Defence Against the Dark Arts XXXII: Anthony Horowitz’s Diamond Brothers at Christmas

A few books with a Christmas theme have inspired posts in the past. 

I wanted to produce something similar for this year; I remembered that the seventh book in Anthony Horowitz’s Diamond Brothers series is called The Greek Who Stole Christmas so I decided to renew my acquaintance with these very amusing little stories. 

I found enough suitable material for another seasonal article.

Christmas for the Diamond Brothers 
Christmas is not a good time of year for Nick the clever boy detective and his big – and dim - brother Herbert, who prefers to be known as Tim, as they are always very short of money and are often in danger from their enemies.

The action in The Falcon's Malteser, which is the first book in the series, takes place during the holiday season. These words from Nick Diamond set the tone:

“...the grey December sky. The Christmas decorations had gone up in Regent Street – it seemed that they’d been up since July – and the stores were wrapped in tinsel and holly. Somewhere, a Salvation Army band was playing “Away in a Manger.” I felt a funeral march would have been more appropriate.“

Things get worse: Tim and Nick are arrested by the police and held in a freezing cold interrogation room. They are released, only to be rearrested and held overnight in a cell in the police station. 

The police decide to let Nick go; he rises to the occasion with a typical witty remark:

“You can go, laddy,” Snape said. “It’s only big brother we want.”

“How long are you going to keep him for?” I asked. “It’s only five days to Christmas.”

“So?”

“He hasn’t had time to buy my present yet.” 

Two quotations about mediocrity

This post contains a small amount of commentary on two short quotations that highlight a very big topic. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said something in The Valley of Fear that has been very widely quoted:

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius...”

This seems at first sight to be spot on, but it needs to be qualified and expanded.

It is very true that many people can't evaluate or even see people who are far above or ahead of them; it does indeed often take one to know one!

What Conan Doyle doesn't mention however is that some people who are nothing special do know - or sense - talent - or even genius - when they see it, and they may try to discourage, sabotage or even destroy it!

Someone who is only a below-average performer at something or who knows only a little about a subject can often see very clearly that other people are much better at it than they are or know much more about it than they do. They may acknowledge and show respect for this, or they may feel envious, diminshed and resentful.

This is from Robert A. Heinlein's science fiction novel for younger readers Have Space Suit—Will Travel:

“Some people insist that 'mediocre' is better than 'best.' They delight in clipping wings because they themselves can't fly. They despise brains because they have none.”

This too is very true: some people do indeed try to cut others down to size; I have seen and experienced this for myself. The tall poppy syndrome comes to mind here, as do the crabs in the bucket who try to drag down a fellow crab that wants to climb up and escape.

Fear, negativity, envy and spite are often behind such mean-spirited behaviour. Rafael Sabatini's proposition that equality is a by-product of envy is relevant here, and so are these words from Kathleen Raine's autobiography Farewell Happy Fields:

“…winged souls are more often dragged down by the commonplace herd, who, ignorant of the use of wings, clip them and forbid their flight, than the wingless injured by the escape of the winged ones…Who, among the vulgar, heeds the misery of imagination hampered and thwarted?…”

There is more to come about all this.

Diana Wynne Jones's Witch Week

Halloween is the time when many people's thoughts turn to witches.

I suddenly remembered reading Diana Wynne Jones's Witch Week (1982) many years ago; I decided to take another look to see if it contains any article-inspiring content.

This little book for children combines magic-related fantasy with boarding-school life. While there is little to say about the main story and there isn't much material suitable for direct quotation, there are still a few elements that inspire commentary.

The Witch Week of the title, a time of many strange incidents, begins a few days before Halloween, which makes the book very suitable for the occasion. 

The cover on this edition is just right for Halloween:

Keeping the balance

A previous article mentions the importance of balancing depressing books with reading material that lifts the spirits.

Witch Week contains both cruelty and humour; scenes that are very painful to read because they involve humiliation and bullying are balanced by witty dialogue and descriptions of amusing incidents.

The power of hate again
Witch Week provides supporting evidence for the proposition that hatred can sometimes be helpful. 

Charles Morgan is a loner and odd one out among the pupils. He lists in his journal everything that he hates, which includes the school buildings and at one point all the people in the school!

This hatred helps to keep him going.

Leslie Charteris and his Saint books: some further thoughts

When the idea of featuring Leslie Charteris's Saint books first came to me, I expected the article to be a short one. I soon realised that there was far too much material of interest for even a long article, so I produced a second post about the Saint stories. That still wasn't enough to cover everything I wanted to say about the books and their author!

This article contains most of the remaining material.

A few green references
After finding many fascinating occurrences of the colour green in the lives and works of various writers including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I decided to see what I could dig up for Leslie Charteris and the Saint. While the results of the investigation are nowhere near what I found for other authors, some references seem worth a mention.

Leslie Charteris spent the last years of his life, from 1967 to 1993, in Englefield Green, a village in Surrey.

Leslie Charteris co-wrote scripts for Sherlock Holmes radio programmes with a Denis Green in the 1940s. 

Rather confusingly, some Saint stories are narrated by a Dennis Green, who appears to be a different person from the one above.

Simon Templar, aka The Saint, is known as the Robin Hood of modern crime; Robin Hood is traditionally depicted dressed in Lincoln Green.

The Saint lives for a while in an apartment that overlooks London's Green Park.

The short story The Export Trade features a gang of jewel thieves called the Green Cross Bunch. 

In the short story titled The Green Goods Man, the Saint puts a stop to the activities of a conman who produces counterfeit pound notes, the 'green goods' of the title.

A few early editions of the Saint books were published with green covers:

Upton Sinclair on the politician's paymasters

Several good, relevant and topical quotations from the American muckraking journalist and author Upton Sinclair have been featured on here, most recently in the article about honest politicians.

These wise words are from his 1940 novel World's End:

"If you wanted to understand a politician you mustn't pay too much attention to his speeches, but find out who were his paymasters. A politician couldn’t rise in public life, in France any more than in America, unless he had the backing of big money, and it was in times of crisis like this that he paid his debts.”

This applies to the present day and the UK too.

There is currently much speculation here about possible  funding sources for some politicians: for example, there are allegations that they are getting money from Russia, China, big business or billionaires. 

Maybe some politicians really are are just pawns and puppets.

We need to follow the money!

The day of reckoning probably will come for some of these politicians. They have laid themselves open to pressure and blackmail from their handlers, backers and paymasters. There is a price for everything, and debts must be paid.

Sixteen years of blogging and still not finished yet!

This is the third article to highlight an anniversary for this blog, which was launched on September 9th 2009.

The first one marks the major milestone of the tenth anniversary. 

The second milestone article was published on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary.

I now think it best to mark the occasion with annual summaries.

I still monitor the Blogger Stats as, although I produce articles mainly for my own benefit, it is fascinating to see what people are reading - and from which countries. There have been some changes since my previous report.

Three articles about Benjamin Disraeli now appear in the top 20 All-Time statistics; one of them has even moved into the list of 10 most Popular Posts. This is unexpected, but it is good to see that Disraeli is still a person of interest.

I have no idea why the article about Diana Wynne Jones's witch Gwendolen Chant should have recently slipped into the top 20 posts!

I have managed to keep to my commitment to produce two posts per month. 

I still hope to find enough material for at least another year's worth of articles, even though my debts to certain authors and books in the form of tribute posts are well on the way to being paid off and I seem to have exhausted many relevant topics.

The cupboard is by no means bare: I have a list of leads and ideas for articles, and I plan to work through them for as long as the inclination to produce articles lasts and I still get some satisfaction from working on and publishing them. 

I will also need some more inspiration from Odin!

A few more words about John Buchan's Greenmantle

Several of John Buchan's books have been featured and/or referenced in a variety of articles on here. I didn't expect to have anything more to say about him and his works, but I recently came across something that has inspired yet another Buchan-themed post.

I found some merchandise in the form of commemorative mugs; some of them have a picture inspired by Greenmantle, my favourite John Buchan story. This reminded me of the book and prompted me to look for a few more things to say about Buchan's exciting adventure story, or 'shocker' as he called it. 

Mugs as Buchan memorabilia:

Greenmantle covers

The picture on the mug of the prophet Greenmantle in his turban reminded me that the cover art on some editions of the book is often of poor quality and doesn't do justice to the story. John Buchan deserves better!

Here are two examples of such covers:

This one is of slightly better quality: