All Activity

fierce a beverage, terribly

Common People by Leah Gordon and Stephen Ellcock “Over the course of several centuries, acts of law gradually prohibited forms of subsistence hunting by labelling this illegal poaching, made small scale farming economically unviable, redesignated former peasants as wage-enslaved industrial workers and created a tribe of society’s outriders, labelled vagabonds, who were condemned as soon as they existed. In essence, the rich and powerful took away nearly all forms of livelihood from the majority class of peasants, and then immediately criminalized them for their ensuing poverty.” This is an important book which looks at the history of land rights and enclosure. In 1600 about fifty percent of England was common land. It is now about three percent. This tells the story of that struggle from the point of view of those who lost most. There are over one hundred photos and illustrations and Gordon, who is a photographer (as well as an indie musician from the 80s, and veteran of many protests concerning land and roadbuilding). Gordon and Ellcock look at the history of rebellion against enclosure right up to the present day, covering things as esoteric as the allotment movement. There is a detailed timeline from 1066, including the 1217 Charter of the Forest which established rights of access to the royal forests. In 1452, 1455 and 1493 there were Papal Bulls establishing the Doctrine of Discovery, setting out legal and religious principles which gave rights to European Christian nations the right to colonize lands outside Europe, stating that any non-Christian landowners could not be legitimate owners. In fact it was their Christian duty to seize the lands and convert any residents. Thus establishing a religious and moral justification for Imperialism, as early as the fifteenth century. These Papal Bulls were not revoked until 2023. Land ownership was an alien concept to many indigenous tribes. Up to 1597 there was opposition in parliament against enclosure and there were acts in favour of enclosure and against it. 1597 was the date when the last Act was passed against enclosure. The first general (rather than specific) act of enclosure was in 1621. The opposition to enclosure is documented as is the Civil War period rise of groups like The Levellers and the Diggers. The opposition to enclosure in the fens lasted over 160 years. Enclosure was also made easier by the Reformation. The changes in belief system meant that there were no more holidays for saints days and less days off work. The ruling classes began to see holidays as an excuse for licentiousness in the lower classes. Enclosure changed the nature of the countryside. One early driver was the wool industry as landowners wanted more land on which to graze their sheep. Enclosure was vital for the Industrial Revolution because it produced many homeless workers who could move to towns and to where the industry was developing and could live in poor conditions and be paid a pittance. It also helped to create the notion that there was a rural idyll in the past when land was in common. There are obviously problems with this, but it is easy to see where the idea comes from. Enclosure also contributed to a rise in vagabondage which led directly to the Poor laws and later workhouses. Enclosure is one of the fundamental parts of British history which is too often misunderstood. Leah and Ellcock have done an excellent job here of documenting a basic history. The photographs and illustrations are marvellous. There are also important sections on allotments and the protests of the 1980s and 90s following the effects of Thatcher’s policies. 10 out of 10 Starting Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir

I Hear You Knocking (But You Can't Come in) - Dave Edmunds

when imbibed in too

Merry Christmas everyone ( sorry, a bit belated 🫣) 🎄❤️🎄❤️🎄❤️🎄

Merry Christmas everyone

Merry Christmas to all the wonderful people here. 🎅

I also wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope you have a Happy New Year.

or hashish filled bongs

You too Luna. Merry Christmas all. 📚 📖 📙

Starting here

I hope that each and every one of you have a marvellously Merry Christmas and very happy New Year filled with bookish goodness.

The Voices of Time by J G Ballard “To Powers the sky seemed an endless babel, the time-song of a thousand galaxies overlaying each other in his mind. As he moved slowly towards the centre of the mandala he craned up at the glittering traverse of the Milky Way, searching the confusion of clamouring nebulae and constellations… Like an endless river, so broad that its banks were below the horizons, it flowed steadily towards him, a vast course of time that spread outwards to fill the sky and the universe, enveloping everything within them.” A collection of eight short stories by J G Ballard. The stories were written in the late 50s and early 60s, originally published in 1963. Some have elements of science fiction and there is certainly a strangeness to them. I suppose Kafkaesque is a good way to describe them. The stories are not easy to categorize, but there are elements of how we react to technology and mass media. More than one story has a sense of an outside threat which is not easy to quantify or describe. The first story is dystopian and concerns a neurosurgeon Powers who is overseeing a facility which looks after the many people who have succumbed to a type of sleeping sickness which puts people into a coma, never to wake. He is gradually developing the disease himself. The quality is inevitably variable. One of the better stories is The Garden of Time. An older married couple live in a walled villa and garden. In the garden there grows remarkable crystal flowers. The villa is surrounded by rolling hills. In the distance there can be heard the sound of hordes of people approaching the villa. The sounds appear to be threatening. The couple can pick a crystal flower and the flower pushes the people back. However the garden is running out of flowers and the people get nearer. External threat is a theme in a number of the stories. These stories are interesting and thought provoking. 7 and a half out of 10 Starting The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

tricky for Western tongues

Do You Hear What I Hear ~ Bing Crosby

"Zat You", Santa Claus ? - Louis Armstrong

28. Speedboat (Renata Adler, 1976) Its like a story told through context-less anecdotes arranged in a near-random order and I think that's a really fun idea but tbh I just straight up don't have the brain power to connect all the threads and really get much out of it. Its certainly amusing at points in a "sensible chuckle" sort of way but I was mostly just lost. Probably would have dug it if the prose grabbed me more. 6/10

the latter is extremely

Santa Claus Is Back In Town ~ Elvis Presley

It wouldn't really be Christmas without them 🥰

Was sad to hear this 😥

Yes, it is sad

Sad to hear that Chris Rea (Driving home for Christmas) has passed away.

The Curse of La Fontaine by M L Longworth - this is the 6th in the Verlaque and Bonnet series - he's a judge (though it has a different job spec in France) and she's a University professor and they live in Aix-en-Provence - and starts with the couple marrying, then back to work in Aix and soon they are confronted with a local mystery, when a skeleton is unearthed in the grounds of a local restaurant, whose owner had been planning to put some outside seating in the garden of the restaurant, much to the horror of neighbours, for apart from the inevitable noise from al fresco diners, they are convinced it would stop the fountain (hence the title) flowing - and indeed the fountain does stop when the body is discovered. It's soon identified as a local resident, the son of a wealthy family who have since moved, but the parents and brothers are all still alive, and Verlaque is soon questioning them, and opening the usual can of worms. This took a while to get going, but at least in this one there weren't endless pages about Verlaque's cigar club, and there are some lovely descriptions of food too, though sometimes these also slowed down the plot. But once the back story of various residents started to unfold it became more interesting, I wouldn't exactly say gripping but it was an easy read and quite enjoyable. 7/10

I agree with both of you. A beautiful song. Christmas music in general is great to listen to. There are so many wonderful songs that endure and endure, you never get tired of hearing them.