Friday, October 30, 2020

Interview with the author

 I was doing a spring clean of dropbox and came across this. I am not currently reading "Strangers and Brothers" but the rest is accurate.



1. What did you like reading as a child?

I really enjoyed Science Fiction and Arthurian stories.



However in truth I read everything on my old dad's bookshelf. So there was also

The Call of the Wild

Rubiyat of Omar Khyamm

alongside

Practical Mechanics

The Communist Manifesto

and Newsom Encyclopedia

The old man (45) died when I was seven and I felt closer to him when I was reading.



2. Who is your favourite author and why?

Jack London wrote such a variety of stories and he had such a wonderful vocabulary - the vocabulary of the self-taught. He reacted to people and ideas with undiminished wonder that he made them fresh on the page for me to read.



3. What are your recollections of English lessons at school?

On Friday afternoons Mr Owen got us all to sit quietly while he read The Hobbit to us. It gave me the idea that being a teacher was a wonderful job.



4. You can take one book onto a desert island with you – which one do you take and why?

I could cheat and say The Bible but Desert Island disks usually excludes that. For the possible length of my stay it would have to be The Lord of the Rings with all the appendices. Perhaps I will get to read them all



5. What are you reading at the moment?



Strangers and Brothers by CP Snow. The whole series is like a myth of the English middle classes in the twentieth century. He was a scientist and a politician and the books span both those worlds in addition to the legal profession. The story of George Passant "a child of his time" as he is called is an introduction to the attempt of the provincial middle class to break out of their backwater isolation into the mainstream of British society. It is a story told with humour and compassion.



 6. Which book do you wish you had written and why?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It has given so much pleasure to so many people. One day I want to do that!






Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Brevity on Facebook

 Brevity now has a page on Facebook

Click here

 

"Brevity" is our best-selling audiobook. Actually, it is our only audiobook but its success has been a pleasant surprise. People may not have CD players in the home but many cars and many laptops have CD players.

Not many writers have a printing press in the shed but producing an audiobook only takes a computer, a decent mike and a program such as "Audacity" which is free and open-source.

There are professional readers available for hire but I chose to read myself because I am very cheap


Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Free resources for teachers - over 10000 downloads

 

 https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/helpline2  

 

Free resources. The TES calls me "h" but there is no "Line of Duty" connection. Yet.

In fact TES advise people to use pseudonyms because some Senior Management can react adversely to staff having opinions.

My pseudonym was "Helpline". In 2012 I was running a helpline for stressed teachers which was supported by West Sussex Teachers' Association. It was the best piece of union work I ever did. Another answer to the age-old question "What have the unions ever done for us?" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl1gdAheKDQ

 


 

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Mysterious Facebook

Mysteriously Facebook keeps deleting this picture. That is not the same as proving that it isn't completely true.

I am not that interested in which Tories are sleeping with which other Tories. It is what they are doing to the majority of the population of this country which ought to concern us.

Tories originated the anti-semitism smear against Jeremy Corbyn. It was calculated to alienate people who would normally support the left. In the perverse world of Dom and chums it was a clever move. Immoral of course and dishonest but so so clever.

Jeremy Corbyn continues his lifelong commitment to anti-racism.
 

WTF

 


Robert Peston has nabbed the best possible title for a book on the present political situation. The book is full of facts, figures and argument to support his case for an essentially class-collaborationist approach to labour relations.

One thing which does shine out from his analysis is how much better off the workers in Sweden have been because of the widespread trade union membership. It is a good answer to the question, “What have the unions ever done for us?” Saved our bacon would be the short answer.

Fury at Donald Trump is one of the defining characteristics of this era. People with whom I have little or no political agreement will nevertheless concede that he is “a bit of an embarrassment” or “the devil incarnate” depending on the degree of their antipathy.

Peston sees the vote against the EU as a revolt of the lowest paid and least regarded members of the electorate and he has chapter and verse to back up this analysis.

There are two issues with this book.

Firstly the tired assertion that the EU has brought peace is a Eurocentic one. On a world scale there has not been one day of peace since the end of the second world war.

Secondly it never was the function of capitalism to provide rising living standards and social mobility. There is an irreconcilable conflict of interest between the one percent and the ninety nine percent and many of the facts in this book bear this out. Rises in living standards and social mobility are the result of trade union power and the political intervention of the working class.

It is an excellent book written in a lively and engaging style. You will have to excuse Socialists for drawing different conclusions from the political editor of ITV News.

Monday, October 12, 2020

Wear Red Day

 


Five ways to stand together against racism on Wear Red Day 16 October.

1. Wear red and share to #WRD2020
2. Film keepie uppies: post to #keepupchallenge
3. Wear red in your education/workplace.
4. Wear red from home on a virtual call.
5. Donate

I may not be much good at (2) but the rest are ok 😀

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Amazon Reviews


Apparently, Amazon does not differentiate between book and other reviews, so you will find a review of my shoes here too!




Tuesday, October 06, 2020

Anti-Capitalist books

 The Tories are on a hiding to nothing trying to ban anti-capitalist ideas from schools. It is impossible to ban ideas. The only result will be to make anti-capitalism more interesting and attractive.

Shakespeare frequently asserted that love is more important than money and if that isn't anti-capitalism I don't know what is. And don't get me started on that Jesus fella - it's as hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle indeed!

The Conservatives should concentrate on convincing the poor, the unemployed and those who need medical help that the rich are more important than they are.

Good luck with that.




Sunday, October 04, 2020

Five Stories from 101 words

 Here are five stories from the 101 word website.

Guess how many words in each?

Click here

 






 

 

"Not Donald Trump" is not enough


The childish display of pique in the debate between Trump and Biden showed up the nature of Donald Trump for anybody who was prepared to see it. His dismissal of Covid-19 has now met the irony of the president getting the virus himself.

The Daily Star is a paper I don't read but they collected a number of Trumpisms for their front page.



However, the Biden campaign"strategy" of being the candidate who is "Not Donald Trump" can never be enough. Voters need to see a difference between the candidates. It is unfortunate that Bernie Sanders did not want to split the anti-Trump vote because if he stood against the two capitalist candidates he would provide a rallying point for those who reject the Donald and all his works.

Meanwhile Sir Keir Starmer who has been calm under questioning from the BBC appears to have a strategy of being the candidate who is "Not Boris Johnson". The electorate deserve a genuine anti-capitalist alternative so I welcome the fact that the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition will be offering such an alternative.