Northcote Corner…Quiet Please.
"Everywhere I have sought peace and not found it, except in a corner with a book.”
This is the story of Emmett Louis Till. He was a young man from Chicago. In August 1955, he travelled to a town called Money, Mississippi, to stay with relatives, including his uncle, Mose Wright. Emmett was only 14 years old. He was, by all accounts, a lively, happy mischievous kid who liked to spend... Continue Reading →
Southern Trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and Blood at the roots. Black bodies swingin’ in the southern breeze. Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant South... The bulging eyes, and the twisted mouth. Scent of magnolia, clean and fresh. Then the sudden smell, of burnin' flesh. Here... Continue Reading →
It’s Sunday morning, and it’s raining. Heavily. The rain hits the gutters with the precision of Buddy Rich; it syncopates against the windows, sparks against the red planter in the garden; and makes the tyres sing a silky song as the cars sail along the tarmac by my door. It was a rainy day in... Continue Reading →
I mentioned in ‘and about me’ how Shirer's book gave me a sense of the breadth of the Second World War as a subject for study; of how I came to understand that it had roots way before the shameful carving-up of Poland between Hitler and Stalin. In the years preceding that infamous act, another,... Continue Reading →
In the Days of the Comet... Although I’ve stolen the strap-line from the title of H.G.Wells novel, in which a comet causes a change in the air with the result that ‘The great Change has come for evermore, happiness and beauty are our atmosphere, there is peace on earth and good will to all men’,... Continue Reading →
In a previous post I described how, at the age of about eight, the Tintin books arrived in my world thanks to the small collection in Mr Kennick’s classroom. Actually, on reflection, I was probably aware of the characters earlier thanks to the Belvision episodes of ‘Hergé’s Adventures of TinTin’ which first aired on the... Continue Reading →
Writing that title, I immediately heard the iconic voice from the "Belvision" animated series of the 1960's, which I suppose was my first awareness of the character. But my first real encounter with Hergé's creations came at Junior school, or "Primary" as it would now be called. I was 8 years old, and I can... Continue Reading →
Today, the 15th of April, is a bright, sunny day. The air is warm and resounds to the sounds of an English spring; it heralds the future with the suggestion of a fine summer, and deceives us all into thinking that long, warm pleasant days stretch ahead. But this year, the spring promise is only... Continue Reading →
Wow, day 22. 22 days since the quarantine officially began; since my letter from the NHS dropped on the mat. 22 days since the restrictions necessary to prevent the spread of Covid-19 formally began; and since our lives changed for the time being. Of course, it’s easy for me to cope. I don’t have to... Continue Reading →
In part 1, I talked about the type of men who were attracted to the KL; why they joined, and how they became inculcated and inured to the violence. How they soon became willing cogs in the machine. Here, I’d like to examine the context in which the machine grew, and the motivations which enabled... Continue Reading →
‘may the world at least behold a drop, a fraction of this tragic world in which we lived.’ (Salutation by Chaim Zalman Gradowski, Auschwitz 1943) When I first encountered Nikolaus Wachsman’s book ‘KL - A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps’, I half-expected an account of the Holocaust in the vein of so many others.... Continue Reading →
Here we are again. Well, to be precise, here I am. And that’s exactly where I’ve been for the last two weeks - at home. Where I hope you are, if you should Anyway, what’s new? Nothing. Nix. Still, another day, another book to read. This time, it’s Julian Jackson’s biography of Charles de Gaulle,... Continue Reading →
I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this site about the influence on my reading interests of the first book about the Second World War which I read, Shirer’s ‘Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’. So, while I'm under house arrest, I thought I'd revisit an article which I wrote a couple of years ago. "This edition... Continue Reading →
My post ‘1938 - The World Turns’ discussed some of the issues of Neville Chamberlain and the British Government's policy of appeasement towards European dictators in the 1930's, particularly Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. I portrayed Chamberlain as a somewhat misdirected figure, arrogant and naive in his belief that war could be avoided by meeting Hitler's... Continue Reading →
Northcote Corner...Quiet Please. 