The Post For Athiests,Henry James Doubters and Those Who Remember Alan Gilzein

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Let's start with some housekeeping, or rather housenotgetting news. The search continues. The reason why I haven't blogged for the past few days is that we were close to getting two houses, both which we had seen twice. Ultimately though the doubts that were niggling in our minds, one house for me, the other for the wife, stopped us from making an offer the buyer couldn't refuse.

In my case it was a house at the limits of our budget which still needed work on it and, more crucially, had the feel of needing work that we couldn't see. As for the wife she sees the next house as a final forever home and it was the steps on a tiered garden which was ultimately the dealbreaker. She could not see how it could be dealt with as we become more aged (remember should I outlive my wife this will not be my last house. Which is probably why this didn't enter my brain.Will move to the Rhondda Valley, particularly Treorchy and end my days in this classic example of Italy with rain).

This Easter weekend we are having a househunting binge in the Penarth and surrounding areas, four houses on Saturday, three on Monday. I say "we" because I'll be working on Saturday so a friend might accompany my wife and daughter then. If no house comes into play by the end of next weekend a renting we will go.

And as we're chatting about the Easter weekend (seamless or what?) I'm writing this post at 5:23am on Good Friday morning. I'm working two days on this holiday period, today and tomorrow. Other than not being able to view those four houses on Saturday I'm not bothered by this. I'm not religious, but it goes beyond that.....I'm an atheist.

From Catholicism to atheism in fifty three years, actually much earlier than that really, my forties. I just came to a point in my life when I saw the suffering in the world and thought " A God? Really?".

Do you know what the worst thing about being an atheist is? It's that if we're right and our literal lifetime guarantee expires, we can't gloat to those who believe and say "I told you so" as like an unfixable machine when you're gone you're gone.

Mind you should despite logic and science should those who believe in an afterlife are proved right they will have little time to gloat as given all the religions in the world there can only be one that's actually correct. For all we know people will enter an afterlife and find that all their beliefs have been an elaborate joke by Zeus.

On that basis it was probably a joke by Zeus that has me awake at this time on Good Friday when I'm working the afternoon/evening shift ............or led me to reading a collection of short stories by Henry James.

This was, let me stress again, the first book by Henry James I've ever read. Also,
if you're a regular reader of this blog you'll know that I can dislike one book by a writer and like the next. That said it was the most pointless book I've read this year so far and definitely the most disappointing.

Nothing much happens and I'm including any Katherine Mansfield style nuance in that as well. My one thought as I was reading this was "Is that all there is"?

The next book could not have been more different. In Search Of Alan Gilzean by James Morgan. Gilzean was a footballer who played for Dundee and (how I remember him through the nostalgic prism of childhood) Tottenham in the sixties and seventies. Now I'm West Ham till I die (with no afterlife remember) but I did enjoy watching Spurs in that period. They played with a sort of elan, an enthusiasm which reminded me of how you felt playing football at school....just with a bit more skilll.
Gilzein, along with the likes of Martin Chivers and Steve Perryman was synonymous with that period, and although they were not as successful as their North London rivals Arsenal they're probably (with the exception of Bob Wilson) remembered more fondly to the neutral.

The mystery with Alan Gilzein is what happened to him after he left football. No one apparently knew. He was, as the saying goes, "off the radar".

It's this that makes this book different because essentially it's two stories entwined into one. Firstly it's a football biography and a good one at that as it reveals a complex character that footballing history has seemed to have underrated. Secondly though it's a detective story as we follow the author as he seeks to find out what's happened to his subject. He mixes these strands well. It's a good read and I do recommend it.

So the book I'm now starting to read is Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes. It was chosen randomly though it seems to be a bit current now given the arguments re Spain/Gibraltar. I'm not sure where I stand on Gibraltar. Except to say that given the way Britain is becoming a cold and cruel country particularly post Brexit perhaps they should look again at Spain should the rise of jackboot politics/journalism continue.

Until the next time.

A Touch Of The Bios

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I've said it before, and I'll probably bore everyone again until we actually move, but this twilight zone period of packing everything but essentials until it has taken place has meant an increase in my reading.

In a period of twenty four hours since my previous post I've finished two books, (though as I'll explain later there is a particular reason re one of them) both biographies.

The Life of Mrs Robert Louis Stevenson by Nellie Van De Grift Sanchez was a pleasant enough read. The author was the sister of the subject (and let's as we should name her Frances Matilda Van De Grift) so we were unlikely from the start to get anything resembling "Whilst Robert was writing famous novels Frances would amuse herself by flower arranging and shooting arrows at stray dogs".

What you get is an author who seemed to genuinely care for her sister and a life that was not without its problems but had a genuine love affair in its core. It's not going to be the best biography that you'll ever read but I don't think you'll regret having done so.

The other book turned out to be the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Probably the oldest autobiography I've ever read. It was also not that big a read.

As I was swiping the pages I was thinking, his early life is all very well but where are the juicy bits? Where is the "MY BATTLE WITH THE BRITS" or "CARNAGE IN DRAWING THE CONSTITUTION - I told Jefferson gun control checks were important?" It wasn't until very late in the book was there any mention of his experiments with electricity.

The real shock though came at the end. As I was wondering what was going on the last page revealed....that it was unfinished. I'm assuming because he died.

This was a free book, that said I did feel a bit short changed. What I read was not that interesting and didn't really explain what lead him to fight a war of independence. In a parallel universe there is I suspect a more complete and fascinating book, just not this one.

The next book on the list is a collection of short stories by Henry James. I must admit that this will be the first book I've ever read by him. He's the sort of author I've always been meaning to read but life interfered....until now.

Until the next time.