Nice things!

I have to admit that the pool was somewhat cooler than yesterday, the sun having disappeared fitfully as soon as I took to the road to come home. 

Needless to say the weather had been glorious all the time that I was stuck in school and it was only during a so-called library duty that I was able to sit on the terrace (no child venturing into my demesne) and emulate Akhanarten and pay my respects to the Aten undisturbed by any professional duties.

I used a free period to complete my reading of “Beacon for Change” by Barry Turner and my recommendation stays firmly positive.  I am now looking forward to the next book on the subject that I have ordered, “The Autobiography of a Nation” – it will have to be very well written to match the Turner book.

As if to reward me for my dispatch in getting the book read the various Betjeman CDs were waiting for me.  I now have, as far as I can tell, the whole set of the collaborations between Betjeman and Parker. 

From anyone other than Betjeman some of the “lyrics” would be unbearably twee and looking though some of the poems they read almost like pastiches of his style.  Get a dumpty-dum rhythm going; mention a district of London and a local firm; add a cute neologism and you are away! 

I do like his poems though and I am looking forward to revisiting the “songs” in “Betjeman Banana Blush” – the first of the Parker collaboration and one which I listened to in delighted astonishment when I first heard it.  Perhaps it is caviar to the general - or pure self-indulgence.  

Who cares I am going to immerse myself in an orgy of English whimsy.