Author: Boadicea

Is the Book Dead?

Yesterday I read this article in The Australian. There were very few books in my home as a child. My mother didn’t (and still doesn’t) see the need to buy books when there are libraries. I dread to think what she would say if she saw the rows of books that Bearsy and I have accumulated over the years!

When I was six we moved houses. The previous owners had left a pile of books behind, which I immediately seized and carted upstairs to my room: an odd selection from Lassie Come Home to And Quiet Flows the Don – I read the lot. I never travel anywhere without a book, and have made it quite clear that I expect a book to be put in my coffin for the journey. But I digress!

I know some of you have Ipods and other electronic gizmos that are supposed to replace books. I can’t see that I would get the same enjoyment snuggling up in a chair with a screen encased in plastic that I get from turning over paper pages. Although I spend many hours at my computer, I find it far more eye-wearying than the print on a page. I wonder whether the batteries would last sufficiently long for me to sit and read all day and half the night because I’ve got so caught up in the plot, or would I have to sit next to an electrical socket and get tangled up in the leads? So far, nothing I have heard about electronic books has tempted me to discard my old-fashioned books.

The Last Night (CW Competition)

She opened one eye. “What the hell was the time?”

She was fed up with not sleeping properly and waking up at some God-forsaken hour in the middle of the night. She switched on the lamp and looked for the clock. Then she remembered that she hadn’t brought the alarm down last night when she had decided that she could not bear to sleep upstairs again and had dragged the mattress off the spare single bed and rolled it down the stairs. She’d gone back up, grabbed the pillows, sheets and duvet off the brass four poster, hurled them on top of the mattress and had virtually flown down the stairs herself.

Continue reading “The Last Night (CW Competition)”

And Who Else… ?

When Elizabeth died in 1603 she was succeeded by James VI of Scotland. His accession to the English throne seems, in retrospect, to be ‘right and proper’. He was, after all the descendent of Henry VII’s eldest daughter Margaret, sister to Henry VIII, who had married James IV of Scotland. However, Elizabeth had refused ever to name a successor, and Henry VIII’s will, enshrined in an Act of Parliament, had overlooked the Scottish line in favour of  the descendants of Henry VIII’s younger sister, Mary Brandon.  It was by no means certain that James would inherit the throne, and after his accession that Act of Parliament was repealed.

The repression of the Catholics under Elizabeth is well known and towards the end of her reign Catholics began sending envoys to both Phillip II of Spain and James VI of Scotland. The Essex Rebellion of 1601 brought the names of many of those who were at the forefront of the Catholic cause to the attention of the Government, including that of Robert Catesby, later leader of the Gunpowder Plot. It is said that English Catholics acquired from James the promise of toleration in the event that he did succeed Elizabeth.

Almost immediately after James’s accession there was a plot to place Arbella Stuart, another of Margaret Tudor’s descendants, on the throne. She was Catholic. It is hardly surprising that  the harsh penalties for recusancy were re-introduced – and  it is hardly surprising that many Catholics felt betrayed.

The story of the Gunpowder Plot is far too well to be retold here. Guy Fawkes is reputed to have said that the purpose of the plot was to “Blow the Scotsman back to Scotland”. But it would seem that the idea was to kill James, and a large number of MPs and put James’s daughter, nine year old Elizabeth, on the throne.

Warning! This is long…. Continue reading “And Who Else… ?”

This is Public Service…

As some of you may know, I’m a cat person. I really do not have a problem with dogs, only with their owners who allow them bark or howl continuously.

Earlier this year I gave up hoping that one of the neighbours at the back would ‘do something’ about their dog’s continually howling. Well, it wasn’t so much of a ‘howl’ as a bark-cum-howl that got cut off at the end. We could only assume that the creature had one of those collars that are supposed to train the dog not to bark – it obviously was not working.  In the end I phoned the local Council’s ‘Dog Squad” who said they’d deal with it. And very efficient they were. Within 24 hours the noise had stopped, the Council had phoned me to check that all was well – and we were once more able to sit in the garden in peace.

However, last week the ‘noise’ started again. By 8.30 a.m. this morning I’d had enough. At 8.40 a.m I phoned the Council. Extremely sympathetic woman, who told me that the offending animal was a beagle. At around 8.50 a.m. we decide to brave it, took our tea, coffee and cigarettes outside – and were greeted with…. Continue reading “This is Public Service…”