Happy 150th birthday to the London Underground
January 7th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
For about 30 years, I travelled on the London Underground every working day. For the past decade as a portfolio worker, I have continued to use the tube – as everyone calls it – an average of three or four days a week. So it is a big part of my life and that of all who live and work in London and its suburbs.
It is the oldest and largest underground system in the world and it celebrates its 150th anniversary this week. You can read some fascinating facts in this article.
Since I spend so much time on the Underground, perhaps it is not a surprise that I set one of my short stories entirely on the tube: “The Girl With The Crimson Scar”.
Posted in My life & thoughts, Science & technology | Comments (0)
Our plan to ascend the tallest building in Western Europe
January 6th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just booked to take Vee to the top of The Shard in London on Valentine’s Day.
At a height of 1,016ft (310m), this is the tallest building in Western Europe. Should be fun!
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
10 things happy people do differently
January 5th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
An American friend has drawn my attention to this interesting article on the Huffington Post web site that identifies 10 factors in making for a happy life.
There’s a lot of sensible advice here which reflects some of the points I have made in my own essay “How To Be Happy”.
The is now a growing literature based on empirical studies of what makes people happy or at least happier. Some of the relevant books that I have read are:
- “Happiness” by Richard Layard (2005) – my review here.
- “Counter Clockwise” by Ellen J Langer (2009) – my review here.
- “Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart” by Gordon Livingston (2004) – my review here.
It’s a new year – time to be happy.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
Ever heard of Reinhard Heydrich?
January 2nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
More perhaps than any other single Nazi other than Adolf Hitler himself , Reinhard Heydrich was responsible for the Holocaust since in January 1942 he chaired the infamous Wannsee Conference that planned the so-called Final Solution. On 27 May 1942, Heinrich was the subject of an assassination attempt in Prague and, on 4 June 1942, he died of his injuries. The Nazi retribution was unbelievably savage and included the entire destruction of the village of Lidice.
The assassination of Heydrich has fascinated me for some 30 years. I first became interested in the event when researching the biography of my wife’s father Karel Kuttelwascher which was published as “Night Hawk” (now you know the reason for the name of this blog). I devoted a couple of paragraphs of my book to the main facts on the incident and its aftermath.
About the same time, I befriended a Czech (Pavel Horvath) who – it turned out – lived in a street in Prague at the end of which is the church where the resistance fighters who killed Heyrich took refuge and were subsequently killed. The cellar where they met their death is now a museum which I have visited several times. Also I visited modern day Lidice with Pavel shortly before his premature death.
Why do I mention today the assassination of Heydrich? Well, today I started to read a new novel about the event. It has the odd title “HHhH” and an odd structure in which the author interlaces discussion of the challenge of writing about historic events in fictional form. The nearest experience I have previously had to such a history in fictional form is “Schindler’s Ark”, the novel by Thomas Keneally (which was filmed as “Schindler’s List”).
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
New year … new diary … old eccentricity
January 1st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I have managed to keep a diary for every day since I was 13. So I have now clocked up a total of 18,626 entries and I am just about to start my 52nd diary.
As this article suggests: “to write a diary for any extended period is an exceptional and eccentric act”.
The article mentions The Great Diary Project which is seeking to curate the largest possible collection of personal diaries. I already have special provision in my will for disposable of my diaries and I might well make mention now of the Great Diary Project.
Posted in History, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of “All About Eve”
January 1st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
As regular readers of NightHawk will know, I am film enthusiast and often go to the cinema and rent recent releases, all of which I review on my web site.
However, one of the advantages of subscribing to a service like Lovefilm is that one can rent movies from way back to appreciate for the first time.
So this holiday season I viewed “All About Eve” which was released as long ago as 1950. I’ve reviewed it in my collection of reviews about classical fims here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
New Year’s Eve with Catrin
December 31st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
This afternoon, Vee and I at last caught up with Rich, Emily & Catrin who have been visiting various relatives over the festive season.
Catrin will be two in less than three weeks, but meanwhile opened still more Christmas presents before we all went to Gabriel’s Wharf on London’s South Bank for lunch at a pizza place. Catrin insisted on walking and on splashing in every puddle.
As always, she was an absolute delight.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (1)
My latest short story: “This Life Business”
December 31st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I have not written a short story for exactly a year – too many part-time appointments have kept me very busy in 2012.
But I want to keep my hand in, so I’ve used the festive break to craft a new story – my 29th.
It’s called “The Life Business” and I’ve had the idea in my mind since a few months before my granddaughter was born two years ago.
Do please check it out here and feel free to post a comment.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (4)
Five innovations that might change our lives in the next five years
December 30th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Every Christmas since 2006, the computer giant IBM has announced what it calls “5 in5” – five predictions of things that will be possible in five years’ time.
You can check out this year’s list here.
My favourite is the suggestion that we will be able to interpret the meaning of a baby’s cries.
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
28 short stories – and counting …
December 29th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In the summer of 2009, I set myself the challenge of writing five short stories. In fact, over the next six months I wrote 16. Since then, I’ve crafted more and the total is now 28.
I know that the Christmas/New Year is a busy one for many people with little time to read a novel, but you might want to try one or two of my stories, since they typically average only around 3,000 words. You can access them all here.
As it happens, I haven’t written a short story for a year – too busy with all my part-time appointments. But I’m using this festive season to craft one or two new ones which i will put on my web site when completed.
Meanwhile do let me know what you think of my earlier efforts.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (1)