A little New Year poem from Ogden Nash

 Alfred, Lord Tennyson's inspiring poem about the bells that ring in the New Year has been featured on here, as has Charles Lamb's sad poem The Old Familiar Faces.  

The American humourist Ogden Nash (1902 – 1971) wrote a little verse about the New Year in a very different spirit:

Good Riddance, But Now What?

Come, children, gather round my knee;
Something is about to be.
Tonight’s December thirty-first,
Something is about to burst.
The clock is crouching, dark and small,
Like a time bomb in the hall.
Hark! It’s midnight, children dear.
Duck! Here comes another year. 

The poem's title is spot on. It expresses very well what some people feel at the end of yet another horrible year: they can't wait to see the back of it. Good riddance indeed! 

The title also suggests that the coming year might be even worse. We have no idea what is in store for us: we shall just have to wait and see what comes.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

The Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas is - ostensibly - about the increasing number of unusual gifts received by a very lucky person. 

The final verse lists them all:

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Twelve lords a leaping,
Eleven ladies dancing,
Ten pipers piping,
Nine drummers drumming,
Eight maids a milking,
Seven swans a swimming,
Six geese a laying,
Five gold rings.
Four colley birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves and
A partridge in a pear tree. 

Just like the carol The Three Ships, The Twelve Days  of Christmas has inspired some beautiful artwork.  

Here are two examples of cards that I like very much.

This is a seasonal postage stamp from 1977:

I have always liked this carol because of its cheerful tune and the pictures it inspires; I had no idea that it is believed to have hidden religious meanings:

More about John Buchan and the colour green

Looking for reasonably significant references to the colour green in John Buchan's books involves eliminating a very large number of descriptions of natural features such as uplands and downs, mountains and moors, water and trees and discarding a large quantity of protective outdoor clothing such as felt hats, capes and tweed coats. The much smaller number of occurrences of specific shades such as apple green and olive green are not of much interest either. 

After the routine references to the colour green have been removed, some examples of interest remain; it has taken two articles to cover what might be described as “the best of the rest”. 

The first article about John Buchan and the colour green  contains green references taken from his writings; this article contains more such references, and it also lists some green people and places of interest in his life.

Some miscellaneous green references
This section of the article has been inspired by some amusing material in Buchan's Prince of the Captivity that I quoted in the article about his Island of Sheep: 

“There were too many houses at Bournemouth, and too many people at Broadstairs, and a horrible band in green jackets at Eastbourne, and a man who made ugly faces at Littlehampton...”

Using that as a model, I have listed some miscellaneous, mostly minor, green references from various novels.

There is an archaeologist called Wintergreen, some green lizards, some wallpaper with pink and green parrots, an envelope heavily sealed with green wax and a strange girl dressed in an unusual shade of green who wears one green glove in The Dancing Floor; there is a Liberal candidate called Orlando Greenstone, a knitted tea-cosy in purple and green and an ancient hostelry called the Green Tree in Castle Gay.

There is a man called Green, a little green lamp, more green lizards, a Border dining club whose members wear faded green coats, green face paint and a translucent green tablet in The Island of Sheep; there is veined green marble, green alabaster, green imperial jade, two green doors and an emerald necklace in Huntingtower.

There is a man called Greenlees and a green drawing room in A Gap in the Curtain; there are green crabs, a green awning, green wooden seats and many references to Greenland in A Prince of the Captivity; in addition to the material already quoted, there are green sun-shutters, green sickness, a pink and green hearthrug and a green dressing gown in Greenmantle.

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part XXVII: The artwork of Frank Kelly Freas

Frank Kelly Freas (1922 – 2005) was an award-winning American science fiction and fantasy artist. He was active for more than 50 years, during which time he produced many illustrations for books and magazines and their covers. 

He was mentioned in an article about two amusing short stories, and one of his magazine covers was featured on here for Halloween. 

I like some of his pictures so much that I would rather own them than many of the works by the great masters! 

I like so many of them that it was very difficult to decide which ones to select for this article. I have chosen a representative sample that includes some of my favourite images.

I have a copy of one of Kelly Freas's artwork books; it has a foreword by Isaac Asimov, it contains many of his best works, and it has a very well-known picture on the cover:

This image is unforgettable:

A tale of two very convenient 'accidents'

The article about workplace memories was inspired by a few comments made to me by fellow workers many years ago. 

Two incidents involving another colleague surfaced in my mind recently while I was thinking about the past. Again, they seem much more significant now that they did at the time. They provide supporting evidence for some of my ideas about psychological black magic, one of the unseen influences that inspired the creation of this blog.

The first 'accident'
It all started when a colleague, a computer programmer I shall call Mrs M., realised that she had made a mistake after making some requested changes and putting the updated software onto a spool of magnetic tape for the computer operators to release into the live system. She suddenly thought of a possible problem; rather than confess and follow the proper procedures, she fixed the error and when she thought that no one was looking went to replace the original tape with the new one that she had made.

Mrs M. got caught by the operators in the act of substituting the new tape for the old one. She was not too popular with them and they had a big argument. She became very upset and said, “Why can't they trust me?” 

The atmosphere was becoming increasingly charged, then her phone rang. It was a neighbour: Mrs M.'s little girl had just fallen from her bike and the neighbour had carried her inside. She was slightly hurt, and the neighbour wanted Mrs M. to go and collect her.

So Mrs M. was off the hook – for a while at least. She had a perfect pretext for escaping from the office and the trouble that she had created.

Something about John Buchan and the colour green

After listing some connections and references to the colour green in the life and works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and covering some similar occurrences of this colour in the life and works of Rudyard Kipling, the next step was to look for green connections in the life and works of John Buchan. 

Buchan's works certainly contain a very large number of references to the colour green, but they are mostly casual and incidental. Many come from his frequent and routine descriptions of landscapes and the sea for example, and some just describe clothes of a colour suitable for wearing in the countryside and other wide open spaces. His books would greatly shrink if all these adjectives of colour were removed, but this would make little difference to most of the stories!

Even so, I have found some green references that can't be discounted quite so easily.

Buchan's exciting adventure story Greenmantle is an obvious candidate for inclusion, but its green aspects have mostly been covered already. 

The colour green in The Three Hostages
The Three Hostages has also been the subject of a previous article, but the green elements were not mentioned as they were not of particular interest at the time. 

A major character is called Doctor Greenslade.

One of the cryptic clues to the location of the hostages is “the green fields of Eden”.

One of the hostages, who is hidden in plain sight in a low-class dance hall, is frequently referred to as “the girl in green”.

A small green bottle plays a large part in defeating the villain Dominick Medina.

When Richard Hannay is sent for treatment to the practitioner Madame Breda, he finds that her front door has been newly painted a vivid green.

Richard Hannay tells his young friend Archie Roylance to look out for a green light. Archie is a great birdwatching enthusiast; nesting greenshanks and green sandpipers are mentioned in this connection.

Minor references include a set of green Chinese jars and a green herb fire.

Stone Age Internet: dial-up, dongles and Easy Cafés

The article about the great and positive influence of computers and the Internet describes how I relied on the Internet to educate and entertain me during the recent Covid lockdowns; this one covers my introduction to and first few years of using the Internet. 

I became aware of the existence, function and possibilities of the Internet by degrees over some years; I was fortunate in that I was able to take my time when learning how to use it and to have several options when deciding where to use it. 

I built up my usage slowly until the Internet became an essential part of my life, both personal and for work. This blog would not exist without the Internet for a start; I would not have had the great convenience of being able to do the bulk of the research and other tasks for my freelance assignments at home without the Internet either.

My introduction to the Internet
I first heard the name many years ago, when two computer engineers were talking about something called 'The Internet'. I didn't understand the significance of the facility; I thought that it was just for downloading software patches.

I was not very interested and soon forgot about it; life was very difficult at the time and I was fighting for survival on several fronts. 

My first experience of using the Internet 
A year or so later, the company I was working for installed the Internet on all of its workstations. It had previously been available on just one terminal, a key one in the Press Office. The boss was worried about the cost of putting it onto many PCs, also that people would spend time surfing instead of working. However, he soon relented as many people really needed it for their work. We were given email addresses, which were very useful. Personal usage was permitted, but we were asked to keep it to a minimum. 

I cautiously tested the water, and as part of my job soon learned how to find information online. I also did some moderate and discreet personal browsing. As I slowly became aware of the possibilities of the World Wide Web and the large amount of interesting and useful information to be found online, I decided that I would have to find somewhere else to access the Internet as I wanted to do some extensive and intensive research.

I had not yet rejoined the Public Library after my long absence, so I didn't know about their free Internet access. Instead, I started to use Internet cafés or cybercafés as they were a very visible and convenient resource.

A Halloween picture from Mad Magazine

Previous Halloween articles feature witches.

Witches Pictures has some depictions of Terry Pratchett’s witches; Witches in the air has more of the same and features a poem about witches by Walter de la Mare.

This year, we have a change of seasonal associations in the form of an old cover for Mad Magazine with a spectacular picture by the American SF artist Frank Kelly Freas. 

The horrible headless horseman of Halloween:

A few points about helping cult leavers

This is the fourth and final article inspired by exit-counsellor Steven Hassan's thought-provoking book Combating Cult Mind Control, his illuminating 'Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults'. 

The first article covers some of the interesting things that Steve Hassan has to say about how cults recruit people. 

The second article contains disturbing information about life inside cults.

The third article features a few of the useful points that he makes in connection with getting people out of cults.

I now want to highlight a few of his ideas about helping people who have left a cult. I have already produced an article about life after leaving a cult, but Steve Hassan's book has inspired some more commentary. 

Would-be helpers need to understand what they are up against and dealing with; Steve Hassan has some distressing and depressing information about this. 

Helpers also need to learn what to do about it; the book has some useful and encouraging suggestions about what works best when helping cult leavers rediscover and live from their real selves, recover from the abuse they have endured and make new, productive lives for themselves.

The worst comes first
Steve Hassan has a lot to say about the many and severe problems faced by cult leavers, the biggest of which is loss of identity. They may also be suffering from arrested development, they may behave in an inappropriately dependent way, their self-esteem may have been destroyed, their critical faculties may be atrophied, they may have memory loss and find it difficult to concentrate, they may have trouble making decisions and they may have serious adjustment problems.

They may also be living in fear of some kind of retaliation by the cult.

Rudyard Kipling and some green connections

Posts about Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Conan Doyle are very popular, so I am always looking for inspiration for more articles. 

After writing about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and the colour green, I decided to investigate occurrences of this colour in the life and works of Rudyard Kipling. 

I didn't find anything amazing, but some connections are worth mentioning. The people and places that Kipling has in common with Conan Doyle are particularly interesting.

Roger Lancelyn Green
Writer Roger Lancelyn Green (1918 – 1987) was the father of Richard Lancelyn Green, the previously mentioned authority on Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. He was editor of the Kipling Journal and wrote and edited books about Kipling: 

The school in Green Road
When Rudyard Kipling was staying in the House of Desolation in Southsea, he attended what he called 'a terrible little day-school'. 

Roger Lancelyn Green identified the school as Hope House in  Green Road, the same road that Conan Doyle's house stood opposite. Conan Doyle's younger brother Innes later came to live at this house and became a pupil at Hope House school. 

The Green, Rottingdean
Conan Doyle lived in Bush Villas, Elm Grove, Southsea; Rudyard Kipling stayed with his family at The Elms, The Green, Rottingdean near Brighton for a few years. The large garden and grounds of this house have been preserved, and as Kipling Gardens are now open to the public:

Greenhow Hill

Greenhow Hill is a village in North Yorkshire.

Rudyard Kipling's short story On Greenhow Hill was first published in Harper’s Magazine in 1890. It also appeared in Life's Handicap, a collection of Kipling's stories. 

What makes the story of additional interest is that Conan Doyle's editor at the Strand Magazine was Herbert Greenhough Smith; by coincidence the name Greenhough is derived from Greenhow Hill.

More minor incidents at the autumn equinox

Last year, I posted about some incidents at the time of the autumn equinox. They involved two rather weird women I encountered when I went out shopping while feeling under the weather. 

Once again, it is the time of year when seasonal depression may strike.

Once again, it is the time when strangers may behave strangely! 

I have a little more of the same to report. The recent incidents, the first since last year's equinox, were minor, even more so than they were last time around. They may hardly seem worth mentioning, but getting these things down in writing is good practice and may have good results. 

Last year, one of my shopping trips was a waste of time; my recent long bus trip to a big new branch of a store I like and a street market was also fruitless: I found that the store was self-checkout only, which for me is a deal-breaker, and the market was run down and didn't have many stalls.

The buses were packed on the journey out; a woman with a shopping bag with 'Jesus' on it got on, and kept saying things such as “May the Lord bless you” and “Jesus loves you” to someone who offered her a seat. She also made some random religious remarks. Someone who sat next to me seemed a little over-friendly, but I just replied pleasantly to her enthusiastic remarks.

I was a little down because of the time of year; the disappointing outcome of my journey made me feel slightly worse, so I decided to cut my losses and go home. I had a long wait for a bus; during this time a man at the bus stop kept talking loudly to himself, saying the same thing over and over again. I was a bit wary as he seemed rather angry, but he was probably harmless. He eventually got on a bus that came before mine did. 

I had to change buses, and while I was waiting a woman started to talk about my shopping bag and how it was not set up correctly. She even moved a flap to where it could reach some velcro. This was an improvement, and rather than feeling threatened or offended I thanked her for her help.

That was the end of this year's incidents. 

The great and positive influence of Odhams Press

The article about Books, Reading and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mentions The Marvels and Mysteries of Science, one of the first books that I ever owned. 

I saw this book as an endlessly-fascinating treasure trove; I felt the same way about several other books that I owned as a child. I didn't realise at the time that a few of my best books, including Marvels and Mysteries, were published by the same company. I wasn't interested in any background information: all I cared about then was a book's content. 

I learned a while back that some of my favourite books came from Odhams Press, which published a whole series of reasonably-priced, high-quality gift books for children. There were many more Odhams books than I ever saw at the time; I wish that I had been given more of them, considering how immensely just a few of their children's books enhanced my early life. Reading an Odhams book for the first time as an adult is just not the same!

A typical Odhams children's book, one that I wish I had owned:

My original copies were lost along the way, but some years ago I found replacements for Marvels and Mysteries and other books such as The Golden Gift Book and Wonders of the World online. The books were just as I remembered them. I was overwhelmed with nostalgia when I opened them and saw the familiar text and pictures.  

Something about The Golden Gift Book 
The Golden Gift Book (1939) is a typical Odhams gift book and in my opinion is the jewel in Odhams' crown. 

The Golden Gift Book is over 500 pages long. It is an anthology that has something for everyone. It contains a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, both with illustrations. Most of the illustrations are black and white but a few are in colour, including some beautiful endpapers.

The fiction consists of both short stories and poems, some by well-known authors, complemented with many attractive pictures by different artists; the non-fiction includes many How it Works and Introduction to Wildlife articles and a few general knowledge questions with answers.

A few workplace memories with a wider application

A few comments that were made by colleagues in companies I worked for many years ago suddenly surfaced in my mind recently and inspired an article. At the time, I just accepted the remarks at face value; now, they seem more significant and to have a wider application. 

Settling for far too little
I remember a time when a new IT manager was taken on. One of his first tasks was to go round to each workstation in turn and speed it up.

The boss said that he had no idea what had been done, but he wanted everyone to know how amazed and delighted he was with his workstation's performance after the upgrade. 

The IT man told me that he was amazed to see what the workstation users had been living with for a long time in terms of a very slow service. He said that he had seen similar situations in his previous job and couldn't believe what people had been putting up with until he arrived to sort things out.

I have often felt amazed for similar reasons myself, and in many different scenarios. How can some people put up with what they are getting? How can they settle for so little?  Do they not know how much better things could be? Probably not; Who having known the Diamond and all that.

Or maybe they are aware that what they have is of low quality, but assume that for them a better deal is unattainable.

It is always advisable to monitor what is out there and investigate the chances of moving on to something better. It is also a good idea to seek advice and assistance from someone more knowledgeable and experienced.

Seeing with new eyes
A memory that comes to mind in a similar connection is of a colleague who resisted wearing glasses for a long time - contact lenses were not an option for some reason. She finally bought some, and was amazed at how much clearer and stronger her vision was.

She told me that she wanted to cry when she realised how much better things could have been and how much she had been missing all this time.

Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and the colour green

While trawling through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's essay collection Through the Magic Door, I noticed that he mentions the colour green many times. 

This gave me the idea of looking for occurrences of this colour in Conan Doyle's life. I found more green connections than I was expecting, including some for Sherlock Holmes, and have summarised my findings here. The people, places and other items in the list may not seem particularly significant, but they certainly are interesting. 

Could it be more than just coincidence that some of Conan Doyle's work was probably inspired well before it started by someone called Green, was definitely documented long after after it ended by another person with the name of Green, and during the productivity period in the middle was edited by a man with Green in his name and published by a company with Green in its name?

Anna Katharine Green: the inspirer

Anna Katharine Green (1846 – 1935) was an American writer of pioneering detective fiction. She invented many standard features of the modern detective story; she has been called the mother of the detective novel. Her first, and best-selling, book The Leavenworth Case appeared around nine years before the first Sherlock Holmes story was published. She is believed to have inspired Conan Doyle, who was a fan of hers and corresponded with her.

Mystery writer Patricia Meredith has written and spoken about this connection:

Richard Lancelyn Green: the documenter
Richard Lancelyn Green (1953 - 2004) was considered to be the world's foremost scholar and leading authority on the topics of Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He collected much material and produced extensive notes for a three-volume biography of Conan Doyle, but died in mysterious circumstances before it was finished.

He collected and introduced some Sherlock Holmes tribute stories: 

A few points about getting people out of cults

This is the third article inspired by exit-counsellor Steven  Hassan's book Combating Cult Mind Control, his 'Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults'. 

After covering some of the interesting things that Steve Hassan has to say about how cults recruit people and his disturbing information about life inside cults, I now want to highlight a few of the useful points that he makes in connection with getting people out of cults.

I have already produced an article about the difficulties of leaving a cult, but Steve Hassan's book has inspired some more commentary.

Three ways to get out of a cult
Steve Hassan comes straight to the point here:

“People leave a group in three basic ways: they walk out, they get kicked out (often in a very “burned-out" condition, both psychologically and physically), or they get counseled out.”

This summary is spot on. In addition, perhaps some people who are temporarily out from under the influence and away from other members may just decide not to go back. This is similar to but not quite the same as walking out; it could be that they mentally defected a while back and just waited for the right opportunity to cut the connection! 

Incidentally, Steve Hassan says that 'walk-aways' are often members who have been able to maintain contact with people outside the destructive cult; he also says that walk-aways make up the majority of cult leavers.

Counselling out: newcomers versus old-timers
When it comes to counselling people out, it may at first seem likely that the easiest candidates are those who have been members for only a short time and the most difficult those who have committed many years of their lives to the cause. 

Steve Hassan supports this idea:

“If I am contacted within the first few months of a recruitment, the prognosis for a successful exit within a year is extremely good. On the other hand, if the person has been in the group for ten years when I am contacted, it might be quite some time before an intervention can be successfully attempted...” 

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part XXVI: The artwork of Bruce Pennington

I first came across Bruce Pennington's artwork on the covers of science fiction and fantasy books. I was immediately fascinated; I soon learned to recognise the colourful, atmospheric and evocative style, but the artist's name didn't register with me until l found his art book Eschatus (1976). 

Where there was a choice of editions of a particular book, I would always buy the one with the Bruce Pennington cover: for me they were by far the best versions.

There are many images of his paintings online; included here are just a few of the ones that made a big impression.

These are typical book covers and good examples of his work:

Acting unprofessionally and out of character revisited

A few examples of people causing damage by acting unprofessionally and out of character have been given in the past; the time has now come to go into this phenomenon in a little more detail. 

The multi-level approach to finding explanations article mentions some of the influences that might cause people who are normally professional and efficient to behave uncharacteristically and make serious mistakes; this article revisits the issue, expands on these influences and includes some supporting material from previous articles.

The cases of interest here are those that occur at the third level down, the dimension where unseen influences such as energy vampires, people with witch-like personalities, psychic crime and psychological black magic operate.

There are questions to ask and possibilities to eliminate at each level before descending to the one below; there are also some points to be made before starting the exercise.

The definition of the problem
It is important to understand that examples of people doing something wrong are worth investigating only where two elements appear together i.e. when someone acts both unprofessionally and out of character. After all, some people will act unprofessionally because this is their usual mode of operation; not only that, a few of these incompetents might act out of character by doing a good, professional job for once! Neither of these groups is relevant here.

Acceptable margin of error
People are not machines; they sometimes have off days. Occasional errors will be made and should be allowed for, but an investigation into the cause is called for when so much damage has been done that the mistake cannot be overlooked, excused or explained away.

This is where the multi-level approach comes in.

Level 1: the person and the job
On this, the top, level, it is best to work systematically through a list of the most obvious and likely explanations for a damaging, out of character action. The possibilities fall into two groups: one is of factors in the life of the person who made the mistake and the other of common and typical problems with the job.

Frances Hodgson Burnett and Isaac Asimov: feeling different and getting angry

The previous article about Frances Hodgson Burnett mentions the low return on investment in terms of the time and effort that I spent investigating her life and works and the small amount of article-inspiring material that I found.

Since then, I have followed up a few more leads and read a biography or two. I have found enough material for a few short articles, which just about makes the exercise worthwhile.

This article highlights some comments in Gretchen Gerzina's biography Frances Hodgson Burnett (2004) that remind me of material in the autobiography of a very different writer.

Feeling different
Frances Hodgson Burnett's sister Edith said something very significant about her:

“I always knew that my sister Frances was different, even when we were children, though, of course, at the time I could not have told you why...there was something about her that set her apart from other people.”

This applies to most of the other writes featured on here. Isaac Asimov for example said this in his autobiography In Memory Yet Green:

”I had begun to suspect that I was not as other children were even before I went to school. Once I was in school, there was no way in which I could avoid the knowledge.“

This is not the only element that Frances Hodgson Burnett had in common with Isaac Asimov.

Conan Doyle's Magic Door and the 'eat or buy books' dilemma

I find much of the material in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's little book of essays Through the Magic Door either very interesting or rather boring. 

When it comes to the material of interest, Conan Doyle's story of his close escape from being accused of plagiarism is fascinating not only in its own right but also because something similar happened to Rudyard Kipling. 

It is much the same where another of Conan Doyle's anecdotes is concerned: his account of having to choose between eating and buying books reminds me of other people who had this or a similar dilemma. 

His unexpected views on public libraries versus the ownership of books also inspire some commentary.

Conan Doyle's 'eat or read' dilemma
In Through the Magic Door, Conan Doyle introduces the books in his library to an imaginary visitor. One set is of particular interest:

“You see the line of old, brown volumes at the bottom? Every one of those represents a lunch. They were bought in my student days, when times were not too affluent. Threepence was my modest allowance for my midday sandwich and glass of beer; but, as luck would have it, my way to the classes led past the most fascinating bookshop in the world. Outside the door of it stood a large tub filled with an ever-changing litter of tattered books, with a card above which announced that any volume therein could be purchased for the identical sum which I carried in my pocket.

As I approached it a combat ever raged betwixt the hunger of a youthful body and that of an inquiring and omnivorous mind. Five times out of six the animal won. But when the mental prevailed, then there was an entrancing five minutes' digging among out-of-date almanacs, volumes of Scotch theology, and tables of logarithms, until one found something which made it all worth while.”

Conan Doyle goes on to describe some of his treasured volumes, the literary gold that he prospected for in the bookseller's old threepenny tub and went without lunch to buy.

Incidentally, Conan Doyle's threepenny sandwich and glass of beer made a better lunch than J. B. Priestley's twopenny bag of stale buns!

Defence Against the Dark Arts Part XXV: Rupert Bear

I discovered Rupert Bear and his friends at a very early age.

I loved the magical artwork, the colourful characters and the exotic locations.

I preferred the pictures to the narrative, but the stories were still very interesting. I didn't see anything wrong at the time, but some of the early text and pictures are now unacceptable because of the racial stereotyping.

There is a lot of information about Rupert and his creators online, and there are many images from the books and comic strips too. I will just include a few of my favourite characters and pictures here.

This is the Wise Old Goat:

I particularly like the Gooseberry Fool:

Conan Doyle's Magic Door and the amazing Kipling coincidence

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling have appeared in many posts on here, both separately and together.

These posts attract large numbers of readers. The article about Conan Doyle, Kipling and the Isle of Wight has, rather surprisingly, recently reached the top ten in terms of the number of viewings.

Another article lists some more common elements in the lives of these two great writers. That article was created some years ago; I have since learned of something else that Conan Doyle and Kipling had in common.

The first article inspired by Conan Doyle's Through the Magic Door, which I discovered only recently, introduces the book and lists a few minor topics and references that appear in both his book and my articles. 

This article features a fascinating story that Conan Doyle has to tell about a reputation-saving 'coincidence'. This incident in his life is of interest not only for its own sake but also because Rudyard Kipling had a very similar experience.

More about the Magic Door
While Through the Magic Door contains some relevant and quotable material, Conan Doyle is verbose – he says himself that he indulges in didactic talk and long digressions - his language is rather old-fashioned and much of his commentary doesn't hold my attention.

I said this about Joyce Collin-Smith's book Call No Man Master:

“...her work has a...duality: it is both very interesting and very boring. Some of the content fascinates me and resonates very strongly while some of it means very little so I skip over it.“

I feel much the same about Through the Magic Door!

While I am not for example particularly interested in the lives and works of many of the 18th and 19th century writers Conan Doyle thinks very highly of, some of the other material definitely gets my attention.

For me, one of the most riveting parts of the book is where Conan Doyle tells of his narrow escape from being accused of plagiarism. This story is all the more interesting because it closely matches a story told by Rudyard Kipling.

Two minor incidents involving more help with doors

This blog contains many examples of 'incidents' in my life, both good and bad. 

The most recent article on this subject describes two weird women I encountered around the time of the last Autumn Equinox. These women have recently been balanced by two helpful men. The incidents that they were involved in were very minor, but it is always good practice to acknowledge favours from the universe.

I believe that recording and analysing incidents, good and bad, large and small, has helped to increase the number of positive experiences in my life and reduce the number of negative ones. 

The recent incidents support this belief. I had been feeling under the weather for various reasons at the time; this often results in unpleasant experiences when I am out, but not on these occasions.

The empty office
I had to go to a meeting in a place I had not visited for a while. 

The lights were low and the air was cold – probably to save electricity - and the place seemed to be empty. I struggled to open a fire door to get into the offices, then wondered whether I had come to the wrong floor by mistake.

I felt confused and uncertain what to do. A man suddenly appeared; he was very helpful: he assured me that meetings were always held on the floor below and saw me to the lift. I thanked him for his help.

The security door
I went to collect my laptop from the repair company I had left it with. They had moved offices since my first visit and were now in a different building. 

I really dislike modern security doors with their panel of buzzers, often with semi-legible names. Getting the door open when buzzed in can be a problem, as can finding the right floor and the right office door. In the past I have encountered front doors that won't open, inadequate and misleading signage, inconsistent floor numbering in the lifts and long empty corridors. These things can turn a visit into a nightmare scenario.

However, once again a helpful man who knew his way round the building suddenly appeared. He found the buzzer for the company I was looking for, opened the door and showed me where the lift was. I told him how grateful I was that he had come along at just the right time.

Conan Doyle's Magic Door: great minds think alike!

This article might never have existed if I hadn't decided at the last minute to 'pull' the article about books, reading and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in favour of one about Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co. books, which was next in the queue and all ready to go.

The Conan Doyle article was originally scheduled to be published on April 7th, but I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable because two of the quotations in it had no source. They are widely attributed to Conan Doyle, but without any indication of where they originally came from.

I had a strong feeling that I should dig deeper to find the origin of these quotations: it just didn't seem right to release the article before I had done all that I could to find the sources.

I guessed that they might have come from Conan Doyle's letters, but eventually found them in Through the Magic Door (1907), a collection of essays about books, writers and reading. 

I thought that this title was a good coincidence: the Magic Door leads to a world of books, and I had said in the Conan Doyle books and reading article that my first books had magical titles and opened a door to new worlds.

I took a very quick look at Through the Magic Door; I saw immediately that it contained enough coincidences, references to familiar topics and other relevant material to inspire at least one article. Some of the content would have been suitable for the books and reading article, but I decided to publish this in its original form after just adding the quotations' source and to forget the Magic Door until I had finished some work in progress.

Ever since I read that dropping existing activities when something new and exciting comes along is a sign of emotional immaturity, I have been trying not to do this!

I wanted to give Through the Magic Door my undivided attention, which meant first getting some outstanding work out of the way. I returned to the book after completing a few half-finished articles; this post is the result of giving it a much closer look.

Something about Through the Magic Door
The Magic Door is a portal to another world, one that is entered by reading. Conan Doyle gives a tour of his library to an imaginary visitor; he introduces his favourite books and authors and gives his views on many of them. Some of his comments and references stand out because they are similar to material in various articles on here, including the Conan Doyle books and reading one.  

This is quite a coincidence considering that not only had I not read Through the Magic Door until after I had posted the material that we have in common, I had never even heard of it!

Something about being interrupted while reading

While looking for more information about Frances Hodgson Burnett, I came across a previously overlooked short paragraph in her classic children's novel The Little Princess that resonates very strongly:

“Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett was writing about her young heroine Sara Crewe here, but she was surely speaking for herself – and for many other avid readers, including me, who hate being interrupted while engrossed in a book. Some people do indeed react with annoyance when abruptly dragged out of a book they were immersed in: being brought back to reality in this way is often very jarring and disorienting. 

This extract has inspired some thoughts on the subject of being interrupted while reading. This article includes extracts from another classic children's book and has something to say about the motives of the interrupters.

Reading 'is not an occupation'
Some people devalue reading; it is not seen a worthwhile activity. They equate reading books with idling, with doing nothing useful, so they interrupt because they want to see the reader doing something else.

This scene from Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes is a good example of this attitude:

“...Petrova was sitting on the table in the window reading a book...

The bell rang again.

“Ought to be answered.’’ Cook spoke firmly, partly because her word was law in the kitchen, and partly because whoever answered it, it would not be her. She looked round, but everybody seemed busy; then her eye fell on Petrova. Reading was not an occupation. It came in her view under the heading of “Satan finds....”

“Petrova dear,” she said, “we’re all busy; you run up and see who it is.””

Angels and demons in Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood books

This is the final article in the series inspired by Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co. books. 

Unlike Anthony Horowitz's little Diamond Brothers stories, which may have inspired a few scenes in Jonathan Stroud's books, the Lockwood books can be extensively quoted from and commented on without much of the main action in the stories being revealed. This means that associated topics such as temptation and glamour can be discussed in detail without spoiling the books' accounts of the young psychical detection agents' exciting adventures and dangerous assignments and the variety of characters they encounter along the way.

I found more commentary-inspiring material in the Lockwood books than I originally expected. Most of it has been covered in previous articles, but there is still a little more to say about falling under the spell of a glamorous image and bright angels who are really dark demons.

Predatory ghosts, cult leaders, glamour, temptations and threats have been featured in separate articles; this article about Penelope Fittes and the 'master' she worships includes all these elements. 

The dark secrets of Penelope Fittes
Towards the end of The Empty Grave, it is revealed that the glamorous Penelope Fittes, who as previously described tempts Anthony Lockwood and his colleagues and shows her true, and very unpleasant, colours when thwarted and rejected, maintains her young and attractive appearance by very sinister means and is herself in thrall to someone with a glamorous image, someone who has all along been in the background helping her with her unsavoury activities. 

Ezekiel the supernatural entity
Penelope Fittes is under the spell of a golden ghost or Visitor called Ezekiel.  

Needless to say, Ezekiel's glittering image conceals an inner self that is the exact opposite of what he appears to be, and he too shows his real, and very unpleasant, self when threatened and defied.