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| Dad and the Captain - a memorial beside the Little Ouse |
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| The Dad's Army museum in Thetford, Norfolk. It is quite small inside but you can book a walking tour of the town centre to see the areas filmed - we had already walked around and didn't have time for more. |
'Stupid Boy'(regardless of gender) and 'Ah yes, I wondered when you would notice that'- Captain M
'Don't Panic' and 'They don't like it up 'em!'- Jones,
'Do you really think that is wise - Sir'- Wilson
'I'm telling mum' - Pike
'We're doomed' - Frazer
'Would you like my sister to ... or please may I be excused ..' - Godfrey.
They now roll off the tongue with a variety of British accents and a few exaggerated actions. To be perfectly honest I don't think they get an airing in the community!
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| Dressing up in a reproduction of the Vicar's Hall office. I think the warden is having a little too much fun telling 'Napolean' what he thinks of him. |
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| Flint is a common building material in the area. |
Petal refused to watch any more after 'Walker' disappeared and we found out that he had died of pancreatitis after shooting the outdoor scenes for Series 5. Some say that his characterisation killed him, the black market home guard private was constantly smoking and downed galleons of whisky and beer.
Not long ago M discovered that nearly all of the locations shots for the series were filmed in and around Thetford which is only 30mins north east of Cambridge.
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| The row of cottages that Capt. Mainwering and Walker door knocked to retrieve the ladies knickers he'd had sewn up from a salvaged German parachute to send to the war office for English ones. Not sure if the family 'reenacted' the episode. |
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| Rd sign to the Museum from the main road runing throught the town. Not sure if 'Pike Lane' was a trigger for the character name or if it was named after the show. The guy who played Pike is the only guy still living from the show. |
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| We're doomed! |
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| Some of it was labelled with Dad's army names but is more a general display of the era. |
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| Set up to look a bit like the church hall set where most of the series was filmed. |
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| There were four different steam engines, all narrow gauge. The entry ticket gave unlimited rides on all of them. Some were more excited than others. |
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| Having a chat to the engineer so if anything went wrong Dad would be able to step up to the fire box and know what to do. His badge didn't say 'The Fat Controller'. |
There were also old fashioned fair rides. The entry ticket allowed 4 rides per person on the 'gallopers', a steam driven Victorian merry-go-round. There were snail peddle cars and dodgems as well as a couple of very large buildings full of steam engines of all persuasions. I'm thinking that when my Dad visits we'll have to have an early NZ Father's Day outing too.
Celebrating great Dads is such an important thing to do. Our society is so eager to scream the hideous crimes of so many men loud in the papers until it may have become the measuring stick of manhood. Those of us lucky enough to be surrounded by men of integrity, self control and wisdom need to voice these experiences loudly to give our sons, nephews and friends positive role models. I nearly deleted this paragraph cause it sounds soooo sappy - why is it that good stuff sounds fake, needy or weak? Judge away - my soap box this blog is a thank you to the good blokes in my life.
It has been over a month since my last blog so there are quite a few books to note - I won't bother with the rereads when I was poorly(this means unwell and is often heard when calling the class register in the morning) or ones I didn't like at all.
Read: A bit of a History splurge! A couple more biographies - I'm quite enjoying this trend where the author chats to the reader about their methods and pitfalls of research then present it as a story from the protagonist POV. This next firmly fits the trend.
Images from http://www.bookdepository.com
Hanns and Rudolf by Thomas Harding 2013 Windmill Books
Non-Fictionish
The story of the Auschwitz Kommandant from his point of view and the POV of a wealthy young Jew who flees to London before the round ups begin in Berlin and becomes a Nazi hunter after the war. Their stories are told from their birth, a chapter a piece until their experiences begin to cross over. A real eye opener to how the Nazi regime was so good at exploiting those who tend not to think beyond their duty and how a childhood spent isolated from peers under a severely authoritarian parent may create this inability to empathise. It also addresses different ways people coped with the awful knowledge of the Death Camps. The flaws and strengths related of both men prevent a situation where it is goodie verses baddie. A deft record of a flux in time.
The Real Jane Austen, A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne, 2013 William Collins, NonFiction
My first reaction to this cover was - 'Oh no, not another go at dear Jane'. When I spotted it with a 3for2 sticker, it became the third. I'm really glad that it did. The first two chapters nearly made me put it down forever - I dislike it when editors let authors try and justify their books, there is always a hint of 'this is better than the others' with a hefty helping of condescension. Once this was ploughed through each chapter was a delight of refreshed memories from the novels and a look at Ms Austen's life experiences that may have bought these settings, characters. ideas and opinions into her stories. There were many, many little things about her associations and influences that I hadn't considered deeply before. From her kleptomaniac aunt to a variation of suppositions about her choice to remain unmarried in the face of several advantageous offers; this history brings together the politics, misogyny, fashions, social conventions, art and latest on dits of her times. Loved it will read it again one day.
The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick 2013 Sphere
I found this at the supermarket and as I am finishing the planning of our trip to what was Aquitaine this summer I hoped to find soem interesting places to add to my list. As Eleanor is one of history's most well know woman rulers that so many sensationalist novels have been written about, she is so often portrayed as a selfish power hungry tart by women and men, I wasn't holding out for superb characterisation or unbiased research. I was very pleasantly surprised. After a long lateral approach to research the author has developed a child whose energy and intelligence leaps from the pages. Seeing behind her mask wearing, loses and hopes from the age of 12 to 24 shows how even our best possible choices can be misconstrued by those intimidated by intelligent women. This is not a feminist epistle but certainly one that tries to present the attitudes, beliefs and methods of survival in 11th C Europe. I'm looking forward to 'The Winter Crown'(Sept 2014) and The Autumn Throne published soon to complete the series on Eleanor of Aquitaine's life.
Escapism Reads!
Anatomy of Murder by Imogen Robertson 2010 Headline Review.
Don't you hate it when you read the second of a series first! This from Willow's Christmas stocking.
The first in the series was Instruments of darkness the last Island of Bones. If I see them on special I'd get them.
I think they are young teen thrillers but with enough blood and guts, lightly applied historical settings from the navy, art and music worlds of the late 1700s and easily recognised characters from both the adult and teen world to entertain a wide age range. Think female Sherlock Holmes with passion and intuition rather than genius intellect accompanied by an older gent who may be the first ever forensic investigator. My favourite character was the working class fortune teller - very real feeling with the ability to value what she has and the worth of autonomy over wealth.
Dissolution by C.J Sansom 2003 Macmillan First of Six in the 'Shardlake' series.
Tudor 'Who done it' with a wealthy hunchback as the protagonist who 'cleans up' for Lord Cromwell. He is the political power and threat behind the scenes. He was the adviser who came up with the plan for Henry VIII to leave the Roman Church and become head of the English Protestant Church in order to divorce his Spanish, daughter bearing wife. Much of his own wealth then came from dismantling the monasteries and redistributing their wealth and property to the Treasury.
It gives an interesting picture of the time but leaves the thrills and mystery a little light. I really like the black edging on the pages. Won't bother with the others.
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