This month’s Dark Origins, African Myths and Legends post on Writing to be Read discusses the origins of the legend of the Flying Dutchman. I’ve also included a reading of the story. Thanks for hosting Kaye Lynne Booth.
In the late Middle Ages, the spice trade from India and the so called Silk Road from China were of economic importance to Europe. After Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 the European overland trade routes were disrupted and they needed to find a sea route to India and China.
Christopher Columbus attempted to find a sea route to India by travelling westwards. He discovered the Americas.
Portuguese explorer, Diogo Cão, explored the African coast south to present-day Namibia, and, in 1488, Portuguese explorer, Bartolomeu Dias, discovered the Cape of Good Hope. In 1498, Vasco da Gama headed an expedition which led to the Portuguese discovery of a sea route to India. This route around the Cape of Good Hope (current day Cape Town) came into use by the European East India Companies.
The Cape of Good Hope was also known as the Cape of Storms because of…
We left Pip in London, living between the homes of his tutor, Matthew Pocket, and Matthew’s son, Herbert Pocket, who is initially his mentor on becoming a gentleman and later becomes Pip’s best friend. Pip’s initiation by Herbert into the manners and behaviours of a gentleman are depicted in the scene below:
Caption from this snippet on YT: Based on “The Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens. I think this scene alone encompasses how most of us nowadays imagine middle-class Victorian London. The conversation goes on, but I wanted to share the smallest and, in my opinion, most representative moment.
Pip becomes extravagant and self-absorbed as a result of his new found wealth, and leads his friend, Herbert, along the same path getting them both into debt.
Miss Havisham summonses Pip to her home and he discovers that Estella has returned from abroad and is moving to London to live with a suitable older woman and her daughter and be launched into society. The underlying understanding is that Estella is now going to carry out Miss Havisham’s revenge plan and break as many male hearts as possible.
Pip is tasked with meeting Estella at the train station and taking her to her new home. The complex love/hate relationship between Pip and Estella continues, with Pip firmly believing Estella is destined to be his wife. Estella starts a flirtation with Drummle, Pip’s nemesis, and it causes tension between the two men, but Pip tolerates it because of his belief that Miss Havisham first wants Estella to break hearts and fulfil her ambition of revenge on men as a larger unknown mass, before Pip and Estelle can be married and find personal happiness.
Pip comes of age (21 years old) and has a meeting with Mr. Jaggers, his guardian and his benefactors lawyer, about his ‘great expectations’. He leaves Mr. Jagger’s office with a sum of GBP 500 on which he most live until his benefactor is revealed to him. Pip is ashamed that he’s led Herbert into an idle life of extravagance and decides to invest a chunk of this money into helping Herbert find a ‘business opportunity’. He does this with the help of Mr. Jagger’s assistance, Mr. Wemmick, but without Herbert’s knowledge.
Herbert grasps the opportunity and works hard to improve himself while Pip continues with his life of idleness and luxury.
One windy, cold night when Herbert is away for work purposes, Magwitch arrives at Pip’s lodging and Pip finally comes to realise that Magwitch is his benefactor and not Miss Havisham.
This clip from the original movie is not exactly how I imagined the initial meeting between Pip and Magwitch taking place based on my reading of the book. I think Pip handled it better in the book than the depiction in this scene, but here it is anyway:
Pip is devastated because he believes this will make him unacceptable as a marriage partner for Estella, but he soon learns she has decided to marry Drummle.
Magwitch, as a convict deported for life, has risked his life returning to England. The sentence if Magwitch is caught is death by hanging. Pip and Herbert work together to make a plan to save Magwitch and get him out of England. They are of the opinion that Magwitch’s arch enemy, Compeyson, is aware he is back in England and is assisting the police in an attempt to have him arrested.
The great plan is eventually put into operation, but it goes wrong and Magwitch is instrumental in the drowning of Compeyson and is arrested and put in jail. He was injured during the altercation with Compeyson and is dying. Magwitch undergoes a new trial and is given the death sentence.
In the meantime, Pip has worked out that Mr. Jagger’s servant is Estelle’s mother and Magwitch is her father. Just before Magwitch dies, Pip tells him that his daughter is alive and a beautiful lady and that he – Pip – loves her. This is a pivotal moment in the book as by showing kindness to Magwitch, a criminal, and calling his daughter a lady despite being the daughter of a convict, he illustrates that he no longer thinks of social position in a black and white way.
All of Magwitch’s property is forfeited to the state so Pip is left penniless. He becomes very ill after Magwitch dies and only escapes arrest for debts because of his ill health. Joe comes to London to nurse Pip and he recovers. The whole experience teaches Pip the value of his relationships with Joe and Biddy and Pip’s internal conflict is resolved by his giving up his social aspirations to reunite with the people who have helped and cared for him.
Pip goes abroad to work with Herbert and learns to live on his income.
Next week, I’ll discuss the ending of this book as it is a little controversial. Dickens rewrote the ending and both are known. Many critics believe the original ending was the better one.
A few interesting quotes from the second half of Great Expectations:
“Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since – on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to displace with your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!”
“So, I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.”
“Do you want to be a gentleman, to spite her or to gain her over? Because, if it is to spite her, I should think – but you know best – that might be better and more independently done by caring nothing for her words. And if it is to gain her over, I should think – but you know best – she was not worth gaining over.”
“My name is on the first leaf. If you can ever write under my name, “I forgive her,” though ever so long after my broken heart is dust pray do it!”
“O Miss Havisham,” said I, “I can do it now. There have been sore mistakes; and my life has been a blind and thankless one; and I want forgiveness and direction far too much, to be bitter with you.”
Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). If you’d like to join Thursday Doors, you can do so here: https://nofacilities.com/2022/07/21/more-from-old-wethersfield/
Last week, for Thursday Doors, I wrote about the impact of doors on my life and how I see my mind as a passage way full of closed doors behind which I store all my thoughts and ideas about life, work, religion, people, and, of course, my writing. There are doors into my children’s writing ideas, doors into my poetry writing and doors into my adult writing. Doors also play a significant role in my books.
The cover of my first poetry book, Open a New Door, also features a door. I took this picture through the doorway at the game lodge where Terence and I got engaged in 2000. We took the boys there for the weekend and enjoyed revisiting it very much.
The inspiration for this title and cover came from my favourite Broadway show, Mame, featuring Angela Lansbury and Beau Arthur. When I was a very little girl and before my youngest sisters (numbers 3 and 4) were born, I used to play my mother’s collection of LP’s on her old record player. Often I used to dance and sing with sister number 2. We would dress up in mum’s theatre dresses, hats and scarves and make up shows to the music. We even performed them occasionally for the farm employees and I performed at school a few times when my dad could be persuaded to bring the record player to school and I would dance and sing for the class. I loved to sing and always had a place right at the front in the school choir.
My purple Quality Street song from Mame was called Open a new door. You can listen to it here:
This is one of the first poems I ever wrote. It’s not my best poem, and I wrote it when I thought all poetry was rhyming verse, but I still love it. It reminds me that there is more to life than my daily hamster ball.
Who’s really free
The sky is dark, coloured an unrelenting grey
Outside it’s damp and dreary, a dismal day
I gaze out of the window, splattered with rain
I stretch – an attempt to ease my physical pain
The lines of traffic extend for miles each way
A depressing sight that fills me with dismay
The landscape is blurred, shrouded by a soft mist
An addition that gives the scene a threatening twist
Tall buildings adorn the horizon, shabby and bleak
Tiny ants dart inside, refuge from the rain they seek
***
A ray of sunshine, creeps through a gap in the cloud
It gleams bright and bold, of its success quite proud
An arrow formation of birds crosses my line of vision
The rain and the cold have forced a flight decision
Such a contrast from my world, confined and cramped;
The birds, completely free, from this land have decamped
They roam, unfettered, across an unrestricted, spacious world
As I watch, my toes in my smart shoes, are tightly curled
I turn away abruptly, back towards the bright, artificial light
I quell any questioning thoughts invoked by this compelling sight.
By Robbie Cheadle
My book, A Ghost and His Gold, also features numerous doors; some opening, some closing, but all signifying change. Here is a short teaser:
“The muffled rapping penetrates Pieter’s thin early morning sleep. He stirs and rolls over. The insistent rapping continues, forcing his reluctant consciousness upwards, towards full awareness. Sitting up quickly, he awakes fully, sudden fear acting like a bucket of cold water. The blankets drop away from his body and the frigid iciness of the early June morning chases away any remaining vestiges of sleep.
Over the past months, fear has eaten into his mind’s core like a malevolent caterpillar. Fear of the future. Fear of the soldiers. Fear of losing his farm. It’s been there, rotting his brain matter, ever since the declaration of war in October the previous year. The injury he sustained early this year exacerbated its effect until his mind is a worm-infested apple, brown and soft inside. He takes some deep breaths, determined to prevent the poison from spreading and affecting his reactions. Poor reactions could result in his death and that of his family.
He stares into the total blackness, trying desperately to see, while his body reacts to the biting cold, with gooseflesh breaking out on his torso and arms.
Who can be knocking on my door at this time of morning? It can only be bad news.
Next to him, his wife, Marta, starts to stir as she too responds to the intrusion.
“Pieter, are you awake?” The piercing voice competes with the wind that rattles the slats of the wooden blinds, and whistles under the ill-fitting front door.
Something’s wrong.
This is a picture of the front door of the farm house that inspired A Ghost and His Gold. It is purported to be haunted by the ghost of a man who became my Pieter van Zyl.
When I was a little girl of 8 years old, my sister, Hayley, was born. Hayley was a dreadful baby, she cried all the time and she would not sleep, ever.
My dad was sleeping in the spare room so I moved in with mom to help her with the baby. I did get Hayley to go to sleep a few time by walking her around for a few hours while she wailed non-stop.
One evening, Mom and I watched Great Expectations. I’m not sure if I would have been allowed to watch it if Mom hadn’t been very tired, but watch it I did, and I never forgot the opening scene when Pip meets Magwitch in the graveyard. I also remembered Miss Havisham in her wedding dress living in her spooky dark house with the banquet table covered in rotting food among which rats played and spiders nested.
During my first year of high school (12 turning 13), I read the original of Great Expectations with a dictionary by my side. I looked up words I didn’t know and some of them, like countenance, I’ve never forgotten. A few of these words even creep into my own writing from time to time. If you have read A Ghost and His Gold, you would have experience my usage of countenances in this scene:
“After a further period of timeless silence, another presence makes itself known. A shadowy red form. It exudes anger like flashes of lightening, making the fine hairs on Michelle’s arms stand to attention. The shadow elongates like a piece of chewing gum and tears down the middle. The rent widens and stretches to form a mouth.
“I hate you,” the voice that issues from the rent booms.
The voice frightens her, and she turns and starts pushing her way through the countless milling people, their faceless countenances disfigured by gaping holes from which a collective and continuous doomed moan issues.”
This is the opening scene from the original movie of Great Expectations that I never forgot:
I have re-read Great Expectations a few times over the years, it is my favourite Dickens by far, and I listened to the audio book recently.
I thought I would write a few posts about it and this is the first in which I will share an overview of the book. If you haven’t read it and know nothing about the story, but wish to read it in the future, don’t read this overview as it will contain spoilers for the story.
An overview of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Pip is an orphan boy who lives with his older sister an her husband on the marshes in Kent. His sister is an overbearing woman who abuses Pip physically and mentally and also mentally abuses her kind and gentle husband, Joe. Joe tries to protect Pip from the worst of his sister’s unkindness, but he is not willing to be overly confrontational with his wife so his protection is limited. Joe reminded me a lot of gentle Matthew Cuthbert from Anne of Green Gables although Pip’s sister, referred to as Mrs Joe in the book, makes Marilla Cuthbert seem kindly and pleasant by comparison.
Pip has a habit of visiting his parents graves in a lonely graveyard on the marshes. While he is visiting their graves on Christmas Eve of his 7th year, Pip is discovered by an escaped convict. This convict, who we later find out is called Abel Magwitch, uses vile threats to compel Pip to bring him a file and food early on Christmas morning. Pip’s conscious smites him all night, but his fear forces him to steal food, in particular a beautiful pork pie, and alcohol from his sister’s pantry and take it to the graveyard. On the way, Pip comes across another escaped convict, who we later discover is called Compeyson. Pip tells Magwitch about Compeyson, thinking they are friends, but it is quickly obvious they are not.
Later on Christmas Day, Pip witnesses both convicts being recaptured while fighting each other in a ditch.
Pip’s pompous Uncle Pumblechook, a man of some financial means and obsessed with social standing, arranges for Pip to go to the home of an aging wealthy woman who is very odd and reclusive but who has an adopted daughter, Estella. Pip is to play with Estella and amuse the older woman, Miss Havisham.
When Pip arrives he discovers that Miss Havisham was jilted at the altar by her fraudulent fiance who conspired with her jealous half-brother, Arthur, to swindle her out of a sum of money. Miss Havisham never recovered mentally and still wears her wedding dress and the wedding feast is still laid out in the great hall. All the clocks in her decrepit and decaying house were stopped at twenty to nine in the morning which was the time Miss Havisham discovered her fiance’s treachery. She is eccentric and embittered and seeks revenge on all men for her fiance’s and brother’s betrayals. She raises her daughter, Estella, to be cold and plotting an an instrument for her future revenge on all men.
Pip is greatly influenced by the wealth he sees in Miss Havisham’s house, Estella’s beauty and haughty manner and dismissal of him as a labourer who is far beneath her in social standing. He wishes to uplift himself in her eyes and sets about trying to improve his own education and standing in life. Pip becomes disgruntled with his own proposed future of becoming an apprentice to Joe and learning his trade as a blacksmith. An arrangement Pip had previously looked forward to but after working for Miss Havisham for several months, seems to keep him in his place as a lowly labourer.
Pip sister is meanwhile attacked and sustains a serious injury which leaves her brain damaged. His teacher, Biddy, moves in with him and Joe to help look after Mrs Joe.
Miss Havisham lets him go from her employment some months later, after ensuring he is indentured to Joe as an apprentice.
Not long after Pip starts working for Joe, he is visited by a prominent London lawyer, Mr Jaggers, who tells him he has a secret benefactor who wishes him to be brought up to be a gentleman. Arrangements are made for Pip to leave Joe’s employ and his sister’s home and go to London to live as a gentleman and obtain an education. Pip wants to go and turns his back on his old life in order to try to win Estella’s affections. Pip is convinced Miss Havisham is his secret benefactor and intends for him and Estella to ultimately marry. Pip does not make any attempt to gain employment or use his better education to earn his own living, preferring to live a life of idleness and runs of debt. Pip expects to settle this debt when he comes into his ‘expectations’.
This is the scene when Pip meets Miss Havisham and Estella from the original Great Expectations:
Next week, I’ll share an overview of the second half of the book.
Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).
Teagan’s post got me thinking about doors and their meaning in my own writing life. They do seem to play a significant role because I see doors as entry points into new and exciting things in life.
Opportunity (tanka poem)
Make your own success
Leave no pathway untrodden
Opportunity
Will knock only once in life
Be sure to answer the door
from Behind Closed Doors by Robbie Cheadle
I also believe I have a tidy mind. Each ‘collection’ of thoughts and ideas in my life has its own ‘room’ in my mind and they don’t pass through the doors and get muddled. People often ask me how I manage so many projects at once and all the different aspects of my busy life, and this is how. Everything has a separate storage space in my head.
When I was writing my poetry book, Behind Closed Doors, I saw a cover, designed by Teagan, which exactly captured my ideas about how my mind would look if it could be caught in a picture.
This was the cover:
Each of those doors represents a different storage area in my mind: Family, relationships, work and corporate life, prose writing, reading, artwork, conservation, and poetry. Within those layers there are sub-layers and each has its own entry point into my life.
My writing incorporates a lot of doors, either through though processes or though actual depictions of doors and physical choices. Every door is different and every outcome is coloured by that difference in choice. Even artworks are different and have different purposes and meanings.
This cake below was a Covid-19 memory cake and depicted life during lockdown.
These are a few of the poems (limericks) I wrote to go with this cake:
Inevitable side-effects of Zoom and working from home (limericks)
He sat on his cellular phone in the room
Having just finished a meeting on Zoom
What a frightening sight
His expression, dark as night
The seed of a monster starting to bloom
***
Endless back-to-back meetings on Zoom
Fill employees with a sense of gloom
The leader strikes like a snake
When colleagues make a mistake
When will it end and normality resume?
from Behind Closed Doors by Robbie Cheadle
The above artwork and thoughts are completely separate from my children’s artwork. This cake is called Dinah in Wonderland. Dinah is the little back cat who is sleeping at the front of the dark chocolate cake. She is dreaming about a wonderland for cats. A place where nothing would be as it is and everything would be as it isn’t.
This cake and the limerick story I wrote to go with it was inspired by this song from Alice in Wonderland:
I’ll end this post with an extract form Alice in Wonderland, a book I adored as a child and of which I have eight different copies as an adult. Of course, this quote is about a door:
“Alice finding tiny door behind curtain
Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head though the doorway; `and even if my head would go through,’ thought poor Alice, `it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only know how to begin.’ For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.
There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time she found a little bottle on it, (`which certainly was not here before,’ said Alice,) and round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words `DRINK ME’ beautifully printed on it in large letters.”
I have returned to working on my WIP after setting it aside for three months following contracting Covid in early March. I finally found the enthusiasm to return to this novel and have added over 6,000 words in the last 2 weeks. This is a short extract which also serves as a warning about the tragic consequences of illegal abortions, a topic which has taken central stage on social media recently. It still needs some work and editing, but I am fairly happy with the structure and content of this piece.
Just for a little context, Grace Fryer is the Radium Girl who led the other girls in the prosecution of their previous employer, the United States Radium Corporation. This was one of the cases in the USA which was significant in the development of occupational safety and health standards. I am of the view she was an young women with an interest in politics and the social issues of the time.
Letter from Kate Henderson to Martha Tanner
17 May 1918
Dear Martha
The most dreadful thing has happened. One of my co-workers at the studio has died of sepsis and I am so terribly distressed.
Mary’s death was so unnecessary and came about because she found herself in the family way and tried to solve her problem by visiting an illicit doctor.
The doctor perforated her bowel during the procedure, and she developed sepsis. I’d never heard of sepsis before, it is poisoning of the blood, and you die horribly, in the most awful pain.
Charlotte and I went to visit her at the hospital the evening after she sickened. The nurse wouldn’t let us see her because she was delirious with fever and pain.
We went again the following evening, just before she died. The nurse allowed us to go in for a few minutes. She knew Mary was dying, although she never said a word, and I think she wanted to let us say goodbye.
I’ve never seen anyone look so awful. The bones of her face pushed through her waxy skin making her look like a skeleton. Her eyes, she had beautiful eyes, had sunk deeply into their sockets. It made me feel so scared and helpless.
My friend, Grace, was angry about Mary’s death. “Mary’s is an unnecessary and pointless death brought about by the lack of rights for women in this country.”
Grace has been in a state of feverish anticipation ever since the Constitutional Amendment granting women the right to vote was passed by the House on the 10th of January. The vote of the Senate on the matter is to take place later this year. Grace frequently reminds us of the importance of this vote to women.
“Jeannette Rankin did such a splendid job of presenting the case for women’s suffrage to the House. She is right when she says that American women should have a chance to serve their country. Look at us, we are serving America by painting dials for the war effort.”
I must tell you, dear Martha, that it is all confusing and anxiety producing for me. I know from Grace that the New York State Court of Appeals expanded the reasons physicians can use to prescribe contraceptives to married people in January. The use of contraceptives by unmarried couples is illegal and I find it difficult to argue this differently.
Father Baker would be horrified if he knew about the conversations on contraception I witness at the studio. I can’t bear the thought that I’m disappointing him, and I try not to listen. It’s difficult though when we’re all at the same table. Of course, these discussions only occur when Miss Rooney is on the other side of the room and take place in hushed tones. This subterfuge makes me even more uncomfortable.
I wonder what Jake would say about it all. I wish he was here so that I could discuss it with him. I have written to him about some of the discussions at the studio. My friend, Grace, has strong views on women’s suffrage and women in politics and I asked him his views on these issues. He wrote me the kindest and most supportive letter and said he was not against women having the vote. It did help put my mind at ease about being a silent participant in these discussions. Well, I’m not really a participant, I’m more of an observer, but I can’t help hearing what is said.
He did point out that these ideas would not be well received in Millinocket, and I shouldn’t say anything about them to either my parents or yours. Of course, I know quite well that these ideas would not be welcome at home, but I am grateful for his advice and thoughtfulness.
Jake’s last two letters have been short, and he didn’t mention the fighting at all. I know the 26th Division is in the Toul Sector and I read the newspaper articles about the Battle at Seicheprey a few weeks ago with concern. I know the battle was a success for us, but the list of the dead, wounded, and captured was long, so it must have been a tough win.
All Jake said in his letter was that the front lines, including those of the 103rd Regiment, were heavily attacked by the Germans. He said that at first the Bosch secured some of the advanced trenches but that the U.S. counterattacks had succeeded in driving them back and re-establishing the line. Maybe he can’t say much because of the censoring. All his letters have words and sentences that have been blacked out so that is probably the reason. It is a bit frustrating though. I don’t really know what he’s experiencing and can’t offer him any support.
He does complain about the rain and the mud. It sounds dreadful. He said it had rained steadily for five days and nights the previous week and the trenches were full of water.
“We are covered with mud from the tops of our helmets to the bottom of our boots,” he wrote. “It runs off our overcoats and slickers like water.” It makes me shudder to think of him living under those conditions.
On the brighter side, the men keep themselves occupied by playing cards and having competitions about who can shoot the most rats. Jake says he is good at both and wrote about his wins most enthusiastically.
How is everyone at home? How is Mr Tanner? Has his cough improved with the warmer weather? I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon, dear Martha.
I do get a little lonely here in the city, so far away from you all. All the city girls are so worldly and enjoy getting out and about. I am often overwhelmed, and I feel like a country mouse.
Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).
During my trip to Scotland in September 2019, I visited Eilean Donan Castle. It is a lovely castle with a fascinating history. In particular, it was destroyed in 1719.
This is the information I found about the castle’s destruction:
“In 1719 the castle was garrisoned by 46 Spanish soldiers who were supporting the Jacobites. They had established a magazine of gunpowder, and were awaiting the delivery of weapons and cannon from Spain. The English Government caught wind of the intended uprising and sent three heavily armed frigates The Flamborough, The Worcester, and The Enterprise to quell matters. The bombardment of the castle lasted three days, though met with limited success due to the enormity of the castle walls, which in some places are up to 14 feet thick. Finally, Captain Herdman of The Enterprise sent his men ashore and over-whelmed the Spanish defenders. Following the surrender, the government troops discovered the magazine of 343 barrels of gunpowder which was then used to blow up what had remained from the bombardment…
For the best part of 200 years, the stark ruins of Eilean Donan lay neglected, abandoned and open to the elements, until Lt Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap bought the island in 1911. Along with his Clerk of Works, Farquar Macrae, he dedicated the next 20 years of his life to the reconstruction of Eilean Donan, restoring her to her former glory. The castle was rebuilt according to the surviving ground plan of earlier phases and was formally completed in the July of 1932.”
Here is a picture of the bridge we crossed to get to the castle:
Here are some pictures of the castle and its doors:
The bombardment re-enactment:
Knuckleheads by Daniel Antion
What Amazon says
Zach and Billy didn’t ask for the paranormal powers that were beyond their capacity to understand, or control. Zach, interacting with his lucid dreams, and Billy, “gifted “with shadowy glimpses of the future struggle to make sense of the world around them. Adults in authority in the nineteen sixties have no time for what they consider mental outliers of the baby-boom.
The boys are institutionalized, marginalized, and ignored. Zach’s father learns of the challenges they face as children and knows the dangers they will face as adults. With no way to comprehend how these boys perceive and move within their world, he must find a way to guide them.
If you like speculative fiction with a touch of technology, humanity and a bit of sarcasm shared among men, you will enjoy this book.
My review
This book is an interesting coming of age story about two boys growing up in Pittsburg. Zach and Billy appear to live ordinary lives going to school, doing chores at home, and holding down part-time jobs, but they both have extraordinary abilities. Zach has vivid dreams about places he has visited and is able, over time and through practice, to participate in his dreams in a very real way. Billy is able to see the future, not in a clear and exact way, but he has strong feelings about what is going to happen to people. Zach is able to hide his ability to a large extent, although he does have a bad interlude at school due to a slip up on his part, but Billy is weighed down by his gift and his odd behaviour earns him the label ‘retard’ during a time when little slack was cut to students who did not fit the ‘average’ mould in the school environment.
Knuckleheads delves deeply into everyday life in an American city and gives insight into relationships and interactions in the church, at school and, as Zach’s father owns a bowling alley and part of the story is set there, it also provides an overview of this popular form of entertainment at that point in time. Even the pitfalls of owning a building and the trials and tribulations of difficult customers and the legal system are explored and I found it fascinating.
The style of writing of this book is also unusual in that the entire story comprises a series of conversations between the older, retired Zach and his daughter, Abbie. Abbie is engaged in the conversation about her father’s childhood and unusual gift and asks lots of questions, the answers to which move the story along nicely and provide additional details. There are a few interesting aspects to the relationships in this story. One is that Abbie’s deceased mother, Ronnie, Zach’s former wife, plays a small role in this novel. Zach has a strong relationship with his daughter and Abbie doesn’t seem to feel emotionally deprived by not having a mother figure in her life. My distinct impression was that Zach had filled the hole left by the death of his wife very well. The second, is that Zach’s father plays the role of confidant and nurturer to his son as he learns to control his ability. In fact, Zach’s father fills this role for Billy too after his mother dies and his grandparents become to old to cope with his perceived strangeness. I thought this was a rather unique take on relationships between fathers and their children.
This is a character driven book and it was entertaining and fulfilling to watch the two boys, Zach and Billy, adapt to their unusual situations and learn to make the most of life’s opportunities. Both of them end up pursuing careers that are well suited to their needs and emotional and intellectual make-ups.
This is an enjoyable coming of age story with an interesting paranormal twist.
Yvette from Priorhouse blog was kind enough to invite me over for a guest interview. Yvette created the most beautiful post and she also asked some excellent questions. Thank you, Yvette.
If you don’t know Yvette, she blogs about art, museums, books, and also posts intriguing interviews with authors and bloggers. She also participates in a number of photograph challenges with her excellent photographs.
Today’s Interview features Roberta (Robbie) Eaton Cheadle, who is a South African author. She has worked in finance since 2001 and she also writes fiction and poetry. In addition to having short stories and poems in numerous anthologies, Robbie has published ten children’s books and two novels: Through the Nethergate, a historical supernatural fantasy
A Ghost and His Gold, a historical paranormal novel set in South Africa.
Now most readers of the Priorhouse blog know that I don’t read horror stories and I stay away from paranormal material – (just my preference for personal and spiritual reasons)- but Robbie and I still connect through a variety of topics! And I am glad to have been blog friends with her for many years now!
Robbie blogs about books, shares her poetry, features authors, and provides book reviews. She recently provided an excellent review, here, about The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. She also posts about food! I enjoy her recipe posts because they are hearty and often include real meat! She often includes a little backstory to why she made the dish or how she modified the recipe.
That leads to our first question in this interview – it relates to food and what you would bring to a potluck.
Priorhouse: I am reading a literary trivia book from Mental Floss (2021), which had a section on what famous authors liked to eat and what they “might” bring to a literary potluck.
Sylvia Plath: Tomato Soup Cake
John Steinbeck: Posole (can of chili and can of hominy)
Stories I Stole from Lord Byron’sBastard is a collection inspired by Venetian history. The fictional character, Alexis Lynn, wrote these stories in the novel Will Write for Wine by Sara W. McBride, but they are fun stand-alone adventures to be enjoyed with an excellent glass of Italian wine.
In addidtion, to the awesome guests posts, interview, and reviews at each tour stop, Sara is offerin a chance to win a digital copy of each book, Will Write For Wine & Stories I Stole From Lord Byron’s Bastard. Leave a comment and click on the link below to enter for a chance to win:
The story, “The Secret Vault,” was inspired by Venice’s Jewish Ghetto. But how did I get from the elevated ramparts of Soave castle to Venice’s Jewish Ghetto? The history behind this short story spans decades, but the story takes place in less than 72 hours. This was definitely the most challenging story to write in the collection and it also had the double duty of leading to an argument between the two main characters in the novel Will Write for Wine, where Alexis Lynn is the “author” of these stories.
On my first visit to Venice in 2005, I was shocked by the fact that the leading cosmopolitan trading city of the Renaissance, with its extreme religious tolerance—by 16th century standards—established the first Jewish ghetto. Actually, the first was in Frankfurt, Germany, but the second was in Venice, and the Venetian ghetto became the template for all other ghetto’s around the world. The word “ghetto” was founded by Venice, as ghèto was the word for the copper foundry that originally stood on the small seven acre island in the Cannaregio district, which in 1516, became the Gheto Novo, or New Ghetto.
In the 15th and 16th century, Venice was a safe haven for Jewish refugees escaping many parts of Europe, including other regions of Italy. Jews were allowed to operate businesses in Venice, but were not allowed to reside in Venice. Why?
In this story, I speculated that the patricians, the noble families of Venice, often led by Francesco Cornaro’s father, Giorgio Cornaro (1452-1527, aka: Corner), might have had personal financial reasons for suppressing Jewish freedom. The wealth of the Cornaro/Corner family was created by their money-lending practices, amongst other pursuits. I speculated that if Giorgio Cornaro’s son, Francesco, returned with a story of military loss and murder, orchestrated by a Jew, then it might persuade the other members in the Council of Ten to continue their suppression of Jews and oppose residency.
However, in 1516, the Jewish community in Venice negotiated for residency within the city of Venice, and the Senate designated the old copper foundry, the ghèto, as a Jewish residence, and the bridge gates surrounding the island were locked each night. It was an interesting way to simultaneously include and exclude the Jews from Venetian society. After only twelve short years, the Jews felt secure enough in their new residence to build synagogues, so even if they had to wear a yellow insignia or hat to distinguish themselves from Christians, Jews embraced their city residence. Their community grew, and they created more living spaces by building upwards on their small prison island.
I speculated that the old Venetian Patrician families were not anti-Semitic, but felt financially threatened by some of the Jewish merchants and moneylenders. Many of the Patrician families owned and operated banks. Several other powerful families had amassed enormous debts, and some were indebted to Jews. Suppressing the Jews meant maintaining power within the wealthy Patrician class.
So how does Soave Castle fit into this and does it really have secret tunnels?
The fabulous Castle of Soave really did have a tunnel connecting its main keep to a wine vault. Whether an additional tunnel led from the vault, under the city wall, and eventually opened in a monastery a half mile away, is speculative based on other European castles where such escape tunnels existed.
The general outline of the events in this story is true. Maximillian I, who the Warrior Pope, Julius II (Papal reign 1503-13–the Pope who tortured Michelangelo under a famous ceiling), declared as the Holy Roman Emperor without a proper church coronation, led the League of Cambria, essentially armies gathered from Europe, against Northern Italy. Soave Castle was a stronghold protecting the Veneto region and Venice from invasion. The castle is a gorgeous sight to behold, especially at sunrise or sunset. You should check it out and partake in some excellent wine tasting within the walled city of Soave.
It was the year 1509 when the army of the Lega di Cambrai, led by imperor Massimiliano I° d’Asburgo, defeated the fortress resistance.
Short after, the castle was regained by Venetians guided by Paolo Gradenigo, but just until the spring of 1510, when the imperial troops reconquered it.
In September of the same year, Soave’s people, led by Antonio Marogna, revolted and after, as chronicle states, ‘having chopped to pieces’ the imperial guards they handed over the fortress to the Venetians by opening its doors.
Massimiliano I, d’Asburgo (aka: Maximillian I of the house of Habsburg) passed the “Imperial Confiscation Mandate,” which ordered the destruction of all Jewish literature apart from the Bible. So, did a Jew really work for him? Yes!
The character of Abraham is a real figure from history. Abraham ben Moses Jaffe of Bohemia (1450-1535) was a prominent 16th century Bohemian Jewish banker and money lender and lent money to European and German royalty and nobility—like the House of Habsburg—in exchange for social privileges. He is known to have leant money to Maximilian I during the League of Cambria wars. It is also true that Abraham’s mother, Margolioth bat Samuel HaLevi, was considered an extremely educated woman, and so respected in the Jewish community that some of her descendants, like Abraham’s brother, adopted the second surname Margolioth.
Instead of following his mother’s example of studied wisdom, in 1512 he persuaded the King of Poland to pronounce him Prefect over the Jewish community and to become the tax collector for the Jewish poll tax in Poland. This enriched both the King and Abraham. The Jewish community of Kraków was so disgusted by Abraham’s mistreatment of his own people, they banned him from their society.
For the story, I speculated that Abraham was a man who solely protected his own self-interest and not that of the Jewish community, as his historical actions demonstrated shortly after the battle at Soave in 1510.
While visiting Venice or Northern Italy, I highly recommend a day trip to Soave. The landscape is breathtaking and the wine is delicious. And perhaps you’ll meet a ghost from one of the many bloody battles fought within Castello di Soave.
Stories I Stole From Lord Byron’s Bastard
“If you’re wondering about the story that made Manu so angry he banished me from Venice, it’s in here.” –Alexis Lynn
Get ready for a fun evening of stories inspired by Venetian history. Thrill to the adventures of money-laundering plague nuns, a pregnant Renaissance man, a demonic Doge at the Devil’s Bridge, and other tales of ghosts, art, and love.
Following in the footsteps of Lord Byron’s obsession with Venetian history, Alexis Lynn wrote these stories in the novel, Will Write for Wine. We proudly share these standalone stories with you over the objection of her paramour Manu, a modern-day Casanova and illegitimate descendent of Lord Byron himself.
So, pour yourself a glass of your favorite vino, let your dog or cat curl up at your feet (or let your cat do whatever it wants), and settle into these mostly … partly … somewhat true tales.
Alexis Lynn is tired of living for others. She chucks her twenty year scientific career, and possibly her marriage, to write full time in Venice, Italy. But when Alexis gets involved with a flirtatious Venetian, a man who champions her writing, events spiral out of control. The old Alexis knows she should salvage her marriage, but the new Alexis is quickly falling for the charms of this modern day Casanova. And she doesn’t know which Alexis will prevail. This is going to require a whole lot of wine.
Sara W. McBride, like many modern-day biological researchers, invents new swear words to sling at million-dollar machines while locked in a dark hole of a decaying academic hall. This has caused her to witness ghosts and create a romantic fantasy life within her head, which she now puts down on very non-technological paper with her favorite Jane Austen style quill pen.
Her first novel in the Alexis Lynn series, Will Write for Wine, and the companion short story collection, Stories I Stole from Lord Byron’s Bastard, both set in Venice, Italy, were recently released by Puck Publishing. She’s hard at work on the second Alexis Lynn novel, a Regency mystery series, and a haunted play. She strongly feels the world needs more haunted plays.
Blog Tour Schedule
Monday, June 27 – Opening Day Post – Writing to be Read – Guest Post: Inspiration for the Devil’s Bridge” & Review of Stories I Stole From Lord Byron’s Bastard
Tuesday, June 28 – Showers of Blessings – Guest Post: Inspiration for “Stealing Georgione’s Mistress”
Wednesday June 29 – Carla Loves to Read – Guest Post: Inspiration for “The Masked Kiss”
Thursday, June 30 – Writing to be Read – Guest Post: Inspiration for “A Dowry for Safron” & Interview with Sara W. McBride
Friday, July 1 – Zigler’s News – Guest Post: Inspiration for “The Pregnant Man” & Review of Stories I Stole From Lord Byron’s Bastard
Saturday, July 2 – Annette Rochelle Aben– – Guest Post: Inspiration for “The Haunted Palazzo”
Sunday, July 3 – Roberta Writes – Guest Post: Inspiration for “The Secret Vault”
Monday, July 4 – Wrap-Up Post – Writing to be Read – Guest Post: Inspiration for Will Write for Wine & Review of Will Write for Wine
THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING WORLDWIDE PHENOMENON READERS’ MOST LOVED BOOK OF 2021 WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR FICTION
‘BEAUTIFUL’ Jodi Picoult, ‘UPLIFTING’ i, ‘BRILLIANT’ Daily Mail, ‘AMAZING’ Joanna Cannon, ‘ABSORBING’ New York Times, ‘THOUGHT-PROVOKING’ Independent
Nora’s life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which raises the ultimate question: with infinite choices, what is the best way to live?
My review
Nora Seed is a sad and depressed thirty-something woman who has a multitude of regrets about the choices she made in her life. She feels alienated from her brother and best friend as a result of past decisions that impacted on them as well as herself. She believes that they bear a grudge against her and she is weighted down by a huge burden of guilt. In addition, she feels guilty about breaking off her engagement a short time before the wedding and secretly questions whether she did the right thing.
On the day the story starts, a series of negative events in her personal life push Nora over the edge and she decides to take an overdose of pills and end it all.
Nora wakes up in the “Midnight Library”, a place for souls suspended between life and death. In the Midnight Library, Nora becomes reacquainted with Mrs Elm, the librarian from her days at the local primary school, and a person who gave her a lot of emotional support when she most needed it. Mrs Elm also gave Nora some advice on her future career and life decisions at the time. Mrs Elm’s role in the library is to offer the same sort of counselling and support to Nora as she explores her options prior to the ultimate death or survival of her body. She also points out that if Nora dies, her time in the Midnight Library will end and her ability to make a choice to live will also end.
Mrs Elm explains to Nora that the Midnight Library contains a book of regrets which sets out all of the decisions, big and small, that Nora has made and come to regret at the time of her death. She also points out shelf after shelf of books which all contain different variations of Nora’s ‘core’ life which pivot on a change in her life decisions. There are thousands and thousands of different lives that Nora could have lived, some greatly different from her core life and some not as different, depending on the nature of the life choice made the precipitated the change in direction.
Nora is tasked with trying out different lives until she finds the one she thinks is the ‘perfect’ life for her. When she finds it, she will be able to stay in that life and will eventually assimilate into it.
I enjoyed the Nora’s journey in this book and watching her gradually come to terms with the outcome of her past decisions and how her life could have been different. It was fascinating to watch her realise that there is no real ‘perfect’ life and that every life choice comes with a set of pros and cons which you have to live with. It was also interesting to witness her reaction to the realisation that her life choices impacted on other people around her, not only the major players in her life, but also the smaller players, for example, her elderly neighbour, and a teenage boy she was teaching to play the piano.
I thought it was very clever how the author used the different ‘life’ backgrounds to illustrate these fundamental thoughts about life and it was fun to contemplate all the different variations a single life could take based on decisions and their knock on effects. I really appreciated this book and it has given me food for thought for my own life.
This book has an uplifting ending and is an insightful voyage through the thought processes and emotions of the main character as she comes to terms with her real thoughts about her life.
I have never suffered from depression so I can’t comment on the accuracy with which depression is depicted in this book. The descriptions of the hopelessness instilled by depression and the feeling of not being able to escape your own thoughts and emotions seem well done to me, but I do think that depression isn’t something that could easily be resolved through a realisation of the greater meaning of life. I am of the view that chronic depression is an illness and is very difficult to address. As a result, that part of this book did seem a little white-washed to me and it is the reason I gave the book 4 stars and not 5.
Otherwise, this is a great and through provoking story and I enjoyed it very much.
A few quotes I enjoyed from this book:
“It is not the lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It’s the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people’s worst enemy. We can’t tell if any of those other versions would have been better or worse. Those lives are happening, it is true, but you are happening as well, and that is the happening we have to focus on.”
“If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail. Aim to be you. Aim to look and act and think like you. Aim to be the truest version of you. Embrace that you-ness. Endorse it. Love it. Work hard at it. And don’t give a second thought when people mock it or ridicule it. Most gossip is envy in disguise.”
“Of course, we can’t visit every place or meet every person or do every job, yet most of what we’d feel in any life is still available. We don’t have to play every game to know what winning feels like. We don’t have to hear every piece of music in the world to understand music. We don’t have to have tried every variety of grape from every vineyard to know the pleasure of wine. Love and laughter and fear and pain are universal currencies. We just have to close our eyes and savour the taste of the drink in front of us and listen to the song as it plays. We are as completely and utterly alive as we are in any other life and have access to the same emotional spectrum.”
roberta-writes.com 