Wor hoos - from above!! :)

Our neighbours decided to put their house up on the market, and had a drone in to take some aerials. Once posted, they show some good views of our house, so you can see all the hard work Chris had done on the back garden!

 

 

General Overhead, looking West.

 

 

Looking South

 

Same, closer.

Looking South West

 

Looking South East.

 

Looking good! :)

Epic Fantasy Grows Up - A Song of Ice and Fire...

So, you know, I have been reading Epic Fantasy - and even non-epic fantasy - for as long as I can remember. Way back to my early childhood, starting with books such as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit, and progressing over the years to Michael Moorcock, Robert E Howard, Stephen Donaldson, Terry Brooks, Tad Williams, Robert Jordan, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera - and with a few notable exceptions - Potter and the Vampires! - I have filled my library with, literally, thousands of books! My perusals have ranged from the depths of deep space science fiction (Clarke, Asimov, Niven & Pournelle) through science fantasy (Silverberg, Feist, Herbert) across Sword and Sorcery (Moorcock, Howard, McCaffery), and on into the depths if true fantasy itself (Tolkien, Brooks, Williams), so, as arrogant as it sounds, I like to think I actually know what I am talking about when it comes to these genres.

 

So, a few days ago, I was chatting with one of my best friends back in dear old Blighty, and we were discussing our current reading materials. Soss (my friend's nickname) was reading some historical fiction - now there's an oxymoron if ever there was one! - as was I. But he also mentioned that he was reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, the first volume in A Song of Ice and Fire. Of course, I had heard all of the hype around the HBO television series, but had never watched it, feeling television has been currently over run by fantasy spins-offs, and had not even wanted to approach the books, as I had been really busy over the last few years with the vagaries of the RLJ, as well as editing the works of some budding authors. But when Soss told me that he was really enjoying the book, I decided to bite the bullet, and bought the five-volume boxed set. Ordering them online meant I got a good deal on the price, too. :)

 

I had been, at the time, reading Mr. Mercedes  by Stephen King, and was enjoying it well enough. However, once I had Martin's books in my grubby little paws, the draw of The Perilous Realm exerted its influence over my mind, and I thought I'd just sample the beginning of A Game of Thrones, to get the flavour, as it were.

 

And, at this time, I am still reading...

 

I did feel it took a while (50 pages or so) to get into, as Martin takes a few chapters to introduce the main families and their provenance, but once you get through that initial exposure, I have to admit, the experience is stimulating and engulfing in a way that only a few, exceptional fantasy novels are. I am pleased to say that Martin is an accomplished storyteller, and his skill shines through in his writing. But what really makes his work shine out as a major achievement within the genre is the fact that, written with the edginess that modern literature now allows, it takes the reader into a more realistic version of the imagined world - more violent, more bitter, earthier, sexier, more physical - than has previously been seen. We would never see such brutal scenes as Jaime's attack on Bran, or sexuality like Jaime and Cersei or Daenerys and Khal Drogo, in the works of Tolkien or Brooks. What Martin has envisioned is a world where the fantasy is all grown up! These are no YA or NA soppy meanderings! These are sword through the heart, foot to the nuts, and spit in your eye yarns, full of dirt and dust, malice and lust, with a character list that rivals Tolstoy's War and Peace for complexity and sheer numbers!

 

Let's just say - I will be reading all five books, maybe more than once. And, maybe then, I will go on to watch the HBO series, and be one of those who complains about the changes made in the name of television!

 

I'll let you know how it goes! :)

Oh - and thanks for the advice, Soss! :)    

Doctor Who - Shada Revisited...

Holy Smokes!!!!

Can you believe it's almost a year since I last blabbed on here about anything, let alone Doctor Who??  Sure, I know I have been blogging on my other sites, but still!!

 

Anyhoo!! (A slip of the Canuck coming out there! LOL) Let's get on with it!

 

So, I did thoroughly enjoy seeing John Hurt become who they are now calling The War Doctor.  It will be interesting to see how they integrate him into the Doctor life-line - or is that 'lives-line'? - as there are already portrayals out there of Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor regenerating into Christopher Eccles's Ninth Doctor AND into John Hurt's Ninth Doctor!  I can see some shenanigans ahead resolving those, and I am also very curious to see if they develop John Hurt's Doctor any further, with tales prior to The Day of the Doctor.  And, of course, if they don't, there are myriads of would be Doctor Who writers out there just waiting to fill those gaps.

 

And it's gaps that brings me round to the current topic of this post, too.  (How's that for a segue?)

 

So, while I was browsing in one of the Chapters/Indigo libraries a short while back, I saw a book by Gareth Roberts, which was a novelisation of the lost Doctor Who story Shada, the script of which was originally written by the late, great Douglas Adams, of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame.  I have to be honest and say I had not heard of Roberts before, but the name of Douglas Adams was very familiar to me, both in relation to the Hitchhiker and Doctor Who, so, after riffling through the pages a few times, just to make sure I got that "new book smell", I exited the bookstore with the tome in hand - after having paid for it, of course!

 

Back in the days of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Shada was one of the 6-part tales produced by the BBC, the script of which, as I indicated above, was written by Douglas Adams during his involvement with the Doctor Who show.  However, due to industrial action at the BBC, the full story was never completed nor aired, and consequently became a "lost story".  Some extracts from the filmed sequences were sampled for other Doctor Who stories, such as The Five Doctors 25th Anniversary Special, but, in the main, the story remained unavailable and untouched for many years.  During that time, Douglas Adams sadly passed away, and various attempts at resurrecting the Shada story, using later Time Lords and voice-overs, etc., met with varying acceptance and success.  Another aspect of that sprung from the works of Adams himself, who used characters and storylines he'd created for Shada, in other books he wrote, most notably Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, where one of the main characters, Professor Chronotis, is also a major character in the second work.

 

Anyway, Gareth Roberts subsequently took the scripts that Adams had written, and expanded these into a complete novel, essentially working in reverse on the process of producing a script from a novel.  I was somewhat dubious at first about this process, but, having read the book, I am forced to admit that Roberts has done a fantastic job of spinning the narrative elements of the scripts into a cohesive and decidedly detailed and exciting story that any and all Whovians would be entertained by.  Roberts maintains Adams witty style, and builds the story strongly around the skeleton of the spoken words.  Sure, he takes some poetic license with Adams's plot, and adds interesting and, if you're sharp enough, subtle references to both other Doctor Who stories and some of Adams's other works - but no spoilers here!

 

This is the first Doctor Who "novel" I have read, and, overall, I was very entertained and am highly impressed by Roberts's work.  The book is easy to read, and doesn't blind the reader with the potentially daunting scientific background, leaving a pleasant memory of the Tom Baker and Romana era of the series.  I understand that Roberts is currently working on a novelisation of City of Death, one of the most popular Doctor Who stories of all time (pardon the pun!), and which was also scripted by Douglas Adams, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy.

 

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this is that it has inspired me to contemplate writing my own Doctor Who adventure, so, with a bit of luck, and a lot of hard work, maybe someday in the not-too-distant future, someone will be writing a blog review about my Doctor Who novel(s).

 

Awesome!! :)

 

Now go out and buy Shada: The Lost Adventure by Gareth Roberts today!

 

Doctor, Doctor! Doctor Who?

So, as I am still recovering from the revelations in The Name of the Doctor, the finale episode of season 7 of the new Doctor Who series, I find myself both enthralled and somewhat confused over the introduction of one of Britain's greatest character actors, John Hurt, as The Doctor.

 

To say I was totally blown away, and very emotional, over the possibility of John Hurt taking on the role of one of the most iconic and beloved characters in British science-fiction is an understatement. John has proven himself a master of his craft since the early 1960's, but really came to prominence for his portrayals of Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant - a ground-breaking expose of homosexual lifestyles in the '30's-'50's - and the insane but omnipotent Caligula in I, Claudius.  The power of these roles stamped him as one of the most accomplished actors in the British pantheon, and won him admiration around the world.

And now, after decades of achievements and accolades, this enigmatic icon is going to play The Doctor!! How spine-chillingly wonderful!!

 

And then the questions started! Having not been following any prior anticipatory announcements, pronouncements and limitless speculations by the myriad of bloggers and critics, I had not even heard or read any of the rumours about John Hurt being involved in Doctor Who in any capacity. So now my mind started running overtime!

• How will the transformation between Matt and John occur?
• Does this mean Matt's time as The Doctor is over? It seemed rather short!

But then I read some of the background materials rapidly appearing on the internet, which spawned even more questions!

• John will be the 9th Doctor? How does that impact the "current" 9th Doctor's reign?
• If he is not allowed to call himself The Doctor because of his transgressions against The Doctors' prime directive (very Star Trek 2nd Gen, I must say!), what will he be called, if his "real name" is still to be kept secret?
• If Matt is now the 12th (and therefore the Last?) incarnation, does this mean we are in the end game of Doctor Who as a whole, 50 years on?
• Will we now see the transformations between Paul McGann and John Hurt, and John Hurt and Christopher Eccleston? Are these even being contemplated?
• Now that the concept of retro-active storylines - going back to a new 9th Doctor timeline - have the BBC opened the door to resurrect stories for Paul McGann (yes, please!!) and the shortened life of Christopher Ecclestone?

I know I am far from alone in wondering about all of these, and many additional, impacts from the revelations so far, and I am also sure that the BBC will be planning a whole series of enticing announcements, leaks and cast interviews to keep us all on the edge of our seats until November 23. And could this be the most anticipated episode and series of Doctor Who ever??  You had better believe it!!

 

It is going to be a long and inquisitive Summer!!

Margaret Thatcher - R.I.P.

I heard the news today - oh boy!

I can hear the mindless rhetoric of the Twitterverse already, denigrating and ridiculing "The Iron Lady"! Sad - so, so sad!

 

Personally, I happen to think Margaret Thatcher was the greatest post-World War 2 leader Great Britain ever had, and the second greatest Prime Minister, after the great ol' bulldog himself, Winston! So put that in your pipes and smoke it!

 

Yes, I can hear the grinding of teeth and fits of mindless rage from the bovver boys in the great North-East of England, my homeland. They will be saying the same old BS - she destroyed the shipyards, she destroyed the steelworks, and, worst of all, she destroyed the mines. All those people out of work. Whine, whine, whine! But, let me tell you - I was there - and she didn't have to do that, because the Trade Unions had already made those industries so unprofitable with their outrageous practices and malicious and, let's face it, purely greedy demands, they were doomed anyway. And, if the North-East couldn't see that, through their far-left socialist conditioning, then they deserve as much of the blame over what happened to them as any Conservative government. And they will never recover, because there's just not enough "service industry" available in those small towns to replace those heavy industries.

 

Of course, when it was time to save the Falklands from the invading Argentinians, she was the greatest leader and admired beyond reason then, even by the North-East! Our nationalist jingoism couldn't have been stronger, nor the entire country prouder of our Iron Lady then, could they? How fickle their beliefs and fervour were!

 

Such is the life of a politician and world class leader.  Maggie could hold her own with the biggest and best of them, and was a damn sight more intelligent and capable than most! And, once they'd unceremoniously bundled her off into so-called retirement, she held her head up high, and continued to advise and assist leaders all over the world. Now that's class!

 

So, Rest In Peace, Margaret Thatcher - you deserve it.

 

At least until the bovver boys and vandals deface your tombstone and destroy your epitaphs!

UPDATE - April 9, 2013:

Alas to be proven right already! It was saddening and sickening to watch the news last night and see the thickies celebrating Margaret Thatcher's death with champagne and parties.  How absolutely demeaning to Britain, and what a perfect example of the pathetic, peurile socialist proletarian behaviour I have come to expect from the British Working Classes!
 

 

 

The Best Gift Ever??

Like the majority of the male sex, I have to admit to not being very good at buying gifts for my wife. It's not that I am not romantic - although I am sure there could be some discussion about that - nor is it that I don't care. I just seem to get so involved in the other aspects of life that personal matters are not top of my priority list - even when they should be. Added to that, again like most males, I am a world class procrastinator outside of the work regime, so personal things tend to get left to the last minute - or even later!!

Sure, you may say, that makes me such a bad husband, but, in my defence, as weak as it is, I am not alone!!

Then, even if you do get something in time for the big event - whether it's a birthday, Valentine's day, Easter, Christmas, an anniversary, etc, there's the dilemma over what to buy! Diamonds might be forever, or be a girl's best friend, but you don't get much for a large amount of money! Lingerie, while good for you, is frowned upon as sexist or chauvanistic - apart from often being downright uncomfortable. Then there's the size issue - when is an 8 not and 8? When it's a 6 or a 10, or any other number you care to choose from! And clothing is just as fraught with quandaries! Apparently, I have the knack of being able to buy the fuddy-duddiest of styles that not even my grandmother would be seen in! Gift cards indicate a lack of imagination and an abdication of responsibility! Make her buy her own gift, that's right! Chocolates and candies are a dietary no-no, indicating you want to make your beloved wider, while buying anything to do with the household or the kitchen indicates your belief that a woman's place is slaving over a hot stove, or vacuuming and dusting, or washing and ironing your clothes!

And, of course, flowers wither and die, despite their temporary beauty! And who can trust restaurant food any more, let alone find a decent, romantic eatery?

In recent years, though, I do have to admit, to having bought for my wife what I consider to be the best gift I have ever bought her.  "What is this wonderous item?" I hear you ask with baited breath! What marvel have I uncovered that has achieved such a pinnacle of success?

A laptop computer!

That's all? A laptop computer!!

Yup! So, you may ask - and I know you will - what makes this laptop computer so much more successful as a gift than any of those other items listed above?

It's really quite simple. My wife has used that laptop every day since the day I gave it to her, over 3 years ago! How many dresses get worn every day for over three years? Unlike men, women don't wear the same pair of shoes everyday. Jewellery is kept for unusual and/or special occasions, and food and chocolate would have long been flushed away down the proverbial you-know-where!! Lingerie would have worn out, or been thrown out, and kitchen and household utensils would have been thrown back at you - and deservedly so!

Sure, the laptop is far from perfect! It has its moments and weaknesses - crappy power supply, memory-hungry software, filthy viruses spread by small-minded malicious morons, etc, etc, etc! But, nevertheless, it has been resorted to every day as often as possible, whether for research in home decor, utensils, appliances, design, or communications with long-lost friends and social networking, or just playing games for light relief, or finding a myriad of childhood and teenhood tunes on Youtube - it's ability to satisfy requirements is endless!

It is, beyond doubt, the best gift I have ever bought for my wonderful wife, who deserves so much more from me than I tend to give! (That's her being nibbled by that giant serpent behind this posting!!! ;>) And I know how much she appreciates it, because she still uses it every day! Who knows - maybe as a thank you, I can get her to use that cat-o-nine-tails on me I bought last Christmas, hmm? ;)

And now all I have to do is find a new gift for her upcoming birthday that will be every bit as popular and useful as her laptop!!

Fat chance of that!!!

Happy New Hobbitry to 2013!!

So - I went to see the Peter Jackson version of The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey a few days ago, and have to say that, overall, I am very impressed and highly pleased with the result.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have been a HUGE Tolkien fan for the best part of forty (yes - forty!) years, and I always approach these film versions with a critical eye toward the poetic license they will undoubtedly take.   They did it with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and some of that did not work as well as it should have done.  And, having read or listened to many of the preambles leading up to The Hobbit, I knew there were going to be aspects of the adaptation I would not like or find difficult to accept.  And there are, but, overall, the package seems to have worked so far!

 

Yes - I wasn`t too keen on the inclusion and representation of Radaghast the Brown, and the reincarnation of Azog the Terrible, alive and well and masquerading as The Pale Orc!  Not really necessary to the storyline.  However, the inclusion of the The White Council meeting helped build the link between The Hobbit and LOTR, as did the appearance of many of the cast members from LOTR in the introduction.

 

But, for me, the biggest pleasers are the majestic representations of the Middle Earth kingdoms, countries and vales, along with the creatures that Tolkien populated his world with.  The additional time provided to the director and producers by stretching the relatively small book into three three-hour films allows them to lavish more time to display these lands and creatures in even greater detail than in the LOTR films, and makes the journey even more worthwhile.

 

Of course, what they fill out with scenery makes the plot even thinner and more tenuous, hence the need to fill the gaps with parts of the Untold Stories and pure fabrications, such as the meetings of The White Council, the trip of Radaghast and his Rhosgobel Rabbits to Dol Guldur, the fabrication of the Morgul Blade of Angmar, and the resurrection of Azog.  But, to a student of JRR such as myself, seeing some of these things included gladdens me, but others detract from the tale, and are more of a distraction.  But, as I already said, all-in-all, I find the whole package very entertaining and very enjoyable, and not only am I looking forward to Part 2, I am also looking forward to seeing Part 1 again!

 

Ah, yess, my Preciousss, I want to see that nasty little Hobbitses again!

And I hope you see it too, if you haven't already!

 

 

Farewell 2012 - And All That Jazz!

So - here we are - on the verge of the End of 2012, and the start of 2013! How time flies!

I cannot say 2012 has been the best year of my life so far - although it is far from being the worst! It has had many challenges, and many goals (and their inherent dreams) still remain unattained, although, admittedly, a lot closer than they have been in previous years. Some of the impacts that have either delayed or prevented certain achievements were not of my own making, nor were they under my control, which makes them even harder to bear.

 

But I am not going to dwell on those events and occurrences, as that will only serve to bring the mood lower than need be!  There were still many things about 2012 that gave me a certain amount of success - especially in areas I had only pondered about previously - and which have laid a very hopeful foundation for the future on a number of levels.  Work went well, with the new company being very successful, and looking to continue that for the next 12 months.  And my writing has been successful in ways that both myself and my wife find amusing and inspiring, if somewhat unexpected, and, with a little more effort from myself, looks poised to bring even more success in the coming years - hopefully to the extremes of my dreams.  The only challenge is reigning in the new diversity and channelling that into those routes that others would expect from me, while still allowing the new routes I am following to achieve their success.  It will be interesting!

 

So I enter 2013 with a certain amount of optimism, putting behind me the depradations and interferences of the past - both 2012 and beyond - and looking forward to bringing greater achievements and successes to ever-growing audience - no matter what the field or endeavour!

 

Another aspect of my future life is these blogs I have so recently started writing.  These will be a challenge on a number of fronts.  First - I am by no means a strict diarist or journalist (in the pure sense of that word), so writing regularly will be an interesting challenge.  Then the challenge to that challenge is to write something interesting, informative, or entertaining, because I don't believe in writing a blog entry just for the sake of having a blog entry.  And the other challenge is keeping it fun and interesting for myself, otherwise it will languish in that special purgatory set aside for failed hobbies and projects that we all have!  Time to make the hobbies into obsessions!

 

Finally - if you are reading this, I wish you a very happy and successful 2013.

 

Paul J Todd

 

 

 

Farewell Gerry Anderson!

I heard the news today and, oh, boy!

Gerry Anderson has died at the age of 83. He will be sadly missed, but his wonderful creations will live on forever in the minds and hearts of us Children of the '60's.

 

Gerry, along with his wife Sylvia, was the creator of numerous television series in the 1960's and 1970's that filled our fertile minds with the wonder of the possibilities that the 21st Century held for future generations and, if we somehow were lucky to live long enough, us, too!

 

Television series such as Thunderbirds, Fireball XL5, Joe 90, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, UFO and Space 1999, along with others I cannot remember, were mandatory watching for us, and, despite most of them being populated by clunky marionettes, were totally believable when we combined them with the ongoing news from the Space Race and the technological developments going on all around us.  Combine these with other wonderful science-fiction shows such as Doctor Who - which I will be writing a lot more about in other posts - and Star Trek, and we all knew the future was going to be full of challenges, but also full of heroes and fun.

 

 

How we thrilled at the adventures of the five Tracy brothers, along with Brains, Lady Penelope and Parker, saving unfortunate victims in their marvellous Thunderbird machines, and Troy Tempest and Phones battling the fish-shaped submarines of King Titan in Stingray, or Steve Zodiac in Fireball XL5 as he rocketed across the galaxy. Then there was the superspy who was only a child - Joe 90 - who, through the power of the BIG RAT, could learn the skills of any craftsman in the world and use them to combat evil forces.  Go on - ask me what the acronym BIG RAT stands for - you know I`m gonna say "Brain Impulse Galvanoscope - Record And Transfer", don't you!

 

And then there was the wonderful Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.  Due to an encounter with the combative inhabitants of Mars, two captains of Spectrum are made indestructible. One of them - Captain Black - becomes the tool of the Mysterons, and the other, Captain Scarlet, remains true to his race and becomes the unkillable protector of Earth.

 

Of course, many of the artefacts developed for these series actually became real during our lifetime.  Cell phones, snorkel fire engines, super mini-subs, and so on, all became real as the century wore on. But that mattered little to us back in the '60's - we just enjoyed the thrill of the shows and never even considered that those marionettes were not real at all.

 

Thank you, Gerry Anderson, for filling my childhood with the wonder of all those shows you created.

 

Gerry Anderson TV series:

• Twizzle (1957-59)
• Torchy the Battery Boy (1960)
• Four Feather Falls (1960)
• Supercar (1961-62)
• Fireball XL5 (1962-63)
• Stingray (1964-65)
• Thunderbirds (1965-66, 1968)
• Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-68)
• Joe 90 (1968-69)
• The Secret Service (1969)
• UFO (1970-71)
• The Protectors (1972-74)
• Space 1999 (1975-77)
• Terrahawks (1983-84, 1986)
• Dick Spanner, P.I. (1987)
• Space Precinct (1994-95)
• Lavender Castle (1999-2000)
• Firestorm (2003)
• The New Captain Scarlet (2005)

Tragedy Revisits Tragedy - Newtown, CT, Friday Dec 14, 2012

Friday, December 14, 2012.

11 short days before the biggest celebration of Children on this planet.

Now another day we will always remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard the horrendous and soul-destroying news of yet another massacre of school children at the hands of yet another nutbar.  And another outcry against the crazy gun-culture upon which the United States of America thrives.

 

And the rhetoric begins yet again - and will go on endlessly, with little, if any, positive outcome.  Asking Americans to give up their guns is like asking Christians to give up God.

 

But I am not here to join that diatribe.

 

I am here to remind us all that, for the people of Newtown, Connecticut, the healing has only just begun, and will be never ending.  Yes - there will be grief, anger, denial, and, eventually, acceptance, but there will never be release.  Don't believe me?  Then just ask any of the residents of the small village of Aberfan, in the Merthyr Vale of southern Wales.  There, on October 21st, 1966, a rain-soakened slag heap of black slurry, dug from the coal mine that dominated the landscape, slid down the side of the valley it had been piled upon, and crushed Pantglas Junior School, where the young children of the village had just finished singing their Harvest Festival hymns.

 

116 children, between the ages of 7 and 10, almost half the population of the school, died under the crushing power of that landslide, along with 28 adults - teachers and other village inhabitants.  The political fallout from that tragedy is still going on - over 46 years later.

 

But that is not what I am here to talk about either.  I am here to tell everyone who isn't part of that community that there are still those living in Aberfan, and those who have left since the disaster, that still suffer symptoms of what would called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and who have various levels of psychological distress - whether they be parents of lost children, husbands and wives of many of the adults who died there - but, most of all, the children who survived when their brothers, sisters and friends died around them.  Even now, many of them still feel guilt that they survived when so may didn't, or feel that they could have done more to help, when, in reality, there was nothing that they could have done at that time to prevent what occurred.  The prevention was something that should have been done a long time prior to the disaster, and, like at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the cure was already well known.  And never acted upon.

 

The slag heaps could have been moved.  The guns could have been restricted.  In both situations, the danger was well known - and ignored.

 

So, we should expect nothing different from the survivors of Sandy Hook.  Sure, they will look like they are coping and getting on with life, but, deep inside, the doubts and worries will already be starting to worm their way into the psyches of those fresh, young minds - such fertile ground for those memories.  And even those who, like me, were never involved in Aberfan or Sandy Hook, there will be long-term changes in our realities - subtle but persistent - that will modify our behaviour in ways we don't anticipate.  I mean - I was 8 when Aberfan happened, and never realised just how much it had impacted me, but, forty years later, I was suddenly inspired, and not in a subtle way, but in an almost manic experience, to write a poem - Aberfan, 21st October, 2006 - that detailed the events in ways I didn't know I had even recorded in my mind.  For the short while it took to write that poem, it was almost an obsession with me, and filled my mind and heart in ways that made it a relief to complete the work - to get it out of my system!  If someone who was hundreds of miles away from Aberfan, in a time when the only news was a 30 minute broadcast or the paper, with no internet or other means of instant communication, could be affected in that way, imagine how much more damage the exposure available to todays watchers, let alone to the victims of this tragedy, will perpetrate.

 

It is going to be a long, hard recovery for Newtown, Connecticut.  Pray for them if you believe.  In any case, love them and give them peace.