Charles Lamb's sad words about the New Year

There are two very promising titles among the works of the poet and essayist Charles Lamb: Satan in Search of a Wife and Witches, and Other Night-Fears. However, he is of interest here because of some topical quotations. 

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote a poem about the bells that ring in the New Year.

Charles Lamb too had something to say about bells and the New Year:

“Of all sound of all bells… most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year.“

This quotation comes from a rather depressing essay about the past and the future called New Year's Eve, which was published in the London Magazine on January 1st 1821. 

Charles Lamb also said that New Year's Day is every man's birthday and that -

“No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference.”

This is the time of year when we think about people who have gone for ever. This even more depressing quotation is from Charles Lamb's best-known poem The Old Familiar Faces:

“How some they have died, and some they have left me,

And some are taken from me; all are departed -
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces."

The Three Ships of Christmas

The beautiful Christmas carol I Saw Three Ships has inspired some beautiful artwork. 

I have selected three pictures that I like very much.

This is a seasonal postage stamp from 1982:

This is a charity Christmas card:

This Christmas card is the work of the great fantasy artist Rodney Matthews, who may be the subject of an article one day:

Two temptation scenes in Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood books

This article has something to say about what might be called the temptation of Lucy Carlyle, a major character in Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co. books, by a whited sepulchre of a woman who goes by the name of Penelope Fittes.

The two featured temptation scenes are of particular interest because there are similar scenes in other books that I like, many of which have previously been featured or mentioned on here.

Penelope Fittes is head of the Fittes Agency, the oldest and biggest psychical detection agency; she is one of the most powerful and influential people in the country.

She is a very glamorous and elegant businesswoman. At first she appears to be a good person and well disposed towards Anthony Lockwood and his colleagues, but she is not what she seems. She is gradually revealed to be a ruthless exploiter and destroyer of people, living and dead. She has many dark secrets; she has much blood on her hands.

The first temptation of Lucy Carlyle
In The Whispering Skull, the second book in the series, a member of the Fittes Agency flatters Lucy Carlyle and tries to lure her away from Lockwood & Co.: 

“Ms. Carlyle, you’re clearly the most intelligent of your team. And you’ve some Talent, too, if everything I’ve heard is true. Surely you don’t want to hang around with these losers any longer. You’ve got a career to think of. I know you had an interview with Fittes a while ago; I know they failed you, but in my opinion”— he smiled again— “they made a bad mistake. Now, I have a little influence within the organization. I can pull strings, get you a position within the company, just think: instead of eking out a living here, you could be at Fittes House, with all its power at your disposal.”

This makes Lucy very angry. She likes her life as an employee of the Lockwood Agency and she likes her colleagues Anthony Lockwood and George Cubbins, who are in any case very far from being losers. She tells her tempter that she is quite happy where she is.

This offer may seem relatively harmless if rather patronising: the Fittes man recognises talent when he sees it and just wants to recruit a good person for his team. However, it is Penelope Fittes who is behind this and further attempts to recruit Lucy: she wants to make use of her gifts, and whatever she wants she is determined to get.

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part XXI: The artwork of MacDonald Gill

Just like the writer Nicholas Stuart Gray, the graphic artist MacDonald Gill deserves to be much better known. 

MacDonald (Max) Gill (1884  – 1947) was a cartographer, a letterer, an architect, an illustrator and much more. He is best known for his decorative maps. 

I particularly like his sunbursts, and I enjoy scrutinising his maps to locate streets I have lived in or know well.

There are many images of his work online; I have selected just a few representative examples for this article. 

This beautiful mural of the North Atlantic was created in 1935 for the first class dining room on the great ocean liner RMS Queen Mary:

I love Gill's old maps of London, with their amusing images and text. 

Two details from The Wonderground Map of London Town (1914):

A few words about Frances Hodgson Burnett on her birthday

The writer Frances Hodgson Burnett was born on this day, November 24th, in 1849. 

She was briefly mentioned in the article that lists some more Sagittarian writers. I read her three most popular children's books when I was very young and quite liked The Secret Garden and The Little Princess, but I knew almost nothing about her. After learning that she was interested in metaphysical matters, I put an investigation of her life on my to-do list.

I have looked again at the children's books and trawled through some biographical material. I found a lot of fairly interesting information about Frances Hodgson Burnett's life, some of it unexpected and some of it depressing. 

Where this blog is concerned, the results of the investigation to date are rather disappointing. Unlike fellow Sagittarian L. M. Montgomery, whose books, journals and letters are packed with article-inspiring material, Frances Hodgson Burnett provides very little that resonates or that I want to quote and comment on.

There is nothing new about her being different from the people around her as a child or being an avid reader and an inventor of exciting adventure stories from an early age. She was not the only writer to find books and the products of her imagination better than real life either.

Wanting to have something to show for my efforts, I selected enough material for a short article. It consists mainly of some elements that Frances Hodgson Burnett had in common with L. M. Montgomery.

Frances Hodgson Burnett and L. M. Montgomery

As might be expected, both Frances Hodgson Burnett and L. M. Montgomery were voracious and compulsive readers from an early age.

Frances Hodgson Burnett has been described as a writing machine; L. M. Montgomery felt compelled to write and was also very prolific. 

Both writers were profoundly influenced by works of the Brontës. There are some parallels to both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in Frances Hodgson Burnett's Secret Garden for example.

Both writers had their first stories published when they were still teenagers.

Both writers became the main breadwinner in their families; in Frances Hodgson Burnett's case this started at the age of 18, when she began to make money from writing.

Something about Nicholas Stuart Gray's Mainly in Moonlight

I have recently read Nicholas Stuart Gray's Mainly in Moonlight (1965) for the first time. 

Mainly in Moonlight consists of ten short tales of sorcery and the supernatural, the third of which gives its name to the book. One story is an addition to Over the Hills to Fabylon, another to Grimbold's Other World and, as mentioned in the 100th anniversary article, yet another story, one that is told by a demon with a sense of humour, may have given some ideas to Jonathan Stroud.

There is not much quotable material in the book, but some of the stories inspire a small amount of commentary.

Mainly in Moonlight the story
The story titled Mainly in Moonlight has something to say about the inappropriate use of magic and people who get themselves out of a tight corner only to fall into a worse one. 

A young man called Colin decides to seek out a sorcerer to request a magic charm that will get him something he has set his heart on. The sorcerer says that before his wish for a magic spell can be granted, Colin must serve him for one year. 

Colin has to perform tasks such as drawing water, lighting fires, baking bread and tending to an invisible horse. He thinks constantly of escape. 

A creature living at the bottom of the well offers him a way out, but the catch is that he must serve it for one year. Life down below turns out to be worse than it was with the sorcerer.

Again and again Colin is rescued from a disheartening situation only to be expected to serve his new master for one year.

Colin, who had thought that it would be a small and simple matter to get a magic charm, learns his lessons. He says this at the end of the story:

“There is only one simple truth about magic. You get a lot that you didn't ask for and absolutely nothing that you wanted!”

This is certainly true in many cases. However, the sorcerer keeps his word and there is a good outcome for Colin.

The attack-dog syndrome is a dead giveaway

In the first, and main, article about a phenomenon that I think of as the attack-dog syndrome, I described how I was the object of strong criticism when I spoke out against the notorious Jimmy Savile long before his actions became public knowledge. 

I found some old notes about attack dogs recently, including something involving Jimmy Savile that I think came from someone else's post on an old, closed forum:

"I think I've already lost a very good friend through this. She works for a related organisation within the BBC and my very polite and reasonable request to find out how many times Jimmy Savile had appeared on CiN (Children in Need) was met with a tirade of abuse. Completely disproportionate to my question. She lied to me and when the truth was printed in the paper the next week she texted to say that I'd gone crazy and was sounding like a vigilante! It cheered me up because it confirmed my suspicions that everyone at CiN knew the score."

This is a typical example of an aggressive response; it confirms what I have said in the past: such reactions are a dead giveaway that an enquirer or accuser is on the right track. The person who was attacked obviously understood this very well. 

The expressions used to describe the response to the request could be applied to many other cases where the attack dog is triggered: 'tirade of abuse' is a common reaction to an awkward question or an allegation, and 'completely disproportionate' is exactly what such reactions are. 

A milder example from Harry Potter
As described in an article about the future Lord Voldemort, Tom Riddle responds to allegations with counter-accusations of envy, spite and lies. 

This is standard practice. Anyone who makes allegations is routinely accused of being crazy, stupid, malicious, envious, a criminal, an enemy, a liar or a traitor.

As might be expected, the allegations about Tom Riddle and his activities are all true. 

Today is the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Nicholas Stuart Gray

The Scottish writer, playwright and actor Nicholas Stuart Gray was born on this day, October 23rd, in 1922. 

The In Memoriam article contains some information about his life and works; there is still a little more to be said about him, and the 100th anniversary of his birth is an appropriate time to do it.

A recent tribute from Neil Gaiman
Many people who like fairy tales, fantasy, witches, magic and mystery will agree with Neil Gaiman's opinion of Nicholas Stuart Gray:

“...a couple of years ago, during lockdown, when I was on my own for many months, my comfort reads tended to be books I’d loved as a child. The most interesting of the books I rediscovered were by Nicholas Stuart Gray, who is now unfairly forgotten, but who was, at his best, one of the most brilliant children’s authors of the 20th century.“

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/apr/29/neil-gaiman-whatever-i-loved-about-enid-blyton-isnt-there-when-i-go-back-as-an-adult

It certainly is a pity that Nicholas Stuart Gray's works are not better known; perhaps this endorsement will attract some new readers. 

Writing for oneself
Nicholas Stuart Gray said something very interesting about his writing:

“...Cassandra had written the author a fan letter, and she still treasures his modest, graceful reply, in which he said, amongst other things: ‘As all my books and plays are only written for myself and not for any imagined audiences, readers, age-groups, publishers, etc, it is always a delightful surprise to get proof that anyone BUT myself ever reads or sees them...’"

https://firebirdfeathers.com/2015/02/10/on-writers-nicholas-stuart-gray-and-the-stone-cage/

It is the same with this blog! I produce the articles mainly for my own benefit, but I am delighted when I see that they are being read by many people.

The articles about Nicholas Stuart Gray's witches are among the most popular posts on here. I don't know how many are read by people who were already familiar with his works; I would love to think that I have introduced his books to a few people. 

The cult leader in Jonathan Stroud’s Whispering Skull

I find Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood & Co. series well worth reading for the stories alone. Material that inspires commentary is a bonus! 

The article about Stroud's predatory ghosts does not cover everything of interest and relevance in the Lockwood books. There is some material that makes me think of cults, and there are people and other entities who use supernatural powers to make themselves appear to be angels when they are really demons.

This article has something to say about a sinister doctor called Edmund Bickerstaff, who is of particular interest because he has some of the characteristics that are often found in cult leaders.

The sinister Victorian doctor
Dr. Edmund Bickerstaff is a character in The Whispering Skull, the second book in the Lockwood series. He was involved with occult research and experimentation; he pursued forbidden knowledge. After years of unwholesome activities such as grave robbing and necromancy, he was believed to have come to a horrible end in 1877. The fate of his remains was unknown until the present day, when his gravestone is unexpectedly found in London's Kensal Green Cemetery.

Dr. Bickerstaff's ghost is likely to be very dangerous, so Anthony Lockwood and his fellow psychical investigation agents George Cubbins and Lucy Carlyle are retained to supervise the excavation of the grave and deal with the remains. 

Their discoveries and adventures while on the case make fascinating reading, but it is the effect that Dr. Bickerstaff has on people that is most relevant here. 

Dr. Bickerstaff and cult leaders
Cult leaders often promise everything and deliver little or nothing. They can be pied pipers who lead their sleep-walking, spellbound followers to disaster; they can be sirens who lure people to their doom. Dr. Bickerstaff is one such leader. He operated on a relatively small scale when alive, but had a lethal effect on his followers.

Two incidents at the equinox

The article about depression at the autumn equinox describes how Charlotte Brontë suffered badly for a month to six weeks at this time of year. 

I have been feeing under the weather for around two weeks myself. It is worse than it has been in recent years, but nothing like as bad as it got in the distant past. 

While it helps to know that certain unseen influences may be at work, this doesn't stop the feelings of malaise, stagnation, despondency and being unprotected; it doesn't stop approaches from strangers who make me feel uncomfortable either. 

I experienced two such incidents when I went out shopping recently.

The first one happened when I visited a shopping centre some way from where I live. I have been there many times in the past, but I felt confused when I came out of the station. I made a false start or two, then set off down what I soon realised was the wrong road. As I walked past some tables outside a café, a rather weird and witchy older woman with straggly grey hair who was sitting there called out loudly, eagerly and triumphantly, “Hello darling” as if she knew me! 

I am wondering whether I fell into her psychic trap or answered her call and was drawn to that place because my defences were low at the time. The shopping expedition was not a success: the store I planned to visit had closed down and I came home with nothing.

The second incident happened when I was standing in a queue at a big supermarket. Someone just behind me started to comment in an over-friendly manner on the items I had selected; I looked round cautiously and saw that it was a rather weird and witchy older woman with straggly grey hair! The woman on the till was very slow and there were several people waiting in front of me, so I was a captive audience. I just smiled vaguely while she kept talking.  She also said loudly, “Hello darling” to the woman on the till! It was definitely not the same person though.

I am wondering what drew her to my queue and not one of the others. 

Defence against the Dark Arts Part XX: The Prisoner TV series

The cult UK TV series The Prisoner (1967) is one of the best TV shows that I have ever seen. 

It tells the story of a British secret agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village that on the surface is a holiday resort but is really a prison. He is given the designation of Number Six. His captors want to know why he suddenly resigned from his job; he refuses to give them the information that they want. He many times attempts to escape, but is always recaptured and brought back to the Village.

Number Six is played by Patrick McGoohan, the main creator of the series. McGoohan is very convincing indeed as a man who tries to maintain his integrity and independence when under pressure and surrounded by gaslighting enemies. 

There are 17 episodes, each lasting around 50 minutes; I have them all on DVD; I wish that there had been many more. 

There is a lot of information available online, so here I just want to mention a few aspects of the series that I particularly like.

More about The Prisoner
I find The Prisoner alarming, sinister, eerie, mysterious, bizarre, surreal, colourful and fascinating. It is allegorical; it contains many metaphors and much symbolism. Individualism versus collectivism is a major theme.  The Village is said to be the pattern for the future, a perfect blueprint for world order.

I like the opening sequence with the exciting music and the views of London; I like the decorative Village and the beautiful scenery.

Some aspects, the clothes especially, do seem rather dated, but this is a minor criticism.

Number Six and the Village:

The initial confrontation with Number Two:

A few points about people who join cults

Steven Hassan's best-selling book Combating Cult Mind Control, which is described as a 'Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults', is a good starting point for people who want to learn something about cults. First published in 1988, it is still very relevant.

This book contains a lot of useful - not to mention depressing, disturbing, sinister and chilling - information and covers many cult-related topics.

Steven, aka Steve, Hassan is American; he is a former high-level member of the Unification Church or 'Moonies'. Much of what he says about this cult and his life inside it has a much wider application.

This article covers a few points of particular interest that Steve Hassan makes in connection with joining cults.

He says for example that the Moonies justify the use of deception to recruit new members. So do many if not most cult-like organisations. Misleading people, luring them somewhere under false pretences and downright brazen lying are common practices; some examples can be found in this article.

A key point about people who join cults
Steven Hassan makes a very good point here:

“It is important to remember that for the most part, people don't join cults. Culls recruit people.“

This is very true in the majority of cases. Most people who join cults do so only because they were approached and manipulated by unscrupulous members with recruitment targets to meet: they would not have sought out and joined the cult of their own inclination and free will.

Some cults however are very exclusive, at least in the early stages of their existence. They prefer quality to quantity and try to attract rather than target people. They make it difficult to join and they let the would-be members make all the running and prove themselves worthy. Of course, this could be a clever recruitment technique!

Something about Nicholas Stuart Gray's Grimbold's Other World

I recently read Nicholas Stuart Gray's Grimbold's Other World (1963) for the first time. 

This little fantasy book is written in the style of fairy tales; each chapter is followed by a poem. 

I wish that I had encountered this book when I was very young and could read it just for the settings, the stories, the characters and the humour as I did with Nicholas Stuart Gray's Over the Hills to Fabylon: the references to not belonging and the dangers of being involved with magic and other worlds are the main interest now.

Grimbold and Muffler
Grimbold is a black cat who introduces a boy called Muffler, who was found in a hen's nest by some villagers and is 'different', to the night world and its inhabitants.

Muffler has a whole series of adventures in his world and the night world. He is involved with a variety of characters including a sorcerer, talking animals, birds and trees and mythological beings such as dwarves. 

Children will enjoy the stories for their own sake, but adults who are interested in unseen influences may notice some sad and alarming messages.

The quotations speak for themselves – and for the author and others who don't feel at home in this world.

The villagers say this about Muffler:

“We must be gentle, and not let him suffer for being different.”

The narrator makes this depressing – but true - comment:

“This, of course, was not possible. Everyone must suffer who is different.”

Grimbold's Other World contains many warnings about what happens to people who get involved with magic and the night world.

Lucy M. Boston's witch Melanie Powers and Green Knowe revisited

The children's writer Lucy M. Boston, author of the Green Knowe series, has been featured in an article about her birthday and her memoirs. There are brief references to her witch Dr. Melanie Powers in a few other places, and some elements that this evil woman has in common with fellow fictional modern-day witch Miss Heckatty are described in the article about Linwood Sleigh's witches. 

I re-read An Enemy at Green Knowe recently, and, just as happened when I took another look at Beverley Nichols's books about the witch Miss Smith, I found some more material to comment on.

Starting with some coincidences

The main story begins when the boy Ping asks old Mrs Oldknow if she knows anything about a 17th-century man called Piers Madely. She says that this is odd, because she had been thinking about Madely earlier that day!

She tells the disturbing story of the good vicar Piers Madely and the unprepossessing occult scholar, alchemist and necromancer Dr. Vogel, whose evil books and manuscripts were all burned, to Ping and his friend Tolly, who is her great-grandson. The very next day, a letter arrives from a Dr. Melanie D. Powers enquiring about Dr. Vogel's collection!

Before the letter comes:

“The queer thing about Grand's stories," Tolly explained to Ping, "is that bits of them keep coming true now, although they are all so old.“

After the letter comes:

"There you are, Ping!" Tolly exclaimed. "Didn't I tell you part of Grand's stories always come true? She no sooner mentions Dr. Wolfgang Vogel than Dr. Melanie D. Powers comes asking about him."

Perhaps Mrs Oldknow had been thinking about Dr. Vogel because she subconsciously sensed that the letter was coming.

More about invisibility and Hurrying People streaming past

One of the articles in the series inspired by Stella Gibbons's My American covers Amy's Lee's nightmare experience in the form of a horrible recurring dream in which she is invisible to the crowds of Hurrying People who stream past and ignore her no matter how hard she tries to attract their attention. She also has a few daytime experiences that trigger memories of her dream.

Amy Lee is not alone in sometimes feeling like a ghost in a world full of real people. 

A nightmare from Neverwhere

This is an extract from Neil Gaiman's wonderful urban fantasy story Neverwhere:

“As a child, Richard had had nightmares in which he simply wasn’t there, in which, no matter how much noise he made, no matter what he did, nobody ever noticed him at all. He began to feel like that now, as people pushed in front of him...”

This is uncannily similar to what Amy Lee experiences in My American.

Examples from real life 

It is not just fictional people who sometimes feel invisible.

The former friend who is featured in the story about the sultanas and the fox cub told me that she often had a sense of standing apart and invisible while crowds of people streamed past. Another friend who was involved in some of the other synchronicities in that article had similar experiences. 

A last look at Rachel Ferguson and The Brontës Went to Woolworths

The series of articles inspired by Rachel Ferguson's novel The Brontës Went to Woolworths ends as it began by covering some miscellaneous material of interest. 

The remaining content to be featured includes some insightful and philosophical comments from Deidre Carne, the main narrator of the story, and the article ends with something about Rachel Ferguson herself.

Coincidences and creating reality
The possibility that a writer's imagination can create reality is a topic of great interest that is featured in several other articles. 

Deidre Carne is a journalist and would-be novelist. She has written a book that took on a life of its own:

“I had smugly intended my book to be about a family rather like ours, but...it’s already turned into an account of a barmaid’s career in an Edgware Road pub, and I can’t squeeze us in anywhere!

Odd things happen, too. I had called my pub, ‘The Three Feathers,’ and counted on there being heaps of pubs in Edgware Road, not called that, but looking a bit like my description. Before we left home, I went down Edgware Road to investigate, and found my pub, even down to the old-fashioned phonograph on the table in the upstairs sitting-room. And I thought, ‘I built that place.’”

Such 'coincidences' are very common in the lives of fiction writers. Diana Wynne Jones is just one example of someone whose imaginings came true.

Deirdre is aware of the possibility that unseen influences may be at work:

“But we’ve guessed right so often that it may be justifiable. On more than one occasion we’ve sent Toddy overnight to some public function, and found in the morning papers that he was actually there, or at something amazingly similar.”

She asks herself:

“I wonder how much one does create by brooding over it?”

Create - or just describe something that is sensed? Create - or just predict after glimpsing the future? Obtaining information via metaphysical means is relevant to the prescriptive versus descriptive issue.

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part XIX: Anthony Armstrong's Prune's Progress

While working on the article about Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon's Kings and Queens, I was reminded of Prune's Progress, Anthony Armstrong's book about the genealogical tree of wartime comic-strip hero Pilot-Officer Percy Prune, RAF. 

Prune's Progress also has something in common with Sellar and Yeatman's history book parody 1066 and All That.

These little books contain amusing illustrations and witty text. The text greatly enhances and complements the pictures, and vice-versa.

Something about Prune's Progress
Prune's Progress (1943) consists of a sequence of 28 pictures, each of which depicts a member of the Prune family tree and is accompanied by a short summary of his or her life. 

The book starts with the descent from the trees of an apelike ancestor, passes through the generations and ends with the latest member: Pilot-Officer Prune of the Royal Air Force. 

Writer Anthony Armstrong provided the text, and the pictures are the work of cartoonist Raff.  

Anthony Armstrong was the retired army captain George Anthony Armstrong Willis (1897-1976), and Raff was the airman William John Henry (Bill) Hooper (1916 – 1996). Affable dimwit and hopeless incompetent Pilot-Officer Percy Prune, with his catchphrase of “Good (or bad) show!”, was their joint creation.

This is the first edition of Prune's Progress:

More 'coincidences': how the Farjeons found some books

I have on several occasions experienced something that I think of as positive paranoia: this is when people believe that the universe favours them and looks after their interests, often by ensuring that they are in the right place at the right time and giving them things that they need. 

The universe has often helped me to get a lot of good-quality reading material and to find specific books that I wanted for producing articles for this blog. Useful books that I didn't even know existed have also been put in a good position to attract my attention.

As a child I always lived close to a good public library, and one librarian told me that I could go down to the stockroom and take whatever I liked; then there was the occasion when I felt a sudden inner prompting to visit a small town in Kent, where I found a fantasy book by Sheri S. Tepper that I had long been searching for without success; there were also the books that had been put in the right place and at just the right height to ensure that I would see them as I walked past, including one by L. M. Boston.

Finding the right books 'by chance' and people who were helpful without even being asked are experiences of particular interest and significance to me. I found some examples of other people who were favoured by fate in this way in A Nursery in the Nineties (1935), an autobiographical work by the writer, poet and playwright Eleanor Farjeon.

Benjamin Farjeon and the helpful bookseller
Eleanor Farjeon tells us about something that happened to her father, Benjamin Farjeon, when he was a boy of 14 and working in the printing trade:

“On his way to the office, Ben had to pass a second-hand bookshop. Books were his passion, and he possessed none. In the shop-window one stood open, with two pages of reading exposed. One day Ben rose a few minutes earlier, so that he might read the pages, without being late at work, and, entranced, entered the world of Fouqué's Undine. The following day, he found the leaf had been turned; the next two pages were exposed, and he devoured them. The third day the same thing happened. While he was glued to the window, the old man who kept the shop came to the door. 

“You're fond of books, my boy?”

“Yes, sir.”

"Come inside whenever you like, and read what you please from the shelves."

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part XVIII: The pottery of Clarice Cliff

Art deco artist and designer Clarice Cliff (1899 – 1978) made some beautiful and original contributions to the ceramics industry. Many of her hand-painted products are now collector's pieces. 

There are many images of her work online; I have selected a few that are very typical of her style.

A tea set from her 'Bizarre' range:

A collection of plates:

A last look at the depressing biography of Jean Rhys

The previous articles in the series inspired by Carole Angier's biography Jean Rhys: Life and Work have covered most of the book's content of particular interest to me and relevance to this blog.

The mining for inspiration has been resulting in diminishing returns. While there is still more material in the book that attracts my attention and inspires commentary, it is mostly more of the same: it enhances topics already covered and supports points already made; it provides further descriptions of Jean Rhys's attributes and deficiencies; it gives yet more depressing and exasperating examples of her infantile personality, lack of life skills, bad behaviour and failure to learn from experience. 

However, there is still a little more to say in the form of a few miscellaneous thoughts and connections before leaving the biography behind at last and moving on to other things.

More elements in common with other writers
The article about Jean Rhys and Antonia White lists many elements that these two novelists had in common; several other articles, including the one about feeling different, mention some more familiar names. 

In addition to all that, Jean Rhys resembles Ouida and several others in her lack of financial sense, common sense and sense of humour. Ouida lost many letters and cherished mementos during her frequent moves from hotel to hotel and villa to villa; it was much the same for Jean Rhys.

Reading about her appalling treatment of her unfortunate and long-suffering husbands and the terrible effect that this had on them reminded me of other writers whose husbands were much the worse for the relationship:  Alison Uttley, Mary Webb, Daphne du Maurier and L. M. Montgomery are some who come immediately to mind. 

Context and the total picture: Part IV

The first article in this series describes what can happen when people go from looking at their painful experiences in isolation to putting them into the context of other, often well-known, people's lives. 

Some people react negatively and some positively when they learn that somebody famous suffered in a similar way.

Napoleon Bonaparte's living on crumbs of hope is a good example: while negative, glass half empty, people may feel worse when they realise that not even an emperor is safe from being reduced to this, positive people may feel better when they realise that this great man also experienced a lack of options for the future.

This article has something further to say about the positive reactions that some people have when they first discover that that they are in good company. 

People who feel better may have previously felt alone in their suffering; they may feel gratified when they learn that they have something in common with a famous person. 

They may have had erroneous assumptions, that fame and fortune, power and position and certain personal attributes offer protection from many unpleasant experiences for example, and evolve mentally when shown to be wrong.

Two cases from personal experience
A positive example from my own experience involved someone who was being targetted with unkind and belittling remarks by some hostile people he worked with. 

I told him about Princess Margaret, whose husband Lord Snowdon belittled her in public and left spiteful little notes in various places such as her desk and glove drawer. One of them started, “Twenty four reasons why I hate you”! 

He is reported to have worn a brown paper bag over his head when they attended a private dinner party in London. When the Princess eventually asked him why he was doing it he replied, “Because I can't stand the ****ing sight of you!”

An even closer look at Rachel Ferguson and The Brontës Went to Woolworths

The previous article in the series inspired by The Brontës Went to Woolworths contains material that suggests that Rachel Ferguson was well aware of the smaller problems experienced by people who live in fantasy worlds and have imaginary relationships; this article contains material to support the case that she also knew about some of the greater dangers. 

While the family game is mostly just fun and mutually beneficial for the Carne family and the Toddingtons when they eventually get together in the real world, it isn't all good: Rachel Ferguson describes some rather alarming undercurrents and sinister side effects.  

White magic with a dark side
After first reading about the unexpectedly positive and successful outcome of the Carne family's fantasies, it occurred to me that the book was another example of what I think of as white magic in writing, similar in that respect to Stella Gibbons's novel My American.

It is very common for example for people who have fantasies about someone to feel great disappointment and disillusionment for one reason or another when they first meet them, but the opposite happens in The Brontës Went to Woolworths. This gave me the idea that Rachel Ferguson wrote her book partly to counteract some beliefs about the negative effects of living in the imagination. 

While a closer look at the story did reveal some difficulties, Rachel Ferguson describes how Deirdre dealt with them successfully. While on balance the messages in the book still seemed to be positive, a further, deeper, reading uncovered some elements that tell a different story. While no inner worlds may come crashing down, some of the characters suffer in other ways. There is a dark side to the game the Carnes play.

A closer look at Rachel Ferguson and The Brontës Went to Woolworths

This article features some material in The Brontës Went to Woolworths that gives me the idea that Rachel Ferguson had personal experience of the problems that creating imaginary relationships and living in fantasy worlds can cause. 

She mentions the importance of being very careful when talking in the real world to people who have been the targets of fantasies; she also says that these people must be accepted and dealt with as they really are. She describes some inner conflicts that result from having too many fantasies on the go.

Being very careful when speaking to targetted people
Some of the things that the narrator Deirdre Carne says give me the idea that Rachel Ferguson herself had been in a situation where someone had been part of her life in her imagination long before she actually met them in real life. Deirdre mentions for example how difficult it is to have to treat people as strangers when they have been one of the family for years! 

This again reminds me of the double agents in Raphael Sabatini's books who were mentioned in the introductory article: people who live a double life must be careful to keep their stories straight and not give themselves away.

Deirdre has feelings of unreality when about to meet Lady Toddington for the first time in real life. The information that she has either invented or obtained via her researches makes her feel both advantaged and disadvantaged when talking to her.

Deirdre slips up a few times but gets away with it. 

She says this about the necessity of bringing Lady Toddington up to speed:

“Meanwhile, there was the spadework of the situation to get through, and I wondered how long it would actually take to bring her up to the point at which I had arrived long since, so that we could all start level.”

I suspect that Rachel Ferguson must have done some similar spadework, slowly putting her cards on the table one by one. How else could she have come up with something like that!

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part XVII: The Farjeons' Kings and Queens

When I was working on the article about the witty and amusing books of W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman, their British history textbook parody 1066 and All That made me think of Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon's Kings and Queens, which was first published in 1932. 

The time has finally come to say a few words about this light and amusing little book.

Something about Kings and Queens
Kings and Queens is a children's classic that adults also enjoy reading. It consists of a collection of forty-one (originally thirty-eight) short poems about English and British monarchs. It is intended to be both educational and fun to read. 

The first poem is about William I, who became king in 1066.

The final poem in the early editions is about George V, who was on the throne when the book was first published. The 1953 edition, which was produced to mark the coronation year, also covers Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II.

In between these monarchs, each member of each dynasty is honoured with a poem. Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell also gets one, even though he was not an actual king!

Kings and Queens is available in several editions and has been illustrated by a variety of artists.

This is the first edition:

Yet more about Rachel Ferguson and The Brontës Went to Woolworths

Readers of Rachel Ferguson's 1931 novel The Brontës Went to Woolworths do not always find it easy to determine which incidents are real and which take place only in the imaginations of some of the characters.

Another key case for consideration is how much of the story comes from Rachel Ferguson's own experiences. 

This book also raises some questions about the effect on all concerned of the ongoing game played by the imaginative and fun-loving Carne family:

What effect does playing this game have on the players?

What effect does it have on the people who are mentally targetted?

What happens to everyone involved in the game when fantasy meets reality? 

The previous article describes some of the dangers and damaging consequences of fantasies that involve imaginary relationships; this one attempts to show why the answers to these questions are not what might be expected. 

What effect does the game have on the players?
It is dangerous to spend too much time living in a fantasy world. People who do this compulsively, intensively and continually may become borderline delusional; they may fall apart when their dream world collapses because they haven't got anything else to live for.

The three Carne girls and their mother get off very lightly however. 

Perhaps they escape the usual consequences because the fantasies are out in the open and shared rather than, as is more common, indulged in secretly by just one person. 

Perhaps they escape because the game they play is mostly treated as a joke and a pastime rather than a matter of life and death. Apart possibly from Sheil, the youngest girl, they know that it is just a game. 

More about Rachel Ferguson and The Brontës Went to Woolworths

The first article inspired by Rachel Ferguson's 1931 novel The Brontës Went to Woolworths features some miscellaneous material of interest from the book.

This one has something to say about the ongoing game played by the eccentric and bohemian Carne family. It was the unexpectedly positive results of this game and the possibility that Rachel Ferguson was writing from her own experience of imaginary relationships that inspired these articles.

The frivolous family saga
The Brontës Went to Woolworths is primarily about the game the Carnes play. They live in a fantasy world of their own creation in which their toys, their dog, people they have never met and even ghosts of the Brontës have starring roles. 

The three girls and their mother mentally appropriate real-life people who appeal to their imaginations and incorporate them into their lives. They invent stories about them; they have imaginary conversations with them; they behave and talk about them as if they were part of the family circle. They even sometimes pretend to be them, acting out the parts with each other.

The benefits of playing the game
The Carnes are high-spirited and playful; they are sometimes rather silly. They love to joke, imitate people and make up stories about the toys, the dog and people of interest and their activities. They sing and dance; they also like acting: they pretend to be a variety of characters. 

While they do all this mainly for their own amusement, they may also do it to distract themselves from a painful family situation. 

The exercising of their imaginations and talents and having fun is enough to explain why they all enjoy performing, creating stories and role-playing, but the Carnes may also be trying to distract themselves from the grief caused by the death of the girls' father. Their obsession with the elderly and illustrious Lord Justice Toddington may be an attempt to compensate for their loss.  

Taking things a little too far?
The Carnes sometimes go a little too far. For example, they give each other cards and presents from their toys and people they have never even met!

The girls go to great lengths to learn about people who capture their interest; they also practice something that comes close to stalking.

The great and positive influence of computers and the Internet

Just as the article about the great and positive influence of public libraries was inspired by quotations from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, this article was inspired by something that the writer Sylvia Engdahl says in her online autobiography, which can be found here. 

Where Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman both paid tribute to public libraries, Sylvia Engdahl mentions the great and positive difference that computers and the Internet have made to her life. 

I have covered the debt that I owe to public libraries; now it is time to do the same for some other major positive influences in my life. I have a tribute of my own to pay to computers and the Internet. 

Computers as saviours
From Sylvia Engdahl's inspiring autobiography:

“...I still have my desktop computer, with which I spent most of my time anyway, and my laptop, which I use when lying down. And I still have access to the Internet. So I’m in as close touch with the world as I ever was. That is the miracle of computer technology—no one today need be isolated, regardless of physical disability. Computers have been my salvation from youth, when by chance I was hired as a programmer, until old age, when without them my productive life would end.”

Just like Sylvia Engdahl, I was once a programmer by profession. 

I too have always thought of this as my salvation: I still hate to think of what might have become of me if I hadn't managed 'by chance' to get into the world of IT. Programming gave me the opportunity to do some of the things that I do best; it improved my mental abilities and gave me some transferable skills; it gave me more self-respect, a decent income and a home of my own.

There is more to say about this, but for now I want to concentrate on what computers and the Internet can do for people who are housebound for whatever reason. I have had first-hand experience of this because of the restrictions caused by COVID-19.

Jean Rhys: more about witches, magic and energy vampires

In the previous article in the series inspired by Carole Angier's biography Jean Rhys: Life and Work, I said that Carole Angier explains Jean Rhys's life and personality mainly in psychological terms. She does mention witches and magic and the terrible draining effect that Jean Rhys had on people, but she leaves these topics mostly unexplored and unexplained. 

This article has more to say about these sinister elements, and from an alternative perspective.

More about witches 
Jean Rhys's witchlike personality is something that she shared with other writers: Stella Benson for example was described by Vera Brittain as being “delicate, witchlike, remote”, and descriptions of Ouida and Dorothy Parker in old age make them seem very similar to each other; they too grew to be very witchlike.

The writer Francis Wyndham, who encouraged Jean Rhys to work on Wide Sargasso Sea, said that he thought she was something of a – white – witch in that she was very alluring, she could attract any man she wanted and definitely had a charismatic power.

Her manner and appearance when young and her writing talent when older may seem enough to explain why people gave her so much money and help and endured her dreadful behaviour and lack of gratitude, but she may also have used a kind of mind power, something I think of as psychological black magic or unconscious witchcraft, to get what she wanted and to draw in, hold and exploit unprotected people.

Carole Angier tells us that Jean Rhys felt that she had never lived. This may seem odd in someone who on paper at least had quite a full life, but it makes sense if we accept the witch theory. Some people rarely engage with life or speak or act from their real selves: something timeless and unchangeable operates through them instead. This possible possession could  explain the failure to grow up: the real self has no opportunity to develop.

Similarly, such people are like black holes and bottomless pits: they never feel that they have enough no matter what. This makes sense if we understand that little or nothing gets through to nourish their real selves: the witch takes it all. 

Witches are traditionally said to sacrifice children; Jean Rhys's baby son died because of her thoughtlessness.