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Today is Halloween, a time when witches are abroad.
It is a good time to remember Terry Pratchett, who made a great contribution, both entertaining and informational, to witch lore. There are many quotations from his works on here, and there are still more to come.
Here we have a memorable quotation from Wintersmith:
I knew almost nothing about L. M. Montgomery at the time I produced the article about the value of words. I had always assumed that there would be very little of interest and relevance to this blog in her life and works. I couldn’t have been more wrong!
I eventually got around to reading some of her books and letters, and found a lot to comment on.
She wrote a letter in which she says much the same as I did about the lack of respect for words; it supports what she said in another letter about talking to non-creative people:
"I’ve done a lot of "gadding" this summer, and it was really a horrible waste of time because there was no pleasure in it. Had there been, I’d have considered it a very wise use of time. I had to go out to tea and attend garden parties galore and I was generally bored to death, especially when people thought themselves bound to say something about my book. They all say practically the same thing and I say the same thing in reply and I’m tired of it. Then I talked gossip and made poor jokes and altogether wished I were home in my den with a book or a pen.”
Many other creative people feel the same way, and have, quite independently, said as much.
As mentioned in the previous article, Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic.
His capture after the Battle of Waterloo had raised the question of what to do with him. He would always be a focus for trouble if he stayed in Europe. For a while he hoped that he could escape to or would be sent to America but, just like his application for asylum in the UK, this came to nothing.
Napoleon had to come to terms with living in exile in a very inhospitable place and find ways to pass the time.
I was surprised to learn recently that one thing he did was to take English lessons. There is information available online about this episode in the former French Emperor’s life; I have selected aspects that I find particularly interesting and amusing, including some examples of his writing.
Napoleon put a lot of effort into learning English in the early days of his exile on St. Helena. He would have done this for several reasons.
Napoleon Bonaparte must be one of the most written-about people on the planet. However, although he got a brief mention in an article about Benjamin Disraeli, who was a great admirer of his, I would not have expected that he would ever be the subject of an article on here.
I was reading about Napoleon recently while creating posts for the Alternaticity Project Forum, and I unexpectedly came across some material of interest.
I was surprised to learn that after his final defeat, Napoleon had wanted to come and live in the UK. In exile, he even learned some ‘Englich’ in preparation for the life that he still hoped to have.
He pinned his hopes on various members of the royal family in turn, only to be disappointed. He may even have lost the will to live when he realised that he would never return to Europe.
I never thought that I would have anything at all in common with Napoleon, but there are some familiar elements in a few of his letters. I know what it is like to live for some years on crumbs of hope, clutching at straws and desperately casting around for possibilities in the form of anything or anyone that might help to provide a way out of an unacceptable situation.
Wishful thinking predominates, and ‘what if’ and ‘if only’ become major preoccupations.
Living in such suspense is very painful; it is even worse when the last crumb of hope disappears.
Hope, the loss of hope and the absence of hope are major unseen influences in some people’s lives.
Violet Needham wrote some high-quality books for children. They were published between the years 1939 and 1957.
Apart from a brief mention in the article about Anthony Hope, whose fictional country Ruritania may well have inspired her fictional Empire and surrounding countries, Violet Needham has not previously been featured on here.
Some of her books, the Stormy Petrel stories in particular, are full of exciting and romantic adventures in glamorous settings and some even have supernatural elements, but most of them are not relevant to this blog.
While working on articles about John Buchan's books, I was reminded of some characters and scenes from one of Violet Needham’s books. I decided to take another look at Pandora of Parrham Royal (1951), which I last read many years ago.
I bought a copy online and found the material that I vaguely remembered. In the light of what I have since learned about unseen influences, it seems much more significant now than it did at the time.
Pandora of Parrham Royal may not be one of Violet Needham’s best books when it comes to the characters and storyline - I much prefer the Stormy Petrel series - but it has inspired an article because it has some elements in common with John Buchan's books and it provides yet another example of someone who uses occult powers to get what they want.
