Another country

'Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner', that I love the country so.....17 years in North London is surely enough for anyone? So when I had the chance I headed for the hills.....well, the N Downs at any rate.

I studied 'Rural Environment Studies' (RES - cruelly twisted by other students to Real Easy Studies!)....at Wye College (London University). I was luck enough to be taught by some giants in the field - Alan Rogers, and especially Prof Gerald Wibberley: I vividly remember his account of a childhood in Wales, and to illustrate rural poverty he recounted waking up to frost on the inside of the cottage window and all over his bed covers!

From Wye, my next rural detour was a short one to Hever - also in the Kent countryside; there I harvested, drove tractors, milked cows and generally did a load of very enjoyable but hard & practical work! Five years followed in Devon....as a 'Rural Officer' - helping villagers to maintain or improve local services: shops, schools, transport etc. Thence 8 years as England's first Rural Development Programme Officer in the wonderful wilds of Northumberland; spending time at Bellingham (pronounced bellinjum) in the Scottish borders. And so to Winchcombe at the edge of ye Cotteswoldes.........and 16 years & counting (teaching at the University of Gloucestershire).....a career detour.

Of tedious books and engaging ones....a detour

A quick detour, while I’m fired up! I love books, and love to have a novel ‘on the go’ at all times. What I’m not keen on are books that waste your time! So here is a tale of two stories.

The first is Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier (Atlantic Books, 2009). According to the cover a “phenomenal international bestseller”. According to yours truly this is a “tedious and overlong work that specialises in navel gazing”! It starts promisingly enough when a teacher – Raimund Gregorius (the name alone should have sounded alarm bells!) – has a chance encounter with a Portuguese woman in Bern. As a result he leaves his staedy job and sets off on a wild goose chase to Lisbon….in pursuit of a dead philosopher and writer – Amadeu de Prado. I actually laughed out loud when he decided to 'jack in' his job.....it reminded me of the late Oliver Reed smashing up his desk in the film I'll never forget what's his name.

So if you’re still with me, then here is a snippet:
“loneliness through ostracism, that was what had preoccupied Prado at the end. That we need the respect and affection of others and that that makes us dependent on them…” I know what you are thinking….quite interesting; well squash that thought since the text drivels in this vein over another 400 plus pages! I gave up the unequal struggle 40 pages from the end.....

By contrast I’m now skipping my way through Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach (Vintage, 2000). 17th century Amsterdam is, according to the back cover, “in the grip of tulip mania and basking in the wealth it has generated.” An old merchant, Cornelis has married the young Sophia. In celebration he employs artist Jan to paint their portrait (big mistake). Rather like Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale, wife embarks on a wild fling with young man…… “their reckless gamble propels their lives towards a thrilling and tragic conclusion.” Excellent.

Pascal Mercier 0 Deborah Moggach 3

Mini detour

Detours don't need to be dramatic or exotic, but they do need to be! They are the salt to the beef of life!

Linsey (my wife) and I were in Northumberland recently - visiting the wonderful coast near the Farne islandshttp://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-farnes.htm . The one difficulty with NE England can be the weather! On this grey and mizzly day we decided to head for Newcastle and its quayside: complete with tilting Millennium Bridge, Baltic Arts Centre and SAGE performance space. To my mind these are every bit as fine as London's South Bank!

We wandered in to the SAGE only to find that there was 'nothing on'........so we detoured and ran across a very helpful usher who asked "are you here for the rehearsal"? Minutes later we sat down to listen to a 500 strong youth choir going through sections of Handel's Messiah. The following day they performed at the Proms in London! It was fascinating hearing how the conductor approached the task - cajoling some of the male singers - "a little more practice and a liitle less beer perhaps"! And circling round the stage as he demonstrated the emphasis on "all we like sheep have gone astray"!

Great stuff - a masterclass resulting from a detour. Aghhhhhh......
Please let's hear about your own detours....

In praise of detours

Detours are, I think, essential to life. The alternative is nose to the grindstone, eyes on the target and let nothing divert you from your fell purpose. But that's such a limiting view of life. Life, that is, in its fullness, and not just life boiled down to work. Certainly from experience it's the detours and diversions that often prove most illuminating and satisfying.

I remember, for example, hurtling through the Romanian countryside in a Trabant, sometime in the early 1990s. We were travelling to Bucharest airport. Part way, my host saw me looking at the mangled wreckage in a nearby field - "it's what's left of a salt mine" he said, "would you like to visit"? The next thing I remember is entering a decrepit elevator - which reminded me of the old lift shaft at London's Russell Square tube! Doors closed, lights extinguished, and we dropped a hundred feet. Terrifying. But when we exited it was in to a vast underground square-cut tomb of swirling paisley patterns. Everything - floor, walls, ceiling were salt (I tasted to check - yuk!) Our guide reckoned you could fit St Paul's Cathedral down there!

But there was yet more strangeness - rounding a corner we came across floodlit ranks of beds....during the Soviet era patients with bronchial complaints would stay to recuperate.
So all in all I'm with the Roman poet, Horace, "carpe diem" - seize the day, or as sometimes more elegantly put "pluck the day when it is ripe"! [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/carpe-diem.html]

Any reader detours welcomed! See you tomorrow

Detours

So what's with the title 'Detours of a rural Anglo Armenian educationalist'?



Apart from being wilfully obscure, and bearing in mind the limited words available for a title, I've tried to convey how I see my main interests; and aspects of my character that 'make me tick'. Over the next few days/blog entries I will reflect on each of the key words.


"Detours"........rather picks up on the American poet Robert Frost's famous poem, 'The Road Not Taken' http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html In which he writes:
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."


I guess in this blog I am keen to take that "road less traveled"........ burrowing through unfamiliar ground, nosing in to the semi-dark; because we are so busy these days that we rarely stop to think and reflect - what are we doing, why are we doing it, how are we doing, when should we do?? And that's what I'd like to do.........to pause on the journey - in your company - of course.



For what is a detour if undertaken alone?

Detour - the first

Well, the blog is titled 'detours' so - true to title - here is our first detour in to the rural fastness of the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire. On Sunday my wife (Linsey) and I headed for Kelmscott Manor http://www.kelmscottmanor.org.uk/ .

It was William Morris's nineteenth century family home; Morris was a pioneer in the field of design. To my surprise he bought the property on a joint lease with his friend and hero, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.......the surprise being that Rossetti conducted a long-term affair with Mrs Morris (Jane).......who was Rossetti's muse and features in many of his paintings and sketches:
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/rossetti/works/morris/janeburden.aspx

Unsurprisingly they seem to have inhabited Kelmscott on a 'time-share' basis.....not often meeting as a threesome! But I digress......or detour within a detour, even........

Kelmscott is one of those places that exudes peace and tranquility, even though it is relatively small and well visited (on the limited days it is open).

What struck me especially was Morris's ethos for life and living.....which resonates in the 21st century:

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful".



See you tomorrow; comments and reactions welcomed



James

To begin at the beginning.......

"To begin at the beginning......."

Such a lovely turn of phrase.......but where does the quote come from? Think Welsh, and try "Bugger all" backwards; maybe think the late, great, actor Richard Burton!! Answers welcomed.

So what can you expect from this Blog? You can expect a reflection of your host/me (James).........Interaction, stimulation, conversation, concision, reflection, provocation, randomisation!

Let the games begin:
You can also expect discussion around current affairs, university/college education, the state of rural communities, travel and the arts....as well as detours, divergence, the arcane, eclectic and downright fascinating or perplexing.

Welcome to my world. Please share your own.