David Lodge - His Religion and Works

David Lodge who has died at the age of 73 was one of my favourite authors. His books most if not all of which I have read, including the above, are absorbing novels. 

His religion often incorporated into his novels is best described as 'liberal Catholic', often features in his works. Possibly his religious ethos apparently not too dissimilar from my own, is one of the reasons why I found  his works to be such absorbing. reads.

There is an unusually long obituary of David Lodge in today's Times newspaper, a paragraph of which reads:

A serious, even solemn figure, Lodge broke out of the carapace of his austere lower-middle-class postwar upbringing with his fifth novel, Changing Places, which was published in 1975 and won the Hawthornden prize. This was a brilliantly funny campus novel about what happens when Philip Swallow, an English literature professor from the University of Rummidge, and Morris Zapp, from the State University of Euphoria (known as Euphoric State), exchange their jobs for six months. Farcical misunderstandings and disasters abound, and it was not long before Swallow and Zapp were objects of discussion and delight at academic conferences across the world, with their real-life equivalents being identified.

May he rest in peace

 

 

Predictions for 2025

This blog's predictions for 2024, were remarkably but largely sadly, accurate save that the UK general election was held earlier than the predicted  January 2025 see:

2024Predictions 

As for the predictions for next year, starting with what hopefully is a happy prediction, I trust that  AFC Wimbledon, will win promotion to football league division 1.

The still very recent  Syrian internal 'war' had not been in any 2024  news report until it occurred, and certainly not a prediction of mine yet it was completed successfully (if that is the right word) in a matter of days. Many countries are biding their time before deciding whether to recognise let alone welcome Syria to the United Nations. I predict that Syria will become an internationally recognised country next year.

The UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will be ousted in 2025.

The current UK Prime Minister will be replaced by the first  female Labour Party Prime Minister some time next year.

President Trump will survive all of his second presidential term but will bully even supposed allies, over trading relations with the  USA.

Russia will have to settle its war against Ukraine next year not least given its hemorrhage of manpower.

The one company I currently hold shares in on the London AIM market, TEK, will be taken over at a decent price. Current  price to sell is 8p  a share; do your own research on this prediction though.

The European Union which seems currently  disunited politically, will not negotiate positively with the current UK government, though it makes sense for this prediction to be completely wrong.

 

Christmas 2024

To all who read this blog,   a very happy holy Christmas 2024

 

 

Hopefully Peace Goodwill and Love  will prevail throughout the world next year

 

 

 
 

The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard

 

The play The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard involved a trip from Wimbledon to Swiss Cottage with Hampstead Theatre being but a short walk from Swiss Cottage Tube Station.

Arriving early it was enjoyable to have a sandwich lunch with some north Londoners before the play commenced. One interesting man, a widower, had come from Chichester to view the play with a lady friend from north London,and the three of us had an enjoyable conversation together over a sandwiches before the play began.

The Invention of Love itself is not a play which for me at least, is very entertaining because much concentration on the mores of society in C19, is required. The details of life at Oxford at the time, were very interesting though. 

The underlying theme is about homosexuality in days when such was illegal in the UK. Thus there was a section on Oscar Wilde imprisoned at the end of C19 for being gay,  who wrote a novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray and the play The Importance of Being Ernest. The latter I have seen and enjoyed but I cannot recall reading the former. Oscar Wilde was said to have been at Oxford during the first year of the time during which the play is set (end of C19).

None the less with some concentration the play proved very watchable for the audience including myself, though I preferred Tom Stoppard's  Every Good Boy Deserves a Favour which we saw at  the National Theatre some 15 years ago. 

 

 

Conclave

Richard Harris is an extremely good author in my humble opinion. In any event I have read a number of his books, one or two of which are highlighted elsewhere in this blog; see for example at: Act of Oblivion

One of the books of Richard Harris which I enjoyed is Conclave so  was keen to see the film when it opened. However the Wimbledon Curzon was sold out of seats for the first two occasions on which I tried, but yesterday I was able to secure three seats to include mrs maytrees, myself and youngest daughter Catherine, to watch the film together.

Mrs maytrees and myself found the film riveting, Catherine slightly less so. The whole performance concerned  the election of a new pope following the sudden and perhaps surprising death (though he was 80 years old) of the incumbent. The absence of guns and shootings, which are sadly frequent features of many films both on TV and the cinema these days, was almost refreshing, though there was a bomb in Rome during the convocation.

.Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Thomas Lawrence Dean of the College of Cardinals played his part of presiding over the conclave and the voting processes, brilliantly.

Indeed I had thought that this would be one of those films unusual in C21, where women actors would hardly feature at all. How wrong that view proved to be as naturally there are many religious sisters in the Vatican. In fact the Vatican's reverend mother along with a nun from Nigeria, played relatively prominent roles in the film.

A summary of the opinion of Tom Edwards in the Catholic Herald reads:

 If you want a film about ambition and power with good acting and a beautiful set, Conclave is worth seeing. But if you are looking for a film about Catholicism and the papacy, take Bishop Barron's advice and run away from it - as fast as you can."

 Although I am catholic  and agree with much of the good review in The Catholic Herald magazine, I disagree with their reported view  of the American  Bishop Barron. 

I am sure that in electing a new pope there will be various factions and much politicking by numerous cardinals during the process. After all they like us all are human. But a great work of fiction and an excellent film.

 

 

Parliament

Youngest sister kindly organised for she and I,  a guided tour of the Parliament buildings in Westminster which I duly attended with her yesterday.

The above apparently  represents those who fought successfully for women's rights to vote for members of parliament; Emiline Pankhurst comes to mind: 

The guide was excellent though I was ticked off at one point for discretely attempting a picture with my Iphone in the press room, as generally even there, photos are not permitted.

The paintings throughout the buildings were interesting and one of my favourites was was that above, of the six wives of King Henry VIII. Henry VIII too was well depicted and indeed resembles almost exactly the Henry VIII of BBC TV's Wolf Hall.

The House of Lords  the red benches of which we were able to stand within, is exuberantly decorated with gold and gilt though apparently the  use of 24 carat gold had to be slightly restrained on account of risks to collapse over its weight.

 I recall years ago whilst I was a solicitor at Witham Weld, being taken for lunch within the Lords' dining room by the late Lord Clifford. An excellent treat though he did remark that Witham Weld was probably responsible for destroying more great Catholic families than anyone else (presumably including Henry VIII - lol).

Under the .floor between the Lords and Commons the guide mentioned how the gunpowder plot of 1605 was just discovered the day before the was it 35 kegs of gunpowder, were due to explode.

The Commons was fascinating to enter and one of the advantages of having a guided tour was that we were able to visit many areas specially cordoned off to ensure privacy. Whilst we were in the Commons, standing among the MPs' green benches, the guide pointed out  the discrete memorials to  two recently murdered MPs; Jo Cox (Labour) and David Amess (Conservative) respectively behind the government  and opposition green benches. 

The suicide bill which had passed its first reading stage only the day before, was promoted by the Labour MP. She is the sister of the late Jo Cox which I had not previously appreciated.

As the tour came to an end, I was able to take a photo of the great hall which the IRA some years ago, thankfully failed to destroy:

Youngest sister to whom I am very grateful, and I, then ventured to a parliamentary tea house and thence to the gift shop.

An interesting and educational morning.

 

HCPT Group 35 Leaders' Reunion

Bernie, having her birthday on Monday was a good time for Paul to arrange a mass  at Westminster Cathedral for HCPT Groups' 35/729 leaders and a meal  together afterwards.

 

The afternoon after Mass was enlivened by some decent Australian wine to accompany our lunch.together. and reminiscences about happy, though rarely easy,  times with HCPT The Pilgrimage Trust generally and Group 35 in particular abounded.

Bernie told us that to ease her journeys to visit her sister in Baghdad, she had managed to secure a second passport from Iraq so could travel more directly than with her British one.  Her cousin who was a bishop in Mosul has retired. My understanding is that Mosul like  parts of Northern Iraq is largely controlled by Sunni Muslims though  has a large Christian presence

Many of the moments and travails of our  pilgrimages to Lourdes over the years, were  discussed; for example those detailed at: HCPT 

We  also considered the possibility of making a return visit to Lourdes  perhaps by train and maybe at a similar time to the main HCPT pilgrimage. We happily did this once before after the main HCPT pilgrimage had departed from Lourdes see:

Old HCPT 

Despite the wintry weather which affected transport to and from London,  the reunion was over all too soon.