first cricket of the season…

I went along to the Seat Unique Stadium yesterday to watch Gloucestershire (currently next to bottom of the league) play Leicestershire (league leaders).
It proved to be an ‘interesting’ day’s play – with 14 wickets falling during the course the day. Glos were 87-6 at lunch, but recovered to 252 all out; Leics finished at 91-4 at the close.
As ever, I was intrigued (and entertained) by the conversations going on around me by ‘typical cricket-loving old codgers’ like me!
These were just THREE extracts from two Leicestershire supporters sitting on the next table:
“Did I ever tell you about the time I played with Courtney Walsh when I was in the West Indies?
“Zak Crawley once asked for my advice…”
“I played against Gary Lineker at Stamford Bridge… I’ve got the programme to prove it!”
I enjoyed my day, my beer, my roast pork roll AND my cricket!
A very good day.
Photo: A few random images.

blue road…

Moira and I went to the Watershed again yesterday afternoon.
I LOVE Edna O’Brien (she died last July, aged 93) - I’ve read six of her books - and I absolutely LOVED this documentary film of her life by director Sinéad O’Shea.
Her real-life story is/was absolutely fascinating. As a young woman in rural Ireland, O’Brien ran away with writer Ernest Gébler and their unmarried relationship so outraged people that they fled to England (where they got married and had two children). O’Brien’s first novel, ‘The Country Girls’, was incredibly successful – although it infuriated Irish religious opinion. Gébler (who appears to have been something of a monster!) was massively envious (and abusive) and also made O’Brien sign over her royalty cheques to him (he allowed her small amounts of ‘housekeeping’ money)!! Finally, she refused, walked away and, ultimately, they divorced – with both children adamant that they wanted to live with Edna (resulting in Gébler targeting his sons!).
O’Brien’s successful writing continued (enabling her to buy a smart Chelsea townhouse) and, during the 1960s/70s, Edna had fashionable parties and various affairs with rich and famous men from the world of politics, the arts and entertainment.
The film includes readings from her diaries and insightful and touching interviews with her sons Carlo and Sasha Gébler. It also includes generous and good-humoured interviews with O’Brien over a number of years, but I particularly loved the extended interview with her just before her death in 2024.
It’s a thoroughly enjoyable, beautiful and engaging study.
I absolutely loved it. 

april 2025 books...

Pigs Have Wings (PG Wodehouse): Another ‘comfort’ book choice (first published in 1952). As the title suggests, the story is about pigs – and in particular a certain ‘Empress of Blandings’, who is endeavouring to win the renowned ‘Fat Pigs Class’ at the agriculture show for the third year in a row. As usual with Wodehouse, there are LOTS of characters (I get easily confused!); country houses; Lords and Ladies (and butlers); engaging (and disengaging) couples… and, of course, people with very strange names (eg. Gally Threepwood, Fruity Biffen, Puffy Benger and the like). Typically, Wodehouse’s colourful descriptive tales also contain ridiculous, complicated plots and LOTS of inevitable misunderstandings. Entertaining… but I now think I’ve had enough Wodehouse for a while.
Definitions Of Kitchen Verbs (Kenneth Wilson): I first came across Wilson’s poetry at Bristol Cathedral’s recent ‘Lenten Quiet Day’. I enjoyed reading his poetry (out loud to myself) as part of my daily early morning ‘discipline/reflection’ (as it happens, coinciding with the run-up to Easter Week). It’s certainly not a ‘religious book’ (phew), but I found it both thought-provoking and valuable… mixing happy memories, hopes, doubts and regrets. 
The City And The City (China Miéville): This is our next Blokes’ bookgroup selection (by Ian). As a rule, I like detective/crime mystery novels… but I’m afraid I didn’t like this one - with its sci-fi/fantasy scenario. Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Besźel Extreme Crime Squad is faced with the corpse of a university student. The novel’s setting is complicated (understatement!): on the one hand, there is a once beautiful but now dishevelled city of Besźel and, on the other, there's the modernised Ul Qoma. These two cities occupy the same geographical space, but divided not by walls, but certain areas belong to Besźel, others to Ul Qoma, while some are ‘crosshatched’ between the two. Citizens from one city learn from birth to ‘unsee’ the citizens, vehicles, buildings of the other. Any crossing of these boundaries invokes a shadowy organisation called ‘Breach’, which exists to police the separation. The trouble (for me) was that the reader had to glean this information for him/herself… it wasn’t explained; you just gradually worked things out as the plot developed. I really needed this background to be explained from the outset. Yes, it’s an inventive, clever novel by a very intelligent writer (who I’ve subsequently seen described as a “leading exponent of the ‘new weird’”!) – but, sadly, rather too clever (and weird!) for me to appreciate fully. Sorry!
After The Apocalypse (Chris Goan): I’ve read this book of poetry (by my good friend Chris - and illustrated by another great mate, Si Smith) a number of times and have found it both helpful and thought-provoking. It’s a book written in the context of the Coronavirus pandemic (written in 3 sections: Before, During and After). I’ve been using the ‘After’ section (“poems that dare to look forward and imagine a world that is changing and re-shaping”) as part of my recent early morning reflections. It’s a special book that I know I’ll keep returning to.
The Liar's Dictionary (Eley Williams): This is our next Storysmith’s bookgroup selection (vaguely under the theme ‘humour’ – in an attempt to avoid the current, depressing World of Trump!). This novel follows two lexicographers 100 years apart – Mallory, who narrates in the present, and Winceworth, shown in 1899. Both work for Swansby’s New Encyclopaedic Dictionary, a somewhat lesser-known equivalent rival to the likes of the OED. Mallory’s boss, the last of a generation of Swansbys, sets her to investigate errors that had mysteriously accumulated in years gone by (as it happens, mischievous actions by Winceworth in connection with his romantic frustrations and loathing of his colleagues). Meanwhile, someone is calling the office issuing bomb threats on account of the dictionary changing its 1899 definition of marriage from “union between man and woman” to “between… persons” (Mallory wants to keep her sexuality private). Hey, it’s all quite complicated(!), but a very clever, charming, amusing and inventive book – full of a wonderful ‘word play’. An enjoyable read. PS: Reading this put me in mind of a non-fiction book (The Word Detective by John Simpson, former editor of the OED) that I read 3 years ago – which provided an evocative history of the painstakingly-slow work in producing and subsequently editing and updating the OED and it wasn’t until 1989 that the OED was published ‘from a computer database’.

USK Bristol: 10th anniversary!

Bristol Urban Sketchers are celebrating their 10^th Anniversary today on board MV Balmoral… (I’ve been a member for the past 7 years). It’s a brilliant, free, worldwide ‘organisation’ that encourages people to sketch en plein air (ie. outdoors). We meet at least once a month throughout the year – along with our sister group in Bath (which effectively means that many of us are meeting up twice a month).
It’s open to artists of all abilities (and age!) and, for me, it’s become one of the real highlights of my retired life! I’ve got to know some REALLY lovely people and made some brilliant friends along the way. It’s a wonderful, welcoming and encouraging community. Here in Bristol, we frequently have 30-40 people turning up at each session to sketch for up to two hours. Obviously, beer+wine are also involved(!) - once our sketches are completed, we meet up to share what we’ve done (and being nosey about the pens and paper we’ve each used)!
We even continued to meet during Covid lockdown – via Google StreetView and Zoom (I know!) and ended up ‘travelling’ to more than 20 locations around the world in the process.
After my family, it’s definitely one of the highlights of my life (huge thanks to Ian Adams for highlighting ‘Urban Sketching’ all those years ago). Who knew?!
Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/906335416054980
Photo: One of our 10^th anniversary exhibition boards (we always try to get a ‘team photograph’ at the end of all our sketching sessions). 

march-april 2025 books…

The Bloomsbury Group (Frances Spalding): I’ve previously read Spalding’s excellent book about Vanessa Bell and a number of other books relating to Bloomsbury/Charleston artists/writers. This is a relatively short book about the Group, but one that provides an excellent résumé of both its activities and the people involved. More than half the book comprised fascinating brief biographies of the key players – some of whom (eg. Frances Partridge, Margery Fry, Gerald Brenan, EM Forster, Bertrand Russell) I hadn’t previously come across or associated with the Group. An excellent book.
Spring Unfurled (Angela Harding): Harding is a printmaker and illustrator and this rather beautiful, short book celebrates the Spring through her art (mainly linocut+silkscreen, but also some wood engraving). Her studio is at the bottom of her garden in Rutland – looking out onto sheep fields and farmland. Wildlife is her prime subject – birds, hares, dogs and plants (and the occasional building) – all set within the landscape. In past years, I’ve vaguely thought about trying out some linocuts… but, those who know me well, know that I’m not one to try new things or experiment (I know!)! It’s a beautiful book and is part of her ‘Seasons’ series (‘Summer Hum’, Falling into Autumn’ and ‘Winter’s Song’).
The Notebook: A History Of Thinking On Paper (Roland Allen): This book (published in 2023) is a fascinating study of notebooks throughout history. Who doesn’t love a notebook?! It’s a long, wide-ranging, amazingly researched book – over 400 pages – covering all sorts of issues and writers. Although I did end up reading it cover-to-cover, I did so fitting it in between reading other books (the only way I was able to take in and reflect upon the mass of detail and stories it contained?). From Da Vinci’s sketchbooks to scientific breakthroughs recorded in Marie Curie’s still-radioactive notebooks; those old Letts’ diaries; recipe books; journals; sketchbook/notebooks; being reminded of my many years of daily Filofax use and my list-making ‘codes’(!); the creative notebooks of the likes of Bob Dylan, Joan Didion… and SO much more. Brilliantly fascinating… “the joy of jotting things down”.
Three Days In June (Anne Tyler): I’ve previously read a couple of Tyler’s books and, although reasonably impressed, have never had the urge to read lots more (she’s written a LOT of books!). I suppose, in part, I read this one (published in 2025) to get away from all the rubbish going on in the world at present (again!). It features a 61-year-old woman who loses (or quits) her job the day before her daughter’s wedding… and, on top of it all, her ex-husband turns up at her door expecting to stay for the festivities (and he brings with him a cat looking for a new home). It’s about relationships, infidelity, trust and happiness. Tyler writes impressively; it’s a beautifully-observed book; and, yes, it’s an ‘easy read’ (I read it in a day)… but I also found it all a bit predictable too. Enjoyable nonetheless.
Highway Cello (Kenneth Wilson): I REALLY enjoyed this book… it was SUCH a pleasurable experience reading it (that sounds a bit strange doesn’t it!). Wilson sets out on a ‘mission’ (he doesn’t think the word ‘pilgrimage’ quite describes it) to cycle from Hadrian’s Wall to Rome… carrying his carbon-fibre cello strapped on to the back of his bike (together with his other ‘luggage’). Incredibly, he achieves his goal in 40 days… some 1,400 miles and climbing some 3.5 Everests in the process… and busking/giving concerts en route. Wilson is a poet, a cellist and (in his words) a “dreamer”… and, incidentally, an ex-vicar. I’m not sure how old he is (in his late 50s?), but he must be bloomin’ fit! Moira and I first came across him when hosted a Lenten ‘Quiet Day’ at Bristol Cathedral recently… and were really impressed with his music, his poetry and the man himself. I loved his writing style and his natural humour. His journey descriptions convey the scenery, the weather, the people (and their generosity and hospitality), his health (struggling with ‘carpal tunnel wrist’?), the language difficulties… and his naivety when it came to planning/appreciating his journey. I found the whole book hugely uplifting (and slightly, wonderfully mad!). I absolutely loved it.