Visit to the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
The original is being treated as per the information to the right of the photos of The Night Watch. A copy is also exhibited, and that is the second photo.
Mary Magdalene, tempura on panel.
Carlo Crivelli (c. 1430- 1495)
The ‘final flowering’ of the ‘International Gothic’ in Italy.
Italian Landscape with Umbrella Pines, Hendrik Voogd, 1807 oil on canvas, h 101.5cm × w 138.5cm More details Voogd was known as the ‘Dutch Claude’, after the French painter Claude Lorrain, who was famous for his history landscapes bathed in golden light. Voogd painted the gardens of the Villa Borghese in Rome in the late afternoon. The sun casts long shadows, and the trees stand out sharply against the sky. Strolling figures are enjoying the magnificent sunset. In the foreground, an artist is seated against a tree and drawing.
Outside the museum is an impressive exhibition of Barbara Hepworth sculptures .
Jordaan Food tour in Amsterdam
This tour had been planned for the trip to Europe thwarted by Covid. The refund was so prompt – no explanation needed – we thought that the company should be rewarded by booking again. We were pleased to have done so. The walk was interesting, and photos of some of the sights will follow those of the food venues we visited on the tour. The numbers are small (8 on this occasion), the food plentiful, and the venues provided quite a variety of style and food. Where an allergy impacted the planned offering, an alternative as found if possible. Missing one course is not a problem! If anything, there was too much. The walk included apple pie with a drink of choice; fish – cured herring with accompaniments and lightly battered cod; cheese of three vintages; sausage, two varieties; stroopwafels – large caramel filled biscuits; and deep fried gravy balls with mustard.
Cindy Lou reviews restaurants in Amsterdam
Mr Moustache
A short walk from our hotel was a Mexican restaurant, which promised a huge salad with the meal. Also – a mojito looked attractive. The setting was colourful, comfortable and friendly. The meals were flavoursome and a good size. We had a very pleasant time – and after a few hours of Dutch food something different was appealing for a change.
Zaza’s
What a wonderful find! With the Van Gogh Museum to visit, and eating at Zaza’s to reprise a wonderful meal, Amsterdam will be on my list for another trip. Zaza’s is really not to be missed. There is indoor and outdoor seating, and outdoor seemed fine on the warm evening on this visit. The service was friendly, efficient and really lovely. The menu is excellent – and the extras that arrived without ordering were accompanied with explanations – no risk of an allergy going unnoticed at this caring restaurant. Unfortunately, the photo of the menu was very poor, so cannot be replicated here. From the online menu I have copied the courses we chose:
Starters
TERRINE OF GOAT’S CHEESE with Apple and Celery served with Marinated Aubergine, Bloody Mary Gel and Rosemary Focaccia
TUNA TEMPURA filled with Cucumber & Marinated Ginger with Wasabi Mayonnaise and Soy & Sesame Dipping Sauce
In Between Courses
CARROT AND GINGER SOUP with Coconut Cream and Gelée from Coriander
Main Courses
HOMEMADE RAVIOLI filled with Feta, Garden Peas, Thyme and Lemon with Parmesan Foam and Pine Nut Dressing
JUMBO PRAWNS IN KATAIFI with Saffron Risotto, Cherry Tomatoes, Petis Pois and Fennel Foam
An amuse bouche appeared as soon as we ordered. After that, the time in between courses was beautifully paced. Despite this, everything was so generous we did not have dessert or coffee, as appealing as the former choices sounded. Turkish bread was served with a beautifully flavoured butter. I wish I had written the details down – I shall next time.
Soup at Zaza’s – a delightful exhibition
Leidse Restaurant & Bar
On the way back from the Rijksmuseum we found a restaurant which served the sate chicken I had enjoyed on the food tour. Again, the salad was plentiful and fresh. Service was pleasant, although not fast, and the serves were generous. Sate chicken is served with prawn crackers, or, in this instance, a huge prawn cracker into which the chicken nestled.
I had a delicious berry drink, complete with what I thought were mulberries but was told were black raspberries.
Sights while walking around the Jordaan area on the Food Tour
Maggie O’Farrell: The Marriage Portrait In 2020, Maggie O’Farrell won the Women’s Prize for fiction with Hamnet, a moving fictionalisation of the death of Shakespeare’s son. In her new novel, The Marriage Portrait, she imagines the lost story of another historical figure – Lucrezia de’ Medici, an educated and artistic young woman living in 1560s Florence. Just as Hamnet evoked the world of Shakespeare’s England, The Marriage Portrait brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life.
Join O’Farrell with Guardian writer Claire Armitstead, live in London or via the livestream. She will also be answering your questions.
A terrific image. I have a wonderful bracelet with the caption on it. i have also used the idea in my writing about the troublesome women in Barbara Pym’s novels.
Brief news from Australia
ACT Covid figures 25 August:
Health authorities in Canberra have confirmed another 252 positive COVID cases, bringing the number of known active cases to 1,463.
Two people are in ICU with the virus and 109 are hospitalised in total.
Australian Government : PM Anthony Albanese and the Labor team
CARMEN CALLIL: July 15, 1938 – October 17, 2022
Data: Gallup. Chart: Madison Dong/Axios Visuals71% of Americans 
Robin's Room 
