Our trip to Vietnam and Cambodia was one of the best experiences we have had and a few days ago I picked up a book in the village entitled Saigon by Anthony Grey.
Anthony Grey is still alive in his eighties and was previously a reporter on the Eastern Daily Press newspaper, as was I. There the similarities end. Grey was taken Hostage in Peking whilst working as a foreign correspondent and, after his release, wrote a book with that title.
He has written novels on both Vietnam (Saigon) and China (Peking). I am loving "Saigon" as it paints a vivid picture of Vietnam under both Chinese (fleetingly) and French rule. It also covers the Vietnam War but I haven't got there yet. It's a book about love, hatred, friendship, power, politics and much more with some very rounded characters set against the backdrop of a nation that has so often been subservient to the powers that be.
It might be a novel but the amount of detail and research that has gone into this book is amazing. I have learnt much more from reading this than the history of Vietnam written by Max Hastings which I have struggled over for some time. I'm afraid I find Hastings' writing stodgy and at times difficult.
I noticed the other day as I passed it that a second hand book shop in Norwich has got another history of Vietnam in the window. Unfortunately it was shut when I passed but I must make a visit the next time I'm in the city.
I know that I need to get rid of books but somehow they continue to multiply. I do have a turf out every so often and over the years have taken boxloads to charity shops. But still the house seems to be full of them.
I have tried and am still trying to go digital after all having books now is rather irrational. If I want to read the entire works of Jane Austin (which I most decidedly do not) I can get them all on Kindle either free or for something like 49p. I do have the entire works of Dickens, H.G Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, the Brontes, Thomas Hardy and many more. All in a tiny little package.
Which reminds me. Got a brochure a few days ago from one of the cruise ships telling me that while onboard I could settle down with my favourite book which is re-assuring to know but there's only so many times you can read The Mayor of Casterbridge.
I will have more about our trip to Vietnam and Cambodia in coming blogs.
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There's a national advert that is really getting on my chimes at the moment. It's for Pure Cremation where this grinning jackass extols the virtues of his family having a damn good time when he passes on "after all my family know how to party," he tells us as the camera cuts to his family having a good old time even before he's gone. Funerals used to be occasions for sadness. Now it looks like they are a time to party party party. And blow me down as I write this there's one for the Co-Op where a youngish looking woman is telling us she wants to have a colourful coffin. I'm sure these adverts don't break any rules but I do find them highly distasteful.
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The latest Old Farts lunch yesterday was another rumbustious and at times noise affair. I joked that I could see the headlines now: "Octogenarians thrown out of pub for being too noisy." OK I might have used a bit of journalistic licence with Octogenarians. We drank a toast to Boris Johnson (no idea why) and as they say in Ireland the craic was good.
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I have taken on the editorship of the village Good News magazine and believe I have mentioned this fact before. Jenny and Duncan Pigg, real village stalwarts, have loaned me copies of the first ever editions when it wasn't called Good News. What was then called the Hethersett Parochial Magazine was part of a national magazine entitled Home Words for Heart and Hearth. The Hethersett Parochial magazine was either a two or four side sheet in green. Home Words was a Christian publication out together by the Rev Charles Bullock, Rector of St Nicholas Church, Worcester, who apparently was also editor of "Our Own Fireside and "The Day of Days - a couple of very cosy sounding publications.
The Home Words magazine had a national circulation of about 50,000. It must have been quite a task printing it out and distributing it in 1872. Nowadays of course it's much much easier. We put publications together on computers using Word or Publisher or any number of other programs. They are then turned into pdf format and e-mailed to printers for printing. Can you imagine our Ancestors from the 19th century understanding any of that?