Fathers and Sons (and daughters)

I have been thinking a lot about relationships between parents and their children lately. Originally I thought this was about the fact it was Mother's Day then I took a closer look at the TV series, books and music I'd been listening to and realised lots of people are thinking about family relationships and their impact.

Fathers and Sons: Howard Cunnell
Recently radio 4 featured Cunnell's memoir as their book of the week - you get to hear a 15 minute snippet of the book each day - catch up HERE. Fathers and Sons is about Howard - how his father-less childhood shaped him, and the relationship with his step-daughter as she becomes the man she was always meant to be. I really enjoyed the descriptions early on of him brushing his tom-boy daughter's hair - and referencing Gary Synder's poem 'Axe Handles'. The thought here is that we become like our forebears through example; when you are making a new axe handle you have the example in your hands! Cunnell provides plenty of food for thought about traits that can be inherited through nurture not just genetics.

ROOTS: American miniseries
I have just back from an adventure in America and it has ignited a real interest in American history in me. As such I was thrilled to discover this remake of ROOTS on iPlayer adapted from a book written in the 1970's. The story follows the fortunes of four generations of the same family travelling from Gambia, to North Carolina - whilst it focuses on the impact of slavery also touches on other topics like the American Revolutionary War.

Despite their lives being physically owned by other people Kunta Kinte and his descendants assert their own identity by holding a naming ceremony for newborns under the stars. Kunta was a brave and clever man, always planning a way to escape; he teaches his daughter how to mount horses and how to read, this key skill is passed down from one generation to another for the daughters as much as the sons. We also see the same ingenuity and charisma we saw in Kunta Kinte has been passed all the way down to his grandson George who raises chickens and his great-grandson who becomes a blacksmith and eventually a freeman. Kunta and his descendants may have been enslaved but they continued to live their true identities beneath the surface; and Kunta becomes a mythical model who lends his descendants strength in times of trial.

(Credit: BBC)

Dear Theodosia: Hamilton the Musical
I am obsessed with Hamilton at the moment, particularly the mixtape and particularly this track 'Dear Theodosia'. This song is put in the mouth primarily of Aaron Burr. Burr married a woman 10 years his senior who died 12 years into their marriage, and their only surviving child was named after her, a girl called Theodosia. When Theodosia lost her mother Aaron Burr took on the mantle for ensuring she is educated in the social graces of 18th century society but also the more masculine disciplines of arithmetic, Latin and Greek. In the song Burr is joined by Hamilton singing about his son Philip, both Burr and Hamilton reflect on the absence of father's in their lives and a desire to make an America that will enable them to be successful. Whilst Burr was very present in his daughter's life, Hamilton is portrayed as being absent; despite this his son Philip becomes a man very much in his father's mould - with tragic consequences.

(Credit: Joan Marcus)

And thus concludes my review of three stories of Fathers doing their best by the sons and daughters!

Our Girl & Our World War, Brick Lane, The Riot Club, Mind and Soul podcasts

Hello!

I took a bit of a break, didn't I?! Whilst you've not heard from me in the online world, I have been up to an awful lot of things out there in that other world; a wedding, a baby dedication, several plays, many meals catching up with dear friends, making plans for new holidays, I even escaped to Madrid last week (more on that in subsequent posts). At one point I travelled some 493 miles in just 5 days without leaving the country.

I've had plenty to write about, but no time to process it. But here I am. Back at last. With a crisp that's even bigger than my mouth!

Our Girl & Our World War

I've still had time to keep up with some TV, particularly military dramas. Our Girl has just finished its second series starring Molly Dawes (Lacey Turner), a young army medic in Afghanistan.  Its quite unusual to present the active side of the military from a female perspective; unfortunately it does retain a fair amount of girl-fronted-TV-show traits, there's a strong focus on fashion and rom-com elements. I also think the fact that the show was brought back for a second series is interesting, indicative of the ways in which the British public have changed perspective on Afghanistan involvement over the last 5 years. In the final episode a mother who has lost both her sons to the conflict says 'I gave you my boys; and you gave me a flag'. Both sons chose to be soldiers, but the mother is left empty handed.

(Molly Dawes. Image Credit: Digital Spy)

By contrast Our World War is a drama series based on the first-hand accounts of soldiers in World War I. The series originally aired in August but I'm only just catching up with it now. Historic accounts can feel distant and difficult to engage with but the series' production team have really done their best to overcome this. Each episode begins with spy-series style mapping and info which means you don't have to know where Delville Wood is to understand the importance of location and action at that moment. A decision to film the series with a strong documentary flavour and a contemporary soundtrack also help to close the gap of a century and make the characters easy to relate to. Can't wait to finish episode 3!

(Image Credit: BBC)

Brick Lane: Monica Ali

Last Christmas I bought myself 5 fiction books about London including White Teeth (Zadie Smith), did we talk about that book? I can't remember. Anyway Brick Lane is in a similar vein but with a much tighter focus on one woman in one family. Nazneen is a Bengali woman who arrives in East London married to a much older man. The book addresses themes common to much of humanity; relationships, friendships, parenting, and employment, through the specific lens of a Bengali immigrant in East London.

I'll be honest, finishing Brick Lane has been difficult. I've been reading it for at least a month and I've still not finished it. I think it might be because it doesn't have that much drama, nothing drastic happens, its fairly run of the mill. That said, stylistically Ali is a pro, she captures the voice and grammar of Dhaka excellently, and the dialogue between characters is both distinct and believable. Ali clearly knows the locality of her book well, having spent some time in Tower Hamlets I recognised the roads and the shops mentioned. I'm determined to finish Brick Lane but she hasn't made it easy!

The Riot Club

TRC is a film based on the play POSH by Laura Wade, itself loosely based on the activity of Oxford society, The Bullingdon Club. The film focuses on one night, and 10 Riot Club members. Honestly, I'm a bit terrified that it will do Oxbridge a ton of disservice. The vast majority of people I met at Cambridge we're not like the cast of Made in Chelsea or The Riot Club - with more money than sense. The things I liked about the film were: the panoramas of Oxford, that scene on the roof top, the eccentric supervisions, the lunch where Tom Hollander plays a successful MP.

That said, I think the film failed to adapt the play enough to its medium. Plays are restricted by physical space so it makes sense to set 90% of the play in 1 room. On film multiple locations become more viable and hosting the majority of a film in the same 4 walls can lose pace and the film did feel like it was dragging sometimes.

(Image Credit: IMDB)

Mind and Soul Podcasts

My congratulations to you if you are still with me! Its been a lengthy one this week as I had so much to say. I just wanted to conclude by saying I've been listening to a series of talks by Christian Mental Health resource, Mind and Soul. They've recently released a couple of talks on Perfectionism, Worry and Guilt. I've found them all helpful. Give them a listen.

Next Time: Madrid! I had an incredible time, I'm still processing the experience.

High Profile East End

I don’t know if its because the Olympics are just around the corner but the East End is everywhere at the moment!

It all started a few weeks ago with a BBC programme on the changing character of Billingsgate Market (an East End fish market). It profiled how the changing demographic and economic climate in East London had affected the market and its patrons through the eyes of real people whose lives were affected by the change. It was interesting to see how national and international phenomena (fish stocks) affected the individual.

In the newspaper I read that the Cockney sparrow is now near extinct from competition in East London, and the number of real Cockneys (born within the sound of Bow Bells) has also declined severely because noise pollution in the city means the sound can barely be heard beyond Shoreditch Market (read it here). If the East End were a UNESCO site they might be about to lose their funding for failing to meet its cultural definitions! I guess this means we have to look for new definitions of an ‘East Ender’ based on our modern spatial markers, like within sight of the Gherkin, something increasingly difficult to do when we are less spatially distinct. Although I did hear someone say on the Tube the other day that ‘London is still a number of separate towns’; the districts of the City are still indeed distinct but summing them up into one statement of their cultural identity would prove difficult. The districts of London continue to fascinate me.

I have also read a book about the East End recently called, ‘The Sugar Girls’. It was about a group of girls who all worked at the Tate and Lyle factory in Plaistow, not so far from Billingsgate. The book was based on a memory project carried out by the authors, Barrett and Calvi, in Old People’s homes and Community centres, noting down ladies’ stories. It was interesting to see the patterns that pervaded throughout the book for the women of the factories relating to independence, careers, love and friendship . Whilst recognising that things had changed with technological advances and immigration to the area the women retained a great fondness for their area and the friends they had made. The book made me keenly aware of the CSR function that factories used to have towards their own workers; taking them on holidays to the seaside and ensuring women under intense pressure took paid leave to recuperate. The authors also did humour really well in their storytelling.

Somewhat tenuously I wanted to add my trip to see Sweeney Todd into this blogpost. The story of The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is expertly told at the Adelphi Theatre; Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton were good but my major support goes to Gillian Kirkpatrick who played a mad woman excellently. Although theoretically Fleet Street is w1 it still just about meets East London and the portrayal of London culture in the musical was really interesting, Mr Pirelli perhaps being the Victorian East London archetype, and provoked much internet searching as to what a ‘Beadle’ was. Even the bustle of the streets as portrayed in the musical is reminiscent of much of London life, all that shouting and a fair deal of coarseness, street food provided because there is no time to sit down, running because there is no time to walk and lots of smoke; this came into its own in the smog last week, I finally understand why it is called the ‘Big Smoke’.