Farewell Ronald Searle
Ronald Searle was one of the greatest cartoonists this country has ever produced.
He is remembered most for St. Trinians. But I saw his wartime drawings from the Burma Railway in the sixties and they left a deep impression about the horrors of war and man’s inhumanity to man. All are part of a legacy of a great artist, who is mainly remembered for just one small part of his work.
He deserves to have a proper retrospective exhibition at a major gallery in the UK.
I noticed that Ronald Searle had the initials, RDI, after his name. The initials stand for Royal Designers for Industry. It is is a distinction established by the Royal Society of Arts in 1936, to encourage a high standard of industrial design and enhance the status of designers.
Life is too Short for Retirement
The statement is from Colin Murray Parkes, who has just received this year’s Times/Sternberg Active Life Award. This summary from Wikipedia sums up the sort of work he has done.
Parkes is a former chairman and now life president of the charity Cruse Bereavement Care.[4] He acted as a consultant and adviser following the disasters in Aberfan, the Cheddar/Axbridge air crash, the Bradford Football Club fire, the capsize of the Herald of Free Enterprise and Pan American aircraft explosion over Lockerbie. At the invitation of UNICEF, he acted as consultant in setting up the Trauma Recovery Programme in Rwanda in April 1995. At the invitation of the British government, he helped to set up a programme of support to assist families from the United Kingdom who were flown out following the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001, in New York. In April 2005 Parkes was sent by Help the Hospices with Ann Dent to India to assess the psychological needs of people bereaved by the tsunami.
And much of it was done after he was supposed to have retired.
One paragraph in the article in The Times today is particularly appropriate to my experience.
He has these words of advice: “The most important thing is not to avoid people who are bereaved. They won’t necessarily ask for help, but it is a lonely time. So do take the trouble to invite them out or go in for a visit. Even if all they really want to do is feel sad and have a good cry, it is nice to be able to do that with someone.
“Most people cope very well with bereavement if you give them a chance. Often people do the wrong thing for the right reason and avoid bereaved people because they are afraid of upsetting them, when actually they are upset anyway and sometimes long to talk about it. This is particularly the case at times of celebrations or anniversaries.”
He is so right. You can could the number of my friends, who have come to visit me since I moved on the fingers of one hand. But I did get large numbers of Christmas cards this year.
Am I bothered? Well, yes and no! I know that I’m way down some peoples’ lists and as someone who has always made most of his own entertainment, I can cope. But don’t say you’ll come and then don’t do it.
Farewell Vaclav Havel
The death of Vaclav Havel was not unexpected given his health problems. It is very sad and he will be missed by many. He would be on any sensible person’s list of the greatest of the twentieth century.
If I look at countries that have thrown off dictatorships successfully in the last few decades, they seem to have needed a figure to whom they could rally. The charismatic Havel was a supreme example as he took Czechoslovakia from under the heel of the Russians to a free and proud country.
He was no mean playwright either!
When we lived in that flat in St. John’s Wood, we had no television, but we did have a radio and often listened to it, after the children had gone to bed. Some nights we listened to the play on Radio 4.
One night, I can remembering listening to a play called The Memorandum by a Czech author. It may have starred Donald Pleasance, but I can’t find any reference to the production.
It is a superb play and one of the best I’ve heard on radio.
The author, who was unknown to both C and myself, was Vaclav Havel.
How many politicians, even the good ones, will be missed for what they did outside politics? Not many!
Farewell Christopher Hitchens
I didn’t agree with everything Christopher Hitchens said, but at least he had it right about religion and was always worth reading.
The world will be a worse place without him.
Probably if he hadn’t smoked he’d still be here.
In some ways smoking is the most selfish vice, as it annoys all the people around you and then when it kills you, it leaves your family in total distress.
He was eminently quotable.
The governor of Texas, who, when asked if the Bible should also be taught in Spanish, replied that ‘if English was good enough for Jesus, then it’s good enough for me.
[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction.
Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.
To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation—is that good for the world?
There are lots more like these.
Cheap Booze at Asda
There were reports yesterday that Asda are now selling Budweiser at fifty pence a bottle.
No wonder many peoples’idea of a good time is to get bladdered.
It means I have another reason not to shop at Asda.
In my view, there should e a minimum price for a unit of alcohol. I doubt it would affect me at all, so perhaps I’m being selfish. But on the other hand, I don’t want the psrtners, parents and friends of heavy drinkers, to go through all the heartache of the death of a loved one I’ve been through. And my wife was only a very moderate drinker and my son didn’t drink!
Another Train Delay
Last night when I went to Ipswich, the trains were delayed because of someone being hit by a train at Romford. One member of staff thought it was a suicide. From the traffic reports during thye day, I also got the impression, there had been another suicide in West London.
We didn’t get this number of suicides on the train lines, when it was easier to buy drugs in the chemist to take a fatal overdose. So you stop it one way and then people change their tactics.
C once did the divorce for a paramedic, who used to climb under the trains to get people out, after they had jumped in front of a tube train. Often they didn’t succeed in their aim and just lost both of their legs.
Let’s face it, some have worried that I might commit suicide after the last few years I’ve had.
But whilst I can still carry on, I will.
There might come a time, when I am in so much pain, that suicide might be a better option for some. But I suspect, I’ll still carry on, as after all, when the lights go out, there is nothing there at all!
Farewell Dr. Zebra
Little is to be found on the Internet about George Charlesworth, who died last month. He was the man, who suggested the black and white stripes to improve pedestrian crossings and was therefore nicknamed Dr. Zebra. His obituary is here.
He is one of those few people, who have earned a similar inscription on their grave as Christopher Wren.
Reader, if you seek his memorial – look around you.
There are only a few of whom that can be said.
The Heroes Start to Emerge
Now that things are starting to calm down, the real heroes of the riots are starting to emerge.
There can be none, who deserves to be called a hero, than Tariq Jahan. Read about him in the Guardian.
How many of us could behave in such a courageous and forgiving manner after their son had been murdered?
Not many I would say!
The Amazing Story of Rudolf Brazda
I’d never heard of Rudolf Brazda, until I saw his obituary today, but it gives deep insight into how the Nazis just didn’t persecute Jews, but a lot of others as well. Brazda was gay and somehow kept himself alive amongst the horrors of Buchenwald.
The Unbelievable Story of Cec Thompson
I’d never heard of Cec Thompson, who was one of the first black players to play rugby league for Great Britain, until I found this story on the BBC’s web site. He has just sadly died at 85, after an incredibly full life, which to say the least started very badly.
He is the sort of person, who is an inspiration to everybody. His obituary in the Telegraph tells more.
The Anonymous Widower 