How Thomas Hardy Beat Bryan Adams

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I've oftened felt that where I differ from a lot of people is not in my likes or dislikes but in those things I'm neutral about. I've chatted before in this blog about the problems of being literary Switzerland regarding F Scott Fitzgerald, Anton Chekov and Jane Austen. But I can expand that further, the almost religious love for Star Wars is something that's passed me by, entertaining that it is. And as for The Simpsons? Clever, funny to an extent but not something I'm bothered about recording.

Musically speaking I realised that Canadian soft/hard/easy to chew over rock person Bryan Adams comes into my Swiss roll of neutrality. People seemed to like him or hate him. For me it was but a shrug.

Yesterday however he was challenging my reading.

I was working the afternoon/evening shift at work so the morning was free. And there was to be honest nothing to do. So I decided to spend the time reading.

Our friend whose house we're living in decided however decided that the morning was going to be spent cleaning the house and that she would listen to music to entertain her as she did so specifically the work of Bryan (and for the record I did offer to help but she turned that politely down - when you have a system someone else is a distraction).

Now let me stress something before I go on. Our friend has very kindly opened the doors of her home for us whilst we're purchasing our next one. Her house her rules. It was up to me to deal with it and adapt.

So I sat down and continued reading The Mayor Of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. Would I be put off from the novel by the Adams Family of tunes he's produced? Well you can guess from the title that I couldn't stop the thing I started.

The Mayor of Casterbridge is truly masterful. Slowly but surely Hardy maps out how a man, capable of emotional cruelty but rather flawed than evil, faces the consequences of his actions. All the characters are well rounded and multifacted. There are no simple heroes and villains in this novel.

Needless to say I was swiping the page oblivious to the life's work of Bryan. He didn't stand a chance. It might have been the 1812 overture and I wouldn't have noticed.

At their best books can do that.

After I finished that the next book was Summer In The City State by Eamonn Sheehy. An account of his time in Morocco. It was finished quickly. To be honest it was just an essay than a book and it was just too short. Really needed to have been longer.

And now the book is an omnibus edition of three crime Inspector Montalbano novels from Andrea Camilleri. Already I've finished one, The Shape Of Water and now am The Terracotta Dog. I finished the day at eleven pm pretending that I was the good inspector by eating spaghetti whilst reading in Bari. Even though the spag bol was frozen and I was in Barry. Ah well.

It was a good day for reading.

Until the next time.

On Books And Wandering Along Barry Road

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Winter In Madrid by C J Sansom is a novel praised by The Guardian, The Times and The Daily Express (a publication that describes itself as "the world's greatest newspaper".....only in a parallel universe). So let's make this clear that my view is not it appears the main body of opinion of this book. But there you go.

It has been described as a "spy novel". Presumably to distinguish itself from the thriller genre. Thrills being severely lacking here as indeed is "Spy" in "Spy novel". There is a spy element set up in the beginning but then it seems to be almost forgotten until half way. Also a plot twist so obvious that it might well as been wrapped in neon. So let me make this clear. If you're considering this book for the spying part don't. You'll be very disappointed.

So what's left seems to be a checklist of things I feel I've read before. War weary central character, menage a trios, foreign location (fascist but neutral Spain in the second world war). All done better (Graham Greene came to mind - there's a Harry Lime character here as well). All in all all very unsatisfactory. There is nothing worse for the reader than the serious piece that fails.

The next book which I finished was Confessions of a Beachcomber by E J Banfield (published 1906). Not as racy a book as the title would suggest. Also more technical about the natural world of the Australian coast than I'd expected, but that's my problem not Banfield's. However mainly towards the end it was also racist in the sort of treat people with a skin darker than yours as you would a pet dog. Not a book I'll read again.

So now I'm going through The Mayor Of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. So far, so good. At least there's a book where I seem to agree with popular opinion.

I haven't yet had the opportunity to wander round Barry Town as I've hoped. Things just cropped up to make his impossible. The closest was on Sunday when I wandered ten to fifteen minutes along the Barry Road, off where I'm living at the moment. Hardly great explorations of our time I know, but when you're new to an area you can find interest in what's new, until you become part of the area when it all becomes mundane.

So let's start when I'm about to leave the street. An ordinary terraced road when suddenly I notice something along the pavement....a horse.

I call to the wife "There's a horse being ridden along the pavement!"

Wife tells me to shut up. "People will think you're insulting the area".

I disagree. There's a difference between insulting an area and saying "There's a horse being ridden along the pavement"

As I entered the road turned left and noticed as the journey developed noticed that further up the hill I went the type of house changed. Up the hill meant that the houses became semi detached and to my memory some were detached as well.

Starting my journey saw a café that did an all day breakfast. The sort of thing that would give you a free ticket to heart attack city if you ate it regularly but occasionally...? Must admit I'm tempted.

Passed Jenner Park Primary school which seemed to be built in a Victorian style (the bricks appeared new).I like this style. Nowadays schools seem to be built like office blocks.

Found a new and easier way to get to Jenner Park, home of Barry Town FC than I was told. Shame the season's finished. There was a game being played that day but was too busy to enquire about it.

The Park Of Jenner

I saw this a few minutes afterwards.

I didn't realise that you could include TY (house) and NEWYDD (new) as one word. After enquiring about this on Twitter it was suggested to me that it was named after a coal mining village in the Rhondda and that Barry was the port it was shipped from. I've no idea but just putting it out there.

There was a convenience store towards the end of the road. The local headlines were about a teenager who tried to commit a robbery using a fake gun and a chip shop burnt down due to an overnight fire. You might think a thousand and one jokes seem appropriate here, but livelihoods has literally gone in flames.

Opposite the store there was this chain pub restaurant.

Wonder if anyone talks Anton Chekhov here.....probably not

Later Wife/daughter and I went to have dinner here. Lighting was a bit dark. As if designed by the Addams Family. But could not fault the food or service at all.

As we walked back there was something heartbreaking. Put on a lamppost was a smiling picture of a child with some flowers and a printed note saying "We will remember" on it. Sometimes even words are not enough.....

There is a view from the road. Here it is.

Not the Rhondda. Still a good view

Hopefully on Wednesday will be able to wander round the town called Barry itself.

Until the next time.

I Bet No One Who Knew Victor Hugo Asked Him For Directions

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well Les Miserables has been finished with no tune to bother me. Makes me wonder whether I've been the only person in Britain who has rather read the book than watch the musical once it became popular.

Of course that makes me out as a snob, which trust me I'm not. Just a reader me. Perhaps to prove that let's begin by saying that whilst by no means the worst book I've read so far this year I doubt I'm going to read one as annoying.

For what happens seems to be this. You as the reader are hooked as the plot unfolds. You are turning (in my case swiping) every page. Suddenly though it appears out of your view that Victor has gone to his characters and said something along the lines of "Yes I know it's tough mes amis. Liberte, equalitie, fraternitie and all that so I tell you  what. Why don't you just a have a coffee and a croissant and I'll take over for a while?"

(A quick aside. If you're insulted that I haven't put any accents on the French words the explanation is simple. I don't know how on the laptop)

And this happens constantly throughout the book. All of a sudden, with a link to the plot that is tenuous at best,unclear at worst and constantly mind numbingly boring we suddenly get Victor's views on everything ranging from Waterloo to religion to slang (yes really!) with all manner of subjects in between.

You may remember that I said after reading Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes that I'd reckoned the author had pummelled all the stories he left in a bottom drawer into the novel. Well I reckon the same happened here except that we're talking opinion pieces. It just read as if Victor stuffed  the book with everything he could.

Just imagine you're lost and happen to come across Victor and ask him for directions. He will get you to where you want to go but in the longest most unnecessary route possible where there could have been a quicker route to your destination. For the reader of Les Miserables the destination is the return to the actual storyline....because when you reach it it's worth it.

When it goes into proper novel mode this book is gripping. Believable people coping in extraordinary situations. For although the goodies/baddies are clear, even the goodies have shades of grey within them. When in novel mode you can see why this book is a classic.

So Les Miserables then. A great book sprinkled with literary mogadon...which is why it's also annoying.

The next book amongst the great ebook unread is Winter In Madrid by C J Sansom.A relatively modern novel (2006) which is good as I haven't read one for a while. We'll see how it goes.

Until the next time.

A Comfort Sandwich In An Uncomfortable Time

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Obviously I have to mention the Manchester atrocity first. For what it's worth my thoughts go to the bereaved  family and friends and to those that died....bar one. My daughter is of an age where she could have gone to an Ariana Grande concert. To target mainly young girls is not the action of men, but of cowards.

The reaction of the British government in putting soldiers on the streets of major British cities (including I presume Cardiff because of next week's Champions League final) is I would argue mistaken. They should have just been armed police instead. The use of soldiers you see will only encourage the terrorists further. Because they will perceive that they have made a difference.

At time of writing it's a Wednesday. And I have a day off work. Had planned just wandering round the streets where I live for now and just taking in the surroundings. But there was homework to be done. And when I mean homework, it's tying the loose ends re companies to ring to say we've moved house, close a few direct debits etc.

(The next day off I have is Sunday. So I hope to have that wander round Barry then).

It was 11:45am and having finished all I could do today. Fancied lunch. In fact let's be clear here. I fancied a sausage sandwich with red sauce on it. Because.....because in times like these a quiet little comfort is important.

There's a sandwich shop nearby. But before that had to go to the Premier shop first for a microwave meal. Tomorrow I'm working the afternoon/evening shift so best I got it now.

Looked at what was on offer. A beef curry, beef hotpot and beef Lasagne of the non Weight watchers stuff. Obviously a fan of beef. Still given I wasn't going to have it till eleven tomorrow evening curry and the hotpot weren't really an option. The Lasagne it was then. Saw also Marmite crisps....bought that for lunch....my drug of choice I'm afraid.

So armed with a frozen beef lasagne and a packet of Marmite crisps, as you do, I went to get the sandwich from the shop called Grizzly Catering Services.

As you entered there were Grizzly bear models and pictures by the wall. A guy, I'm assuming the manager was making some sandwiches which for a sandwich shop is reasonable enough.

Looked at the soft drink. Connoisseur that I am I took as cherry Tango. It was then I noticed the Marmite crisps. Apologised to the guy as I ordered the sandwiches.

He made the sandwich and I went home. It was all delicious.

That was the highlight of my day. You might think this is all a bit dull and you know what? You'd be right.

But after Monday perhaps there are moments when dull is the most precious thing you can hold.

Until the next time.

The Bridgend Town,Porthcawl and Maesteg Farewell Tour....Probably

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Today I wasn't at work and had to go to the solicitors with regard to do various things about the house. Both the one we'd sold and the one we're hoping to buy. But once all of that was finished, and given I'd nothing left to do for the day. I decided to do a quick trip around the three towns I've been blogging about since this all started. As although I'm still working in the area I'm unlikely to visit them for a while.

So let's start with Bridgend Town, and two quick asides. I had to make a trip to the local ASDA. Noticed this.

Magazines are in trouble

The rack on the right has reduced even further since I last posted about it. The shelves on the left have reduced as well. Magazines really are in trouble.

If you recoil from tacky gifts...look away now.

There is tacky...and then there's this

These are bride and groom garden gnomes......yes I know.

So let's talk about the latest shops to close down in Bridgend Town

If you look at the block at the centre of the street and the shop on the right. That was a barber's cum tattooist. Unfortunately no more.

Wife asked me to get something from the local Poundstretcher. I didn't get it.

That tagline is ironic now

Now for the Shopping Centre. What I didn't know was that it was actually under administration and a property company has taken it over today promising new investment and stores. I never thought I'd ever wish a property company well. But I do today.

There is a new clothing store in the centre. But a shop has also closed since I was last there.

Greggless

Now there is another Greggs in Bridgend Town but they've both coexisted for years. Now though it seems that even in the hot food market austerity bites.

And finally let's just remember the Mcdonalds in the town. Closed for seventeen years and with no sign of anything being done to it.

Next I went to Porthcawl. I tell you it must have known that I wasn't going to be visiting for a while. It gave me a view of the sea I hadn't seen in a while.

Excuse the finger

After lunch (sausage sandwich and a cappuchino) tradition mixed with the modern. Went to Maesteg.

Still the winner of the best view from a car park.

You know I think if I have to pick something from these three towns I'll miss the most. I think it's just the selection of breathtaking views from Maesteg and the surrounding villages that make me just want to stop the car and take it all in. This is all from today.

Having written all of the above. I'll probably find out I've got to go back to one of them again tomorrow. But anyway I'll remember them with affection though regarding Bridgend Town added concern.

Until the next time.

So To Kindness Of Friends I'm With Barry

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well I haven't been writing for a while. I think you can guess why. We've moved.....temporarily thanks to the kindness of friends.....to Barry Town.

It seemed to have taken forever but the house is now sold. And, I'll say it now, we have an offer accepted on a house to buy. But am not going to talk about that further until that's been completed and that's going to take (assuming no unexpected problems) two to three months complete. So just fingers crossed.

( A quick note re moving. I've moved house five times in my life and I can't say I've been emotional about the house. As long as it's livable I really don't care.)

But for now it's Barry Town. People keep asking me what I think of it. The thing is I don't know yet. Only moved in on Friday. "It'll be an experience" somebody told me who lives in Penarth. That person I know is a snob, but she's not alone in having a low opinion of the place.

Being born in the East End, I'm used to contemptuous attitudes from some people living in surrounding areas. This instinctively makes me far more sympathetic to Barry from the outset.

I'm not really sure of the right words to describe this stay in Barry. A holiday would be too stupid. The closest word, though it sounds too much like Enid Blyton to be completely right word is adventure. In the sense of being somewhere different to what you've known is an adventure.

Having said that. The "adventure" is not going to start immediately. For mainly work reasons the only day this week I can truly start to appreciate the place is Wednesday, and that's assuming the weather's fine. So must admit it doesn't make the last of the great explorers.

One thing I do know about Barry. If there's a boss, it's those seagulls. They seem to fly around the place knowing full well that no one will try and supplant them.

The Boss Of Barry

A new place for me ....a town called Barry.

Until the next time.

How To Explain Hard Brexit And Welsh Independence.....Through The Medium Of Football

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

There I am on a Saturday night. The day spent on the packing and crating re the planned move on Friday. Time for a late night relax. Match of The Day is on BBC2 having been moved from its normal channel by the Eurovision Song Contest. A bit of an irony really given that you know the football results of the matches you're about to see beforehand but you also knew re the UK the result of the singing as well. But there we are.

West Ham are playing today (Sunday) but I saw Swansea City win (Hooray!) and Arsenal win (Boo! Indeed Boo! with added sprinkles)

As I was watching my mind began thinking about Eurovision and football and Europe and Hard Brexit....and if you want to know why......absolutely no idea whatsoever.

But you know football can explain the effect Hard Brexit is going to have on Britain. In 1985 due to the Heysel stadium disaster English teams were (rightly) banned from playing in European football competitions for five years. England were out, alone, isolated.

English football in that period was stagnant. They had to drum up meaningless competitions to make up for the matches lost (I seem to vaguely remember a Screensport...or was it Supersport (now defunct TV station) cup. Meanwhile the European competitions survived perfectly well without English teams thankyou very much.

And you could take it further. For English players to play in European competitions they transferred (emigrated) to Scotland (Terry Butcher - England team Captain or Chris Woods - England team goalkeeper) or France (Chris Waddle). They also wanted to experience the different culture as well. The media in England desperate to have an English involvement latched onto these players but it didn't hide the fact that isolation hurt England. It did not hurt Europe.

Let's also discuss immigration. When the ban was lifted foreign players started playing for English clubs. You can argue that it has badly affected the British game as a whole but without this immigration English football would not be as exciting as it is at the moment. Whilst it's obvious not every foreign player is as worth his/her fee British academy players can but only learn from the best if they're constantly watching them. Learning from the best would improve the British game. It's called education.

If football experiences a hard Brexit the lack of high quality foreign players will cause the British game to be the gloomy experience it was in the late eighties. It wont be pretty.

With regard to management if a nation is not opened to fresh ideas from wherever it comes from then it will be become dogmatic and authoritatian. Free thinking will frowned upon. Anything outside the established views will be considered "radical" and dangerous. This is happening in British politics right now.....or should I say far right now.

As for Welsh independence the performance of the national team in Euro 16 showed that if there is a will Wales can prove to a surprised world that it can survive,prosper and live without England. Despite whatever London based propaganda is broadcast to the contrary the Welsh are not stupid (though as I've argued before possibly too nice).

And remember this. Though Wales voted Brexit (good people being misled as I've discussed before) what Euro 16 showed was that the Welsh fans were well behaved and got on well with its neighbours unlike its English equivalents. If people could vote on this I'm sure that the Welsh would go for a soft Brexit so that there would be some link with Europe.

Wales moved together as a team through Euro 16. You'll say that the results since then have not been so good which is obviously true. I've also said before that independence will not result in mistakes never been made again. What independence gives is the purpose, a hoped for goal, in being involved in the rise of a reborn nation. Decisions will made in the context of improving the lives of Welsh people and the people who've moved here.

No one can argue people look at the Welsh football team with different eyes than it did before.

Until the next time.

The Reader's Climb Up The Mountain Of A Big Novel

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Firstly let's a quick bit of housekeeping...literally. Barring any unforeseen disasters we'll be leaving Bridgend on Friday. Spending a couple of weeks with a friend who has kindly offered to put us up in a town called Barry until we've found a place to rent in Penarth/surrounding areas before going onward to buy.

Things are a bit tense for wife/daughter at the moment. For one of the few conditions I set out (which let me stress that wife did not object to) regarding the move was that in the extremely unlikely event of this falling through then we would have to stay in Bridgend for at least two years because the next school year would be the beginning of daughter's exam period. We are expecting this to be completed by Monday though (as I'm writing this on Saturday) and that scenario is very much worse case.

The second bit of housekeeping is, shall we well say literaturelly, as it's regarding books. The correspondence between Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson was finished very quickly. It's alright, but it's one of those books where you've got to be in the right mindset before reading. The fact that it was relatively short though helped.

Unlike the next book I'm reading.

For in another show that my Kindle has a sense of humour in my random way of picking the next ebook to read it's thrown up Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Yes,zut alors! another work by a French writer. How unpatriotic, treasonable am I? (That's for those Hard Brexiteers reading. Saves you the bother of responding).

Now this a big read. Apparently (already started reading it) I've over twenty one hours left to go before completion and it's going to be quite a while given the probable lack of spare time I'm going to have next week before I finish it. So I've picked the wrong novel really in the wrong moment and yet stubborn that I occasionally am just moving on with it.

Not all big novels are a reader's mountain. If a book is clearly written and to be read as a bestseller then though it might seem daunting the terrain is actually quite simple. Your brain can read it in first gear. There are no hidden crevices or sudden avalanches. Nothing will make you want to turn back, even slightly. But for Les Miserables (I refuse to call it Les Mis) that's not possible.

Perhaps alternate with slimmer books as I've done with normal sized books in the past (and will do so again in the future)? For me no. A book like this demands that for what it can give you must devote your whole reading time to it.

Even giving it more time to read would be a mistake. Because unless you're completely gripped ploughing into a book would eventually make it seem as if you're wading into treacle.

No the best way to read a big important book is not to change your reading habits at all. Just be patient and accept that climbing the mountain will take a bit longer. The feeling you get when you've finished though will be far more exhilarating.

So I'd better continue reading then.....

Until the next time.

An Amazonian Mystery And Sects In The City

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

One of the things you have to accept, and I do, is that when you buy a Kindle Amazon are going to send you emails enticing you to buy further ebooks. Most of these are either based on their various offers for that particular month, or on books you've recently purchased which is perfectly fine.

However recently I received an email from them which stated that as I've shown an interest in The Panda Trap by Pascal Garnier here are some other works of his as well as similar writers for your consideration.

Now regular readers to this blog will remember that I read this book a few weeks back and did recommend it (Buy it soon. The way Britain is going reading a work by a French author, even in English, will be considered an act of treachery). Thing is though I actually downloaded it in January 2013.

I think that email was the first of its kind Amazon sent to me. So the question is how did they know I had after four and a bit years got round to reading it?

There are three explanations. Firstly it was just coincidence and I was just being paranoid. Well that's possible. After all I feel this in a queue of Tesco Express ("Express"? Choose the wrong moment and its more like a Tesco Donkey Cart for the time you have to wait).

Secondly that someone from Amazon is reading this blog. Oh I hope so. Fame at last and all that. Mind you the email address I use in this blog is different to the one I use for the Amazon Kindle.

The final possibility is that if you have the wifi on whilst you're reading an ebook Amazon can somehow know this. I think that, from now on, when I'm reading an ebook I'll be certain that it's on aeroplane mode.

No matter how well read you think you are every reader knows that there are gaps their knowledge. Well known writers that they have merely glanced at, are aware of but haven't actually taken the plunge into. This is mainly due to the other distractions of life as well as the fact that there are so many books but so little time.

Until this year I'd obviously heard of Emile Zola but hadn't read anything by him. However now I've read a book about his exile in London, a short story and now a novel Lourdes, the first part of a "Three Cities" trilogy written in 1984.

It is a good read, I did feel I was reading the French Dickens (I'm sure there's a French blogger describing Dickens now as the "English Zola") as there are various stories with one particular one that carries it through.

For commercial reasons or not Zola does not appear to give a view as to whether he believes in the healing power that the Lourdes legend has to give. It's fair to say though that he does not approve of the Catholic church as an institution.

What he conveys well is how people fuelled with a mixture of religious fervour and illnesses come to the city as a pilgrimage, almost like a Christian Mecca in that regard .Lourdes that emerges as the central character.

I'm looking forward to reading the remainder of the trilogy. For now though the next book is The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson 1834-1872. Volume One. Well it was free.

Until the next time.

The Welsh Rugby Union......Sport's Welsh Labour?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling today.

When I was young growing up in London my knowledge of Wales was limited and now I realise full of cliches. When Wales either in fact or fiction appeared on British TV it would generally include a coal mine, a choir,a pub, socialism and poverty (the last of which I'd argue still exists and has got worse in the last decade).

(A quick aside here. I was told when in London by a Welsh woman who moved there that the cliché she hated the most was that when the miners left the coal mine for the day they were singing. Her grandfather told her that they were too weary and just wanted to get home)

The other cliché that would always appear was rugby. That it was "the people's game". It was the sport that most people watched and played and followed their local team every Saturday afternoon after which they would go to the pub. And you know what? If my experience in the late nineties was anything to go by that cliché was basically true.

But in 2003 the structure of Welsh rugby at club level changed. Instead of a league structure like football with promotion/relegation there would just be five teams that would join teams in Scotland and Ireland to form the Celtic League. All the other teams, some with a great history like Pontypool would just become feeder clubs to the big five.

And yes I said five. The Celtic Warriors. The team that was the merger between Bridgend and Pontypridd. The team that I must admit was looking forward to taking my then baby daughter to on a Saturday to support her (and our) local team. But in 2004, for financial reasons that are too complex to explain here the Welsh Rugby Union closed the team down.

Thirteen years later however we have now got the news that the Welsh Rugby Union have taken over the Newport Gwent Dragons and possibly (at least for a temporary period) the Cardiff Blues because of various financial issues.

And the question needs to be asked how has it come to this? The answer I would argue is that taken as a whole (because I think Scarlets are an exception) these (now four) teams failed to convince enough people to follow them. In other words people from Pontypridd would rather watch their local team play in a lower tier rugby game than travel to Cardiff to see a club that they had no emotional attachment to whatsoever. Or why would I take a forty minute drive to Swansea to watch a team hoisted on me by default when the Warriors folded? Welsh rugby is not the NFL but the Welsh Rugby Union thought it would be a successful model for Wales. For the moment at least this isn't

Also the point about supporting a club is that you will have that dream that your team would reach the top of their sport. The Welsh Rugby Union took that dream away from a lot of fans in clubs across the country. Consequently a lot of these fans became disillusioned and didn't feel the impetus to attend every game whereas once was a reflex reaction to being a Welsh rugby supporter.

You could also argue that it has been unlucky with the relative rise in that period of Cardiff and Swansea City football clubs.  Swansea shares their ground with the Ospreys and the difference in attendances is embarrassing. Equally when for a short period the Blues shared with Cardiff City at the Cardiff City Stadium. When the Blues eventually moved back to the Arms Park it was I remember hailed by the BBC as a victory for the fans. But in reality it was an admission of failure. They could never even give an impression of filling the stadium which Cardiff City could do with ease. There is a good case for saying that at a club level football is now the national sport.

What could be done? Well I have no knowledge of the financial issues but I'm inclined to go back to the future and create the situation that existed before regional rugby was created. That way there would be local clubs that could be guaranteed real local support that could be built upon. It's no coincidence that when I see a second tier Welsh rugby game the attendances are impressive.

The Welsh Rugby Union find themselves in this situation because they alienated their base. Consequently whilst they are still the biggest sporting organisation in Wales they, and indeed Welsh club rugby, are not (talking generally) as part of the local fabric that they once were. The analogy with Welsh Labour is striking.

And they have only themselves to blame.

Until the next time.

The Big Mac Novel

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well Jack O'Judgement by Edgar Wallace is finished. Let my say at the outset that I liked it a lot in a sort of don't think about it wallow in it sort of way. Rather like the Sir Walter Scott historical novel The Talisman that I chatted about recently as long as you don't take it seriously you'll be fine. This book is, to use an old expression, a rattling good yarn.

(Must admit that I'd been waiting for a while for an another writer that I could say I disliked one book but liked the next one. Did not expect it to be Edgar Wallace!)

But when it was finished it made me realised that what I was reading was what I would like to call a Big Mac novel.

The thing about a Big Mac is this. You want it, you eat it,you've enjoyed it. But soon after you've forgotten all about it. A Big Mac novel is a work where the writer has specifically set out to write a bestseller. You've read it, let's say you've enjoyed it, but soon it'll just escape your mind.

When I was a teenager/in my twenties many Jack Higgins/HarryPatterson novels were consumed in the mistaken belief that I too could be a rough tough man's man (especially when I took my glasses off). But The Eagle Has Landed aside I can barely only remember some of the plots of the books and have forgotten many more. Ditto Dick Francis. And as for Alistair Maclean could not tell you the plots of his novels other than those that were made into films (and let me say here, his books were dull the films were better).

Or perhaps Frederick Forsyth is a better example. After his first three thrillers can anyone really recall a book of his? Or for the ladies Barbara Cartland, a woman who produced so many romantic novels I'd be amazed if she could remember the plot of them all let alone the reader.

(Of course there are exceptions. One of my favourite "Big Mac" writers as I've mentioned before was Arthur Hailey, author of Airport and Hotel and whose ebook versions of his novels sell for the astonishly high price of six pounds)

You could just say that this is because I'm a man in his fifties. Something I can't deny. But there are many other books I can remember reading at that time that I can recall now as if it was yesterday. Also, can you drag from the memory the plot of all the James Patterson (plus one other) thrillers you've read?

I'm not being snobbish. There's nothing wrong with having a Big Mac medium meal. I had one last Friday.....

(A quick aside here that was a mistake. I'd finished the afternoon/evening shift at work and for reasons that I won't bother you with needed to get something outside of the house for dinner. Well after ten o'clock on a Friday evening going through the drive through in my Kia Picanto surrounded by the young dudes and dudettes in their flashy over the top shiny alloyed wheeled cars made it the longest time I've ever had to hang round there for a burger)

.....but it's just that a fuller meal is better.

The next book randomly picked, which yet again seems to show that my Kindle has a sense of humour is the first part of the three cities trilogy, Lourdes by Emile Zola. Firstly because this weekend has been all Francais due to the election of Emmanuel Macron. The new President has already pronounced that he's going to seek the transfer of jobs from the City of London to France due to Brexit. Must admit that I'm going to have absolutely no sympathy for anybody there who loses their job who in the past practically wet themselves with excitement because a company closed offices/factories for "efficiency savings" in Britain despite the human/social consequences because it sent the share price up (but note before you call me a "traitor" or a "saboteur" I'm talking about those people only).

And it's also rather funny that having never read Emile Zola before this year I have in the past few months read a book about him and a short story (The Flood - Worth reading).

Must admit it shows that I'm more ignorant of France than I thought. I never realised that Lourdes was a city. You learn something everyday. Such as never go to a Mcdonalds drive through on a Friday night.

Until the next time.

The Most Important Book I've Read This Year

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Let me set the scene for you. It's Sunday afternoon and surprisingly the sun is shining. It's pleasant out there...but I'm inside the house blinds shut.

I should be cutting the grass for the final time before we move out (probably)...but that can wait until Tuesday.I'm inside.

Wife/daughter are out. Next weekend wife and I will be doing a final blitz of the stuff barring the barest of essentials to be packed before the move. The world is my oyster....and I'm inside.....reading.

Not since American Psycho have I read a book that I just had to complete. As a reader it's a rare feeling when a book grips you to that extent. Where almost everything else just has to stop.

As I chatted about yesterday Robert Tressell's novel The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists grips from the first chapter because though it was written in 1911 the message seems astonishingly relevant in the Jackboot Britain that has stealthily been created in recent months. I won't detail what happens in the rest of the novel. I wouldn't spoil things for you. But it shows a vision of a Britain that already exists post Brexit and will only get worse.

For whoever in Britain has been supposed to have "taken control" post Brexit it won't be ordinary people, that's for certain.

And let us be clear here the "Philanthropists" of the title are firstly the people who accept lower standards in their lives for fear of the consequences of rebellion ,that I understand and have acted this way in the past. However there are also those ordinary people who vote Conservative in the UK or Trump in the US  believing that they are natural right wing voters and yet these are the very people who will probably be badly affected by the consequences of their action.

It's not perfect. A bit of editing would have helped. And it's vision of socialism seems quaint now when people such as in Wales have voted for Labour to control towns, cities etc and have been disappointed to have found them as arrogant as Conservatives. It was one of the reasons that I decided to join Plaid Cymru.

However its importance in this age of Jackboot Britain cannot be over emphasised. It describes a Britain where the ordinary are at the mercy of those with money, where the media is biased to the right wing and nothing, absolutely nothing is beyond the needs of avarice.

Good people voted for Brexit and were misled. This novel shows the consequences of a town that rich men rule.

This novel's time has come again. Read it before you find it conveniently unavailable.

The next book to read is Jack O'Judgement by Edgar Wallace. Something tells me I'm not going to be as enthusiastic about this one.

Until the next time.

The Ragged Trousered Prophets Of Jackboot Britain

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well didn't read on Thursday. Was a bit stressed out by the house move situation. Three separate issues seem to have converged on us at the same time. Those that say this is one of the most traumatic times of your lives are right. However things at the end of that day seem to have resolved themselves...thankfully.

What this all means is that I didn't exactly start reading The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressel until yesterday. Perhaps this was meant to be. Because on that morning the news greeted me of widespread conservative gains throughout Britain in the local elections, what has turned out to be the supporting act for the general election. I've spoken about this election before and will only mention a few things about it before I go on. But clearly what it shows is the Conservatives will win an overall majority and the synchronised march of jackboot Britain will continue.

I do need to mention a few things about the local election. Plaid Cymru have made gains. It is perhaps at a slow pace, but clearly more and more people are realising that in Wales they are the party Labour used to be. Labour knows this, especially now as inroads have been made into places that they've never had success before......such as Bridgend.

Bridgend is at no overall control at time of writing. Labour having lost its majority. Regular readers will know that along with Arsenal football club and D H Lawrence Bridgend Labour Council are one of the regular villains of this blog. They deserve it having run the borough with arrogant incompetence. What will be interesting is to see exactly what type of government takes over and whether they'll still be involved. We'll have to wait and see.

Anyway back to Jackboot Britain and to The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. there am I yesterday afternoon starting to read this novel and I'm stunned. For although this was written in 1911 the similarities with the Britain of today are striking.

I won't go into detail of the plot. I would never spoil it for another reader. But Chapter one is a perfect case in point. To set the scene it's lunchtime and workmen are discussing various issues.

Firstly a government "fiscal policy" is mentioned. Some of these workmen vote Conservative, despite the damage the party does to them because they believe that they are the only party with an economic plan. This rings true today. It doesn't matter that the plan gives more to the rich and punishes the poor. It's a plan and it's put out as the only one that makes any sense. As I've said before with regard to people I know who are in debt but don't show it. Image is everything.....until reality bites.

Then comes the fact that the majority of these men are not interested in politics. This is the case now. People are not interested in the subject that will dominate their lives. "Don't be interested in politics,politics is dull, come here and watch Britains Got The X Factor Voice Dancing Instead. Oh and the decline in your living standards? That's the fault of the foreigners".

And what's the newspaper some of these men are reading? It's The Obscurer. A Tory paper that bellows news from a Tory bias? Sounds familiar? After all Britain has now become a country where to disagree with the government party line you are called an enemy of the people or a saboteur deserving to be crushed. Britain was a country that was a proud democracy where people of non violent but different views to the government of the day were not treated as traitors. Let me make myself clear. On the basis of current British tabloid mentality I am a traitor. There I've said it.

Let's get back to "the foreigners". That's right it's mentioned here too in a book written in 1911. In this chapter a charcter says that they should be "driven into the bloody sea" for taking "the bread out of English people's mouths". Even then what you do is to create an enemy where the real enemy are the rich who seek to keep all their money whilst letting the rest of us live on a pittance. Nowadays it appears to be mainly the Poles who are subjected to this racism. It's a trick, and not the only one the Conservatives use either. Really the Tories must have been founder members of the Magic Circle.

Another issue is the increasing use of foodbanks in jackboot Britain because of poverty. An issue that Theresa May finds "complex". In the book a workman states that "Drink is the cause of the poverty". The impression is given that self restraint will stop poverty. I heard similar argument on TV being stated in that some of the people going to foodbanks had cigarettes and drink.

Again this is Tory trick, for although such people exist, the slight of hand is to imply that they are in the majority. Most are decent people who have fallen on hard times and find that the state would rather turn its back on them  or punish them further than help out.

And that is on Chapter One. I could have gone further but that would have spoilt things for you.  Let's just say that it gives us an idea of things to come in Jackboot Britain as well as what's currently happening. I've not finished it yet but it seems to be the most important book I'm going to read this year.

Until the next time.

Why Didn't I Like Treasure Island More?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, part of the literary bucket list of classics I should read before I die that my Kindle seems to be giving me (does it know something I don't?) can now be crossed off.

More than any of these books I've read recently though when finished I felt unenthused. Won't say neutral, because I did like the novel. Just not as much as I thought.

So there am I on completion thinking to myself "Why Didn't I Like Treasure Island more?" Mentally found myself  making a short list of reasons.

Here's it is:

That I knew too much about the book before reading it: Regular readers to this blog will know that I try to avoid film/TV adaptations of famous novels as much as possible to avoid the probability of the reading experience being spoilt. But the more famous the book the more chances there are of images in the popular consciousness, consequently there are less chances of you being able to be monk like in the isolation of them.

Of the recent classic books I've read Treasure Island was far and away the most famous. Who doesn't know about Long John Silver and that parrot, Jim Hawkins etc. It's also responsible for a lot of popular pirate clichés. Perhaps I just knew too much before I started reading it to have enjoyed it now?

That the book had just one strong character in Long John Silver and was damaged because of it: I've read bad books in my life where what pulled you through as a reader was the strength of one particular character. Soames Forsyth and Francis Urquhart in the novels of John Galsworthy and Michael Dobbs springs to mind. It didn't mean that I enjoyed the book, it just meant there was a reason why I continued to turn the page.

The trouble however was that when the strong character wasn't in a scene the book seemed dull in comparison. Although let me stress I don't think that this is a bad novel to me it was exactly what occurred in Treasure Island.

And linked to this reason comes the following:

That the "good guys" in Treasure Island are just dull/unbelievable: And so they are. Even Jim Hawkins, who is able at thirteen to do things that elders in his group are incapable of.

That people should just know their place: If we leave aside Jim Hawkins for a moment. It's noticeable that the "good guys" in Treasure Island are all in positions of authority (the captain.the squire and the doctor). The subliminal message here is that the lower orders should follow people of a higher strata than them. It's irritating to say the least.

All of the above are genuine reasons why I didn't like Treasure Island as much as I was expecting to. But one reason dominates above all else.

I read it too late: When starting to read this book I didn't know whether it was purely for children or "for all the family". Having read it I now know that it's the former. More specifically a book for boys between about ten and thirteen before girls come into the picture. It's on reflection noticeable that there's just one female character in the entire novel, Jim Hawkins' mother. And she's gone after a few chapters.

What more could a boy of that age want than adventure in the high seas and foreign climes without bothersome whiny women to stop you? Not only that but you prove yourself just as invaluable as the adults around you. It's very Boy's Own.

However I'm a very old man with very grey hair. I no longer have the enthusiasm of thirteen, just the fatigue of fifty three.

So the fault as to why I didn't like Treasure Island as much is not Stevenson's but mine. I was too old to truly enjoy it (a sentence I'll be saying a lot of as these years go on).

The next book from the great unread is The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell. Arguably the most important work of socialist fiction in English.

So definitely a book a fifty three year old man can read.

Until the next time.

Sniffling With Sir Walter Scott

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It's about 10pm yesterday. Wife and daughter are in bed but I've stayed up to do a bit of reading in the living room. My Kindle (other e readers are available) tells me that there's 16 minutes left of Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman to finish. Smooth Classics from Classic FM is in the background. I've a cup of tea and some dark chocolate digestive biscuits. Half hour wind down with a book. What you might ask could possibly go wrong?

As it happens everything. It starts with a few sniffles that I can't seem to shake off, then sneezing and then moving to full blown eye watering. I know the wife had cooked onions but that was hours before. And let me tell you it definitely wasn't the book.

Struggled for a few more minutes but it was no use. Sir Walter would have to wait for another day as I went to sleep instead. There are few things worse for a reader than getting everything prepared for a quiet reading session and in the last moments being unable to do it.

That other day when the book was finally finished was this morning. 5am . BBC Radio 3 is on this time. A cup of tea but no digestives...... you can't spoil breakfast ......and thankfully no sniffles.

The Talisman is the second book in a series set in the Crusades. Something I didn't know when I started (my fault). It's best approached as a historical potboiler. As the disclaimer goes any similarity to real events is purely coincidental.

I didn't bargain for the lack of action in this novel. If in my late teens/early twenties this might just have been a gamechanger given my preconceptions when starting. At fifty three however it was unexpected and nothing else.

If you approach this book as a potboiler then you will be pleasantly surprised. For although it's clear where the author's sympathies lay with regard to the Crusades and indeed in supporting the British Christian way of life  in general (which includes the monarchy...he's not Sir Walter Scott for nothing) he showed a surprising amount of respect for the Muslim religion and the Muslim characters in this novel, which does him credit. It has a sense of nuance.

So as an entertainment for a fifty three year old man, baring in mind the time it was written then I would recommend it. If you're much younger....well you've been warned.

I've mentioned before that my Kindle (other e readers are available) does seem to have a sense of humour. For in the random way I pick ebooks the next one to read turns out to be Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. I wonder if I'm the first man to have read an autobiography of Stevenson's wife before reading one of his classic works.

Definitely a book for the bucket list of literature before you die in that whether you like it or not you need to say that you've read it. That time for me has come at fifty three....yes I know.

Until the next time.

The English Socialist Plaid Cymru Attack List

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

You know even when you blog regularly there are days when nothing happens, or nothing that is bloggable happens, or nothing that you want to blog about happens. So you think. "I'm not going to post about anything today what's on TV?" That was yesterday. A bank holiday. (and the answer to the TV question? Nothing.)

And then....late in the day.....along comes Twitter.

I found myself entering into an argument with a Labour party member living in England with regard to Plaid Cymru and the political situation in Wales in general. I'll go through the gist of his arguments in a moment but the question I kept asking, and it took a long time for him to respond, was how long was it since he was last in Wales. The answer, was TWENTY YEARS AGO.

The Twitterspat with him though got me thinking. There probably are many English socialists out there who have either never been to Wales or like my friend haven't visited in decades and yet feel they can comment on the Welsh political scene and/or attack Plaid Cymru directly. These people have clichés about the country (which probably I had before I moved in 1997) and feel confident in pontificating about it (something I never did). The fact that they are socialists have nothing to do with it, they have this Celtic image and that's it. ("Plaid Cymru dare to criticise Labour. How could they with our history" ?) and they feel the instinctive urge to fight back with tired out of date arguments  You could even argue that it's racist, though I think ignorance is closer to the mark.

So, based on my Twitterspat (though let me stress I've elaborated on some arguments and added others I've heard outside it - so this not all spawned from yesterday) here is The English Socialist Plaid Cymru Attack List:

That the Welsh are not voting Labour as much as in the past because of Jeremy Corbyn : Now I've heard this argument within Wales too though when the first minister suggests that "London" needs to get its act together. Jeremy Corbyn it's argued is responsible for Brexit, the decline in the Welsh Labour vote and of course the downpour that affected me and my family as we drove home from a bank holiday day out.

Of course what this misses is the experience the Welsh have had with Labour running the National Assembly and most local councils. People were not happy with Labour before Jeremy Corbyn became leader. But to those people who still believe that it's Corbyn's fault, well there are dark clouds outside my window as I'm writing this so you can blame that on him as well.

That Plaid Cymru are pursuing "A Separatist Agenda" along with the SNP:  This is of course a Tory argument as well. To which you can only say....."who knew?".

That only Labour can form a government in Westminster. Plaid Cymru are an irrelevance: Labour of course who failed in the last two attempts and who probably could only form a coalition government now at best, which could include Plaid. And if you think they wouldn't do it the current Education Secretary for the National Assembly for Wales.....is a Libdem.

That Plaid will have a coalition government with the Conservative Party: That was an actual argument that my Twitter friend gave yesterday. I couldn't give a proper response because was too busy laughing. Nothing has changed now.

That the Welsh should be grateful to Labour: And so as I've often said in this blog they should. But as I've also said past glories should not hide their current rule in the Assembly and local government being best described as arrogant incompetence. Plaid Cymru are the party what Labour used to be and they know it.

That Plaid Cymru are a "Pick and Mix" Party consisting of various types such as farmers and industrial workers:  This is probably true. But there was a time when Labour were happy to describe its membership as a "broad church".

That Plaid Cymru discriminate in favour of Welsh speakers: That encouraging the Welsh language means that non speakers are discriminated against is a constant weapon used against Plaid. And yet there are no examples of this.

Incidentally the tweet from my Twitter friend was as follows: "Is removing English from the School curriculum in Glamorgan visionary or regressive"? Of course no such thing occurred...least of all because Glamorgan council doesn't exist which he would have known HAD HE LIVED IN WALES.

So there you have it. Probably incomplete but do feel free to add anymore to it.

Until the next time.

On Haggard, Image vs Reality and The Amazon E Book Game (May Edition)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

What a difference twenty four hours makes. There was I giving praise to the early part of King Solomon's Mines yesterday but having finished it oh my word it reminded me of the unreal tosh that was Beatrice, the previous Haggard novel I'd read.

It is, as I said previously a novel clearly written to be a bestseller, but a Victorian bestseller. So there's the foreign climes, in this case Africa, and of course most of which is British Empire Africa. So you get the racism, this case of the "nobel savage" variety, as well as "we are the masters" feel that an Empire or hard right Brexit can bring.

Haggard lays that with a trowel. As well as early on the hunting of animals as sport. There is a moment where the characters stop their all important journey for a spot of shooting at creatures whose only crime was to live in their natural environment. I was only surprised they didn't have a cup of tea afterwards

And there's the plot which probably at the time made Victorian readers high on adventure but the modern counterpart makes you wonder whether Haggard was high on drugs.

The real question you need to ask yourself of King Solomon's Mines is this. Would an updated version be successful? I'd argue that it wouldn't be. I'm glad I read it. Literary bucket list and all that. But I won't be encouraging others to follow.

Many years ago, I think aged ten. I picked up Ivanhoe. I remember not understanding anything and putting it down. It was the last time I've ever done that with a book, since then I follow the Mastermind principle of "I've Started So I'll Finish".

Well it's not Ivanhoe but the next book in the great ebook unread is The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott which is set in The Crusades, the first in a succession of Middle East military failures by the West you could argue.

Yesterday I discovered through a third party (ie gossip) that a person I knew was in financial difficulties. My first reaction (inwardly) was to laugh. Now this may seem cold but he is the sort person happy to flash the latest/most expensive cars, holidays, phones, whatever at you so the idea that all of this was a front seemed like natural justice.

But on thinking this further perhaps there is something more worrying around the corner here in Britain. For he is the second person I know in such a state and both of them are similar. They both have I had assumed well paid jobs, both had expensive hobbies and both are fans of the latest whatever on the market (the second person though was less ostentatious). These were men with seemingly comfortable lives and yet all of it, should the gossip be believed, is hanging by a thread.

Everything I'm going to say then is based on my knowledge, as well as the gossip, of two people. But let's say everything I've been told is correct. These men were not happy with what they had. They aspired for something a lifestyle that was beyond their reach and might ultimately be disastrous for them. You might say they should live within their means and are grown adults, which is true. Yet companies pummel these ads constantly at us. You buy this whatever and your life will be better. You don't need to pay it all now. Oh no we can arrange terms of repayment so you can buy now and pay considerably more later. Don't worry about that though. Remember Image is everything.

And in this world we live in image is everything.......until reality bites.

Ok then as I'm writing this it's the first of May. It's 5:06 on the first of May on a Bank Holiday to be precise (not just reality but insomnia bites as well). And that all means the Great (as everything seems to have that as it's title now) Amazon Ebook Game ....May edition.

The rules of this game are simple armed with just £5 (though as I seem to have loose e change this month £5.92) and see how many ebooks I can purchase for my Kindle. Stretching the money out as thinly as possible.

So I'm looking at the Amazon Daily Deal. I'm not interested in what's on offer aside perhaps from The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. Should I buy it? Will I make a mistake in thinking that the book's not for me judging by it's girlie cover? Me the most manly of men. Especially when I take my spectacles off.

Go to Wikipedia. There is a quote from David Starkey describes her writing as "good Mills and Boon" (what does that actually mean) and another from Helen Brown saying that her novels have "lashings of romantic licence".

It appears then that in this case you can judge a book on it's cover. Rejected.

Now it's the turn of the Monthly Deal. I notice a Michael Connelly novel featuring Harry Bosch The Black Ice for 99p. Never having read his work before but hearing loads of good things about him I'd be a fool not to buy it....so bought. I go further through the list. There's another Connelly book offered at 99p, The Lincoln Lawyer, so that's bought as well.

The Black Echo. The first of the Harry Bosch books is offered for 99p as well. Great I think. I'll buy it as well I think. That is until the Kindle kindly reminds me I purchased it in 2015.....memories eh? But another Connelly book comes into the picture. The Poet. 99p so bought. And wait for it, an ebook original The Safe Man, 99p that's purchased as well. Looks like this is a Connelly month.

There are Harry Bosch short story collections on offer for 99p but I think I should read the novels first.

I look at what's recommended for me "in Literature & Fiction". Thomas Wolfe's novel You Can't Go Home Again intrigues me.99p. Taken.

That all leaves me in this month's budget with an annoying 97p to spend. I find Fathers and Sons bu Ivan Turgenev for 75p. Done.Leaving me with a carry over of 22p for next month.

Must admit I enjoy this game. You never know how things turn out.

Until the next time.