Stella Gibbons's My American and the gingham coincidence

Stella Gibbons's novel My American has inspired a whole series of articles. 

Examples of amazing 'coincidences' and synchronicity where something I was thinking about manifested in my life also appear in several articles.

I have a a little tale to tell about how a passage in My American that caught my attention was followed by a related 'coincidence'.

The My American extract and the memories it brought back

“All this time Amy had sat in silence, wearing a red and white checked cotton frock from a shop in the Holloway Road where dozens more hung outside on a rail...”

These words immediately reminded me of a shop in the Holloway Road that I frequently walked past when I lived in the area many years ago. It had a lot of very cheap gingham garments in a variety of colours strung up outside. Shops didn't change hands and purpose in the past anything like as frequently as they do now, so it could well have been the same shop.

This is not the amazing coincidence: Stella Gibbons was just describing a shop that she had seen on her travels in the area, a shop where some of her characters might buy casual clothes. 

Anyway, I remember noticing at the time that the clothes looked crudely sewn and as if they had been run up in a hurry.  Although I quite liked the mauve gingham frocks and blouses, they had very wide necklines so I wasn't tempted to get one.

After going over my memories of this shop, I started to think about gingham in general. Schoolgirls often have dark green gingham dresses for example, and I remembered reading that pink gingham sold out everywhere after the film star Brigitte Bardot wore it!

The gingham coincidence 

A day or so later, with gingham still on my mind, I went to dispose of some rubbish. There is a nearby shelf where people leave things that they have no use for but others might like. 

I found a cardboard mug carrier there; it was intended for a set of four but had only three inside. The mugs and their carrier had a gingham design on them! Four different colours were involved.

I took the three mugs, but as I didn't really need them I passed them on to someone who said that she could use them as her little boy sometimes breaks things when 'helping' with the washing up!

The mugs I found were similar to these ones:

More pessimistic New Year poetry from Ogden Nash

The American humourist and poet Ogden Nash had something to say about the New Year on more than one occasion, and none of it was very complimentary! 

His amusing little seasonal piece Good Riddance, But Now What? was featured in the New Year 2024 article. 

Good-bye, Old Year, You Oaf or Why Don’t They Pay The Bonus? is another pessimistic New Year poem.

Rather than quote it in full, I have selected some representative lines. This is how it starts:

“Many of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year are followed by dreadful nights, but one night is far, oh yes, by far the worst,

And that, my friends, is the night of December the thirty-first.”

These are the final lines:

“Every new year is a direct descendant, isn’t it, of a long line of proven criminals?

And you can’t turn it into a philanthropist by welcoming it with cocktails and champagne any more successfully than with prayer books and hyminals.

Every new year is a country as barren as the old one, and it’s no use trying to forage it;

Every new year is incorrigible; then all I can say is for Heaven’s sakes, why go out of your way to incorrage it?”

The man and his musings:

Some Christmas pictures from Frank Kelly Freas

The work of the American science fiction and fantasy artist Frank Kelly Freas has been featured in a Defence Against the Dark Arts article. 

One of his pictures appears in an article about two amusing stories, and another was selected for Halloween.

This post contains a few of his pictures that are suitable for the festive season. 

Father Christmas is running late:

Carol singing is a very seasonal activity:

This beautiful cover picture has a magical atmosphere:

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of George MacDonald

The Scottish writer, speaker and pastor George MacDonald was born on December 10th 1824, 200 years ago today. 

His goblins are mentioned in the article about Michael de Larrabeiti's Borribles, and a spot-on comment he made is featured in a post about unsatisfactory politicians.

His name is in the list of of writers with Celtic connections; he also appears in the list of Sagittarian writers, where I said this:

“It is time to take another look at some of his work, which I last read when still at school.”

While the reader's dilemma of 'so many books, so little time' applies here, I have refreshed my memories of a few of his stories that I particularly liked; I have also learned a little about their author. 

While the details of George MacDonald's life are very interesting and some of his fantasy stories are still enjoyable to read despite their being very dated, he and his many works do not on the whole inspire much in the way of commentary. However, two books that made a very big impression when I first discovered them deserve a mention here.

The Princess and the Goblin 
I remember my first encounter with the works of George MacDonald very clearly; I was seven years old at the time. I came across a very old, illustrated edition of The Princess and the Goblin and found it fascinating. 

I thought that the goblins with their hard heads and soft toeless feet were both sinister and very funny. I loved the little poem that the miner's son Curdie makes to frighten off the goblins. It includes these lines:

“One, two—
Hit and hew!
Three, four—
Blast and bore! 
…

There's a toad
In the road!
Smash it!
Squash it!
Fry it!
Dry it! ...“

Curdie and Princess Irene being pursued by a goblin:

The Princess and  Curdie
The Princess and  Curdie is the sequel to The Princess and the Goblin. 

I really liked the story when I first read it, but I was too young to have got much from the philosophical statements that the book contains.

Books versus real life in Conan Doyle's Magic Door

This is another article in the series about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's little volume of essays on books, reading and associated topics Through the Magic Door. 

This post was inspired by the following passage, which appears just after the invitation to enter the magic world of books:

“No matter what mood a man may be in, when once he has passed through the magic door he can summon the world’s greatest to sympathize with him in it. If he be thoughtful, here are the kings of thought. If he be dreamy, here are the masters of fancy. Or is it amusement that he lacks? He can signal to any one of the world’s great story-tellers, and out comes the dead man and holds him enthralled by the hour.

The dead are such good company that one may come to think too little of the living. It is a real and a pressing danger with many of us, that we should never find our own thoughts and our own souls, but be ever obsessed by the dead. Yet second-hand romance and second-hand emotion are surely better than the dull, soul-killing monotony which life brings to most of the human race. But best of all when the dead man’s wisdom and the dead man’s example give us guidance and strength and in the living of our own strenuous days.“

Conan Doyle makes some good points here; they are best dealt with individually.

Getting whatever you want whenever you want it
The first few lines above provide a good explanation of why so many people like to read. A library is like a menu for the mind; they can get on demand whatever 'food' they feel in the mood for. Too much choice can be a problem though! 

I have often asked myself what type of reading material I am in the mood for. Do I feel like reading something light and amusing? Do I want to be inspired, informed or entertained? Perhaps some familiar comfort food would be best – or maybe I should try something new for a change. Sometimes I read to lift my mood: I may select an uplifting book to counter-balance the effects of reading a very depressing one. 

Books are better than life
Conan Doyle is right when he says that dead people can be better company than the living.

What we get from books may indeed seem more appealing and rewarding than what we are getting from real life. This applies to both the people in our lives and the life that we are leading.

Miscellaneous memorable material from Dion Fortune's occult novels

Each article in the series inspired by Dion Fortune's five occult novels seemed like the last one at the time, but, even though the returns diminish, a further trawl always produces a little more material to comment on. 

This article contains a few more particularly striking expressions and propositions, many of which speak for themselves. 

Psychology, pain and energy vampires
The Winged Bull mentions a 'psychological car crash', and that the victim is in need of a human 'breakdown lorry'.

This is a very neat way of describing a major internal disaster. It is spot on: people do sometimes feel as though they have been hit by a truck, and they may well need some assistance to get going again. 

The crash victim is called Ursula. She is in a bad way because she has been in the power of an energy vampire. Dion Fortune comes up with some very good images here: Ursula is described as being like a run-down battery and a sucked-out orange, while her vampiric victimiser swells up like a bullfrog!

This cover picture by Bruce Pennington shows Ursula the psychological car crash victim and the breakdown lorry:

These very true words are from Moon Magic:

“...there are no anaesthetics in psychology.”

Dion Fortune got that one right. Some people will have no idea what she is talking about; they are the lucky ones. Others will know only too well how excruciatingly painful dealing with the inner world can be; they will have learned the hard way that there is no pain relief so their agony just has to be endured.

“There is no honour in politics”

A recent article features a statement from the Scottish writer George MacDonald to the effect that as no good person would go into politics, anyone who is elected to power will not be a decent human being. 

His words may be unwelcome and depressing, but there are many recent examples in both the UK and the US that support them.

Other people mentioned on here have said much the same thing.

This is from Benjamin Disraeli, who saw it all from the inside:

Taylor Caldwell, who had something to say about the causes of major wars, also said this in her historical novel Captains and the Kings:

“...politics and moral ethics never mix. Politics and ethics are a contradiction in terms. An honest politician is either a hypocrite—or he is doomed.”

Although Captains and the Kings is set in the United States and the story starts in the 1850s, much of the material has wider applications.