August 11th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Could you escape from a wartime Siberian gulag? Could you then walk 4,000 miles to India? That what the characters in this film do. Check out my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
August 11th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The political lobbying organisation Compass has produced this statement.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
August 11th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I’m been writing short stories for a couple of years now and have composed 27 in all which you can read here.
For the first time, one of my short stories has just been published. The publication is the current issue of the “British Czech And Slovak Review” and the story is “The Edge Of War”.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (8)
August 10th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I spent the day in central London with my step-mother. We both had no hesitation in visiting the city centre in spite of the riots in various parts of the city over the last few nights. Life has to go on and the police have got the city clamped down.
We saw many more police men & women and many more police vehicles than usual and the personnel wore protective gear. Most of the police we saw were not from the Metropolitan Police or even the City of London Police but from Dorset constabulary.
We visited the fascinating Florence Nightingale Museum next to St Thomas’s Hospital and then went over the road for a delicious light lunch at the Bakery County Hall. Afterwards we went to see the French film “Sarah’s Key” – a moving work with a wonderful performance by Kristin Scott Thomas – before finishing up with more tasty refreshment at a branch of “Patisserie Valerie”.
Posted in British current affairs, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
August 9th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
What a miserable summer: the return of famine in East Africa, the murder of demonstrators in Syria, the Eurozone crisis, the collapse of share prices around the world – and now rioting, looting and burning in more and more parts of London and even other British cities.
As someone who has lived in London for 40 years and is proud of the city and its ethnic diversity, I am stunned by and ashamed of what is happening. Even one of our own local shopping centres – Ealing Broadway – is the location of mayhem.
At a general level, I guess the dividing line between order and chaos is a thin one, even in developed societies like ours. More specifically, we have to address the sense of disconnection and even alienation that many young people – out of school or college in the summer or out of jobs for so long – appear to feel. But nothing justifies the wanton violence that we have seen where people are trashing their own communities with no cause or provocation.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)
August 7th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
This is a political thriller and a true story that deserves much more attention. You can read my review here.
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August 7th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I’m know that I’m biased and besotted – but don’t I have the most gorgeous granddaughter?
“Why does mommy keep photographing me?”
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
August 6th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
As research for a possible short story, I finally caught up with the 1976 film “Marathon Man” which I’ve reviewed here.
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August 6th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
In the Family supplement of today’s “Guardian”, there is this letter to “my husband, soon to be a widower”:
“Well, my darling man, last Thursday we heard the news. The haematologist looked so stricken when he gave us the six-month deadline that neither of us felt we could react or cry then and there, for fear of upsetting him more. You had to drive me, not for the first time, home through the rain and London traffic. We’ve shared a lot of journeys, my love – when I was your “groupie” and used to go all over the country to your gigs; travelling to Ireland to meet up with you for wonderful, passionate weekends.
We met and had no intention of getting married, let alone having children. Yet when it’s right, it’s right and you were the one for me, and it seems I was the one for you.
Our wedding was beautiful, and we promised in a very traditional way to love each other in sickness and in health. How blithely we made those promises. If anyone in my mind was going to be ill, it would be you. I was the peasant stock, never sick, non-smoking, healthy-eating, less stressful job person. You, at the time, smoked 40 a day and were wound so tightly I could have pinged you like a banjo. We made the vows – “in sickness and in health” –but you, the 40 smokes a day musician, can’t have imagined you would end up doing so much of the caring. After three caesareans, meningitis and now this untreatable lymphoma – you haven’t really had the better side of the bargain.
I haven’t been lucky with the statistics, but I was lucky in love. I have no regrets, except a deep sorrow that I am leaving you. Not on your own, of course, but with our brood of three: 10, seven and three. And with my gaggle of friends, who I’m sure will be pestering you for the next year, at least. No amount of positive thinking on my part, though, will change the fact that it is going to be bloody hard, and for that I am sorry. You don’t have the same belief in a life after death as I do. It makes me smile now because the love I feel for you is so intense at times that I know there is no way it won’t remain with you in some form or other.
Our rows have been as incandescent as our love; Celtic hyperbole meeting English stubbornness can lead to entrenched arguments. Think of the battle of the Boyne, add a bit more, and that would describe our fights accurately. Why is it only now that I’m understanding why and how we would reach that point?
When your hand slips over my waist in one of the sleepless nights that seem to be the norm at the moment, I feel like I will never die. How could I when I’m anchored like that by the weight of your arm?
I’m still hoping for a miracle, talking to the tumour on a daily basis. At the same time, I know I’ve had my miracle already and it was meeting you, having our children and the never dull 10 years with you. You are a man in a million, you are my man, my husband.
Your wife”
Think about how you would feel if you had to write such a letter to your partner or relative or friend. Act on those feelings now.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
August 5th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I was talking this week to a Jewish friend, who once lived in Israel for 18 years, and he complained that the current round of demonstrations in Israel was receiving so little coverage in the British media. He was making a good point.
Our media seems to have a different prism through which it sees the news value of each country. For all the Arab countries at present, the angle is the extent to which street demonstrations are challenging the relevant authoritarian regime. For Israel, the viewpoint is how Palestinians are being repressed.
The notion that Israel might actually have domestic politics and that the country could have its own demonstrations challenging the policies – if not the legitimacy – of the authorities seems just too difficult for the British media. But, somewhat belatedly, the “Guardian” (which most of my Jewish friends insist is anti-Israel) has picked up the fascinating story.
The large-scale protests represent a demand for social justice which embraces issues including the high costs of housing, rearing children, fuel, electricity and food and the need for cuts in indirect taxation and higher taxes for those who can afford them. Of course, there is a connection between the cost of social provision and the cost of running such a vast security apparatus.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)