So in between art attacks I was reading a lot over the summer. I finished the Tom Rob Smith Trilogy which includes Child 44, The Secret Speech and Agent 6.  I would definitely recommend them. Child 44 was made into a film, I haven’t seen it but my sons didn’t think it was up to much.

One of the local charity shops has a whole room of second hand books so I pick up most of my fiction there quite cheaply. They always get them back when I’ve finished with them, so it’s a win, win all round. I read some ‘womens’ fiction, if you’re allowed to call it that now. Anita Shreve’s, A Change in Altitude and one called Home but I cannot remember who wrote it, Trophy Child by Paula Daly, and The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan. You could rattle through them in a day or two and they won’t tax your brain too much. One of the reasons why I don’t particularly like ‘women’s’ fiction is that the central characters are always so bloody weak and drippy. And it’s all a bit ‘Oh no! Gerald is shagging the au pair again, and that’s the third time this week, whatever am I going to do? But I still love him so much!’ It hard to feel much sympathy for the characters when it usually turns out she started shagging Gerald at the Christmas party when his wife was 6 months pregnant. But they’re a cheap read and it’s probably the only way I would ever read them, I wouldn’t spend good money on them. One exception was Sail Away by Celia Imrie. I got this as part of my prize for winning the Haiku competition and really enjoyed it, so this is one I would recommend and will definitely read more of hers.

I’m not a great reader of fiction and prefer autobiography over other genres. But as I worked my way through The Gulag Archipelago, I needed a break now and again, as the brutality was quite harrowing at times and, more so, at present, as we seem to be sleep walking back into totalitarianism. Everyone should read this book, it should be on the Secondary School curriculum. It is an appalling indictment of man’s inhumanity to man and, as I’ve said before, Stalin killed no one, it was the ordinary Russians who ‘followed’ the orders of the tyrant. They estimate 14 million Russians died in World War 2 and 17 million Chinese. They estimate 65 million died under Stalin and Mao, killed by their own, murdered and starved. An appalling lesson from history that everyone should know about, but seems to have been forgotten by our glorious leaders and their minions. Ignore the lessons of history at your peril!

Other good reads were Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. The Geisha who the book was based on was not impressed with Arthur’s interpretation and wrote her own story afterwards.  I have it on the Kindle but haven’t read it yet, but I would still recommend Memoirs.

Other fictions were John Grisham’s The Appeal. I enjoyed this up to a point and it felt very relevant considering it’s themes of political and corporate corruption. There is no happy ending to this one so don’t read it if you’re feeling depressed, it just might tip you over the edge especially with ‘life’, if you could call it that, at present.

On the rest of the reading list was Wilbur Smith’s Blue Horizon, this is book 11 in a whole series about the Courtney family but I haven’t read any of the others. It was a bit of an epic and set in Africa in the early days of colonialism. I did enjoy it and will look out for the others.

John Case’s The Genesis Code was ok. I could see where it was going quite early on, part of the ending didn’t quite gel, but it was ok and worth a read, if you’re not looking for anything too taxing on the brain cells.

Since it was a bit of a Russian summer, I also read Shallow Graves in Siberia by Michael Krupe. This took me back to autobiography. He was a Polish national and this is the story of how he ended up in the gulags and managed to escape both them, and the Jesuits, eventually ending up in Britain. A happy ending for once! I would strongly recommend it. A great read and a reminder of just how amazing the human spirit can be and what we can endure and overcome.

And after all that, and to continue on the Russian theme, I was trawling through some music on Youtube and came across this stunning piece by Tchaikovsky. I’m a big fan of Tchaikovsky but I had never heard of this one, it is called Hymn of the Cherubim. It has to be the most beautiful piece of music I have ever heard and it gives me great pleasure to share it with you all today. It shows that even though we can be absolutely appalling to one another, we can also be beautiful and wonderful, and this is a demonstration of what humanity can produce when we are at our absolute best. Food for the soul that speaks to God. Turn out the lights, turn up the volume and let your soul soar to the heavens. Amen!

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Hymn of the Cherubim - YouTube

Well, I managed to get the whole way to the South of England, and back again, without a mask and without much hassle too, I have to say.  Had a lovely few days enjoying the sunshine and heat with visits to Brighton and Littlehampton, where the beaches were busy with people out and about and enjoying themselves, and barely a mask in sight. 

However, on the journey itself, I was one of the very few flying (or using the trains, or shopping) without a mask, and I never saw the airports as empty as Heathrow and Gatwick were. The travelling was actually quite depressing, normally there is a buzz around the airports and London, but not this time. There was a general air of despondency hanging over everyone which is sad to see as I love London/England. I wonder how long the trains can run like this too. On the way back yesterday, I was the only person in the carriage and the one next to me was empty as well. This was the Gatwick Express going to Victoria and there were barely 15 people on it, a train that is normally full to bursting, especially, at this time of the year. 

As I was travelling, I was thinking about England and the English. England is not a very big country geographically, but in spite of that, and I'm addressing this to the people of England, you started the Industrial Revolution and led the world in manufacturing, science and technology. Just take a walk around Highgate Cemetery to see the names of the many scientists buried there, many of whom escaped persecution in other countries and found a home in England. 

A hundred years ago, you had conquered most of the world with the 'sun not setting on the British Empire' and I'm not going to get into a debate on the historical rights or wrongs of that, at least not today. You fought two world wars and were on the winning side each time, you built your country back up afterwards and created the welfare state and the NHS which lifted millions out of poverty and gave them a higher standard of living. This led to a rise in social mobility that, in turn, created the explosion of talent in music, art and technology that was the 1960's when Britain led the world in manufacturing, fashion, culture and innovation. Political debates raged and London was the centre for all that energy and enthusiasm which promised so much for so many. 

And how many times in your history have you fought back against invaders? Spanish Armada, Battle of Britain, anyone?

So, what happened, where has it gone? Travelling around Southern England I can only shake my head in despair to see the people of England so low, muzzled and depressed by a 'virus' and a government that doesn't give a damn about your health and is nothing more than the puppet of the corporate and banking empires that now rule the world. If they really cared about your health, would there be a mental health/obesity/poverty/social care crisis that has been building up for 40 years?

But it's not just England, look at Scotland, home of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, presided over now by a woman who is becoming more like Stalin with every passing day. Where is the heart of Scottish rebellion now, locked down and masked in tyranny by Nicola Krankie over a bad case of the flu?

And Ireland? I came back to find that the Sinn Fascists have made muzzles mandatory in shops here too. The great Irish rebels, the great freedom fighters of Ireland are now the foil of the Tories, Maggie Thatcher's old party. Excuse me, while I pull the craw of hypocrisy out of my throat! Their compatriots in arms terrorised the country for 30 years, with their masks and guns, and have left behind a legacy of severe social and mental heath problems in their wake. We don't have the highest suicide rate in Europe for nothing! 

Not to mention, the thousands who left or were driven out by them since the 1960's. If they really cared one iota for the 'health' of the people here, tackling that legacy might be a good place to start and maybe they could begin by removing all the memorials to death and murals, to what was 30 years of hell, instead of constantly raking up the past and playing the victim card when the truth is, they were the biggest terrorisers of the nationalist community. I know because I lived through it and it galls me to see them self-righteously pontificate to the rest of us now. 'There is no one more pious than a reformed whore', as the saying goes. But then Sinn Fein were always fascists dressed up as freedom fighters, and have become everything they railed against Unionism for, before they 'reformed', and it's jobs for the boys and their families and friends. Nepotism/cronyism rules!

And lets not forget Owain Glyndŵr of Wales, another fighter for freedom, he must be spinning in his grave with the rest of them, and all over a flu that has negligible impact on the fit and healthy, that has seen a fascist agenda imposed across the world with every little tinpot dictator having a field day. If only Adolf, Mao and Josef had known that all they had to do to impose a complete totalitarian/authoritarian dictatorship was to yell 'Virus' and then sit back and watch as the people capitulated, and not just capitulated but actively report and police those who would dare to defy the 'authorities'. 

And don't even start with the 'you're going to kill granny' propaganda. Honest to God, you would think that no one ever died before! Did you think we all lived in some airy fairy dreamland, some utopian oasis where we all lived forever and no one ever got sick and died? Like the US before Donald Trump became president, wasn't it such a paradise??!!! 

Good God, what planet are you living on? Where is your fight and your spirit? What did all those millions fight and die in two world wars for, especially those in the First World War, in the mud and dirt of France, conditions you could not even begin to imagine in your worst nightmares - FREEDOM!!! FREEDOM FROM TYRANNY! And you're sitting at home with your mask cringing about a 'flu', shame on you!

It's a sad fact of life, we're all going to die, REALITY!. And as I said before, it is not about dying, it is about how you lived. Now seriously, grow up and deal with it!

THEN, GET OVER YOURSELVES, GET BACK OUT THERE AND TAKE YOU LIFE BACK, FFS!