The last Mughal and a clash of civilisations

New Statesman – The last Mughal and a clash of civilisations

This is fascinating, and demonstrates once more that we seem incapable of learning from history. By a melancholy coincidence, I was reading the excellent Philip Hensher novel The Mulberry Empire while the Afghan death toll was rising, and couldn’t help noticing the parallels there too.

Back home

My eagle-eyed reader will have noticed a change in the Topsyturvydom profile. We are now in Manchester, home city for both of us, and we feel we’ve come home.Doubtless blogging will be intermittent while we settle in.

Welcome aboard

Fear of flying | Welcome aboard | Economist.com

Recently back from Norway, which involved six flights, so this rang a bell…

Dumb WAG

The Dumb Britain column in Private Eye is always good for a laugh – recent sample:

Anne Robinson: Which is the only letter in the alphabet with three syllables?

Contestant: Z.

They haven’t picked up this great exchange, though, which I saw on the BBC sport page:

Question on BBC1’s Test the Nation: “Who was Winston Churchill – A rapper, US President, The PM or King?”

Teddy Sheringham’s girlfriend, Danielle Lloyd: “Wasn’t he the first black president of America? There’s a statue of him near me – that’s black.”

You couldn’t make it up…

Fame at last

I’m grateful to Pablo Fanque for pointing out that Topsyturvydom was recently featured in the “Blogwatch” section of the North – West Enquirer web site. By that strange internet process that James Joyce would doubtless call the commodius vicus of recirculation, the first name I saw there was that of someone I taught twenty eight years ago. It had to be him – as the football chant would have it, there’s only one Kevin Gopal…

Arlo still has it…

To Manchester, to see Arlo Guthrie perform. Arlo is a girlhood hero of ‘er indoors, and a favourite of mine. He rarely makes it to these shores – the last time we saw him was 1988- so this was a must-see for us.
He was great. Backed by son Abe and grandson (!) plus an excellent pedal steel player, he ran through some of his most well-known songs, and some of his dad’s, in fine style. His between song – and sometimes in-song – chat is brilliant. He’s wry, clever, witty and self-deprecating; actually, quite a considerable orator. We sang along to the inevitable “Alice’s Restaurant” and “This Land is Your Land.” We also listened to a newly discovered wire recording of Woody, and were moved by an encore which showcased a new song, lyrics by Woody – apparently there are thousands of songs he never recorded. Two hours without a break – not bad for an old-timer!

The Devine Harriet

One of the pleasures of being a toiler in the groves of academe is that you get to work alongside some truly remarkable people. One such is my colleague Harriet Devine. Harriet’s academic reputation rests on her work on eighteenth and nineteenth century authors. She is a highly respected academic in her field, but has also led a remarkable life. Her latest publication is an autobiographical piece, which is a joy to read. As the daughter of George Devine, founder and leading light of the Royal Court Theatre, she had an unusual girlhood, punctuated by visits from Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft and other leading actors of the day. The book is full of fascinating anecdotes about some very well-known people, illustrated with some very evocative photographs from Harriet’s collection.
Harriet writes beautifully, in a clear and entertaining style. She is very honest about herself and the people she encountered. The result is a fascinating book, which should be read by anybody with an interest in British post-war theatre and culture. I’m already looking forward to the second volume.

Celeb mania

Our local paper, The Lytham St Annes Express – and I’m not providing a link because it’s such a useless publication – recently saw fit to splash a large photo of Abi Titmuss on the front page. The reason was, apparently, that she might – note the conditional – make a visit to Lytham. The article then goes on about the burgeoning celebrity culture in Lytham, brought about by its trendy bars and restaurants. The list of celebrities is awe-inspiring: apart from La Titmuss, there’s Phil Vickery, Andrew Ridgeley, Britt Ekland…and, er, that’s it. Just run that by me again, will you? So that’s a man who’s married to a fat lady on the telly, the uncreative half of a pop duo that broke up twenty years ago, and a woman whose main claim to fame is that she used to be married to Peter Sellers. I’m all agog. Truly, Lytham is the new St Tropez…

Slow progress on plastic bags

Guardian Unlimited Business | | Tesco offers carrot to reduce use of plastic carrier bags

Tesco are trying to present themselves as all eco-friendly by this move – but their “biodegradable” bags will still take years to degrade in the landfill sites where they will end up. I really can’t see why Tesco in Ireland can say a charge on plastic bags is a great idea, while their English counterpart says they have to continue to offer them free. Ther answer to this problem is so bleeding obvious – charge for plastic bags, and as we have seen in Ireland, use of them will plummet.