Family
Well met
JB and I raising a glass in Totnes
My Ma & JB met me at Totnes station. Zaida was full of beans and hugs. She had just had a haircut and was busy sorting things out before before they drove to France for a holiday tomorrow. At the ‘happy yellow house’ we had tea and biscuits before going for a walk to the weir and back. Totnes is looking all set for spring. I got out my drone and flew it over the house.
Daisy and Dan called, we organised to meet-up. JB and I popped up to the pub for a quick beer before dinner, see the pic. Zaida had sourced some beautiful locally grown asparagus which we had with salt and butter. Things got hazy what with the beer, the food, the chat and the accumulated sleep debt. I tried to stay awake but ran out of steam.
Now, it is 4am of course and I’m ready to go. Jetlag? I’m not sure. Waking at odd hours, you could call this normal for me.
Sydney 2023
![A selfie in front of a Saab 340 turboprob aeroplane on the apron at Broken Hill [BHX] airport](/images/derivatives/article/flyrbn.jpg)
Leaving Broken Hill
Here I go again - visiting the home of my first 20 years, Cornwall.
I went this time last year as soon as the flights had resumed after all that covid bullshit. I flew home and caught covid at the Blue Anchor. I had never been as sick. It really messed me up for a while. My family have always teased me for being a cry-baby and that visit was no different. I returned to Broken Hill feeling ripped off. I’ve spent the past year wanting to buy a boat and sail away. My itch to travel is just stupid.
I am taking my time, there is no hurry. Today I flew two hours from Broken Hill to Sydney. Tomorrow night I’ll fly 30 odd hours to London. I have not booked my return, yet. I will return to Broken Hill when I’m done.
Book at Lunchtime: Born to Write
A TORCH Book at Lunchtime webinar on ‘Born to Write: Literary Families and Social Hierarchy in Early Modern France’ by Professor Neil Kenny. Book at Lunchtime is a series of bite-sized book discussions held weekly during term-time, with commentators from a range of disciplines. The events are free to attend and open to all.
About the book:
It is easy to forget how deeply embedded in social hierarchy was the literature and learning that has come down to us from the early modern European world. From fiction to philosophy, from poetry to history, works of all kinds emerged from and through the social hierarchy that was a fundamental fact of everyday life. Paying attention to it changes how we might understand and interpret the works themselves, whether canonical and familiar or largely forgotten. But a second, related fact is much overlooked too: works also often emanated from families, not just from individuals.
Speakers:
Professor Neil Kenny is a Professor of French at Oxford University, a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College and Lead Fellow for Languages at the British Academy. He specialises in early modern French literature and thought, especially from the early sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century. Professor Kenny’s current focus is on the relation of literature and learning to social hierarchy and previous projects have investigated different kinds of knowledge and belief.
Professor Caroline Warman is a Professor of French Literature and Thought at Oxford University, and President of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. She specialises in the circulation of ideas and materialist thought and has recently completed a book on Diderot called The Atheist’s Bible: Diderot and the ‘Eléments de physiologie’.
Professor Ceri Sullivan is a Professor of English Literature at Cardiff University and the author of five books on the literary features that structure early modern texts about religion, trade, bureaucracy, and rhetoric. She is the general editor of the English Association's series Essays and Studies and her most recent publication is Shakespeare and the Play Scripts of Private Prayer.
In search of the Phoenicians
Book at Lunchtime, In search of the Phoenicians The Phoenicians traveled the Mediterranean long before the Greeks and Romans, trading, establishing settlements, and refining the art of navigation. But who these legendary sailors really were has long remained a mystery. In Search of the Phoenicians makes the startling claim that the “Phoenicians” never actually existed. Taking readers from the ancient world to today, this monumental book argues that the notion of these sailors as a coherent people with a shared identity, history, and culture is a product of modern nationalist ideologies—and a notion very much at odds with the ancient sources.
Granny in Oz
My Ma recently arrived home in chilly Totnes. I loved having her staying with us for the tail end of our summer.
We had lots of fun cycling and walking around the beaches, town and village. I had been worried she’d be too hot but I think it was mostly pretty good. There was the obligatory few rainy days but it was mostly blazing sunshine.
Long blinks