A review of the award-winning novel “Normal People” by Sally Rooney
July 4th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I recently read “Ordinary People” by Diana Evans and now I have consumed “Normal People”, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, the second novel by Irish writer Sally Rooney. Of course, in a sense, nobody is ordinary or normal, but both these works deal with people who are living quotidian lives with which one can easily relate.
Rooney’s beautifully written work tells the story of two young people from the West coast of Ireland who, over a narrative spanning four years, repeatedly become friends or lovers. Marianne is middle class and a loner with low self-esteem, while Connell is working class and has better social skills, but each is clever and goes to university and their repeated interactions lead to the conclusion of the penultimate sentence that: “People can really change one another”.
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A review of the Beatles-themed movie “Yesterday”
July 3rd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Over the years, British writer Richard Curtis has scripted some wonderful romantic comedies: “Four Weddings And A Funeral”, “Notting Hill”, and “Love Actually”. And British director Danny Boyle has given us such work as “Trainspotting” and “Slumdog Millionaire”.
So a pairing of the two in “Yesterday” promises much. Certainly Himesh Patel as pub singer Jack is cute and Lily James as his friend and manager Ellie is delightful as the inevitably romantic couple and, of course, the music – references to 15 classic songs – of the Beatles is simply glorious (I was in my early teens when they hit the charts and turbo-charged my adolescence).
I struggled though with the contrived plot device: a worldwide power blackout that somehow selectively wipes the memory of 7.7 billion people and the data banks of the entire Internet while sparing those – like Jack – who were unconscious at the time.
As with “About Time” (another fanciful script from Curtis), this was just too silly for me. And, while I was happy to see Ed Sheeran playing himself, the surprise appearance of another performer seemed a bit insensitive.
As a rom-com, it is not up there with “Love Actually” and, as a jukebox movie, it does not have the punch of recent hits “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “Rocketman”. So a feel-good movie with plenty of humour and charm but ultimately over-hyped and under-performing.
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Roger Darlington’s World is 20 years old today
July 2nd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I suppose that, like most non-technical people, I first became aware of the Internet around 1995 when world-wide the number connected to the network doubled. Besides e-mail, for me the great benefit of the Internet was what we then called the World Wide Web (I was never interested in newsgroups or chat rooms or gaming).
The more I used the web, the more I thought that I should like to generate my own content on my own site. Indeed I was convinced that soon most Internet users would want to have their own site and I’ve been surprised at how few people have a site.
So, on 2 July 1999, I started my own site with the help of my wife’s nephew Martin Rowe – the first piece of content was the Darlington newsletter for Christmas 1998. In succeeding months, I taught myself Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) with the aid of my CWU colleague Jane Taylor and developed the site with the encouragement of my good friend Eric Lee.
From the beginning, I have believed in the principle of simplicity, so the site is designed that any part of it can be reached with just a few clicks from the home page. Also I firmly believe that content is king, so I have concentrated on adding well-written material rather than decorating the place with spinning symbols. Finally I’m a great believer that the web is all about links to other sites and therefore, throughout my site, there are lots of links to other sites relevant to the particular topic under discussion.
I confess that my site has now become something of a passion and I’ve asked myself why I love the exercise so much. My answer involves the four Cs:
- It is creative, encouraging me to develop my IT skills and my knowledge of the Internet, the links especially taking me to corners of the web that I might not otherwise explore.
- It is continuous, enabling me to work on it whenever I have time and incrementally to build up the content and develop the format.
- It is comprehensive, allowing me to bring together all my interests from aviation to the cinema, from technology to literature, from trade unionism to travel.
- It is cohesive, permitting me to bring into one place previous as well as current work, such as extracts from my book “Night Hawk”, earlier book and film reviews, and of course the one-time Darlington Christmas letters.
I called my site Roger Darlington’s World because I want it to be both about my life and interests and my take on various developments around the globe. I’m 71 now and I often wonder how long I will keep RDW going but, for the time being, I hope that you enjoy it.
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Word of the day: irenic
June 28th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
This adjective means “tending to promote peace or reconciliation; peaceful or conciliator’. So why do I choose to highlight the word now?
It’s because the frontrunner for the leadership of the Conservative Party and the post of Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just used the word in the latest hustings with members of the Conservative Party who have the vote in the leadership election, as reported in this extract from a story in the “Guardian” newspaper:
Johnson got the loudest applause of the hustings by saying he would take a different approach to the negotiations than May had done. He claimed to be an “irenic person” and in favour of dialogue but argued that “a little bit more resolve is called for and a little bit more sense that we can actually get this done”
Ignoring for the moment the absurdity that a bit more resolve and a little bit more sense could change the fundamentals of the negotiations on Brexit, why is Boris using a word like ‘irenic’ – which at least 9 out of 10 of his audience would not understand – to seek votes?
Posted in British current affairs, Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Word of the day: ensorcell
June 28th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I had never heard this word until today – and I regard myself as reasonably proficient in the English language. I saw the word in a comment about British politician Boris Johnson by the former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstad:
“To Johnson’s followers, however, he is more prophet than politician: only he can deliver a mythical ‘true Brexit’ that will deliver the prosperity promised during the referendum campaign.
“As is often the case with populists, reality does not square with Johnson’s ensorcelling combination of false promises, pseudo-patriotism and foreigner-bashing.”
I had to check the meaning of the verb and it means ‘to bewitch’. Then I thought: how come a Belgian knows more English than I do? But I found that the word has its origin in the Middle French of the 16th century.
You learn something new every day – or at least you should.
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So is GATT 24 the answer to our no-deal Brexit worries?
June 27th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Not according to all the experts including Chris Grey, a professor of Organisation Studies at Royal Holloway.
He writes on his blog:
“In my previous post I made reference to the recent upsurge of Brexiter interest in GATT Article XXIV. As noted there, it was mentioned as a way of avoiding the damage of no-deal Brexit by Boris Johnson in one of the leadership debates. Shortly afterwards, his claim was debunked by Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England (£) but he has continued to push it in interviews this week.
Indeed, it has been debunked many, many times before – in a briefing by the trade policy specialist of the House of Commons Library, by former WTO official Peter Ungphakorn writing for the UK Trade Forum and, more recently, on his own blog, as well as, more succinctly, by Chris Morris’s BBC Reality Check, amongst many other examples. Even Liam Fox has junked it.
But however often it is debunked, and whoever does so, it shows no sign of subsiding and Brexit ideologues continue to pump out technical sounding briefings and to provide ersatz ballast for Johnson’s airy claims.”
You can read more about GATT Article XXIV here.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Some ideas for spreading kindness
June 26th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Posted in Social policy | Comments (0)
A review of the enjoyable new film “Gloria Bell”
June 23rd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
It is not easy, being a person of maturer years who has been single for some time, to start a new relationship and I can testify to that from personal experience. It probably helps if, as a woman in her late 50s, you have the body, the clothes and the confidence of the titular West Coast American played beautifully – in all sense of the word – by Julianne More who executive produced the work.
This is a close English-language remake of the apparently (I haven’t seen it) grittier Spanish-language original (the 2013 “Gloria”) by Chilean director and co-writer Sebastián Lelio.
All the male characters in this movie – notably Gloria’s lover Arnold (John Turturro) – are weak, vain and deeply flawed but, with the aid of music (there is a great soundtrack of 1970s ballads and disco classics) and dancing (we start and finish on the dance floor) and a little help from her elderly mother, Gloria survives so well that the Laura Branigan song at the finale becomes a feminist anthem.
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At last, I retire completely
June 23rd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Technically, I finished working 17 years ago when I took early retirement on health grounds from the Communication Workers Union after 24 years as a national official with that organisation. In practice, in time I was able largely to address my health issues and continue working part-time through a portfolio of appointments in the consumer world.
So, over the last couple of decades, I have served on a variety of consumer advocacy bodies – often as chair – in various regulated sectors covering the Internet, telecommunications, broadcasting, posts, water, energy, and financial services (13 altogether). But, over the last three years, I have been on a glide-path to complete retirement, gradually stepping down from one position after another.
The last such position was Ofcom’s Consumer Forum for Communications which I have chaired for the last four and a half years. Earlier this week, I chaired my 19th quarterly meeting of the Forum which in fact will cease to operate at the end of this month. A colleague on the Forum has posted a kind tribute and a photograph here.
I am 71 in a few days and I feel that it is time to leave the world of work and enter a new phase in my life. As friends will know, the last three years have seen dramatic changes to my personal circumstances and I am now entering a new and exciting chapter in the mystery that we call life.
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Seminar to celebrate the work of Bob Fryer
June 21st, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Today I attended a seminar at the National Education Union in London to celebrate the work of Professor Bob (Rob) Fryer. Bob has spent 50 years working in higher and adult education as a teacher, researcher, policy advisor, practitioner and leader in relation to employment, industrial relations, trades unionism and lifelong learning. The aim of the seminar was to bring together a group of Bob’s friends, colleagues and former students who have shared in some of his time and work, and for the group to reflect upon and discuss aspects of that work and the times in which it occurred.
Bob/Rob started as a research assistant at Imperial College and research officer at Barnet House in Oxford, where he had been a postgraduate student. He proceeded through a lectureship at UMIST (where I was one of his students in industrial relations) and was subsequently a research fellow, lecturer and senior lecturer at Warwick University. He was Principal of the Northern College for 15 years and was simultaneously Sheffield Hallam University’s first professor of lifelong learning. Bob then became Assistant Vice-Chancellor at Southampton University and his working career culminated as Chief Executive of NHS University and national ‘Tsar’ for Widening Participation in Learning in the NHS.
Along the way, Bob also served on a number of official inquiries and national policy committees, worked closely with unions on change and reform, notably NUPE and the formation of UNISON. In addition, Bob has been a Chair, member or advisor on several public bodies and boards centred on education, training and lifelong learning.
Bob is a great guy who has contributed so much and I was pleased to make a short intervention at the event to express my thanks.
Posted in My life & thoughts, Social policy | Comments (1)