How To Make Aneurin Bevan Boring And Other Books

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well the two library books I took out about three weeks ago have now been finished. The first of which was Nye:The Political Life of Aneurin Bevan by Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds.

As I understood this book from the introduction it's mentioned to be relatively neutral from the biographies that preceded it. Well in that it succeeded.so much so that it should be subtitled Fifty Shades Of Dull.

What this is essentially is a ponced up essay with a foreword by Lord Kinnock . A man whose socialist legacy is so great his Labour MP son takes his daughter to private school.

It is too short. Two hundred and sixty pages is just not even scratching the surface of a life such as Bevan's. There were many moments in this where the phrase "in one bound he was free" came into my head as it whizzes through his political career yet in a style where you could see more emotion in a tombstone.

For example the creation of the National Health Service is given a chapter of just eighteen pages. Eighteen? Even eighty would've probably been not enough.

As for the book being "the political life" of it's subject. The author is happy to go into tittle tattle. He mentions that Bevan was not the love of his wife's Jennie Lee's life (apparently that as a man who died earlier) something I don't remember when reading her book My Life With Nye in the eighties (read in London then when moving to Wales would've never entered my head). Furthermore he says they had an "open marriage". I won't question that statement,I don't know. What I will condemn him for is immediately afterwards mentioning that Bevan got on well with Barbara Castle but saying that there was no record of an affair. Why mention it then? Is it because she was probably the most successful female British politician before Margaret Thatcher?This was just plain petty.

Speaking personally whether it is pro or anti my political beliefs I want political books to have a political belief powering them or else it's just ends up like this. The most pointless political book I've ever read.

The only good thing I will say about this books is that it inspires me to read Michael Foot's biography which I already suspect will be miles better

The other book, which of course could not be more different was My Life In Football by Trevor Brooking. I loved this book. But I think you could realise from my idolatry when borrowed that it would have taken a great deal for me to have disliked it. I am biased I admit it. The only slight minus point was that it was the second best football book I've read this year. Alan Stubbs is still so far the best.

As I wont be able to go to the library until Tuesday it means I need new non Penguin to read. Tomorrow I'm off to Epping for the weekend for reasons I'll explain on Sunday or Monday. I'm not taking the Fatima Meer autobiography of Nelson Mandela because I'll probably finish it before this trip ends and then I would probably have to watch Midsomer Murders with my mother (that is digital hell let me tell you). So the next book(s) I'll be taking there are.

The Helene Hanff Omnibus

This is an omnibus of her books other than the one I bought in Bridgend a few weeks back. I've read 84 Charing Cross Road before and loved it. Will reread that again.

Until the next time.

In Which Books Are Bought, Borrowed And Discarded And How Labour Is Further Destroying Bridgend Town

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well I wish I could say we as a family went out on Tuesday but due to various reasons, mainly due to daughter's sudden and deep attachment to the land of nod we didn't. Ironically the only person who went out today was me. Though that was because I'd things to do.

First port of call was Porthcawl to bring back and borrow books from the library. Before that though went into the Porthcawl Animal Welfare Shop (PAWS) to see whether I could get any vintage Penguin Paperbacks.

I was lucky. There were two.

1682 - Laurie Lee - Cider With Rosie

This is the classic book about the author's childhood in a Cotswold village. Would recommend it. Did enjoy it. Though not I suspect as much as others did.

Obviously you can guess by now that I've read it. The other Penguin paperback is on the bookshelf as I'm writing this. But that one is not a pre ISBN vintage Penguin paperback. That one has to go.

I'll make sure that it goes to a good home that I promise, Next time I'm in Porthcawl I'll let the PAWS people get their paws onto it. They're good with books and as the orange spined Penguin is in good condition they won't put it down.

2787 - John Galsworthy - Over The River

I have read two John Galsworthy books. In Chancery and The Silver Spoon. Both, in particular The Silver Spoon, were so awful they should have come into the so bad it's riveting category. So you see don't hold much hope when I get round to reading it.

Later in Porthcawl it was time for the library. The football book was not an easy choice. Nothing seemed to grab my attention. Was going to plum for Sven Goran Erricsson's autobiography when all of a sudden another book caught my eye and there became no contest.

Trevor Brooking - My Life In Football

For me Trevor Brooking was when I was growing up the West Ham player of his generation. A polite, measured man he was one of the few footballers where you could use the word cultured to describe his play without appearing poncey. He was always modestly brilliant. If I had the talent he was the player I wish I could become. And he married a blonde Scandinavian. For a teenage boy what better role model could there be?

That though was not the only book I borrowed.

Nye - Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds

Aneurin Bevan was the sort of politician that believed in social justice for everybody and not just the few. It was people like him that still give the Labour party in Wales a residual loyalty amongst the Welsh voter that their current bloated,incompetent smug selves no longer deserve.If he was alive today I believe Nye Bevan would have voted Plaid Cymru.

I'm looking forward to reading both library books. But let's continue with the current state of the Labour party in Wales and in particular an onward theme of this blog the decaying state of Bridgend town thanks to sleep apnoea way they've been running it. On Monday the local BBC Wales news had a report that the Labour council had decided, subject to a consultation and a considerable cost, depedestrianise those parts of the town centre that was pedestrianised around the millennium, The idea being that it would help the local retail businesses.

A round of applause you might think, at least for the fact that the Labour council had made a decision whilst fully awake. However that should be tempered by the fact that it was the Labour council,at considerable cost and despite protests from traders, that made the decision to pedestrianise those very same streets in the first place.

Personally I doubt that depeedstrianism will stop the town's decline. A start might be car parking. If you lower the prices that might help persuade people to stay around, go to restaurants etc. instead of just going into the free ASDA car park (for I think a two/three hour limit -  and closed late evening) to do a few essentials and then straight out again.

I look at Pontypridd which is a fair comparison and don't see a decline. Perhaps the councillors should raise themselves and travel up the Valleys to have a look. Bet they'd move swiftly if I'd suggested the Caribbean instead.

And now the latest potential Bridgend Town victim.

The ground floor of the building to the right is the main Post Office. But not for much longer it appears. The proposal, subject to consultation, is to move it to the nearby branch of W H Smith early next year.

The confirmation

Now I'm not sure but I suspect that the Post Office would take over the basement floor of the current W H Smith building, given that this was the scene when I went there at around three pm yesterday.

Empty at three pm!

If I'm right then let me tell you that it's less space than the main Post Office uses now.

Again I blame the Labour council for this situation. You might ask why. You may say that Post Offices throughout the country are closing down or merging with W H Smiths and this would be true. Would have to also point that the only time I'd been using it recently is to pay our car tax bills.

However the Labour council has allowed Bridgend council to decline. When a town declines fewer people want to go there as often as they did in the past. Consequently more businesses close even fewer people come and so a vicious circle begins.

As a consequence the Post Office can if not close then severely maim their presence citing financial pressures without expecting a great deal of protest. Thus a major town hub is weakened and another building (the offices above are for let) becomes completely derelict.

Well done Labour. Falling asleep on your laurels again.

Let's end with another book I bought at a charity shop in Bridgend Town...and it's not a Penguin.

Helene Hanff - Letter From New York

Helene Hanff, author of 84 Charing Cross Road, wrote a series of essays on living in New York in the late seventies and early eighties for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. This is the book of those talks. As 84 Charing Cross Road will always be a favourite of mine I just could not resist buying it.

Until the next time.