TRAVEL TUESDAY 568 - SKIATHOS, GREECE

“Plutocracy was, is and will be the permanent ruler of the world, the permanent Antichrist. It gives birth to injustice, it nourishes crime, it corrupts bodies and souls.” - Alexandros Papadiamantis

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.
There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

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Skiathos (Greek: Σκιάθος, romanized: Skiáthos) is a small Greek island in the northwest Aegean Sea. Skiathos is the westernmost island in the Northern Sporades archipelago, east of the Pelion peninsula in Magnesia on the mainland, and west of the island of Skopelos. The main town is Skiathos (pop. 4,883 in 2011), in the eastern part of the island. Skiathos and its neighbouring island Skopelos were the filming locations of the 2008 film “Mamma Mia!”.

There are over 60 beaches, including the white-pebbled Lalaria Beach, the pine-fringed Koukounaries, and the energetic Banana Beach. Skiathos Town (Hora) is very picturesque and you can stroll through cobbled alleys filled with whitewashed houses, dine at open-air tavernas, and enjoy the buzzing nightlife around the Old Port. One can hike up to the historic Evangelistria Monastery or explore the medieval sea fortress at the Bourtzi Peninsula. Low-flying aircraft land just metres above the sand at the famously short Alexandros Papadiamantis Airport runway - a favourite location for plane spotters!

A 14th-century medieval fortified town is perched dramatically over the northern cliffs. Built to protect locals from pirate raids, you can hike through its atmospheric ruins and enjoy stunning, windy sea views. Tucked high in the pine-covered mountains, the Evangelistria Monastery is peaceful, although active with resident monks. It holds a massive place in Greek history—it’s where the first official Greek flag was woven and blessed in 1807. The monks still produce local wine, olive oil, and honey today.

Alexandros Papadiamantis (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος Παπαδιαμάντης 4 March 1851 – 3 January 1911) was an influential Greek novelist, short-story writer and poet who was born in Skiathos. The Papadiamantis House Museum is a museum dedicated to the writer. Following his death, his house was transformed into a modern museum with displays related to his life and attracts many visitors.

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THE WORDS I WRITE

“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” - Victor Hugo

Poets and storytellers this week is all about revisiting “Old Favourites”, and within that context I have chosen “Beloved Books”. I have about 20,000 books, which I have been collecting since I began to read — precociously, as I was taught to read by my mother before I went to school. Some of these books are in several rooms in my house, some in my mother’s house, a few in storage (as there is no more space, but I cannot part with them…). Yes, I am Nick and I am a bibliophile… And it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to ever kick that addiction!

When you read a book, and begin to gobble up those written words, hearing their sounds, forming mental images, experiencing emotions, devouring the plot, learning new things, taking pleasure in that simple act of reading, have you ever wondered what it would be like to be illiterate? When I was about 20 years old I travelled to Egypt, alone. I went up the Nile and ended up in Aswan. At that time, it was not very touristic and there were very few people speaking English, a few that spoke a little French (and with whom I was able to communicate more or less). But as far as the written word was concerned, I had trouble finding anything written in English or French, for that matter. All was Arabic! That lovely flowing, calligraphic, drawn out, wonderfully squiggly script that looked fantastic, but made no sense whatsoever to me! I then realised what it would be like to be illiterate!

Here’s a poem about the joys of literacy. And if you can read thank your teacher, thank your lucky stars for even now in the 21st century, it is estimated that approximately 750 million adults globally lack basic reading and writing skills, with two-thirds of them being women, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia…

The Words I Write

The words I write are full of gratitude,

Each rounded letter a thank you,

Each line a heartfelt appreciation

Of my teachers’ tireless persistence.

The pages I read are full of knowledge,

Each word a bird in flight,

Each phrase a new friend, a new acquaintance

Met in distant places, wandering through fabled cities.

The books I read are full of pleasure,

Each page full of new-felt emotion and senses;

Each sentence a laugh, some tears,

Some gentleness, some fiery argument.

The verse I write is full of thought and heart,

Of pain and joy, of brain and soul, love, friendship.

I write and read, and with unconscious ease effortlessly

Take for granted this precious gift of literacy.

I thank my luck for this privilege, this gift of providence,

That I was amongst the chosen to experience

This mystery of written word, of imprisoned sound,

Of captured language and word-pictures.

The present of literature, the happiness of calligraphy

The indulgence of a memoir, the work of words,

The magic of communication,

This richness of script.

No song this week. Just read the poem!

MY NOVEL: "THE NURSING HOME"

"There is no old age. There is, as there always was, just you." - Carol Matthau

In the densely built up suburbia of Melbourne's outer West, surrounded by a high wall, is the large oasis of "The Golden West" Nursing Home. A beautiful, large garden surrounds sumptuous period buildings of great charm, with excellent amenities, caring staff and a charter to provide the "best possible care for seniors who are used to the lifestyle of the well-to-do".

A cavalcade of memorable residents, carers, administrative staff, relatives and friends, all confront the problems of old age with varying degrees of success. All seems to go well, until a series of deaths amongst the residents puts the Director of the Home and his staff in a difficult situation, and threaten the serenity and restfulness of this microcosm that reflects society outside the walls.

Love, hate, envy, deceit, compassion, selfishness, altruism, guilt, religion, atheism, dreams and harsh realities, all the stuff of life and death, are laid out in a procession of humanity's common concerns.

MY NEW NOVEL

My new novel "The Nursing Home" has been published and is available on Amazon. I've been told by several people that it's a good read :-)

NOW READING: GUSTAV KLIMT

“I have the gift of neither the spoken nor the written word, especially if I have to say something about myself or my work. Whoever wants to know something about me -as an artist, the only notable thing- ought to look carefully at my pictures and try and see in them what I am and what I want to do.” ― Gustav Klimt 

I recently purchased the monumental “Gustav Klimt – The complete Paintings” hardcover, large format book (26.7 x 5.1 x 34.8 cm over 600 pp!) published by the always dependable Taschen and edited by Tobias G. Natter.

It is a wonderful book illustrated lavishly in colour, printed on good quality paper and brimming with new photographs of familiar works, but also containing some gems that were previously unknown to me. I have started to read it and the style is academic and at times overly critical (in the sense of “art-criticese”), however, the text is informative and full of contemporary material that relates to the artist, including extracts from his writings.

One of my favourite artists, the Viennese Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) still surprises with his overt eroticism, amazingly intricate surface designs, and experimentation. Although a little expensive (I’ve seen prices between $80 and $250 online and in bookshops), it’s worth it!

*** *** ***

Gustav Klimt, (born July 14, 1862, Vienna, Austria—died February 6, 1918, Vienna), Austrian painter, founder of the school of painting known as the Vienna Sezession. After studying at the Vienna School of Decorative Arts, Klimt in 1883 opened an independent studio specializing in the execution of mural paintings. His early work had a classical style that was typical of late 19th-century academic painting, as can be seen in his murals for the Vienna Burgtheater (1888) and on the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

In 1897 Klimt’s mature style emerged, and he founded the Vienna Sezession, a group of painters who revolted against academic art in favour of a highly decorative style similar to Art Nouveau. Soon thereafter he painted three allegorical murals for the ceiling of the University of Vienna auditorium that were violently criticized; the erotic symbolism and pessimism of these works created such a scandal that the murals were rejected. His later murals, the Beethoven Frieze (1902) and the murals (1909–11) in the dining room of the Stoclet House in Brussels, are characterized by precisely linear drawing and the bold and arbitrary use of flat, decorative patterns of colour and gold leaf.

Klimt’s most successful works include The Kiss (1908–09) and a series of portraits of fashionable Viennese matrons, such as Fritza Riedler (1906) and Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907). In these works he treats the human figure without shadow and heightens the lush sensuality of skin by surrounding it with areas of flat, highly ornamental, brilliantly composed areas of decoration.

BOOKS ON MONDAY

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! - When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” – Jane Austen

I have been working rather hard lately proof-reading a major technical work of which I am co-editor-in-chief. This takes up a great deal of time and it is very demanding as it is an activity that requires a great deal of concentration and attention to detail. One must remain focussed and not be distracted. When fatigue sets in, I like to go out for a walk, watch a movie or read something that is completely different and not related to work.

So here are a few of the things I have been reading lately:

“The Book Of Eels” by Tom Fort (Published August 18th 2003 by HarperCollins Publishers).
The humble eel (about which most of us feel squeamish about nowadays) once was the food of kings and the nobility, a delectable delicacy and a mysterious creature about which not much was known, given its strange life cycle and curious migratory habits. Fort examines everything to do with eels in great detail, yet writes in a lucid, at times chatty style, with engrossing detail and subtle humour. There is also sympathy for a creature that is losing its habitat and its once high place in the gastronomic ladder, one that seems to be disappearing not only from our plates, but also from its former environmental niche. 

“Romantic Composers” by Wendy Thompson (Published 2003, Anness Publishing).
This is a large format book designed for the layperson who is interested in music of the Romantic Era and wishes to find out a little more about the life, times, works and historical interactions of these composers. A wealth of colour photographs show where these composers lived and worked as well as scenes from their ballets or operas, or historical events that influenced them. An easy to read book, but also one that can quite easily browse in now and then. Good one for introducing Romantic Era music to younger listeners. 

“Tea: A Miscellany Steeped with Trivia, History andRecipes” by Emily Kearns (Published 1st May 2015, Summersdale Publishers Ltd).
If you drink tea and enjoy it, a perfect little book to delve into, as the title says, it’s a miscellany of all things tea-related. Another book that is good to read when one is chilling out and doesn’t want to think about things work-related!

READING AGAIN...

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” ― Mark Twain 

Books I’ve read lately and enjoyed: 

“Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome” by Lesley Adkins and ‎ Roy A. Adkins

This is a detailed, scholarly work on every aspect of Roman daily life, from the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD. The chapters are arranged thematically and the information is organized methodically and lucidly. While it is a valuable reference work, I found reading through it quite enjoyable. 

“Music A Very Short Introduction” by Nicholas Cook

This was an interesting book on music/musicology written in an engaging way, which draws the reader into thinking about the nature of music in all of its numerous manifestations. While some of Cook’s analyses of topics and interpretations of musical styles and pieces are useful, obvious or even self-evident, others no doubt will be controversial and give rise to much cogitation in the mind of the reader. 

“Seven Ancient Wonders” by Matthew Reilly
This is a “boy’s own adventure” style thriller with good measures of supernatural/fantasy, action and historical/mythological elements thrown in. Reilly is an Australian author who has written quite a few similar books in this genre and provides readers with thrills and escapism in what are easy to read and digest (and then excrete, I guess) novels.

This was a diverting read based on the following conceit: Around 4,500 years ago, the capstone upon the summit of the Great Pyramid of Giza absorbed the energy released by the Tartarus Rotation (a monstrous sunspot that occurs every 4,000-4,500 years), and saved the earth from major flooding and catastrophic weather. This capstone was later divided up by Alexander the Great with one piece hidden in a booby-trapped location within each of the other seven wonders of the world. If and when they are reunited and replaced on the capstone during another solar event, they can bring 1,000 years of peace or power for the nation that possesses them. The Tartarus rotation is about to recur and the search begins to reunite the fragmented capstone. Reilly’s derring-do hero Jack West Jr plays a central role in the novel.

FOOD FRIDAY - MADELEINES

“One day in winter, on my return home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered me some tea, a thing I did not ordinarily take. I declined at first, and then, for no particular reason, changed my mind. She sent for one of those squat, plump little cakes called ‘petites madeleines’, which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell. And soon, mechanically, dispirited after a dreary day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake.

No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory - this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal. Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I sensed that it was connected with the taste of the tea and the cake, but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could, no, indeed, be of the same nature. Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it?”
Marcel Proust - À la recherche du temps perdu 

Madeleines are that famous little French butter cake, which have a literary reputation, having served as Marcel Proust’s muse in his famous book: “Remembrance of Things Past.” Although madeleines appear to be simple they require patience and careful measuring of ingredients and following of instructions. When well-prepared, madeleines are a delightful little cake, browned and crispy on the outside and spongy and soft on the inside. Perfect for your afternoon cup of tea. 

Madeleines
Ingredients
2 large eggs
2⁄3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1⁄2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 cup all-purpose flour
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
Icing sugar 

Method
Preheat oven to 190°C. Generously butter and flour pan for large madeleines (recipe is for 20 pieces).
Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and 2/3 cup sugar in large bowl just to blend. Beat in vanilla and lemon peel. Add flour; beat gently until just blended.
Gradually add cooled melted butter in steady stream, beating just until blended.
Spoon 1 tablespoon of batter into each indentation in the pan. Bake until puffed and brown, about 10-16 minutes.
Cool 5 minutes. Gently remove from pan. Repeat process, buttering and flouring pan before each batch (can be made 1 day ahead). Dust with icing sugar.

READING...

“So many books, so little time.” ― Frank Zappa 

Books I’ve read lately and enjoyed:  

“Puzzled” by David Astle 

A great book for Cryptic Crossword aficionados, this is partly a vade mecum on how to solve those devilish Friday DA cryptics in the “Age” newspaper, but also an amusing memoir, an eclectic autobiography of the master setter himself, replete with humorous anecdotes and examples of great clues and how to solve them.

 “Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 
A lovely book, part coming-of-age story, part mystery, part romance, but above all a paean to books and the love of books. 

“At Home” by Bill Bryson 

An amusing history of “private life” through the ages and the place where it all happens, the home and its various rooms. But not only! Famous and infamous personages, common and uncommon people and also so many interesting tangents and tidbits make for a treat to read.

POETS UNITED - BOOKS

“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.” - Abraham Lincoln

This week, the midweek motif of Poets United is “books”. I thought that for a bibliophile like me, this poem would be an easy one to write, but perhaps when we are faced with stating the obvious, therein we flounder and find difficulty…

Books

When times were tough,

I delved into your pages and found strength;

When I was sad,

I looked inside and found mirth;

When feeling haughty, proud –

I read and became humble.

In days of desperation,

I searched for hope therein;

In times of mindless frivolity,

I was sobered by your wise words;

In hours of need,

I found within what I sought.

When friendless, lonely,

I found in books the most loyal companion;

When bored and flat,

In books I found the spark of the divine;

When feeling small and insignificant,

I discovered in books my self-respect.

In all my turns of fortune,

I found stability and calm inside;

In every step I took, in every journey started,

I found a true and steady compass there;

In all my life’s every situation,

Each question answered, each problem solved

In books all truth, all hope and all enjoyment…

MOVIE MONDAY - ACTION MOVIES

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” - Oprah Winfrey

Most people tend to live quiet and routine-filled lives where one day pretty much blends into the next. The closest they have to excitement may be some incident in their community, on the road, or workplace that tends to disrupt the quietude. This may be the reason why action movies are quite popular as they provide another source of excitement and out-of-the- ordinary events that spice up people’s lives, even if it is a vicarious thrill.  The term ‘action movie’ is a rather broad one and it applies to a wide range of movies as can be seen below in the list of sub-genres. Action movies have a lot in common with the equally broad ‘adventure’ genre, with which they share some conventional story-telling techniques and plot outlines.

Epic Movies: These films set their protagonist(s) going to extreme lengths and over a protracted period of time to achieve an objective that is of vital, “life or death” importance not only for the protagonists but also for their community. These films have plots that are based on ancient Greek storytelling conventions and they are plots that are one of the oldest type in literature. The tale usually involves the characters in adventures that allow them to change and develop in some way along their journeys. Typical in this genre is Timur Bekmambetov’s 2016 re-imagining of “Ben Hur” or the 1962 David Lean classic “Lawrence of Arabia”.

Spy Movies: This is an amazingly prolific sub-genre and there are a huge variety of secret agents that have sequel after sequel of film made. A characteristic feature of the sub-genre is that a spy or other undercover professional finds themselves on a secret mission, usually behind enemy lines, and armed with an array of special equipment and gadgets. The classic that immediately comes to mind of course is the James Bond series of films, begun by the inimitable Sean Connery. Terence Young’s 1962 “Dr No” still manages to push all the right buttons in this sub-genre. More recently, Phillip Noyce’s 2010 “Salt” with Angelina Jolie attempts to break down some stereotypes in the sub-genre, but the main plot devices and characters are identical to those in older films.

Disaster Movies: People love seeing scenes of destruction, devastation and havoc on a massive scale. Something about seeing the world destroyed from the comfort of your plush cinema chair or cosy armchair at home somehow makes the disaster more homely and easily digestible: Thrills without risk! These movies often cross over into the sci-fi and thriller genres, but the main concept is obviously a disaster, usually natural but it can be artificial. The disaster itself can be on a global level or extremely localised, imposing peril on only the central characters. Classic examples of the former are Michael Bay’s 1998 “Armageddon” and Roland Emmerich’s 2004 “The Day After Tomorrow”. If you prefer your disaster more localized, how about James Cameron’s 1997 “Titanic”, Perhaps made all the more appealing by the cross-over into the romance genre.

Martial Arts Movies: These are also called as ‘Kung Fu movies’. The focus of martial arts movies is the constant physical fight scenes that are shown throughout the film, the plot often taking secondary place. Actors typically come from a martial arts background, or are highly trained before production. Bruce Lee of course cannot be ignored in this sub-genre as he was enormously popular in both East and West. Robert Clouse’s 1973 film “Enter the Dragon” is a cult classic.

Superhero Movies: Tales of heroes with extraordinary strength, superhuman abilities and divine parentage are found in the mythology of nearly all cultures of the world. It is not surprising therefore that one of the highest grossing of any movie genre in current times, is this sub-genre. Superhero movies feature one or more characters who have supernatural abilities and do battle with similarly-powered antagonists. The majority of superhero movies are derived from comic book source material. Richard Donner’s 1978 movie “Superman” is a classic in this sub-genre.

Video Game Movies: As video games got more interactive, branched and action-oriented their popularity with gamers ensured that a video game could quite easily hatch a movie. Screenplays which have been adapted from popular video games can fall into any genre depending on the source material, but for the most part they are typically action movies. A good example is Simon Croft’s 2001 “Tomb Raider”.

Oh, dear! Now that I have written this and have got my share of thrills, spills, action and adventure, I think I am quite ready to go and peel some potatoes and start cooking dinner.

MOVIE MONDAY - SCI-FI FILMS

“Change is the principal feature of our age and literature should explore how people deal with it. The best science fiction does that, head-on.” - David Brin

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a “literature of ideas.” It usually avoids dealing with the supernatural, and unlike the related genre of fantasy, science fiction stories historically were intended to have at least a faint grounding in science-based fact or theory at the time the story was created, but this connection has become tenuous or non-existent in much of science fiction nowadays.

Science fiction is not new. “True Stories” (Ancient Greek: Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα, Alēthē diēgēmata; Latin: Vera Historia) is a parody of travel tales, by the Greek-speaking Assyrian author Lucian of Samosata, the earliest known fiction about travelling to outer space, alien life-forms and interplanetary warfare. Written in the 2nd century, the novel has been referred to as the first known text that could be called science fiction. The work was intended by Lucian as a satire against contemporary and ancient sources, which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth.

Since that time, authors have been writing science fiction, with examples in the “Arabian Nights”, Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”, Shelley’s “Frankestein” and many others. The genre fired the public imagination with the novels of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne who created a body of work that became popular across broad cross-sections of society. Since then, it has become broader and even more popular, with several sub-genres now included under the umbrella of “science fiction”.

It is not surprising that this genre of fiction was very quickly translated to the silver screen almost as soon as movies were invented. It seems the medium lent itself to the genre, even in the early days of pioneer film-making. Georges Melies’ 1902 “A Trip to the Moon” employed trick photography effects and looked at a typical space travel scenario. The next major example in the genre was Fritz Lang’s 1927 “Metropolis”, being the first feature length science fiction movie. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the genre consisted mainly of low-budget B movies. After Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 landmark “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the science fiction film genre was taken more seriously. In the late 1970s, big-budget science fiction films filled with special effects became popular with audiences after the success of George Lucas’s 1977 “Star Wars” and paved the way for the blockbuster hits of subsequent decades.

Similar to the literary genre, science fiction film (aka Sci-Fi movie) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life-forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception and time travel, along with futuristic elements such as spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar travel or other technologies. Science fiction films have often been used to focus on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues like the human condition. In many cases, tropes derived from written science fiction may be used by film-makers ignorant of or at best indifferent to the standards of scientific plausibility and plot logic to which written science fiction is traditionally held.

I like a good science fiction movie, especially one where the viewer is immersed in a plot where the genre is free to examine philosophical or social issues that have a relevance to our society today. Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1971 movie “A Clockwork Orange” is a good example of this type. It is dystopian crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel. It employs disturbing, violent images to comment on psychiatry, juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, and other social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian near-future Britain.

But having said that, I am also partial to well-made escapist science fiction that is simply a rollicking good tale. A typical example of this is the 2012 Andrew Stanton film “John Carter” based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’s “A Princess of Mars” (the first in a series of 11 novels by this author).

We humans thrive on tall tales. Since ancient times people have crowded together and have amused one another by relating stories that are speculative, imaginative, invented. Whether they are myths and fables, fairy tales or horror stories, tales of distant imagined places on earth or other planets, these tales amuse and satisfy our sense of wonder and answer that magical question, “what if…?” Science fiction novels and films will keep on being written and we shall keep on reading and watching them. But please, authors and film-makers, make them good ones!

MOVIE MONDAY - ALICE'S TRAVAILS...

“Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace.” - Eugene O’Neill

“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (a.k.a. ‘Alice in Wonderland’) is an 1865 novel written by English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.

Carroll wrote the book for a little girl, Alice Pleasance Liddell (born 1852) who was the daughter of The Reverend Robinson Duckworth a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. Alice and her two sisters went on a boating excursion with Carroll and their father in July 1862 and the author amused them all with a story on which the book was subsequently based on. On 26 November 1864, Carroll gave Alice the handwritten manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, with illustrations by Dodgson himself, dedicating it as “A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer’s Day”.

“Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There” (1871) is the second novel by Lewis Carroll, written as a sequel to “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Set some six months later than the earlier book, Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. “Through the Looking-Glass” includes such celebrated verses as “Jabberwocky” and “The Walrus and the Carpenter”, and the episode involving Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The mirror that inspired Carroll remains displayed in Charlton Kings.

Whereas Carroll’s first book has the deck of cards as a theme, the second book is based on a game of chess, played on a giant chessboard with fields for squares. Most main characters in the story are represented by a chess piece or animals, with Alice herself being a pawn. Both books are magical, whimsical, a delight to read for both children and adults and have been translated into numerous languages worldwide (despite the immense difficulties in accurately translating such punning, word-playing, nonsensical and idiomatic prose!).

The making of films based on the two books has been fruitful, beginning with the 1903 British silent film directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow right up to the latest, 2016 offering “Alice Through the Looking Glass” by James Bobin, made as the sequel to the 2010 Tim Burton movie “Alice inWonderland”. Disney’s 1951 animated version of “Alice in Wonderland” is the other one that immediately springs to mind, but there have been other filmed versions, more than two dozen of them!

The films I am familiar with (about 5 of them) have been less than successful in bringing the wit, whimsy and sheer delight of the word-play to the screen. The emphasis has been on visual effects, with the Burton and Bobin versions going overboard with CGI and spectacularly splendiferous technicolour image wizardry. The latest offering especially James Bobin’s “Alice Through the Looking Glass” is so far removed from Carroll’s novels that to associate it with them is presumptuous.

Bobin’s “Looking Glass” movie is a very pedestrian, heavy-handed and frankly boring tale that  Linda Woolverton (responsible for the screenplay) has managed to put together for the sake of a sequel to Burton’s “Alice”, which was more or less OK (I was not ecstatic with that version either!). Take an unexciting script, add actors who are in it for the paycheck and seemingly take no pleasure in the movie, add lots of special effects and CGI (some of it of rather poor quality and into which the live actors are placed and look like fish out of water), and you have a movie that is quite laboured and tiresome. The main theme of this movie is time and unfortunately by watching it, I felt as though I had wasted lots of time – 1 hour and 53 minutes of it in fact…

LITERARY QUIZ - ANSWERS

SET 1
Some authors are rather coy about using their first names on their works and we refer to them by their initials and their surname. Can you name the first names of these famous authors?
A. A. Milne (Alan Alexander)
C. S. Lewis (Clive Staples)
D. H. Lawrence (David Herbert)
G. K. Chesterton (Gilbert Keith)
H. G. Wells (Herbert George)
J. D. Salinger (Jerome David)
J. R. R. Tolkien (John Ronald Reuel)
P. D. James (Phyllis Dorothy)
P. G. Wodehouse (Pelham Grenville)
V. S. Naipaul (Vidiadhar Surajprassad!)

SET 2
Thomas Gray’s Elegy “Written in a Country Churchyard” contains these lines:
“*** **** *** ******* *****'s ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learned to stray”
Thomas Hardy wrote a famous novel whose title is the asterisked quotation from Gray’s poem. What is the title that completes the poetic couplet?
“Far from the Madding Crowd”

“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” contains the following:
“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where *** ****** ** ***** are stored”
And the title of a famous John Steinbeck novel complete the quote. Which one is it?
“The Grapes of Wrath”

In Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, the following lines appear:
“How beauteous mankind is! O ***** *** *****
That has such people in't”
The asterisks obscure the title of a famous Aldous Huxley novel.
“Brave New World”

SET 3
The following are first lines of famous novels, which ones?

“The past is a different country; they do things differently there.”
“The Go-Between” – L.P. Hartley

“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë

“Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of the tea of not - some people of course never do, - the situation is in itself delightful.”
“The Portrait of a Lady” Henry James

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
“Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austen

SET 4
Who wrote these famous novels?
“Madame Bovary” (Gustave Flaubert)
“The Last Days of Pompeii” (Edward Bulwer-Lytton)
“Death in Venice” (Thomas Mann)
“Murder on the Orient Express” (Agatha Christie)
“The Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas” (Nikos Kazantzakis)
“Don Quixote” (Miguel de Cervantes)

And of course the illustration is Charles Dickens!

LITERARY QUIZ

“Books are but waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought.” - Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Just something different today, here are some trivia questions relating to authors and books (answers are here)

SET 1

Some authors are rather coy about using their first names on their works and we refer to them by their initials and their surname. Can you name the first names of these famous authors?

A. A. Milne

C. S. Lewis

D. H. Lawrence

G. K. Chesterton

H. G. Wells

J. D. Salinger

J. R. R. Tolkien

P. D. James

P. G. Wodehouse

V. S. Naipaul

SET 2

Thomas Gray’s Elegy “Written in a Country Churchyard” contains these lines:

“*** **** *** ******* *****'s ignoble strife

Their sober wishes never learned to stray”

Thomas Hardy wrote a famous novel whose title is the asterisked quotation from Gray’s poem. What is the title that completes the poetic couplet?

“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” contains the following:

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;

He is trampling out the vintage where *** ****** ** ***** are stored”

And the title of a famous John Steinbeck novel complete the quote. Which one is it?

In Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, the following lines appear:

“How beauteous mankind is! O ***** *** *****

That has such people in't”

The asterisks obscure the title of a famous Aldous Huxley novel.

SET 3

The following are first lines of famous novels, which ones?

“The past is a different country; they do things differently there.”

“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”

“Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of the tea of not - some people of course never do, - the situation is in itself delightful.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

SET 4

Who wrote these famous novels?

“Madame Bovary”

“The Last Days of Pompeii” 

“Death in Venice”

“Murder on the Orient Express”

“The Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas”

“Don Quixote”

And who is the famous 19th century author in the illustration above?