Personal Blogs

Thought I'd share a few A223-related images (and even some from A111) after a lovely visit yesterday [23/4/2025] exploring Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Gardens which are about an hour north of York on the A1. 

The site of Cistercian Abbey since around 1160 (monks from St Mary's in York fell out and branched off on their own), Fountains Abbey was dissolved in 1539 by which time it had become one of the richest monasteries in England on the back of wool trading.

By the mid-18th century it had become the most impressive of the many 'sights' in John Aislabie's pleasure gardens. Aislabie's link with A223 is that he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1720 and probably the major political 'scalp' taken after the South Sea Bubble. Aislabie had been born in York, a clever younger son who made good, married well and rose in politics. 

Although he argued strongly in his defence, the House of Commons voted him guilty of the 'most notorious, dangerous, and infamous corruption' in promoting the South Sea scheme - he was fined £45,000 (the Bank of England's 'inflation calculator' puts that at a current value of £8.25 million) and sent to the Tower of London for a few months, but still allowed to keep assets with a current value of £21 million! He was banned from ever being an MP again - but his son William immediately took his parliamentary seat in Ripon 😄.

John was able to spend more time on the ultimate 'gardening leave' - and had these beautiful water gardens set out at his house at Studley Royal. They are listed as a World Heritage Site on the basis of exemplifying 18th century garden design, combining classical water features with 'naturalistic' landscaping. 

It felt quite natural to stop and take a photo every few yards - all the views were deliberately contrived, with the river straightened or shaped as desired and architectural follies distributed where needed - I'm sure I was only doing what the early modern visitor was intended to do!

The Aislabie's house at Studley Royal was destroyed in a fire in 1946, the building below is Fountains Hall and was built by 1604. This was created by owners of the Abbey land - and is of course made largely of recycled Abbey 🙂.

Along with Gothic ruins there were a couple of phases of 'Gothic Revival' on show in the grounds as well. The Octagon below was an 18th century viewing platform....

...and the Marquess of Ripon (who owned the lands and properties by the mid 19th century) had the church of St Mary's designed by William Burges (who we studied in A111) and built in 1870.

Plenty of colourful and curious detail and examples of the slightly eclectic architectural style Burges developed.

This wasn't my first visit - Fountains Abbey hosts one of the most beautiful Parkrun courses I've ever been on - but for this visit I was far less sweaty and far better informed!! 🤣

I was lucky enough to manage a day trip to Dublin last week and packed in a fair bit of A111 and A113 😀

The following are just a few snaps from the day.

The GPO building where the Republic was proclaimed in 1916 - the museum was good (but pricey at €15) few of video installations featured historians who contributed to OU materials.

Garden of Remembrance that features in A111 and was opened in 1966

The iconography of 'celtic' weapons broken and cast into water as a mark of the end of hostilities

The Children of Lir - rising, resurrected, redeemed, reborn....

Just outside the Garden is this memorial to the formation of the Irish Volunteer Force on that spot (it was I think an ice rink then) in 1913 - in response to the earlier establishment of the UVF that is discussed in A113. 

Apparently Parnell's statue caused some controversy when it went up in 1911, I presume because he was then still a divisive figure. Really interested in what I assume are Roman 'fasces' under all the drapes, I think at this point in time they may have been used as a symbol of Republican 'unity'. It's also a classic Roman sculptural pose that we encountered in A111. 

Second sculpture by Oisín Kelly (the first was Children of Lir) - this one of James Connolly's comrade, Jim Larkin. A co-founder of the Irish Citizens Army and a staunch revolutionary socialist. 

He used the quote below in one of his speeches - it apparently harks back to the French Revolution and is generally credited to Camille Desmoulins.

From A113 the 'Liberator' Daniel O'Connell (plus obligatory seagull) gets centre stage with a monument and of course the main street (since 1924)

Kilmainham Gaol

Corridor where most of the 1916 rebels were held before execution.

The classic 'panopticon' prison design in the Victorian wing of KIlmainham Gaol. Éamon de Valera was a prisoner here and Hugh Grant danced down the steps at the finale of 'Paddington 2' (Noel Coward also celebrated the apparent achievement of the 'Italian Job' here)

A final look back into the stone-breakers yard and the spot where James Connolly was executed. It was interesting, given the reflection in A111 on contested memories, to hear that the prison wasn't initially promoted in the Free State as a 'hallowed' site - the fact it was also the place of execution of some anti-Treaty rebels made its heritage a difficult one, at least until Fianna Fáil gained power.

The Basilica overlooks the old town of Lyon and can be reached by one of the funicular railways. It was built between 1872 and 1896 on a location that had been dedicated to the Virgin Mary since the twelfth century. The prompt for its construction was apparently celebration of the fact that the Prussian army in the 1870 Franco-Prussian war stopped its advance before reaching Lyon, this was attributed to intercession by the Virgin Mary. This was a great place to do some A111 revision on the stories linked to Mary, the mother of Jesus and to aspects of the practices associated with her in the Catholic faith.

A major feature of the upper section of the Basilica are giant mosaics all linked to the story of the Virgin Mary. 

The Council of Ephesus (431 CE) The central question of this early Christian debate was around the human and/or divine nature of Jesus. Was Mary Christotokos (giving birth to Christ, a man), or Theotokos (giving birth to God)? 'Theotokos' won out and Mary was increasingly referred to as the Mother of God. Another bit of Marian mythology in the mosaic shows an angel (top row, two-thirds along from the left) carrying the house of her birth from Nazareth, via a few other sites, to its final resting place in Loreto, Italy - where it sits inside the Basilica della Santa Casa. 

The Battle of Lepanto (1571 CE) This is Mary in warrior-mode, leading the defeat of the Ottoman fleet at the naval battle of Lepanto off the coast of Greece. Central to her intercession in this victory were prayers said to the Rosary, which the Pope is holding up. This event was a key step in bringing the Rosary into the fold of Roman Catholic religious practice.

Proclamation of the Immaculate Conception (1854) This mosaic commemorates the point when Pope Pius IX officially declares the immaculate conception of Mary as part of the official dogma of the Roman Catholic church. Sinless in life, and now deemed to have been conceived without sin.

The lower part of the Basilica is a large crypt dedicated to St Joseph and in its own words 'welcoming Virgins from all over the world'. 

The walls are covered with ex-voto commemorations, recording both donations and answered prayers. There are multiple side chapels around the crypt occupied by copies of Virgins from key pilgrimage locations around the globe.

Our Lady of China, Our Lady of Lebanon, Our Lady of Africa

The Weeping Virgin of Gyor (Hungary), Our Lady of Good Health of Velankanni (India), Our Lady of Czestochova (Poland)

Our Lady of Fatima (Portugal), Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico), Our Lady of Aperecida (Brazil)

Our Lady of Loretto (Italy), Our Lady of 'La Naval' (Manila)

My A111 tutor had highlighted Arthur Marwick as someone to think about reading - particularly ahead of future modules covering 20th century history - so I was pleased to find this second hand copy of 'The New Nature of History', which includes some pretty forcefully made points on the nature and practice of history 😀. Marwick was the foundation Professor of History at the OU and looks to have strongly shaped the nature of the teaching and course content. He died in 2006.

These are just a few notes on points I want to remember.

The book is a rewriting of an earlier text 'The Nature of History', which had been a set text on the OU History course. The revision was apparently stimulated by Marwick engaging with, and seeking to combat, post-modernist perspectives on history. 

In the preface Marwick emphasises the importance of the sub-title: Knowledge, Evidence, Language. He defines history as the production of a body of knowledge about the past, one built on evidence and where language in the past has to be understood and in the present used with precision to ensure accurate communication. He has no truck with ideas that history is an entirely subjective expression of contemporary actors, trapped within language that is laden and fraught with power.

In this diagram he tries to summarise his ideas about the relationships between historians, the past and history.

1. Is the source authentic, is it what it purports to be?
2. When exactly was the source produced? What is its date? How close is its date to the date of the events to which it relates, or to dates relevant to the topic being investigated? How does this particular source relate chronologically to other relevant sources?
3. What type of source is it? A private letter? Or an official report, a public document of record, or what?
4. How did the source come into existence in the first place, and for what purpose? What person, or group of persons, created the source? What basic attitudes, prejudices, vested interests would he, she or they be likely to have? Who was it written for or addressed to?
5. How far is the author of the source really in a good position to provide first-hand information on the particular topic the historian is interested in? Is the writer dependent, perhaps, on hearsay?
6. How exactly was the document understood by contemporaries? What, precisely, does it say?
7. How does the source relate to knowledge obtained from other sources, both primary and secondary?

Finally, what Marwick describes as a 'hierarchy of explanatory factors' - he proposes this as a structure for 'explanation' in historical writing. Interestingly he quotes this framework in his book on 'The Sixties' (pp. 23-25).

1. Structural, ideological and institutional circumstances

1. Structural (geographical, demographic, economic and technological)
2. Ideological (what is believed and is possible to be believed, religious faiths, existing political and social philosophies)
3. Institutions (systems of government, justice, policing, voting and education, religious organisations, working-class organisations, the family)

A Yorkshire Buddha - this one sits in meditation on a lotus flower in the grounds of the University of York. When I took the picture there were some offerings of fruit and flowers.

I couldn't find much information about the statue, it is dated as 19th century and was donated by the family of a key benefactor to the University and a major 20th century public figure in York, John Bowes Morrell. It apparently used to sit in his front garden! I've done my study day each week for A111 in the JB Morrell library and so there is one more link with OU study.

On my first visit to the statue I'd not noticed some of the discreetly positioned items that were tucked into the corners of the Buddha's covering. The only one that I've been able to find out much about is the collection of 'coin charms' - these are found in use in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam and can apparently also be part of Confucian and Taoist religions. Such items can be left for many different reasons, to commemorate particular events/people, as prayers for support/good fortune.

  

The university now has large numbers of students from countries where Buddhism plays a significant part in the culture. This statue is perhaps less 'exotic' now than when it was first donated - and looks to have an established functional value at least for some students.

Coming home from a holiday in Devon I had a chance to look at the Methodist 'New Room' in Bristol, which features in the 'Christianity and its material culture' chapter of A111. 

The chapel is the second building on the site dating from 1748, the first which opened in 1739 was quickly outgrown. It sits just off the main Broadmead shopping centre in the middle of Bristol, there is a courtyard in front of the building with a statue of John Wesley on horseback.

One aspect of the building's design which wasn't mentioned in the A111 materials is the small stable block that flanks the entrance to the chapel. Travelling was very much part of a Methodist preacher's life and so the building including accommodation for both humans and horses!

I like the simplicity of the building's interior - the roof lighting really does flood the room and even on quite a grey day made it seem much more open and inviting than I'd expected.

Something that links with the more recent 'crossing boundaries' A111 theme and which initially surprised me was that the only translated information in the museum was in Korean. Apparently whilst the Methodist Church shrank dramatically in membership across the UK in the 20th century it saw a big increase in South Korea following missionary efforts from the USA - sufficient to make it worth the museum's while to try and encourage donations specifically from Korean pilgrims to the site! 

This variant on non-conformist Protestant Christianity is now practiced much more commonly outside the UK than it is within it.

Just a few notes from:

Reception studies by Lorna Hardwick. (2003) Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Three different latin terms:

exempla (a lesson)

imitatio (imitation) 

aemulatio (competition)

I thought the following might be a helpful list of terms (pp.9-10):

Acculturation: assimilation into a cultural context (through nurturing or education or domestication or sometimes by force)

Adaption: a version of the source developed for a different purpose or insufficiently close to count as a translation

Analogue: a comparable aspect of source and reception

Appropriation: taking an ancient image or text and using it to sanction subsequent ideas or practices (explicitly or implicitly)

Authentic: close approximation to the supposed form and meaning of the source. At the opposite end of the spectrum from invention (i.e. a new work)

Correspondences: aspects of a new work that directly relate to a characteristic of the source

Dialogue: mutual relevance of source and receiving texts and contexts

Equivalent: fulfilling an analogous role in source and reception but not necessarily identical in form or content

Foreignization: translating or representing in such a way that difference between source and reception is emphasised

Hybrid: a fusion of material from classical and other cultures

Intervention: reworking the source to create a political, social or aesthetic critique of the receiving society

Migration: movement through time or across place; may involve dispersal and diaspora and acquisition of new characteristics

Refiguration: selecting and reworking material from a previous or contrasting tradition

Translation: literally from one language to another. Literal, close, free are words used to pin down the relationship to the source as are phrases like 'in the spirit rather than the letter'. Translation can also be used metaphorically as in 'translation to the stage' or 'translation across cultures'

Transplant: to take a text or image into another context and allow it to develop

Version: a refiguration of a source (usually literary or dramatic) which is too free and selective to rank as a translation

The book 'The Brutish Museums' by Dan Hicks is briefly mentioned in the 'Optional' materials in week 27 'The art of Benin: 1897 to present day'. Hicks is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at Oxford and Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, which houses a number of objects taken from the Kingdom of Benin.

I've made a number of notes below, chiefly on points that I want to keep in mind from the book and some onward links.

Overall, I wish I could say I enjoyed the book more than I did. I'm broadly in sympathy with Hicks's view that museums and galleries need to take a more active role in repatriation of illegally looted objects in their collections. I'd also agree that they should be actively raising difficult conversations about the awful reality of the British Empire and its ongoing legacy and consider how they can engage in a process of meaningful restitution. In fact there wasn't much about any of the arguments he makes that I'd disagree with, the difficulty I had was really with the writing style. The book is a polemic, which is often invigorating and a necessary part of study - I just found the repeated 'short-cut' language of 'disaster-extraction-capitalism', 'ultraviolence', 'corporate-militarist colonialism', 'white fragility' etc. became wearing and clichéd in the end and detracted from the message for me. 

That said there are lots of points that I want to keep hold of!

An early reference was made to 'Workers investigating their own workplace' and the movement 'Dig where you stand' promoted by Sven Lindqvist. I've subsequently discovered this was a Swedish 'History from Below' movement that encouraged examination of the history of employers and companies by their workers. Hicks makes this link because as a 'museum worker' he is critically examining and exposing the history of his workplace.

Hicks takes the following as a key motto in the book: 'as the border is to the nation state so the museum is to empire' - I take this to mean that whilst borders divide humanity into so-called 'nations', museums use time to make distinctions between different types of human. 

There is a chapter on the 'Theory of Taking' - which I think really boils down to the argument that material theft should be similarly considered as has land theft in studies of colonisation. That these forms of dispossession are just as important and damaging to survivor populations.

Hicks talks about 'Necrography' - not just the 'life histories' of objects in museums, but also death histories - documenting loss - and the loss of life in particular - associated with objects.

He takes issue with:

• cultural biography - i.e. the idea of what is added to object through reuse/passage
• entanglement - a reciprocity of reaction between cultures which come into contact, Hicks seems to argue that this obscures the enormous asymmetry in the damage accruing from these contacts with colonisers.

The idea of necrography seems to be a response to this.

Another term coined was, 'White projection' - essentially projecting colonisers faults onto others - it was Benin's 'fault', they were the savages - even though it was the colonisers who exhibited the savagery.

Hicks makes (to my mind) a good case that the 'Punitive raid' was part of a pre-planned expansion of colonial control for profit. He also promotes the idea of 'World War Zero' for the period of colonial violence worldwide from the Berlin Conference to the start of WWI. Whilst this may have some merit in highlighting the geographic scale, the continuous (if sequential) nature and the horror of these 'Small Wars', I think it potentially underplays their asymmetry - the later WW's were much more 'equal'. However interesting to think about whether this whole period will in fact in time be seen as one of extended (chiefly European) imperial conflict.

There was lots of discussion about museums, objects and 'duration' and archaeology as being involved in 'duration'. I assume that is perhaps about 'what lasts'? Hick argues that museums, (and perhaps display in particular?) cause ongoing violence - extend the duration of the original assaults, he also sees the violence as increased over time. I did wonder if it is really possible to establish who are (and who are not?) the victims of such violence, is this a process of self-identification?

The following points were taken from a number of academics that Hicks draws on - it will be valuable to follow some of these up.

Interesting ideas on what museums do to objects from the work of Achille Mbeme in his book 'Necropolitics' he describes a process of  'mummification, statuefication and fetishization' 

The language of Aimé Césaire was 'chosification', colonisers make colonised into 'things' in his 'Discourse on Colonialism'. Another point linked with this academic was the basic 'equation (Christianity=Civilization Paganism=Savagery)

'Chronopolitics' is a term used by Johannes Fabian in 'Time and the Other' - basically putting individuals who live at the same time in different times - so people in Benin were 'living in the past' - Hicks argues that museums collude, perhaps even exist, on the back of this idea. I gather there was also a geographic component to this idea - the further away from the 'centre' communities are the further 'back in time' they are considered to be.

Finally just a few direct quotes from Hicks to think about....

'Understand artefacts[...] not as frozen moments of time, but ongoing durations' p.13

'Museums are devices for extending events across time: in this case extending, repeating and intensifying the violence' p.15

I thought I'd share the stamps that the Irish An Post published in 2016 to commemorate the 1916 rising.

Having now read the A111 chapter 'Remembering and forgetting in Ireland' I think there were some really interesting choices made about what was 'remembered' (I wonder a bit about what was still 'forgotten', perhaps the impact on Unionists, the link with Germany?). The stamps came grouped into four themed sets

The leaders are grouped to represent the three organisations involved in the Rising, the IRB, the IVF and the ICA and there are a couple of the flags flown over the occupied buildings. This set is similar to the stamps published in 1966 - the seven executed signatories to the proclamation of independence.

Participants

These were a very interesting set of choices, the Dublin police constable was the first person killed in the uprising by Sean Connelly who himself died in the Rising, Michael Malone was an IVF member who died in the Rising his brother William had died the year before on the Western Front, Dr Lynn and Elizabeth O'Farrell were a doctor and nurse respectively who were active Nationalists and provided medical care to the rebels, the picture of Jack Doyle and Tom McGrath is one of very few taken inside the GPO during the week

Easter Week

More interesting choices...Seán Foster was among the 40 children who died in the Rising, Louisa Nolan received a medal from George V for tending to British wounded, Sir Francis Fletcher-Vane was a British officer who exposed the murder of the pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and four others by another British officer (there was an attempted cover-up, Fletcher-Vane was relieved of his command but had the political contacts to get the perpetrator convicted) 

The Aftermath

Images of the destruction in Dublin, of poor Dubliners scavenging for fire-wood, the repression and round-ups of the public that contributed to a change in public perception and Roger Casement who was the last leader executed having been caught soon after smuggling in arms for the rebellion from Germany.

An Post credit two historians for their contributions to the development of the stamps, Fearghal McGarry and Lar Joye

I don't think many of these stamps, other than the first four, could possibly have been printed in 1966, I found them a really fascinating set now I've learned so much more about public memories!

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According to Mark McCarthy in his 2012 review of 1916 remembrance (Ireland's 1916 Rising: explorations of history-making, commemoration & heritage in modern times. Farnham: Ashgate.),  'much of the substance of the 90th anniversary commemoration was about recovering lost memories of the revolutionary past. In what seemed like a public relations exercise of grandiose proportions, Easter 2006 was all about recasting the Rising in a new positive light and sanitising its legacy from all of the negative connotations associated with the actions of the Provisional IRA during the course of the Troubles.' 

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, had played a key role in the negotiation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and according to McCarthy 'saw the 90th anniversary as an opportune time in which to reassert Fianna Fáil’s republican credentials and reclaim the Rising’s legacy from the Provisional IRA.' 

The first military parade since 1971 to celebrate the 1916 Rising was seen in central Dublin and the scale of celebrations exceeded anything that had occurred during the Troubles.

The commemorative stamp was a simple photograph of a recently cleaned and refurbished GPO building and to my mind is the most 'neutral' of all the stamp designs memorialising the Rising. There are no images of conflict or visual references to the rebels themselves - it certainly does look like a 'sanitised' legacy.

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In 1991, the 75th anniversary of the Rising, the commemorative stamp was a combined image of the Cúchulainn statue which stands in the GPO building as a memorial to the Rising and the text of the Proclamation of Independence. The Irish text on the side of the stamp translates as 'in memory 1916'. The other image on the first day cover is a statue of Hibernia which stands above the pediment on the building.

The original statue 'The death of Cúchulainn' was made in 1911-12 by the sculptor Oliver Sheppard and chosen by Éamon de Valera in 1935 as the 20th anniversary approached to be a monument to the Rising. Though mortally wounded by his rival Lugaid, Cúchulainn has himself tied to a standing stone to face his enemies upright in death. Only when a raven lands on his shoulder do his opponents know he has died.

The 1935 memorial also includes part of 1916 Proclamation, but Allison Martin (https://www.historyireland.com/easter-rising-commemorations-in-the-early-irish-state/) makes the point that only a section is included. The failure to include the section on expectations for religious and civil liberty and equal opportunities for all its citizens may reflect a nervousness on the part of the government that the social ambitions of the rebels had not yet been achieved.

When this stamp was issued in 1991 the 'Troubles' were ongoing, the 'Birmingham Six' had been released from prison in England a fortnight earlier, regular sectarian killings occurred in the weeks surrounding the anniversary. The text that accompanied the first day cover reads as quite constrained in its description of the Rising, 'a noble but hopeless venture', 'in almost every sense, a failure.' 

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The 1966 commemorative stamps could be saved in this special display leaflet, there were eight stamps in total. Seven stamps commemorate the signatories to the proclamation, each is given a brief potted history, particularly highlighting their role in the Rising. The date of execution is given for each. 

I think the stamp commemorating the Rising itself is perhaps the most interesting. The text says it 'joins symbolically the lives lost in the war of independence and the theme of Ireland marching into an era of freedom'. The stamp uses the three colours of the Irish flag and I think the sunburst is probably a reference to the Fianna in Irish mythology, the Irish text simply commemorates 'The Easter Rising'. The stamp design was by the Irish artist Edward Delaney, who is best known for his sculpture, including major memorials in Dublin to Wolfe Tone and Thomas Davis. The chapter discussed some of the 'sculpture wars' of this period, but only mentioned the 'victims' of Republicans, Delaney's Wolfe Tone sculpture was blown up by Loyalists in 1971 - but recast and replaced shortly afterwards.

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This is a commemorative from 1941 and the silver jubilee year of the Rising which occurred during the 'Emergency' (aka WWII). What I found interesting was the image of fighting youth. (The Irish is the 'in the name of God and the dead generations...' from the Proclamation)

In one of the A111 chapter references by Allison Martin, https://www.historyireland.com/easter-rising-commemorations-in-the-early-irish-state/ the 1941 celebrations are discussed and how, despite being a neutral country the government opted to make a real show of the military in the commemorations.

"De Valera and his administration therefore decided to use the commemoration service in order to project an image of military strength. In reality, the Irish state was militarily and financially unprepared for war. Nevertheless, the impressive military procession had the desired effect: one reporter from the Irish Independent was left with the distinct impression that ‘the nation was prepared’."

I think this political priority really comes across in the stamp design, none of the other commemoratives (there are ones from 1941,1966, 1991, 2006 and 2016) emphasise images of 'battle' like this - a really potent image!

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In 1941 a provisional set of stamps (two and three pence) were also printed and released just before Easter that year, these were standard 'definitive' stamp designs over-printed with the text 'In memory of the Rising 1916' in Irish. 

Part of the reflective exercise in week 17 was to look back at the A111 module learning outcomes we considered at the start of the course and specifically to reflect on the progress we've made in developing those skills we'd initially prioritised. The one learning outcome that I felt I'd not really reflected much on was the statement:

"You will recognise how the arts and humanities are relevant to issues of ethical, social and public concern"

So I thought I might try and structure some thoughts chapter by chapter...

	Cleopatra: An opportunity in this chapter to consider how contemporary representations of characters in media may tell us something about current preoccupations. The module considered how Cleopatra was presented in different films and TV shows and how this reflected concerns and priorities of the time. Whilst Cleopatra films aren't necessarily going to turn up on a regular basis, perhaps there's an opportunity to think about how powerful female leaders are shown in film and drama.
	Mary, Mother of Jesus: A valuable module to reflect on links between Christianity and Islam (which I know very little about), and perhaps particularly on the way in which individuals might cross some 'boundaries' between the faiths in seeking intercession via Mary. Interesting to reflect on what makes Mary an active power in some people's lives and in the way in which she always seems to be in some form of tension between an officially sanctioned role and one developed from 'below'.
	Elizabeth I: Plenty to think about here in the way in which images of power are created and the meanings they may contain - opportunities to think about whether there are contemporary parallels. Very interesting to study this around the time of Elizabeth II's death and the imagery mobilised then. Perhaps also worth reflecting on how 'succession' is best managed in other settings - what are the pro's and con's of naming a successor?
	Mozart: The aspect of this chapter that made me think about wider relevance was the part touching on ideas of 'genius' and the 'sources' of whatever this is. Also a chance to reflect on the 'gendering' of genius and how such attributes may have been (are) considered when applied to women.
	Mary Wollstonecraft: Lots to think about here in terms of her insights and philosophy on gender, development and power. Many aspects of her critique of male tyranny are sadly still of contemporary relevance. Plenty to consider about the nature of difference between the sexes, the extent to which it is real and the extent to which it 'matters'
	Dickens and A Christmas Carol: Most of my reflections on contemporary issues prompted by this chapter are here.
	Van Gogh: I think this chapter, more than most, got me thinking about 'go back to the object' rather than relying on the peripheral 'knowledge' that you think you've accrued about someone/something - worth keeping in mind when considering contemporary artifacts.
	Academic Integrity: Generalisable points on 'truth' and 'opinion' and on the value of intellectual property.
	Greek and Roman sculpture: Prompts to think about what contemporary artists/public figures may have to gain from associating their work with classical icons. Touched on some of the symbols of masculinity and how these may be used today.
	The Blues: This chapter got me thinking about appropriation and so many of the issues around 'membership' and 'ownership' of different traditions. Inevitably dominated by issues of particular relevance to Black populations and of what has changed and what has not.
	Writing Stories: The call to 'pay attention' seemed particularly relevant - to be engaged in an ongoing process of trying to closely observe the world and to try and let that observation inform your work.
	Reading Poetry: Because the focus was on animal poetry this chapter encouraged me to think quite a lot about relationships between humans and animals - the deep challenge of anthropomorphism and the dominance of our human-centric perception.
	Plato's Laches: Reflection on approaches to education and the extent to which 'knowledge' does require personal experience. Touched on 'Virtue Ethics' which I've heard about in medicine, but don't know enough about - something to look into. The discussion in Meno led to some reflection on the meaning of 'knowledge' and 'true opinion' in an online discussion on ChatGPT the latest open access AI platform.
	Remembering and Forgetting in Ireland: Thoughts about the importance that 'forgetting' may have in conflict resolution and the establishment of stable societies. Much of value in trying to understand contemporary challenges post-Brexit and important insights into the influences of the past on relations across the British Islands.
	Christianity and its material culture: Plenty to think about in terms of how belief systems are reflected/incorporated into objects and materials. A reminder of how important such objects can be, also how there have been waves of destruction across time, interesting to think about what contemporary iconoclasm is going to look like - will we have a revolution against selfies and curated selves?
	The revival of the Gothic tradition: One aspect of this which interested me was in the reflection of political values in buildings - the contrast between the power of basing buildings in 'the past' and perhaps of looking to other traditions - celebrating modernity or 'place' as the parliaments in Wales and Scotland look to do. What do civic buildings tell us about contemporary values?
	Antigone: This chapter really felt like a step up in terms of these learning outcomes on 'ethical, social and public concern' - much more of a feature across all of this book. Lots to think about regarding what 'leadership' involves and also the great difficulties that individuals and groups, who are actually not so far apart, can encounter. Found it fascinating to be casting Paul Simon as 'Antigone' when listening to him trying to justify 'ignoring' politics in making 'Graceland', instantly sympathised with 'Creon'! A big message here about compromise.
	The Island: Both awful to have lived in the time of apartheid and amazing to have outlived it. The capacity for imagination and 'play' to sustain people at the worst of times came across here to me. Such an engaged piece of drama - wonder if it will eventually become a period piece, or whether it will spawn new versions, less embedded in South African history?
	Music and protest in South Africa: Can't forget the description of prisoners singing before execution - so moving. Did make me think about what was the music of 'conformity' - how did Afrikaans music sustain their beliefs and values - would we find similarities or radical differences?
	The art of Benin: 1400 to Present Day: Got me thinking and reading a lot about questions of post-colonial issues. These are such a core challenge in British culture at the moment, one of the main reasons for being interested in history. The considerations around repatriation of art are clearly complex, but I have no doubt that these objects should be largely returned to Africa. Thinking through this chapter has made me think about what a lot of work we still have to do as a culture to accept the damaging legacies of Empire. A big role for the arts and humanities in that work!
	Buddhism in practise: This was perhaps the 'eye-opener' chapter for me - will be fascinating to see how the reception of Buddhism continues in the West. I learned a lot about the history and diversity of Buddhism - and the 'Very short...' booklet on Buddhist ethics was an interesting extension to what insights this could give on questions such as war and violence and reproductive ethics.
	Philosophy and compassion: A bit baffling to work through Schopenhauer's metaphysics and the reasoning he applied to his views on compassion. I don't think I can live as a pessimist, but I think the chapter gave plenty of impetus to question unthinking optimism! Philosophical study is perhaps the most straightforward topic to think of 'applying', I was interested in the aspects of discussion around the 'burden' of compassion - do think there is something to be said for reflecting on the 'joy' that such actions can also bring.

The 'Reading Poetry' chapter of A111 has an online activity to select our own tiny anthology of poems from 'The Faber Book of Beasts', this was my attempt - with a few added photos.

This mini-anthology was prompted by reading one of the poems, Les Murray's 'Pigs'; a startling attempt at creating a distinct animal voice, one in which we also face square on to the process of routine animal slaughter. I decided to trawl 'The Faber Book of Beasts' for other (inevitably livestock) farming poems and explore briefly what poets may have to say about this relationship between humans and the natural world. To be included I thought that there should be at least some indication of a farm or farmer somewhere in the poem (so room for Craig Raine's 'Lamb', but not for Blake's). I found about thirteen poems in total and having decided that Heaney and Hughes could be allowed only one apiece I ended up with the following ‘collection’. A number make for quite tough reading, particularly all in one sitting - but with global livestock now outweighing wild mammals and birds by a factor of ten it feels a relationship we (particularly meat-eaters like me) should work at understanding.

1.Craig Raine, 'Pretty Baa Lamb' (pp. 208-9)

2.Richard Wilbur 'A Black November Turkey' (pp. 37-8)

The poem gives a beautifully observed portrait of the turkey in its prime, but one literally 'foreshadowed' in dark plumes 'Himself his own cortège/And puffed with the pomp of death,' It may have a 'timeless look', but the clock is running and late November will bring Thanksgiving Day.

3.Norman Maccaig 'Fetching Cows' (p. 89)

I love this simple account of gathering in cattle, perfect in taking me to the time and place - the swaying ABA rhyming pattern occasionally disappearing in the enjambment of stanzas three and four then sounding out again. The final metaphor is a perfect descriptor of that burdened swinging walk, 'The black cow is two native carriers/Bringing its belly home, slung from a pole.', but I struggled with those 'natives' for quite a while. I was going to have to leave it as just 'of its time' (and nothing wrong with that) but then I was struck by the thought, what could be more 'colonised', more 'enslaved' by man than nature? Suddenly a wholly different view point opened up.

4.Seamus Heaney 'Cow in Calf' (p. 62)

A real sense of 'contact' in this poem, Heaney absolutely takes me into the stall with this cow - I can feel the stinging in my hand as we try and move her on. Three stanzas of free verse, but finishing in a flourish of repetition and internal rhyme, 'The udder grows. Windbags/of bagpipes are crammed there/to drone in her lowing.' 'Windbags/bagpipes' 'her.../her.../her...' 'drone/lowing/going'. Yet again the farming cycle of birth and death is emphasised, this calf, like all the others, is part of a process.

5.Les Murray 'Pigs' (p. 206)

This reminded me of another one of Les Murray's frequently anthologised poems 'The Cows on Killing Day' (https://griffinpoetryprize.com/poem/the-cows-on-killing-day/), in particular with the 'herd-speak' of 'Us’ and ‘we'. Here, verbally and syntactically it tries to shock us in to animal eyes, both when talking of an ancestral dream-time, 'Us back in cool god-shit. We ate crisp./We nosed up good rank in the tunnelled bush.' or when brought up cold against the image of hung carcasses, '...This gone-already feeling/here in no place with our heads on upside down.' Of course, human language, however twisted, constrains it to the anthropomorphic - but it is at least exciting to even try and meet animals on their own terms. 

6. Ted Hughes 'View of a Pig' (pp.275-6)

To end the anthology we have most definitely moved here from life to meat, the recurring words are 'dead/death' and 'weight/weigh/poundage'. 'Such weight and thick pink bulk/Set in death seemed not just dead./It was less than lifeless, further off./It was like a sack of wheat.' This was one of the less violent Hughes poems in the overall anthology, but even here when the slaughter is complete and conducted by someone else, he seems compelled to engage us in some form of assault, 'I thumped it...'. The poem invites us to imagine the living pig '...its life, din, stronghold/ Of earthly pleasure...' but also asks us to acknowledge that if we want 'lard and pork' then pity is really 'off the point.'

The programme included two short essays, the first was by John Bowen an academic at the University of York and focused on the social background to the original novella. 

Bowen discusses the exploitation of children in the workplace and lack of regulation and often of physical protection in factories.

'The 1830s are often called the 'Angry Thirties' and the 1840s the 'Hungry Forties', for good reason'

• Bad harvests in the late 1830's
• Corn Laws keeping price of bread high
• 1832 Great Reform Act extends franchise, but not to working class
• The New Poor Law [1834] removed some protections and introduced the workhouse
• Persecution of Trades Unions

[The essay could also have mentioned the first cholera epidemic in 1831/2 and the beginning of the Great Famine in Ireland in 1845]

Bowen characterises Dickens at this time as '...both riding high and haunted by his past' a celebrity after the success of early novels, but with his 'shameful family history - of poverty, imprisonment and suffering'

The essay discusses Dickens' response to The Parliamentary Report of the Children's Employment Commission and makes links to A Christmas Carol as mentioned in A111. Bowen suggests that Dickens 'succeeded, at least in part' in striking a blow for the 'Poor Man's Child' - as contributing to an increased recognition and campaigning for reform, with some practical legislative consequences in the 1840s. 

Bowen seeks to address George Orwell's critique that Dickens only sought an individual 'change of heart' rather than addressing systematic causes of poverty, suggesting the virtues he promoted were essentially communal ones and necessary in the absence of other routes to social support. 

Orwell too credits Dickens with wanting much more than this, and states that moral criticism of society has its own 'revolutionary' credentials, 

The programme is illustrated with a variety of images - some centred around social circumstances and communal responses to poverty. The credits for the image above point to the 'Science and Society Picture Library' of the National Museum of Science and Media.

Searching the library the original images is: ‘A Night in the Streets of London’, c 1857. Photograph by Swedish-born photographer Oscar Gustav Rejlander (1813-1875). 

There is also an interesting short biography for Rejlander on the National Museum of Science and Media website. According to his entry in the ODNB, a mirrored image of this photograph was used by the Shaftesbury Society for over a hundred years to highlight the plight of homeless children.

The image below is a contemporary one of a woman working in PPE during the COVID pandemic in a church preparing boxes for a food bank.

Quotations were placed throughout the programme, each displayed on a 'Christmas Gift Tag' with period decoration. There were 14 quotations in total, three were from Dickens himself and there were quotes also from GK Chesterton (an admirer and literary critic of Dickens) and John Forster (Dickens's friend and biographer) - but the most striking in terms of attempting to make links between contemporary political discussion and A Christmas Carol were four by members of the ruling Conservative party:

The programme contrasts differences in the social and economic circumstances of children living in the Victorian period and the present day. This is done under the headings of School, Work, Toys and Food. Overall there are of course dramatic improvements in all areas - but the programme also makes reference to rates of inflation in 2022 and the significant increase in food prices. It end by saying that 'Thea parcel from a food bank is given to a person facing hardship every 13 seconds.'

The second essay in the programme is by Sir Christopher Frayling and explores the adaptation and performance of A Christmas Carol.

Frayling discusses Dickens's public readings and the presence of multiple 'bootleg' versions on stage by the 1850's, emphasising Christmas jollity over social conscience. He suggests that by the start of the 20th century A Christmas Carol was being seen as a tale for the kiddies, in which the 'nasty ogre...becomes a fairy godfather', 'Neverland rather than now-land'.

'Then' Frayling says, 'came the cinema.' He mentions a number of film adaptations:

• 1901 - first film adaptation, short 'trick film' centred on special effect of Marley's ghost
• 1914- version made by London Film Company which, 'had avoided "those vexed social questions" which were in the original novel, but that this was to be applauded'
• 1935- British feature film Scrooge had as 'centrepiece a singing of the national anthem by the great and the good inside the [London] Mansion House ...while the poor and needy huddled outside the gates joined in - showing ... we were "all in this together"'
• 1938- MGM version centred on Bob Cratchit with Scrooge learning the hard way to make better use of his money
• 1951- 'Alastair Sim' version, weaves 'post-war rationing and the origins of the welfare state into the story' has an emphasis on the characters of Ignorance and Want and incorporates an entirely new character 'Mr Jorkin' as the face of greedy capitalism.
• 1970- Scrooge becomes a screen musical with all singing, all-dancing jollity
• 1984- George C. Scott as a US-made market-driven Scrooge, not a bad man just one not yet using the power of 'caring capitalism', missing out on getting his '80's greed to do good.
• 1983-2009 - Animated and puppetry versions, featuring Disney characters, Muppets, Bugs Bunny and (apparently) Barbie
• 1946 - Frayling's stated preference, Frank Capra's 'It's a Wonderful Life' - a loose adaptation, but one which he thinks balances 'the darker side of A Christmas Carol and the jollity'

Overall, Frayling's main points are around how Dickens's story is reshaped by the concerns and priorities of the times - perhaps with an understandable foregrounding of the social messages at times when societies are economically 'hard-pressed'.

Alongside a timeline of Dickens's publications a number of key dates are highlighted with reference to social and political events across the same period. There are references to Peterloo, the Reform Acts, Chartism, the Factory Act, Irish Famine, repeal of the Corn Laws and the Indian Rebellion.

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The programme to this adaptation of A Christmas Carol seems particularly rich in academic and social commentary and the production team appeared happy even to court a little controversy by presenting contemporary political quotes in the text. Overall I think it did a very good job of encouraging the audience to think a little beyond the traditional boundaries of a 'feel-good' Christmas panto.