books, food+drink, memes, photography

Listography – Things I did this Summer

I’ve been somewhat lacking in the last few weeks in keeping up with Kate’s Listography. The spirit has been willing but there just haven’t been enough hours in the day. Why? Well see my previous post, and consider that I’ve been working a minimum of 6 hours a day, 7 days a week, for at least 6 weeks on Society/conference business.

But better late than never here’s my response to Kate’s Listography from last week. These are some of the things I did this summer …

Organised and ran an international literary conference. I think I hardly need say more.

Completed and released my photo book – a month earlier than planned. I don’t expect it to make me tons of money. I did it because I wanted to; it was fun; it was for me.

Wrote an academic paper and submitted it for publication. Not because I had to for work or anything, but just for the sheer hell of it!

Drank afternoon tea with an Earl. Yes, a real Earl. No names, no telling. Just a pleasant cup of tea and a chat, tête-a-tete, while he signed some books.

Ate too much fish and chips – several times. Well who wouldn’t?

Glamorous? No. Mostly damned hard work!

books

Well that was some weekend!

I’m exhausted! I’m still trying to recover from last weekend. And here we are with the next weekend upon us!

We spent four days last weekend running what is turning into a major literary conference: the Biennial Anthony Powell Conference, organised by the Anthony Powell Society of which I am Hon. Secretary. So that means I’m the one who does all the work and carries the can.

This is the sixth conference we have run, and the fifth for which I have been the lead organiser (the exception was 2009 in Washington, DC where I still did a lot of the work). All of them have been different and each has been stunning in its own way.

But for me this one surpassed all the others. 100 delegates. 15 papers of different types plus three keynotes over two days of plenary sessions at the Naval & Military Club in London’s St James’s Square. A reception with charity auction which raised almost £1000 – which was at least twice what I had expected (the money goes to pay for a plaque in London to commemorate Powell). A coach tour of London followed by Sunday lunch. Then on Monday a few of us spent the day in Eton, still looking at Powell connections. All with a fantastic, friendly set of people.

Four long and tiring days. But wonderfully exhilarating days despite the odd gripes (well you can’t please everyone all the time). This is some of what the delegates said:

This is my fifth conference this summer and has been far and away the best
Superb organization and time-keeping
Congratulations on a really splendid conference
Brilliant venue
Themes very well thought out, complementing each other
The setting was perfect
Excellent venue and organisation coupled with lots of friendly and interesting people
Great work all round; congratulations
Reminded me how much I enjoy Powell’s writings

Did we make a profit? Don’t know yet as I haven’t got all the bills in, but we’ll not be far off at least breaking even (which is all we aim to do).

And I didn’t have time to take a single photo! But here I am (in blue shirt), in the sumptuous surroundings of the Naval & Military Club, playing at being auctioneer (photo by Graham & Dorothy Davie).

Now I wonder if I can get enough lie-ins before doing it all again in 2013?

food+drink, memes, personal, quotes

Ten Things – September

Number 9 in my monthly series of “Ten Things” for 2011. Each month I list one thing from each of ten categories which will remain the same for each month of 2011. So at the end of the year you have ten lists of twelve things about me.

  1. Something I Like: Photography
  2. Something I Won’t Do: Take any more exams
  3. Something I Want To Do: Get Rid of my Depression
  4. A Blog I Like: The Loom
  5. A Book I Like: Florence Greenberg, Jewish Cookery
  6. Some Music I Like: Pink Floyd, Learning to Fly
  7. A Food I Like: Chips
  8. A Food or Drink I Dislike: Marron Glacé
  9. A Word I Like: Verisimilitude
  10. A Quote I Like: Pro bono publico, nil bloody panico. [Rear-Admiral Sir Morgan Morgan-Giles]
current affairs, quotes

Quotes of the Week

Not a lot in the way of quotes this week, although those that follow are relatively chunky, as we’ve spent 4 days over the weekend running an international literary conference (more of which anon, I hope).

I believe Tony Blair is an out-and-out rascal, terminally untrustworthy and close to being unhinged. I said from the start that there was something wrong in his head, and each passing year convinces me more strongly that this man is a pathological confidence-trickster. To the extent that he ever believes what he says, he is delusional. To the extent that he does not, he is an actor whose first invention – himself – has been his only interesting role.
[Matthew Parris, The Times, March 2006; quoted in Oliver James, Affluenza]

Tea Pigs uses only whole leaf teas, whole herbs, whole berries and whole flowers. No dust in sight. Served in biodegradable tea temples.
[https://www.teapigs.co.uk/]

I am really sorry to see my countrymen trouble themselves about politics. If men were wise, the most arbitrary princes could not hurt them. If they are not wise, the freest government is compelled to be a tyranny. Princes appear to me to be fools. Houses of Commons and Houses of Lords appear to me to be fools; they seem to me to be something else besides human life.
[William Blake, Politicians and Politics]

So there you are … politics diluted with tea. What could be more British?!

books, personal, photography

Available Now: Zen Mischief Photographs

[Fanfare of trumpets!]

It’s here! The first spin-off from this blog, my new photo book, is available at last. Yes, it’s been a well kept secret and been in gestation for quite some months, but eventually it’s here.

Here’s (some of) what I say in the Introduction:

I am fairly sure I took my first photographs with my father’s Kodak Box Brownie although I don’t know how old I was. But I do have a series of old 620 roll film images of my parents and I on holiday at a nudist club when I would have been around 9 or 10; and as the series contains one of my parents but not me, it seems reasonable to assume I took it. And I know had my first cheap camera by the time I was about 12.

I’ve been taking photographs on and off ever since. And that’s now 50 years … But this book is not really designed as a celebration of my 50 years taking photographs. It is intended only as a collection of images I like from the last few years …

I do not pretend that these are world-beating images. Nor would I claim to be an especially good photographer. I’ve had no formal photographic training, but learnt the basics at my father’s knee and by going to camera club with him as a teenager. It was more difficult then: we didn’t have cameras which did everything for us; exposures had to be calculated; every shot cost us real money to develop and print; and you had to wait days or even weeks to see your successes and failures. Like the rest of modern life photography is now cheap and instant.

My approach to photography has always been to take what I see; what interests, intrigues or amuses me. It is about trying to see things and make them into a picture …

Available now on Blurb. Not yet on Amazon, but it should be eventually.

Keith C Marshall
Zen Mischief Photographs: Images from a Space-Time Warp
McTigger Books, 2011
ISBN 978-0-9570017-0-1
RRP £37.50

memes, words

Word of the Week

Zariba or Zareba.

In the Sudan and adjacent parts of Africa, a fence or enclosure, usually constructed of thorn-bushes, for defence against the attacks of enemies or wild beasts.
A fenced or fortified camp.
A formation of troops for defence against attack.