I never found out what he wanted.
In the evening, a friend casually told us that he had done the voiceover for an advert that was voted the greatest UK television commercial of all time. Why hadn't he mentioned it before? I'm still telling people that I was on BBC Radio Five 14 years ago.
This morning I woke up to the sound of horses hooves and as I stood on one leg to place our broken blind in the small gap between the roller and ceiling, I saw some men in chainmail walk past. Then I remembered that it was the 750th anniversary of the Battle of Lewes.
The actual anniversary was a few days ago. At least, that's what everyone seems to think, but didn't we change our calendar in 1752 and lose eleven days?
Today, the town ground to a halt and a group of volunters recreated the Battle of Lewes, following the original route of 1264:
It was all good fun, unlike the original battle.
I always mixed feelings at events like these. On the one hand, I enjoy
living in a town that cherishes its past (I imagine that in a hundred
years' time, Lewes will look almost the same as it does today). But I
also feel conscious of being, as the song goes, on the outside looking
in. Perhaps I'll never be a Lewesian.
But enough of Lewes. This is supposed to be a book blog, so I'll move on to some of my favourite discoveries from last week, beginning with this striking frontispiece:
The next illustration has a very odd caption underneath:
This illustration is from a rather disturbing 1920s book about the mind:
Finally, two completely bonkers 1960s sci-fi novels:
6 comments:
Ah, the 70s, when in the future we would all wear shiny stand-up collars... Love that song!
Thanks for the video. That was fun. We have an annual reenactment like that, the Battle of Natural Bridge. I really ought to go sometime. I have always wondered where they get the "yankees" to beat every year.
Do the androids whip you if you don't dance, or while you are dancing, like the outlaw of the Old West who shoots at your feet?
I wonder if some day in the future there will be reenactment events of illustratorial heydays of the past, with dedicated amateurs dressing up as illustrators from the twentieth century and recreating in front of admiring crowds frontispieces for books on aircrafts, educational panels for eugenics manuals, covers for the Saturday Evening Post, German Expressionist movies posters and Pear Soap packaging art.
Lucy - I've never quite recovered from my disappointment at realising that the future wasn't going to be like UFO. No Nehru suits, no moonbases and no cars with electic doors. A great pity.
Brett - I expect there must be a few people who identify more with the Union and would happily wear their uniform, even though they lost that battle. I'd always go for the losing side because you get to have a lie down!
Tororo - Quite possibly, as doing anything by hand, without the aid of technology, will be seen as wildly exotic.
I couldn't bear to watch all the video! Those SF books and covers are just too much - hilarious, the lot of them.
Abingdon claims to be Britain's oldest town - but we don't have any battles to re-enact. On New Year's Day, there is always a walk around the old town boundary, with a historian and the Town Crier. One of their stops is outside our house, as we're at one of the main junctions into the old town. We always listen out and wave to the walkers - one day we might even join them!
Perhaps Health and Safety could use that illustration in one of their campaigns ?
Who in Heaven's name decided that there was something "wrong" with that little girl , let alone what label to stick on her ?
Post a Comment