What would life be without books? I hope they will always be in my home, in my heart and in my head . The home I grew up in contained very few books, I was well fed, warm and safe, I had a bed to sleep in and a toilet at the bottom of the yard. I was unaware that many children did not have these basic amenities. My own father who grew up in the 1930s did not have his own room to sleep in. He slept in the kitchen/living room on a settee which was folded up during the day, the blankets and pillows were placed on top of it. There was a coal fire with a cooker at one side. A table had pride of place in the centre of the room, all the family washed on this table, there was no bathroom in the house. Food was prepared and cooked and served in this one room. Personal possessions were extremely few, clothing was very limited, a winter coat, hat and shoes were available to his parents and to his two sisters and himself.
These days I have time on my hands, my work schedule is my own and is principally concerned with domestic matters, cleaning, cooking, those daily preoccupations. On the plus side I do have time to read, at present I have two favourite authors, both American, although they have moved between England and America on a frequent basis. The writers are, Adam Gopnik and Bill Bryson, both have such wizardry with words I feel captivated and utterly delighted. Adam Gopnik enfolds me in his life, although I have never been to New York, I have never met face to face the man who conjures his experience in magical words. I have been young and in love.
I have always found words magical, to paint in vivid colours a life which has sometimes seemed to be lived in black and white. The words in themselves are not exotic or strange, its the way the sentences and paragraphs are organised on the page, with these ordinary building blocks a world is created which invites me in and talks to me as a special friend. Adam Gopnik has been writing for the New Yorker since 1986, he has also written many books and won many prizes for his analysis of the lives we lead and how to understand ourselves with more delight. I have on my desk, ” At The Strangers’ Gate– Arrivals In New York”. Adam and his wife Martha arrive in New York as a newly married Canadian couple.
Gopnik has very recently published a piece in The New Yorker about Christmas. He dallies with the secular view, the Christian view, competing religious views and points out by the way that the best songs about Christmas were written by Jews, two of the greatest songwriters were; Irving Berlin who wrote ‘White Christmas’ and Cole Porter whose wonderful song, ‘Anything Goes’. Their wonderful songs continue to bring joy and delight via ‘You Tube’, and all those lucky enough to possess DVDs and records featuring their beautiful music.
Bill Bryson an American from Des Moines, Iowa, has written a book,’ Mother Tongue- The English Language’. He begins by telling us that 300 million people speak English. I find that comforting as it is the only language I speak and understand. Many years ago I was taught some French but all I have left now are crumbs. Bryson goes on to tell us that English is a great growth industry and much trade is done in English which neither of the parties speak to their own families. There are more Chinese people learning to speak English than there are in the USA. These facts are amazing. I am so lucky to have learnt English when I was toddling around and it all seemed so easy.
There is another great writer who writes on the development of the English language, in his work,’ The Adventure of English- The Biography of a Language’ , Melvyn Bragg focuses on the changes which have gone on for hundreds of years and still continue today. This book offers many delights, it offers the story of the displacement of the English language after the Norman Conquest from the Court, the Law and the Church, the language of power for three hundred years was French. The written language of the Law and the Church was Latin, the English language was relegated to the spoken language of the peasantry but it hung on. Such was the disdain of the religious authority that attempts to write the bible in English were punished with extreme cruelty. In support of the church there was a parliamentary ban on all bibles in English. In 1412 the Archbishop of Canterbury ordered all Wycliffe’s work to be burnt. His bible continued to be produced and circulated, even when it became a mortal crime.
In 1521 soon after Cardinal Wolsey caused a great book-burning outside St, Paul’s Cathedral another brave man William Tyndale challenged the might of the Roman Catholic Church by printing the bible in English. He wanted ordinary people to have direct access to God. Like Wycliffe, Tyndale was an Oxford classical scholar
“The fight for the English Bible was a battle for salvation through the scriptures.” P.107 ” The Adventure of English.”
TIME is not fixed, in spite of our clocks and watches, sometimes the hours and days rush by in a blur, one day its Bank Holiday Monday then in a flash the days get shorter and the nights longer and darker. December is a busy month for all Christians and three members of my family had birthdays in December, now there is just one. It is the time to think about those loved ones who are not here any more. It shocks me to think I’m the oldest member of my family but its true.
I’ve always wondered about the where and when of my life. My parents worked very hard to take care of us, there were few luxuries and holidays. I understood that sometimes mother was very tired; washing the only energy from the power of her arms; cooking from the raw ingredients, not simply opening a packet to pop in the micro-wave and sweeping up the coal dust and the ashes. A coal fire is very cosy, but it does involve a daily round of clearing up the mess. My life has been so much easier; the amazing invention of the washing machine plus the tumble dryer, the disappearance of coal fires and the blessing of central heating. Yes I confess the micro-wave has an honoured place in my kitchen and ready meals are not unknown. on the other hand providing for the next generation seems to involve a lot of money, university grants have disappeared and debt now looms large for young people.
I am reading, ‘ The Five Giants [New Edition]: A Biography of the Welfare State’ by Nicholas Timmins, published in 1995. The book is a very illuminating history of a period which covers most of my life time. It covers the difficult and long drawn out birth of the Welfare State, historians date the official life of the W.S. began in 1948, there was a tentative start on pensions and free education from the end of the nineteenth century but the Five Giants; Want, Ignorance, Idleness , Disease and Squalor were brought together by Sir William Beveridge in his report published in 1942.
The Welfare State has been present in my life since 1948 I was ten years old, to the present day, sometimes in the background and at others very much in the foreground. To me the political is very personal. I started school at the age of five and it was free, at the age of eleven I sat the 11+ and got a free place at grammar school. In my teens I had my appendix removed by the National Health Service. My father returned from his army service in a very poor state of health, for some months he was in hospital until he recovered sufficiently to be looked after at home. The doctor who treated him came from Jamaica. The family was supported by sickness benefit. Later he was able to return to work.
My brother and sisters received free education and free health care. At about the age of twelve it was discovered that I needed reading glasses, the examination and the glasses were free, the frames were round pink plastic. It was obvious that these were the free frames, the major point was I was now able to read the blackboard and write down my answers. For some years I took off my glasses before I left the classroom
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