Greybeard
By Brian Aldiss

I was between books, picking new ones up wondering what to to go for, read the first few paragraphs of this and didn't want to stop. I liked the prose and seemed to be in just the right mood.

Greybeard is the story of people thrown together by circumstances and travelling down a river to the sea. Unfortunately, the "circumstances" are the end of the world, or at least the end of the human component to the world. A few decades ago, an "accident" has rendered humanity and some animals sterile : children have vanished and people are getting old. With the general collapse, nature is now rapidly reclaiming the world and what people survive exist in small isolated pockets, aging and some reverting to an existence informed by rumour, myth and fable. Forests reassert themselves and the nights are dark.

Greybeard is a melancholic story told in a beautifully lyrical style. Aldiss has a way with words in a sometimes spartan way. Great descriptions of the new natural world taking shape as Man diminishes; mist, water, oak and badger come into focus now. The characters, especially Algernon Timberlane ("Greybeard") and his wife Martha, come to life in a special way I think and their love is beautifully described. Martha has a great wit.

I hesitate to call the novel "gentle", it is a story of the end of the world after all and there is certainly some violence depicted. But this is not dwelt upon and no brutality. There is always a background possibility of danger of course. I've seen it described as "pastoral", and I think this fits and what makes the book so good. I've read three great novels from Aldiss now: Non-Stop, Hothouse and now this. I think Greybeard might be my favourite.

The Time Machine
By H.G. Wells

I am embarrassed to say I have never read any H. G. Wells. I have rectified this recently however by reading his first novel, The Time Machine.

I should have done this years ago, perhaps as a teenager, because it was such a great book. I can understand why it was such a big success on publication in 1895: people were introduced to an author with a huge imagination and perhaps the first true science-fiction story. I enjoyed reading this immensely.

Not only an exciting adventure but thought provoking in a way that must have been quite unsettling to the readership back then. We not only travel to an almost unimaginably distant future of 802,701 AD but come to see what human evolution might mean; Darwin's theory being only a few decades old and still troubling to many. Wells was certainly not one to predict a heroic future progress of humanity. This might be one reason some critics and readers found him difficult. From Brian Aldiss' Billion Year Spree :

His audience is accustomed to powerful heroes with whom they can unthinkingly identify. A mass audience expects to be pandered to. Wells never pandered.

Perhaps a quote more applicable as his output increased, but a story where the human species can split into two, with one predating upon the other and all thought of science or art banished must have been hard to take. Even the idea of a deep "geological" time was fairly new (With Lyell's Principles of Geology published in 1830).

Wells' novel is brilliant. Now for The War of the Worlds I think.

The Kings of Eternity
By Eric Brown

Having read Eric Brown's Helix and loved it, I thought I'd read some more of his work.

The Kings of Eternity is a good science-fiction story that switches between the modern day and the 1930's. Three friends encounter an otherworldly portal that opens in the woods, and then an alien contact. This changes their lives, as you would expect, and over the years they have to come to terms with this and what it entails.

Brown manages to convey the protagonists well as men of the earlier 20th Century: their language and understanding of the situation is of that time. Luckily, the scientific advances at that point mean they have some sort of framework within which to place the strange events. The book is always very readable and engaging, even with a bit of a slow start. It is not an action packed story, although there is some action, but it gets into its stride quickly. What they encountered years ago endowed them with a gift and each has to come to terms with this. In fact, the novel is as much about relationships as "science" (or adventure), and in the end, a love story. So, a "scientific romance".

Well written and quite lyrical in parts, there is a lot to like about this book. In some ways, old fashioned (in an H.G. Wells way), but it is an uplifting and positive read.

It is that time of year again, and the Open Eye Gallery opens its 2024 Small Scale show.

Selected artists are invited to submit works in any medium, unframed, with the only restriction limiting the dimensions to 15 x 21 cm, the classic ‘postcard’ size.

Small pictures usually reasonably priced. Lots of good ones from good artists.

Below:
Left: Nestled off the Loch by Megan Burns, Acrylic on board, 15x21cm [link]
Right: Full Moon Afternoon by James Tweedie RGI, Acrylic on card, 15x21cm [link]

Below:
Left: Patience by Clare Mackie, Acrylic on canvas, 15x21cm [link].
Right: A Squirrel for Mary by Tracey Johnston, Acrylic on board. 15x21cm [link].

Most of the paintings are priced £200 to £600 but there are one or two priced much higher. I'm not sure why. Have a look and see what you think. The show is online only.

Across Realtime
By Vernor Vinge

This is the omnibus edition containing the novels "The Peace War" and "Marooned in Realtime".

Warning: perhaps minor spoilers.

The Peace War

What price would you pay for peace? What would it cost you? And what about costs to society? These are some of the things Vinge considers in his 1984 novel "The Peace War".

In the book, peace is imposed through a "Peace Authority", a world-wide government that has a monopoly on a powerful weapon: a weapon that can enforce and isolate threats, small or large. Through this, they keep society at a "safer", lower level of technological sophistication. The USA and other sovereign states do not exist anymore.

The weapon is a "bobble": an impenetrable force-field bubble around a space (and it turns out, a time). This can be used to completely isolate and neutralise a threat, whether people or missiles.

There is a resistance of course: a mix of clans, tribes, gangs and technology devotees Vinge called "tinkerers": or tinkers. The novel describes how the ungoverned and tinkers fight back against the "Peacers". Vinge is obvious about where his sympathies lie but he give the Peace Authority its due as well.

I thought this was a great adventure novel. Exciting and full of good extrapolations of the new technologies coming online in the 1990's and early 2000's.

Marooned in Realtime

In the sequel, Vinge shows us a consequence of having such "bobbling" capability. The story is sets millions of years in the future: because (in effect) these things act as a one-way time machine. This book is a murder mystery story and quite different to the first novel. I found it just as enjoyable though.

Vinge, who died earlier this year, had an abiding interest in and sympathy with the quest for knowledge and scientific progress. A Professor of Maths and Computer Science at San Diego State University in California, in many ways he epitomised the Californian techno-optimism of the 1980's and 1990's. The era of the early internet, the birth of the Electronic Freedom Foundation and magazines like Wired (founded 1991). I definitely sympathised with this vision, and still do, even though it can seem naive today and has been overtaken by the reality of the modern world (and everything this entails). We are less optimistic about technology today, sadly.

Science-fiction is a great genre for exploring all the different ways science and technology can change the world, and ourselves. I like Vinge's books: this is the second time I've read these novels. I liked them before and this time I think I liked them even more. If you're in the right mood for a book then it makes all the difference. I am sure I'll come back to them in the future again.

Chocky
By John Wyndham

John Wyndham's 1963 novella (it's a slight book) is about a twelve year old boy, Matthew, who has a friend he talks to: however, this conversation is only inside his head. The friend is called Chocky.

Not completely unusual in a child (the imaginary friend) but Chocky is unusual. Leaving aside the indeterminate sex (Matthew settles on "she"), Chocky asks some very strange questions, such as why are there two sexes? "She" also has some very odd views of the world. Matthew's parents become very concerned but are not sure what to do exactly. In situations like this, you can do a lot of harm trying to do the right thing.

This is a short read but a good one. The family (two parents and two children) are perfectly normal other than the fact of this strange unwanted interloper to Matthew's head. This is a long way from a story of a "demon" child or one of "possession" and it is all the better for that. Another worthwhile Wyndham read.

Do pet owners look like the pets they own? There are two paintings in this show by Alice McMurrough that would seem to point this way.

The show is an exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery (show now closed) of works by Alice McMurrough and Neil MacDonald, husband and wife. I've admired their work separately so it was great to see a roomful of the two side by side (they're married, something I didn't know).

Both are a bit surreal and dreamlike. McMurrough being more heavily infused with the surreal end of the dream spectrum. Quite odd with both human and human-like animals often taking part on her stage. Macdonald is a bit more restrained and paints the Scottish landscape, not necessarily using a straight-edge for buildings. I like both artists a lot. I am sure they both get tired of being described as "quirky".

Right: Moon Shadows, St Clemet's, Rodel, Neil Macdonald, oil, 38x44.cm

Right: Together as One, Alice McMurrough, oil, 30x30cm

The show closed on November 16th but you can see the paintings and read more at the gallery site.

The Mall Galleries are hosting the 2024 exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. A big selection of some great painting, big and small. I am always inspired by work I see here. If you can, a visit is best: you can't beat seeing a painting in real life. But online is good enough for me. I love big mixed shows like this.

Right: Coffee Followed by Beer by Rob Burton, oil, 23x17cm [link]

I like the "painterly" aspect to this. Really captures the dark and warm atmosphere.

Right: Unravelling by Felicity Starr, oil, 18x13cm [link]

Some beautiful works, some very small. This painting is a case in point and shows that even the most mundane subjects can be worth capturing in paint.

Many more pictures at the Mall Galleries web site.

A Room with a View
By E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster's 1908 novel is a completely different book to the last one I read. It is full of human emotion and human relationships.

Set in the early 1900's, Lucy Honeychurch is on holiday in Florence, chaperoned by her cousin Miss Barnett. They meet the Emersons, father and son, who give up their own rooms because they have a view, which the women had been promised. From there, it becomes a story of the boy's attraction to the girl and if this is reciprocated. It is a familiar enough story (girl meets boy etc.) but written well and told in a very witty way. There is plenty of good old-fashioned class based prejudice of course, but overcome in the end. Oddly, it is clear that tourism was a bit of an affliction even back in the 19th Century. Forster would be speechless at the sort of things that go on now.

Beautifully written and sharp, my one main fault would be with the older Mr Emerson's speech at the end to Lucy, explaining his son's predicament. It was a little too flowery and overwrought to be natural. Other than that, a book I thoroughly enjoyed. The Merchant/Ivory film adaptation is also supposed to be good.

The Voyage of the Space Beagle
By A. E. van Vogt

This book comes from the "Golden Age" of science-fiction - a period usually thought of as being the 1940's. The novel itself was published in 1950 but is composed of four stories published the previous decade (a so-called "fix-up" novel). Van Vogt is a new author to me.

The Voyage of the Space Beagle is considered a classic of the science-fiction genre and contains some of his first or earliest published work. It has had a significant influence on later science-fiction, especially films like Forbidden Planet and Alien, as well as TV series like Star Trek. The setting is a spaceship on a scientific survey mission, much like Darwin's original Beagle. It encounters some alien creatures, most of whom are hostile and dangerous. As well as some exciting action, the book explores the workings of science, in particular, Vogt's ideas of the compartmentalisation of the various scientific fields - his "nexialism" discipline aims to bring them together as a whole. The book also explores relations on board between the scientists and their leadership. There is a form of democracy on the ship but also a surprising amount of discord between some members of the scientific body.

This is a short read and one that contains plenty of action, even though some of it feels slightly dated. The "Discord in Scarlet" section includes a particularly horrifying and dangerous alien, one that could inspire some nightmares in a reader less inured to modern science-fiction horror (like Alien). It might be a little old-fashioned sometimes but this is mainly the way the men (there are only men on board!) interact and think: the civilian scientists have a somewhat military bearing as well. In some ways it is refreshing: direct and to the point. Like an older black and white film, men are in suits perhaps but the film is still great. I will read more van Vogt.

As a last word: it is not uncommon for people to believe that we're cleverer today, more intelligent and sophisticated than those that came before us. At least those before the twentieth century. But this is not true. People of the Middle Ages, for instance, certainly had less scientific or technological knowledge, but were no less intelligent. I had a slight prejudice against older science-fiction in the same way but realise now how wrong this is, having read a bit now and thought about it. It is a genre of ideas and the science or technology is just one aspect, and not necessarily an important one.

The Science Fiction Encyclopedia has an entry on the Golden Age of science-fiction. This is a great resource. Online only now but I was very lucky to find a paperback copy going cheaply in a charity shop a few months ago.

I visited the Burrell for the first time a few weeks ago. I've been meaning to visit for years.

The main reason to go was a look at the Degas exhibition before it closed. Being a huge admirer of the works of the great French artist, the exhibition was the big push I needed to get over there. I took the bus for a change, then a short (two stop) train journey from Glasgow Central (to Pollokshaws West), a short walk through the lovely park and arriving at the newly refurbished and fixed Collection building. It's been closed for a few years to have its roof fixed.

What can we say about Degas? He's usually classed as an "Impressionist", having exhibited in their exhibitions over the years (from 1874), but his work always differed substantially from the other artists so described (like Monet). He is famous for his portraits of people at work, whether ballet dancers or washer-women. An artist of the city and modern life. He did not paint en plein air as most of the Impressionists did (in fact, he was highly critical of the practice). The Burrell Collection shows how great a draftsman he was: drawings in pencil or pastel, a favourite medium.

I had a look around the rest of the collection of course and it's impressive. A bit like a mini-Victoria and Albert museum, with a collection of furniture, tapestries, carpets, armour and ceramics: amongst many other things. I was lucky on the day, with the sunshine streaming through the windows and showing off some stained glass to good effect. I'll definitely visit again. With this and the Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow has some great attractions.

Helix
By Eric Brown

British author Eric Brown was new to me, until a brief mention on the Outlaw Bookseller's YouTube channel a while ago and then a recommendation by the owner of Transreal Fiction. His 2007 novel Helix was described as a good introduction.

Well, this was a great read: an exciting and action packed science-fiction adventure story.

A colony spaceship, a crash landing, almost immediate problems with hostile aliens and then a hard journey of discovery: not new ideas and nothing groundbreaking, but Brown tells the story so well, who cares? It starts well and stays good - and then mid-way through the book is a big surprise. An unexpected twist like this can really raise everything to another level. He creates believable and sympathetic characters (both the human and non-human) and we find we care about them. In addition,the book's lean and without the usual "fat" book bloat so many of the well-known science-fiction authors tend towards nowadays. A very refreshing and pacy novel that stands on its own (even though there is a sequel I will almost certainly read).

It is such a shame that Eric died in 2023.

I went to the Edinburgh Art Fair 2024 at the O2 Academy a couple of weeks ago. I've been for the past few years and went on a Friday to skip crowds at the weekend. It was certainly quiet, perhaps quieter than I expected.

The usual mix of good and mediocre ... and some bad. All a personal opinion of course: I go to this sort of thing because I love looking at art, particularly paintings. But I am always surprised (but shouldn't be by now) what sort of terrible stuff some people like. Then again, art can be all sorts of things to different people and many times it is just "home decoration" - like a mirror or a house plant. It's good if the sofa colour compliments the abstract painting. There's nothing wrong with that and, in fact, I occasionally paint something with a view to wanting a particular mood or atmosphere on my wall.

Kirsten Mirrey had a booth. I love her oil painting, seeing her work at the Abbeymount Studios open day a few months ago. Amongst many works, she had a very large (and just finished) oil painting up on the wall: a deer in the highlands. She seems to be doing very well (and that's not a surprise).

Right: Freedom. An oil painting by Kirsten Mirrey (from her web site).

The Day of the Triffids
By John Wyndham

A classic novel of science-fiction. The Day of the Triffids is a thoroughly enjoyable read: well written, exciting and thought provoking.

Many (perhaps most) people will be familiar with the story but they might have it a bit wrong, as I did. I've seen at least one film or TV adaptation a long time ago and had a slightly skewed idea of the book, which turns out to be more intelligent and much better. In fact, the cause of the "Triffid" invasion and the mass blindness is either different to what I thought, or more nuanced.

The tale of the end of civilisation is still chilling, even though there have been countless other books of a similar kind since. Wyndham does not dwell on the horror but is good at making us see how bad things are and what a bleak future could be unfolding. The horror or despair is secondary to the reaction of the people that survive and how they cope: from utter despair to a glimmer of hope, and back again. Part of the story is a search for someone lost, a search in the huge deserted land turning to desolation and wilderness, with the ever increasingly threat of the alien triffids. And, what of being on your own? Bill Mazen starts to realise that threats are not all external. Loneliness is something a sociable species is also prey to :

Something that lurked inimically all around, stretching the nerves and twanging them with alarms, never letting one forget that there was no one to help, no one to care. It showed one as an atom adrift in vastness, and it waited all the time its chance to frighten and frighten horribly - that was what loneliness was really trying to do: and that was what one must never let it do ...

It is easy to see why the book was a success. Maybe post-war Britain was in a gloomy mood and people were prepared to contemplate how fragile our world is. It still is. But rather than close with a despair, one can perhaps close with some hope that there are some that will rebuild. This was written in the 50's after all, and gloomier books came later. The Day of the Triffids is a marvelous novel that I expect will be read again.

Pavane
By Keith Roberts

Pavane is Keith Roberts' best known novel and considered a classic work of alternative history. The alternative historical stream makes this "science-fiction".

The book takes place in a Britain dominated by the Roman Catholic church and there has been no Protestant Reformation (it was crushed at birth). The cause of this was the fact that the Spanish Armada managed a landing in England and there was a Catholic uprising with Queen Elizabeth assassinated. What would today's Britain be like, hundreds of years after such events?

The suggestion here is: no industrial revolution, science and technology severely circumscribed, capitalism neutered, an entrenched social hierarchy and a mighty church (including an inquisition). Before the 19th Century, people did not expect the world to change much over time, if at all. "Progress" didn't happen and change was slow: but it can happen. People are still intelligent and inventive and some want freedom to explore and think new things.

Roberts' novel is set in the South West of England, primarily Dorset and surrounds. It is suffused with a rural, old-world flavour as you would expect but, more unexpectedly, harkening back to a more distant, possibly pre-Christian, past. He has an obvious love for this countryside and perhaps the old magic still lingers here. The episodic style gives us a flavour of the state of the world through the eyes of a steam-powered business entrepreneur, a boy being trained in the Signalling guild and a high-born woman chafing at the strictures imposed by a powerful Church. They are linked by family or setting. Times are changing.

The background is believable and quite British. The tale is a realistic exploration of this possible future: not quite the novel I expected but still fresh and interesting.

I bought a new keyboard and went with an HP 230 wireless model that includes a wireless mouse. It's inexpensive and only for use with in my living room, so not heavily used. I have not used it much yet but it seems fine so far. I would not want to use it for much "proper" typing though. The keys are "chiclet" style with little action.

There is always a "setup" sheet with this sort of thing: inserting the batteries, turning on mouse etc. It is always small with tiny text. Often not very useful.

But why can HP not also include a guide to what the keyboard "icons" mean? I'm familiar with many but some are a little mysterious. Technology "Icons" are supposed to make functionality clear.

I don't know what the "F1" icon means.

Or the "F2". Although F2 works as usual for "rename" in a file manager.

"F3" cut I assume. "F4" copy?

Anyway, it is such a small thing to document, why not do it? I could not find this information online.

I have been using a Logitech diNovoEdge keyboard in my lounge since 2009. It still works but has started to become a little unreliable sometimes and it loses connection for 5-10 seconds more and more often. It's been much used and I think it is a great keyboard for the lounge/TV. It is much better than any of the other wireless keyboard/trackpad keyboards I have tried: they are often poorly designed and also a low quality build. It is a real shame Logitech stopped making them years ago. Anyway, time to try something else.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
By Muriel Spark

Spark's novel is short, sharp, witty and ascerbic. She has a great ear for dialogue between the young schoolgirls under the spell of their charismatic teacher. A wonderful book.

Written in the late 1950's, it is set in the Edinburgh of the 1930's. World War One is still a presence but the effects of the depression has only a fleeting appearance in this more affluent world. Jean Brodie is a teacher at an Edinburgh girls school with a particular outlook on life. She is cultured, one could say snooty, loves High Art and looks down on science. Edinburgh is strait-laced and proper but there are some rough edges, as seen by the "Brodie Set" themselves during a walk through the Old Town. They come across a long line of men queuing in the street :

Monica Douglas whispered, "They are the Idle."
"In England they are called the Unemployed. They are waiting to get their dole from the labour bureau," said Miss Brodie.

Jean Brodie takes holidays in Italy and admires Mussolini. She remarks that "In Italy the unemployment problem has been solved". How is left unsaid.

Children are very impressionable. Teachers are a big influence and in a position of trust. In modern parlance, they are "influencers". Today, of course, social media presents a much larger and more powerful array of "influencers", with pernicious effects sometimes. It's clear why parents have to care a lot about who you mix with as a child because their acquaintances have a bigger impact than you do. Like Jonathan Haidt, Professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU, we should be worried about the power of social media on children.

What I particularly liked about the book was Spark's dry and funny way with the children's dialogue. Sometimes silly, fantastical or funny. Occasionally, a little nasty (poor Mary MacGregor). She captures it beautifully.

"Miss Brodie says prime is best", Sandy said.
"Yes, but she never got married like our mothers and fathers."
"They don't have primes," said Sandy
"They have sexual intercourse," Jenny said.
The little girls paused, because this was still a stupendous thought, and one which they had only lately lit upon; the very phrase and its meaning was new. It was quite unbelievable.

A very approachable and funny book, and still relevant today.

I have made a new web site to show art work I have created :

https://art.sherringham.net

This is the first time I have done any "mobile" friendly web site work: mobile first. So I have also tried to familiarise myself with CSS features like flexbox layout etc. It has all been a learning experience. The Javascript "lightbox" is something I've taken from elsewhere (see below). I am now painfully aware of how unfriendly my main blog is to mobile and, at some point, I might have to try and fix this.

In the meantime, please check out the new site.

WARNING: The art site includes a "lightbox" (using lightbox2 but this does not work well on mobile devices. I may completely remove the lightbox, or try and replace with something else. More work needing done!

Non-Stop
By Brian Aldiss

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive ...
R. L. Stevenson

Aldiss has this Stevenson quote front and center at the start of his first science-fiction novel: a short and pacy adventure published in 1958. By the end, you might also understand why.

The US title was "Starship", which gives some of the game away unfortunately.

Right: The cover of the old US hardback I have. Surprisingly, using the British "Non-Stop" title. The graphic design and artwork is, let us say, of its time. Publisher: Carroll & Graf 1989.

I enjoyed this book a lot: Aldiss has obviously thought through the sort of things that might happen if humans have to live on an interstellar spaceship for a very long time. Think of features of speech, custom, culture, religion and all manner of human relationships. We are a fractious people. Space travel is hard on us and our bodies.

The ship in use here would be called a "generation" ship today: a well used trope of science-fiction since this was written (Aldiss might have been the first to write about it properly). The galaxy is so big that the human brain cannot fully grasp the numbers involved; they are just so large. I am not sure we would survive such a journey, but if we did, it might end up something like this. I made some assumptions here and thought I had a good idea what the end would bring, but I was surprised and wrong. A good book, and shows you can pack a lot into less than two-hundred pages.

We are all dying, just at different speeds.
-- Thomas Crowwell in The Mirror and the Light.

The Mirror and the Light
By Hilary Mantel

We know how the story ends. Boleyn dies by the sword. Cromwell, the axe. Others die in very much worse ways as the authorities cut a swathe through the country. After some initial success, the Pilgrimage of Grace is bloodily suppressed by a vengeful King. Robert Aske, one of the leaders, was killed in a very cruel way. This episode features in H.F.M. Prescott's Man on a Donkey (a book I read a few years ago and thought good).

Cromwell keeps his own secret book about Henry where he writes down his thoughts and observations about the King in an attempt to understand him. In this final novel, Cromwell is much more introspective.

This last book did not disappoint me in any way. As a series, they are perhaps the best books I've read and have left a lasting legacy to me. I will return to them I'm sure.

The Mirror and the Light is the final volume in Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy. I savoured the text all the more as I approached the final pages, waiting for the axe to fall and wondering how such an ending would be treated in the first person she uses. There has been some criticism (see wikipedia), mostly regarding the historical accuracy, but she's mostly had high praise. This is "fiction" we must remember but it is very hard not to find the world she creates entirely believable: the food, the smell, the weather and the people. I will almost certainly re-read the whole lot sometime, once again.

Mantel died in 2022. Thank goodness she lived to complete this.

And to finish :

Below: The original axe and block used during the execution of high-profile prisoners.
Photograph : By mwanasimba from La Réunion - Tower of London, CC BY-SA 2.0, link

From atlasobscura : This particular ax was last recorded as being used in 1747 for the execution of the Scottish Baron and Jacobite Lord Simon Fraser of Lovat, who, as a Highlander, fought against the Hanoverian forces during the battle of Culloden.