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Spectator
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Pope Idol: Leo's singing should be celebrated
'But will anyone be interested?' the vicar asked cautiously. It was a fair response to my latest madcap scheme. One of the vicar's 12 churches, St Candida and Holy Cross at Whitchurch Canonicorum in Dorset, hosts one of the country's only three remaining pre-Reformation saints' shrines with the relics of the saint still present. In this case, the shrine is to St Wite, a ninth-century virgin princess martyred by the Vikings. Her saint's day was coming up. Could we, I asked, recreate a pre-Reformation church service in honour of it? The vicar, the Revd Virginia Luckett, who is sometimes heard on Radio 4, agreed to my proposal – but with trepidation. She is used to conducting pilgrimages to the shrine, and knows the spiritual value of this medieval tradition. But how many people would want to sit through more than an hour of complex Latin plainsong on a Saturday evening in summer, stewing in incense? Maybe half a dozen? I don't think the new Pope would have asked this sort of angst-ridden question. Leo XIV is the first proper singing pope since St John Paul II, and one of his first acts as pontiff was merrily to belt out the Regina Caeli (simple tone) in Latin from the Vatican balcony to the delighted crowds in St Peter's Square. Spurred by this papal expression of confidence in tradition, a Dominican friar, Father Robert Mehlhart, has started offering online singing lessons – 'Let's Sing with the Pope' – using clips of the Holy Father intoning plainchant to educate the many faithful who have never been taught how to do so. There have been hundreds of thousands of downloads in just a few weeks. Going by the miserable and mumbling attempts at congregational singing I've heard recently (even in a full Westminster Abbey), we desperately need someone glamorous and full-throated in the Church of England to do something similar. Do we have a bishop musical and valiant enough to get on YouTube and proudly reacquaint us with the best tunes of the hymnal? Oswestry has a fine booming voice that would be the envy of many a Father Christmas impersonator, Ramsbury has released some albums and I hear that Chelmsford is a good musician. Where are you all? There is a ready audience that wants to reconnect with the great English tradition of hymn-singing, now dismally neglected by schools. Are we going to leave this multitude captive to Rome? As I plundered the local churches for vestments for the Whitchurch service (before the Reformation, even choristers generally wore fine embroidered copes), I couldn't help pondering how we have so quickly lost confidence in another national tradition: dressing properly. When Hamlet was apparently going off his onion, we knew about it from the way he dressed: 'his doublet all unbraced;/ No hat upon his head; his stockings fouled,/ Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle'. Yet since lockdown, this now seems to be our national costume. Even in Clubland, where one would hope for the confident maintenance of standards, there is the stench of sartorial decay. While having lunch a couple of weeks ago at a St James's institution which has recently abolished the requirement for neckties, I gloomily marvelled at how this relaxation has suddenly cast a tramp-like appearance on many of its members. Crumpled shirts and escaping chest hairs are now rampant. If dressing properly is a sign of good mental health, not to mention courtesy to others, what does this say about the current state of the nation? Ties aren't the only thing disappearing from the great dining rooms – portraits are too. Dinner recently at Clare College Cambridge, to find in Hall bare stretches of blank white walls where grand canvases of eminent alumni recently hung. After dinner I discovered one, Charles Townshend, an 18th-century Chancellor of the Exchequer, awkwardly stuffed at the top of an inaccessible staircase. The Indian Governor-General Lord Cornwallis and the completely inoffensive Archbishop of Canterbury John Tillotson were nowhere to be seen. The Reformation martyr Bishop Hugh Latimer is apparently off being restored, but he might not make it back into Hall on his return. I suppose all this is just, in a way, given Latimer's own iconoclastic tendencies – but it's hardly the way to cherish the memory of the college's most eminent sons. More than 100 people filled the church at Whitchurch to hear the pre-Reformation service for St Wite. They sat silent, rapt, contemplative, as the choir – finely arrayed in borrowed copes – made its unhurried way through the Latin psalms, hymns and responsories (singing, I'd say, quite as well as the Pope, though untutored by him). They then, still silently, followed the choir procession out to a recent statue of St Wite on the church tower (iconoclasm can be wound back) and back indoors to her shrine. Both sites were censed and asperged with holy water as we continued to chant. Afterwards, I asked the vicar what she thought. She could not speak. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. These old traditions, offered with confidence, still have their power.
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Farewell, Shereen, we will miss you - now Radio Scotland faces choice
You have to say that 17 years is a pretty decent shift on radio or anywhere else these days, so it is worth raising a glass to the presenter for her services over the years. She has certainly been a safe pair of hands. The magazine format which Shereen's programme pursues now seems compulsory on Saturday mornings across the board on both TV and radio in the UK. But whereas Saturday Live on Radio 4 tends to stick to a lifestyle and human interest beat, Shereen's programme has always mixed the serious and un-serious together. And so on Saturday the show moved from a disagreement about a new Orlando Bloom film on Amazon Prime to discussing Labour's U-turn on winter fuel to a tribute to the late, great Beach Boy, Brian Wilson, to a discussion of the riots in Ballymena last week. Read more Nanjiani and her guests, journalists Angela Haggerty and Paul McNamee and screenwriter Sergio Casci, have opinions on all of them. Well, that is the brief, of course. Actually, all three contributors were very good. McNamee grew up in Ballymena and spoke with angry eloquence about what was happening in his hometown. But going from riots to some minor Channel 4 sci-fi show, does feel a bit strange, doesn't it? Or is that just me? (A minor thing, but why is there always such an emphasis on talking about TV programmes on these radio magazine programmes? Of course people watch telly, but they also go out to gigs and read books and visit galleries. And they also listen to other radio shows. Why do they never talk about other radio shows on radio shows?) In truth, I'm always slightly suspicious of programmes in which everyone has an opinion on everything. But that's because I often find it's perfectly possible not to have an opinion sometimes. Indeed, I manage to have no opinions on things all the time. (What do you mean that's obvious?) So, it was rather refreshing on Saturday when Angela Haggerty admitted that she didn't know what she thought about the ongoing controversy around the development of a controversial holiday park at Loch Lomond. All that said, Shereen's programme has always felt approachable and accessible, and a lot of that has been down to its presenter. So you could understand McNamee, a regular guest, getting rather emotional when he paid tribute to her. 'There's something very special about Shereen,' he said of the programme he has been appearing on for the last 16 years. 'It brings, I think, companionship. And when you're listening at home you feel as though you are part of something more … I think that is what will be what is missed most.' Good luck with replacing it, Radio Scotland. Radio drama can be, I accept, something of an acquired taste, but I have a fondness for light and breezy Radio 4 afternoon dramas because they were my introduction to the station back in the 1980s when my listening habits didn't, on the whole, stretch much further than Radio 1. As a result, maybe some of my enjoyment of Katie Retford's Fran and Joe: Summer Fate on Tuesday afternoon was nostalgic. But Retford's drama series - this is the third and last in the series - is a sweet, warm account of a tentative romance between two primary teachers played by Fiona Button and Nikesh Patel (who's already played the love interest in Rose Matafeo's TV sitcom Starstruck). The real star here, though, was Joanna Monroe playing Miss Pear, another teacher and potential matchmaker. Having appeared in both previous episodes, Christmas Wings and World Book Day, here she got to give a speech and seized the opportunity gleefully. Indeed, she packed so much emotion into her minute or two of monologue that it overshadowed everything that followed. That said, I love a good romance and this fitted the bill. For the most part it was just two people talking about love and grief in the rain. Turns out that's more than enough sometimes. Nicola Benedetti (Image: free) Listen Out For: The Truth About Classical Music, Classic FM, Friday, June 27, 9pm As the behemoth that is the Glastonbury Festival prepares to devour TV and radio, Classic FM offers an alternative with this new six-part series fronted by Nicola Benedetti. In it, the Grammy-winning violinist and director of the Edinburgh International Festival lifts the curtain on the world of classical music.
Irish Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Daily Mirror
Trump considers Tehran strike after Israel attacks Gaza food queue
Israeli forces have killed dozens of people queueing at a food hub in Gaza. Witnesses to the attack in the city of Khan Younis described a "massacre" as tanks and drones opened fire on the crowd without warning. As many as 700 people are said to have been wounded, with many seriously hurt. One survivor said: "Tens of thousands of hungry civilians gathered for the aid. Two Israeli shells were dropped in the middle of the crowd. Dozens of civilians, including children, were killed and no one could help." Another said: "It was a massacre." Speaking at the hospital in the aftermath of the attack, Samaher Meqdad said: "Why did they fire at the young people? Why? Aren't we human beings?" It comes as Donald Trump put the world on edge with a series of erratic rants, with which he said America was not going to assassinate Iran's supreme leader "at least for now". For live updates, follow our blog below... Israel continues to fight on two fronts with deadly attacks reported this morning in Gaza. According to reports, a fire has broken out at a section of Baghdad Airport which US forces operate from. It comes as Donald Trump reportedly weighs up whether to join Israel in carrying out strikes on Iran. انباء عن اندلاع حريق لأسباب مجهولة داخل مطار بغداد بالجزء الذي تسيطر عليه القوات الأمريكية . With the country facing an ever-increasing bombardment of Israeli bombs, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has held a meeting at the presidential palace this morning. It comes as Israel ramps up its attacks and the US weighs up whether to involve itself in the ongoing conflict. The state-run Tasnim news agency shared pictures showing several cabinet members, including First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref attending the meeting. A former Israeli diplomat said Iran could force Washington's hand by attacking a US ship or base. Michael Oren said there is a movement in the White House that doesn't want the US to involve itself in another foreign conflict. Trump himself convinced some Americans to vote for him based on repeated pledges to minimise US involvement in wars abroad. Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "[Iran attacking the US first would] increase pressure on Trump within his own White House, and President Trump would pressure Israel. "That's the way the Iranians might think," Oren says. "It's a fear I have." Two planes have touched down in Israel's Ben Gurion Airport, bringing home the first batch of Israelis stranded abroad. Israeli media reports say that tens of thousands of Israelis have been left stranded abroad since the war broke out. The flights, which were flying from Larnaca, Cyprus, landed at the Tel Aviv transport hub on Wednesday morning. Israel chose to close its airspace for commercial flights due to the ballistic missiles being launched from Iran. Most Americans think the US should not get involved in the conflict, according to a YouGov poll. Sixty per cent of those polled oppose the move, while only 16 per cent approve of it. One of Donald Trump's key campaign pledges was not to involve the US in foreign conflicts. Israel is reportedly running out of defensive Arrow interceptors. According to The Wall Street Journal, which reported the development, added that it could affect the country's ability to shoot down Iran's long-range ballistic missiles. An anonymous US official told the Journal the US has been aware of the issue for months. Daily life continues in Tehran as Iranian armed forces target Israeli positions and respond to the regime's acts of Explosions rocked Tehran early this morning as intense Israeli airstrikes rained down on the capital. A human rights group said the strikes had killed at least 585 people across Iran and wounded 1,326 others. Iran has been known to minimise casualties in the past, with its last update on Monday putting the toll at 224 with 1,277 wounded. So far 24 people have been killed in Israel. The Israeli military says it has struck uranium centrifuge production sites and weapons factories in Iran overnight. As the conflict enters its sixth day, "more than 50 aircraft" bombarded "a centrifuge production site" and a number of weapons production sites. Some of the targets were places where the regime produced surface to air missiles, Israel claims. Shai Mozes, whose parents were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and have since been released, said: 'Israel's real enemy is not Hamas, but Netanyahu, who is destroying Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.' Some 600 people protested along Israel's border with Gaza. Activist Alon-Lee Green, national co-director of grassroots peace group Standing Together, said: 'Some people are protesting because they see it as a political war.' Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage. Israel's military campaign since then has killed over 55,300 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Yousef Nofal said he saw many people motionless and bleeding on the ground. He said: 'It was a massacre,' claiming soldiers continued firing as people fled the area. Mohammed Abu Qeshfa said he heard a loud explosion followed by heavy gunfire and tank shelling. He added: 'I survived by a miracle.' Samaher Meqdad was at a hospital looking for her two brothers and a nephew who had been in the crowd. She said: 'Why did they fire at the young people? Why? Aren't we human beings?' The Israeli army said it was investigating the incident, the latest in a series of catastrophes at distribution centres run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. An army spokesman said: 'Earlier today, Gazans were identified gathering next to an aid truck that got stuck in Khan Younis, next to Israeli forces operating in the area. 'We are aware of reports of a number of casualties from IDF fire after the mass neared [troops]. The details are being checked.' Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said: 'Israeli drones fired at the citizens. Some minutes later, Israeli tanks fired several shells at the citizens, which led to a large number of martyrs and wounded.' Dr Mohammed Saqer, head of nursing at Nasser hospital, said nearly 700 casualties had been treated in hospital. He added: 'Most of the cases are in serious conditions due to the tanks' missiles and now the situation at Nasser medical complex is out of control. We can't deal with such a high number of cases, so we asked the hospitals around Khan Younis city to support us and send ambulances to transfer cases to those hospitals. 'We are suffering a lot due to lack of medical supplies and instruments in addition to the lack of medical and nursing staff. We are trying to control the situation but now we can't do anything more.' In recent weeks, there have been growing protests from Israelis about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's military policy inside Gaza. Israeli forces killed more than 50 people queueing at a food hub in Gaza. Witnesses to the attack in the city of Khan Younis described a 'massacre' as tanks and drones opened fire on the crowd without warning. As many as 700 people are said to have been wounded, with many seriously hurt. Survivor Saeed Abu Liba, 38, said: 'Tens of thousands of hungry civilians gathered for the aid. Two Israeli shells were dropped in the middle of the crowd. Dozens of civilians, including children, were killed and no one could help.' Israeli strikes have killed at least 585 people across Iran and wounded 1,326 others, a human rights group said Wednesday. The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said it had identified 239 of the dead as civilians and 126 as security personnel. The group, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country. Iran has not been publishing regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimised casualties in the past. Its last update, issued Monday, put the death toll at 224 people killed and 1,277 others wounded. Residents in northeastern Tehran awoke to a loud bang this morning, after Israeli jets struck a key target in Iran's nuclear programme. A fire could be seen raging at the heavily sanctioned Imam Hossein University, where nuclear scientists work on producing weapons of mass destruction, under the close administration of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to experts at the Gulf International Forum. The facility has been pointed to as a key centre for Iran's development and production of biological and nuclear weapons by alarmed governments. Imam Hossein University was designated as centre for weapons of mass destruction manufacturing by the US Treasury in 2012 for 'providing, or attempting to provide technological, and or other support for and services in support of the IRGC.' The New York Times reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping has spoken for the first time about the war between Israel and Iran, saying he was "deeply concerned" about Israel's "military action." He noted that his country was willing to mediate an end to the fighting, and said China opposes any infringement on the 'sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of other countries.' Isreal's ambassador to the US Michael Leiter spoke to the circumstances of Ayatollah Khamenei, hours after Trump called him an 'easy target' but said the US was not going to 'take him out' or kill him. On Friday he 'looks over his left shoulder for his nuclear scientists and found none,' he said of Iran's supreme leader. 'Then he looked over his right shoulder for his generals on the IRGC … he didn't see any of them either,' he told CNN hours after President Trump met with his security team. Donald Trump spoke to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, according to a White House official. Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said strikes were taking place around Tehran early on Wednesday after planes had targeted missile launch and storage facilities on Tuesday night. Air raid sirens have been heard in parts of Israel while the US State Department announced it was closing the embassy in Jerusalem for the rest of the week. A bizarre theory connecting the Israel and Iran conflict to a spike in pizza deliveries near the Pentagon has been rubbished. Internet sleuths believed they spotted signs of the initial Israeli bombardment days earlier - by tracking activity at pizzerias near the huge government building. The Pentagon Pizza Report, an online group, noted a surge in orders at District Pizza Palace, a takeaway two miles from the Pentagon, the night before the attack. Around one hour before the bombing began at about 7pm on Thursday (local time), the group, which has 100,000 followers, wrote on X: "All nearby pizza establishments have experienced a HUGE surge in activity." But see below more about how this has been debunked. An Iranian missile or shrapnel appears to have fallen in a parking lot in central Israel, according to reports. Israel's Channel 12 reported that the incident set 20 cars ablaze, and fire crews are trying to put out the fire. Images shared on social media claim to show the vehicles on fire. The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) says Air Force has begun new wave of attacks in Tehran in Iran. The IDF has issued a new evacuation order for District 18 in Tehran due to an upcoming attack, it is understood. Multiple explosions have been heard. Iranian state television on Tuesday afternoon urged the country's public to remove the messaging platform WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging the app — without offering specific evidence — gathered user information to send to Israel. In a statement, WhatsApp said it was 'concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.' WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, meaning a service provider in the middle can't read a message. "We do not track your precise location, we don't keep logs of who everyone is messaging and we do not track the personal messages people are sending one another," it added. 'We do not provide bulk information to any government." Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has posted a message on X about the ongoing conflict with Israel, a message which comes after US president Donald Trump said he had no intention of killing the Iranian leader 'for now'. Citing a verse from the Qur'an, Ali Khamenei wrote: "Help from Allah and an imminent conquest' (Holy Quran: 61:13). "The Islamic Republic will triumph over the Zionist regime by the will of God.' Red Alert sirens have been acittivated across Israel as the coutnry continues to exchange fire with Iran. Reports claim explosions could be seen lighting up the skies above Tel Aviv. Israel's Iron Dome rockets shot upwards to intercept missiles fired from Tehran. No immediate casualties or injuries are reported as the Magen David Adom emergency services attend. A post from the ILRedAlert twitter account reads: "Medics are responding to multiple missile impact reports in central Israel after Iran's latest attack. Magen David Adom confirms no immediate injuries reported." Videos from northern Israel show missiles being intercepted during the latest Iranian missile attack. Iran's Revolutionary Guards has said it is attacking Israeli air bases used to strike Iranian territory. According to the Quds News Network, the armed force said: "These strikes will continue in a sequential, complex, multi-layered and gradual manner." Trump is considering joining Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites, including in Fordow, officials have told CBS. The president is considering a range of options, including a possible strike, following a meeting with his national security team, US media are reporting this evening. An Israeli plane has been reportedly downed in Iran, with a search being launched for its pilot, according to Iran's Mehr news agency. The report said "an Israeli enemy aircraft was targeted in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province in southwestern Iran, and a search is underway for its pilot." Sirens have sounded in several parts of Israel after missile launches were detected from Iran, the country's military has said. The IDF said in a statement: "At this time, the air force is working to intercept and attack wherever necessary to eliminate the threat." Israel and Iran are continuing to exchange fire for a fifth day in a row. This is considered their most intense confrontation in history, fuelling fears of a widespread conflict that could engulf the Middle East. Donald Trump is meeting with his National Security Council, the White House has confirmed.
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Scotsman
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
AL Kennedy: ‘I get very fed up with depictions of glamorous sociopaths'
Ahead of her appearance at this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival, AL Kennedy talks to David Robinson about her latest novel, in which she explores the worlds of a 'spy cop' and an idealistic teacher Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The face on my screen is in silhouette against a window whose curtains haven't been completely pulled back, yet when she moves nearer her computer I can see that it is indeed the writer AL Kennedy. On the internet, you'll find some people saying she now lives in the Scottish Highlands and some that she lives in north Essex, so I ask her where she is. She won't say. 'Not even which county?' 'No.' 'Or which country?' 'No. I'm keeping it variable. I get a lot of Brexiter hate mail. It's expensive to have to put up CCTV and motion sensors and lights and things.' 'Is this all because of one person or more than one?' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I don't really know. If it's handwritten then you do know, but if it's a big bag of dog shit, it's hard to identify. And the police are literally no help at all.' AL Kennedy | Robin Niedojadlo Wherever she actually lives, the dark, divided Britain beyond the multi award-winning Scottish novelist's letterbox and curtains, the Britain about which she has been such a pithy and acerbic commentator on Radio 4's now sadly defunct Points of View and as a columnist for Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung, is what prompted her to write her latest book, Alive in the Merciful Country. At first she'd wanted to set it in the first 100 days of Boris Johnson's premiership, but Covid put paid to that. 'I got Covid at the Tutankhamun exhibition [at London's Saatchi Gallery] right at the end of 2019,' she says. 'I remember standing in the packed crowds thinking 'There's this huge mystery pandemic across the whole of East Asia and half the people here have clearly come from there. Is this really the best idea I've ever had?' And then, a week later...' The virus left her with no sense of smell for six months, exhausted through chronic lack of sleep and with residual symptoms of Long Covid that lasted until 2023. Yet the spring of 2020, when Covid came for so many of the rest of us, is the setting for her novel: not just because time back then suddenly seemed both so spongily absorbent and absurdly finite but because that – the very first week of lockdown – was when her fictional protagonist, London primary school teacher Anna McCormick, finally heard again from the lost soul she has always known as Buster. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Anna and Buster had known each other back in the Eighties, when both were part of a group of radical clowns, musicians and street theatre performers who called themselves the OrKestrA. They were the kind of people you might see floating around Edinburgh's Hunter Square right now – more Merry Pranksters than any serious revolutionary threat to society, though that didn't prevent them being infiltrated – and ultimately betrayed – by undercover cop Buster. Yet all that was a long time in the past: in 2020 Anna is happier than almost any AL Kennedy character I've ever read, fulfilled in her job, with a great, bantering relationship with her teenage son and at the start of a promising, loving relationship. Herself the daughter of a primary school teacher, and the author of four children's books (as well as the nine novels, short story collections, plays and radio dramas for which she is better known), Kennedy creates in Anna a character who is the antithesis of anyone pushing dog faeces through someone's letterbox. At Oakwood Primary (motto: 'There's always a bright side – we just need to find it') she is, says Kennedy, 'trying to raise good people, to be kind and manifest love as a practical force – without which everything goes wrong.' Back in the Eighties, the OrKestrA also tried to change the world – and again, there are some echoes of Kennedy's own interests there too. 'I was a drama student, and I did dramatic and activist-type things. I love magicians, and watching all that circus stuff. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'When I was a student, I remember reading the autobiography of Grok [the Swiss clown usually hailed as Europe's greatest]. He was just so physically clever, in a way I just wish I could be. Still, I suppose you could argue I have spent 50-plus years trying to be good at making sentences, and trying to make some sentences that make people laugh and some that do something to people. So in a way, you know, Grok did that, but in another format.' The contrast between Anna and Buster couldn't be greater. Yes, he had charisma and was as good at his role in the OrKestrA as the silent film star they named him after, but when the whole country is in lockdown he sends her an unsigned letter in which he confesses not only to being a 'spy cop' but a hired killer too. As if she can sense raised eyebrows at this, Kennedy points out that the whole novel started with the Buster character, and not (as I had thought) Anna; that 'like a number of policemen I know' he has grown disillusioned with the job and that many 'spy cops' become deeply damaged by having to immerse themselves in undercover work. 'I get very fed up with depictions of glamorous sociopaths. So much of our culture is like that – drawn to the thrill of power, of what it would be like if there were no rules – you know, wouldn't it be great to be [Breaking Bad's] Walter White or Hannibal Lecter. I wanted to say no, if we had an inside view of a psychopath we'd see a person who can't be fully human and it's not glamorous at all. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'In a way, the book is Anna trying to change the world for the better in all the ways you can by not killing people, while also in a way being furious. And Buster is, as far as he can have an emotion, kind of furious, but he is trying to make the world a better place by killing people.' There's a hyper-articulate fury in most things Kennedy writes about contemporary Britain. It's all here too, but – look again at the title, at Anna's motivations and at her creator's – so too is the idealism that underpins it.
The Herald Scotland
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Churchill won the war but lost the peace - was that inevitable?
Plus ca change. The popular history of the Second World War - as pushed by newspapers and the media in general - is usually the story of Churchill. He is the Second World War in the popular imagination. The fact that he was a much more divisive figure back then is often written out of the story, as is the fact that he was leading a coalition government which included many of those who would be part of the radical Labour government of 1945; a government that would essentially create the world we have been living in for the last 80 years; the NHS, the welfare state, nationalised industry (now largely gone, of course) and the postwar consensus that has been fraying since the Thatcher era and is now in the age of Trump perhaps about to disappear. Read more The 1945 election is the subject of historian David Runciman's new 20-part Radio 4 series Postwar which has been stripped across the week from Monday to Friday and continues over the coming weeks (though as I write this many of the episodes are already available on BBC Sounds). These short, sharp historical nuggets paint a more detailed picture than the broad sweep, romanticised history that we get in VE anniversary broadcasts. And it explains why the newspapers got it so wrong. In 1945, Churchill may have been respected and admired, but the British people didn't want him any more. They wanted change. Labour embodied that change. And so ushered in the most radical government of the 20th century (whatever Thatcher fanboys might tell you). 'Why did the man who won the war, the hero of the hour and a hero for the ages, find himself so decisively rejected by the electorate?' Runciman asked in the first episode on Monday. His argument was that Britain had already changed because of the war. It was being run by a coalition government which had taken control of employment, prices, health, education, food. In other words, it was not very Tory, despite the man leading it. 'The new world was already here,' Runciman pointed out. 'It had been created during the war, the question was … who could be trusted with it.' Not Churchill. His reputation in 1945 was less black and white than it is now. He was seen as a man of war, not of peace. And a gambler who was willing to take risks. Many still remembered his gamble at Gallipoli in the First World War that had led to the death of thousands of British soldiers. Perversely, his opponent, Clement Atlee was seen as more conservative and therefore more reliable. (Atlee had fought at Gallipoli and actually approved of Churchill's gamble.) The country was still at war when the election was held. The previous election was in 1935. That meant that in 1945 no one under the age of 30 had voted in a British election (the voting age was still 21). But many of them had fired a gun. The Labour manifesto of 1945 was that rare thing in politics, a genuine bestseller. Voters were hungry for postwar Britain to begin. Kenny Logan (Image: Royal & Awesome) The problems were hardly over, of course. The dismantling of empire and the construction of a postwar peace both loomed large. And the new Britain that emerged was very far from perfect. But it aspired to make a better world for its citizens. However flawed the result, there's a heroism in that. But that's a story we rarely tell ourselves. Postwar deserves credit for doing so. Over on Radio 2 Kenny Logan - of Scottish rugby and Strictly Come Dancing fame - was guest on Vernon Kay's Tracks of My Years slot this week. In between his record choices he spoke about his dyslexia, his prostate cancer diagnosis, farming and Strictly (natch). But the most moving part of the conversation came at the end of the week when he talked about the late, great Doddie Weir, his team mate who battled motor neurone disease in his later years. You could hear the catch in Logan's voice as he spoke about Weir. But the joy too as he recalled a day out with Weir bouncing over a hayfield in the car singing along to Amy MacDonald's This is the Life. In the end we are the memories we leave behind. Listen Out For: Private Passions, Radio 3, Sunday, June 15, noon Singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega is Michael Berkeley's guest on this Sunday's edition of Private Passions. Given that The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon was also a recent guest I can hear a few Radio 3 refuseniks seeing this as another sign of the station dumbing down. But listening to Vega is always worth your time and her musical choices do include Debussy, Bartok and Philip Glass.
