(Continued from PC 368)
I can see everyone’s eyes are drawn unconsciously to the little candle on the counter, the artificial representation of someone dear; all of us lost in our thoughts about Josh. The clamour of concerned voices fills the café, everyone wanting to know what’s happened. Questions came thick and fast but Duncan, looking to Luke for his silent agreement, raises his hand:
“Look! From what Luke knows Josh is OK but was wounded when a drone, flown from Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon, released a small bomb. He’s been taken to hospital and Luke’s been promised an update this evening. Luke’s going to create a WhapsApp group so, if you want to, give him your details …….”
“Time for him to come home” mutters Susie under her breath as we all line up to give our details to Luke.
Without further information, speculation seems inappropriate and we will know soon enough how Josh is. Life moves on! Mo, Sami and I return to our table and discussion. In summary Mo had been saying that some people are put off reading because they don’t understand ‘long words’.
“Ah! The stratification in the way they’re presented” I said “the stories at the bottom in comic form, up through light weight chick-lit, trashy even (?), to the broad church of fictional novels and then to the higher callings of the intellectuals; same story! For me a good example of the latter would be Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, ranked by the Modern Library as among the greatest works of English literature in the C20th. Encouraged by Tim Tinnes in San Fransico, I tried it early last year. After a while I was skimming the pages, thought the writing tortured and overwrought: moved forward twenty pages and the story hadn’t, in my opinion, moved forward. I need the story to move!”
“So, what did you read last year Richard?”
“Well, of the 40 odd books, four were non-fiction: ‘What About Men?’ by Caitlin Moran (see PC 352 About Men September 2023), ‘SBS; Silent Warriors’ by Saul David, about the Special Boat Service, Tom Holland’s book on Klaus Barbie, ‘The Butcher of Lyon’ (See PC 324 Monsters March 2023) and Wendy Joseph QC’s description of ‘Unlawful Killing’ trials at The Old Bailey in London.
“Wow! Lots of fiction! Read mainly by the swimming pool in Estoril?”
“Privileged to have the time! Otherwise in bed before sleep, so I need a book to be a good story, with interesting characters and well-paced. I don’t think more than one could be described as trashy and I didn’t read more than 5% of that!”
The first few books extracted from my iphone ‘Notes’
Sami starts to tell us about his obsession with crime writers such as Lee Child, Agatha Christie, Ian Rankin, Stieg Larsen, Colin Dexter, Peter James, David Balducci, Michael Connelly, Martina Cole ……
“….. but now I wonder whether some pompous twat might call all their books ‘trashy’! Ha! Ha! We read what pleases us.”
“Indeed we do, indeed we should!”
Mo goes to get some more coffees and I can see she’s tempted by Teresa’s savouries, looking curiously into the display cabinet. Taking the opportunity, I quickly ask Sami whether he’s seen the ITV channel’s “Mr Bates v the Post Office”, with the actor Toby Jones, whom Celina and I met in the hot yoga studio in Balham in 2010, as Mr Bates.
“Ah! Yes! Making a drama about the UK’s biggest miscarriage of justice! Think it’s fairly accurate but what I hope it does is educate a wider audience as to what went on and how we suffered. I know that you wrote about it way before you and I met ……”
“Yes! In June 2021 I posted PC 235 Generosity in Government. Amazing to think it’s 18 months ago!”
Sami continues: “but I think most people just think it’s another government department FUBAR. I hope the Public Enquiry, apart from suggesting who should be prosecuted, addresses the issue of how the Post Office can act as their own police, judge and jury.”
“And, as I understand it, all the money the Post Office erroneously claimed their sub postmasters and mistresses had stolen ended up in Post Office profits. A wonderful corrupt scheme; the more you claim the individuals owe you due to our false accounting, the more you get back, the higher the organisation’s profits and the higher your bonus as a share of the profits.”
Mo returns with some coffees and, probably thinking we’d discussed trashy novels and the Post Office scandal to death, asks whether I had seen that the Australian journalist John Pilger had died aged 84?
“Actually I did! I confess to loving his books and still have ‘Hidden Agendas’ and ‘Distant Voices’. He was the hatpin to the status quo as portrayed by governments and political parties, exploding biased views and pomposity. But he was a marmite character; you either loved him or hated him. What I hadn’t realised was he almost became a word in the dictionary.”
“What do you mean?” ask Mo and Sami almost simultaneously!
“He obviously upset the English writer Auberon Waugh, who invented a new verb to describe Pilger’s actions. “To Pilger, Pilgerise or be Pilgered: to present information in a sensationalist manner to reach a foregone conclusion; using emotive language to make a false political point: treating a subject emotionally with generous disregard for inconvenient detail; or making a pompous judgement on wrong premises.” Pilger initiated legal action and it was removed from The Oxford English Dictionary of New Words. More’s the pity; think it would have been a useful addition!”
“Anyway” says Duncan, interrupting everyone, “Time to close the café. Let’s hope news from Israel is positive, thank you Richard for your triptych, and no doubt we’ll all see each other over the next few days.”
Out into the deep darkness of a January evening, the odd snow flurry catching the light from the streetlamps.
More anon ….
Richard 13th January 2024
Hove
PS Following the enormous expose created by the programme, Paula Vennells, CEO Post Office 2012 – 2019, is handing back her CBE and it sounds as though Parliament will introduce a law that will quash most of the criminal convictions; interesting parliamentary action overriding the ‘independent’ judiciary!
Note 1 FUBAR – F**ked Up Beyond All Recognition
postcards 