Ponderings

Tag: books

  • The Inheritor Of Unfulfilled Renown

    On the 20th of November, 1752 the English poet Thomas Chatterton was born. He was born in Bristol to a family who played an important and prestigious role in the office of sexton for St Mary Radcliffe Church. His mother, Sarah Chatterton was a part-time seamstress. His father, also called Thomas, was a numismatist who died shortly after he was born.

    He was educated at Edward Colston’s charity school, reputedly on the site of a ruined Carmelite convent. His childhood was steeped in mystery and myth, but also difficulty and poverty. This inauspicious start in life did not bode well for his future. In spite of his efforts to establish himself as a professional poet he died at the tragically young age of 17. His death occurred in murky circumstances. Many assumed that he had taken his own life.

    However other commentators have suggested that his demise may have been accidental, as his death was attributed to arsenic poisoning. Arsenic was a common treatment for venereal disease at that time. Nonetheless his death still created a myth that lingers to this day, of the tortured, doomed and misunderstood poet destined for obscurity.

    His death and the legend that surrounded it influenced other writers and artists for at least a century afterwards, and beyond. In 1835 the French playwright Alfred de Vigny wrote the visionary drama “Chatterton”. The troubled Victorian poet and Catholic mystic Francis Thompson believed that he was saved from suicide by the comforting presence of Chatterton’s ghost.

    The myth was also immortalised in the popular imagination by the pre-Raphaelite artist Henry Wallis in his 1856 painting “The Death of Chatterton”. In 2010 the outsider artist George Harding was inspired to create his own interpretation of this iconic image in the painting “Everything is Real except God and Death”, inspired by his experience as an in-patient at Bethlem hospital.

    Harding re-imagined the mythic figure of Chatterton, and re-created the infamous death scene with himself at the centre. However in the painting, Harding is not dead, but in a state of madness and confusion. In the grip of his delusion, he has no head, in its place is the Eye of Providence. The painting illustrates that disturbing and unsettling no-man’s land that exists between reality and insanity in which death itself has no meaning.

    Chatterton’s extraordinary life and death provides a dark inspiration for those who have found themselves adrift in society. Chatterton was an imaginative and sensitive child. When he was six he amused himself with solitary pursuits, and spent entire days reading and writing. At school he was prone to daydreaming, and neglected his academic work. He started writing poetry at the age of eleven, and this was encouraged by his mother.

    He was fascinated by history, particularly folklore and many of his earliest writings illuminate the old myths and tales of England. The ancient legends and landscapes of England, especially Bristol animated his verse. This was something that he cultivated while still a schoolboy at Colston’s school. It was staggering to consider that he was only sixteen, and unlike many youths of today who are only too keen to forge ahead and create new ideas for the future, he was more inclined to look back into the past.

    Chatterton adored the rarefied world of Medieval England. This was a period replete with ornate mythology and lore. It was a realm so captivating that he would frequently lose himself within it. He even adopted the persona of a Medieval poet, and attempted to appropriate the syntax and style. He created the pseudonym “Thomas Rowley”. The “Rowley” poems are an astounding testament to his literary and linguistic talents, honed at such a young age.

    Chatterton believed that the character that he imagined, of a Medieval scholar, scribe and Priest, was so convincing, that he could fool the literary establishment. He appealed to the great and good of Bristol. He told them that he had discovered a neglected masterpiece written by an unknown and unrenowned poet from the fifteenth century. However they were unwilling to remunerate him.

    Unchastened by this rejection, he sent his appeal further, to the esteemed Horace Walpole, who initially believed his account until he was informed of Chatterton’s age. He was sceptical of the veracity of the poems, and consulted his friend Thomas Gray. Gray instantly declared that the poems were fake. Walpole wrote a denouncing letter to Chatterton in which he called his poems “facile”, and the correspondence ended.

    The rejection wounded him, and it sent Chatterton on a path to self-destruction, and led to his untimely demise. It seems tragic now to consider that he died not knowing that his work of medieval parody and pastiche would become a major influence on the Romantic poets, and inspire further generations of English poets.

  • In Xanadu

    On the 21st October, 1772 the English poet, literary critic, philosopher and theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born. Coleridge was a prominent member of a rarefied group of writers and artists known collectively as the Romantics. This was an intellectual movement dedicated to the cultivation of the human imagination, regarded as the ultimate source of enlightenment and the key to the development and progression of civilisation.

    In our modern understanding of the term, Romantics are idealistic dreamers with an excessively optimistic perception of human nature and its destiny. Romantics were the heirs of utopians, who themselves had too much faith in humankind, at least in terms of solving the almost intractable problems of existence. However we are living in a time of cynicism and scepticism, and these concepts do not have much significance or resonance, but in the past these ideas were considered radical.

    Writers associated with utopianism include the moral philosopher William Godwin.

    In 1793 Godwin published “An Enquiry Into Political Justice”. This essay fired the imagination of a young William Wordsworth. He implored others, in a spirit of reckless extravagance to “throw aside your books of chemistry” and urged his contemporaries to focus on Godwin’s theories instead. Coleridge himself was encouraged by his message and composed a “hymn” honouring him, announcing in emphatic tones.

    “For that thy voice, in Passion’s stormy day,

    When wild I roam’d the bleak heath of Distress,

    Bade the bright form of Justice meet my way-

    And told me that her name was HAPPINESS.”

    At this time, Coleridge was young and fiery and determined to rid the world of all of its iniquities.

    He was a bold and ambitious young man with tremendous zeal. However he was also afflicted with a sensitivity that was frequently misunderstood and maligned by mainstream society and its institutions. He was invalided out of the Army, and in spite of early academic promise, failed to graduate from Cambridge University. He published his first volume of poetry in 1796, which also featured poems from Charles Lamb and Robert Southey.

    One year later he moved to a cottage in Nether Stowey, Somerset. He resided there for a year and created his best work, including “Kubla Khan”. This visionary, extraordinary poem was composed after an opium induced dream. The poem describes Xanadu, the summer capital of Mongol China. It details Emperor Kublai Khan’s pleasure dome, situated next to a holy river. The poem is a testament to the sacred and hallowed elements of the natural world.

    Voyages into far flung lands are enduring themes in English literature. These are mythic tales which are not meant to be literally true. These are works designed to represent a national sensibility. These reflect a common experience living on a cold, dark island cut off from the rest of the world. The yearning for escape to more exotic climes speaks to an insular people who have a deep longing for a land of promise, a paradise, or even a garden of Eden.

    Coleridge and his fellow Romantics were deeply committed to the artistic recreation of Godwin’s utopia. Utopia is more of a symbol than an actual destination, it represents the centre of goodness and harmony. The political philosophy of utopia has dwindled, but the art it inspired has left a lasting and profound legacy.

  • A Tangled Web

    On the 21st September, 1832 the Scottish poet, historian and novelist Sir Walter Scott died. His personal reputation was mixed, owing to his allegiance with the Union and his political sympathies for the Tory party. In the eyes of his ideological allies he was a hero for championing the United Kingdom as a political and cultural entity, but his detractors dismissed him as a traitor, for repudiating the noble cause of Scottish independence.

    His artistic legacy, however, remains assured. He created a distinctly Scottish literary culture which continues to be celebrated. Scott’s contribution to the canon has been incalculable. He is considered by many literary critics to be the inventor of the “historical novel”, and his example influenced the work of other distinguished novelists of the genre such as Georgette Heyer.

    The literature of the British Isles is characterised by the conflation of myth with history. Poets and playwrights have always found inspiration in legendary figures like King Arthur, but Scott was the first to portray, and romanticise these characters in the novel form. One example is the 1819 novel “Ivanhoe”, a fictional depiction of medieval England under the Norman yoke. The eponymous hero, Sir Wilfred Ivanhoe is a Saxon, disinherited by his father for pledging allegiance to the Norman King Richard I. His betrayal is doubly painful as he is betrothed to Lady Rowena, a descendant of Saxon nobility.

    The princess was originally promised to wed Lord Athelstane, a pretender to the English throne due to his ancestral connection to the last Saxon King Harold Godwinson. Ivanhoe is persuaded by the King to accompany him to fight in the Third Crusade. His conduct in battle is courageous and exemplary and he ultimately wins over the hearts and minds of his enemies.

    Scott had similar sensibilities to other artists and writers of the period, who looked fondly back to the medieval times. In contrast to the cynicism and scepticism of the nineteenth century, this vision of the past was definitive and constant. It was a unified society founded upon solid religious and cultural principles.

    This characteristically conservative rendition of British history was not universally admired or even accepted. His critics were extremely literal minded and misunderstood the purpose of his work, and were dismayed that he chose to romanticise the past. It seemed that his fellow compatriots were far more content to write tales of grievance, and exaggerated or mythologised the perennial battles between the native Scots and the English usurpers.

    Scott was resolute about his work and refused to write bombastic, Anglophobic propaganda. It was tempting to write formulaic pieces for monetary gain, but it would belie his principles. He did not want to degrade himself, and he had enough acuity to see that these were simply vain attempts to undermine the Union. When partisan causes like these infiltrate literature, the art form dies. It is lazy, and shallow to write purely on the basis of a set of caricatures. It also reveals a lack of imagination.

    However, caricature itself has a function in literature, but not at the exclusion of other elements. Caricature engenders familiarity, and helps to illustrate a general theme for the purpose of allegory. It has a benign use, but when it is crudely applied for the purpose of propaganda the intention is overtly malign. The reader is compelled to believe that the caricature is literal rather than figurative, and that the narrative is actual truth rather than mere allegory.

    Scott reinterpreted the story of “Rob Roy” as an affectionate tribute. He did not wield the legend of a proud warrior as a stick to beat the English, but to honour and reaffirm the courage and resilience of the Scottish people. Scott was in the vanguard of a Romantic literary tradition, a movement of writers and artists who sought to arouse strong feelings in an age of increasing materialism.

    The materialists were adamantly opposed to the concept of tradition. They proposed that modernity and futurism should supplant the old ideas. However romanticism was a visceral reaction to the amorality of these rationalists who emerged in the years of revolution. These uncompromising radicals and reactionaries sought to tear down the foundations of European civilisation. Their ultimate aim was to cleanse humanity, divest it from every challenge and erase every difficulty. Science was considered to be the solution for everything that stifled human progress.

    His appeal to sentiment in the face of cold reason was timely, as chaos rapidly unfolded across Europe. This hollow eyed mechanistic philosophy only served to deaden the imagination. Scott knew that a continent cast adrift from its moorings is ultimately headed towards disaster. European civilisation itself was a triumph of human imagination. The revolutions across Europe were proof that when ingenuity dies, society descends into primitivism and barbarism.

    Scott was an avowed Monarchist as well as a Unionist and a Tory. Pitifully, even now, many people are perplexed by the actual existence of a Scottish Tory, as if that is an inherent contradiction. Scott always sought a compromise between these supposedly competing identities. He was content to reside in a realm that made sense to him, in spite of the bafflement of others. He knew that as a Scotsman, he would have to endure a certain level of political and cultural subordination under the aegis of the Union, and the Crown.

    The Crown was founded upon shaky ground, and historically the Celtic nations have always struggled to relate to this institution. This disconnection threatened the Union itself, and the continuity of the sovereign state. The Hanoverian era proved to be a test for the continuity of the British Monarchy. King George III was descended from Prussian Royalty, and in spite of the fact that he was born in Britain, Scottish people did not feel that he represented them.

    In 1822, George was due to make an official visit to Edinburgh. This was the first visit to Scotland by a reigning monarch since the coronation of King Charles II in 1651. Scott was appointed by the King as the organiser of the fortnight’s extravaganza. Scott managed to find Scottish royal regalia for the procession at Edinburgh castle. He also persuaded the King’s cohort to wear Highland dress at the banquet at Parliament House, the scene where centuries earlier Scotland ruled as a separate political entity.

    The highlight of the banquet occurred when the King decided to raise a toast to the “Clans and Chieftains of Scotland”, prompting the chief of the Macgregor clan to toast “the Chief of Chiefs-the King!”. The two week celebration was a success and the pageantry, pomp and ceremony exemplified the best of the United Kingdom, helping to seal the Union and the survival of the Crown.

    Scott spent his final years in financial difficulty, but he dedicated these last years to writing. In fact he became an industrious writer. In the last six years of his life he published six novels, two short stories, two plays and a journal. Scott’s assiduous attention to his art paid off, as shortly after his death the revenue from his books paid off all his debts. Although the greatest debt is his personal devotion to his country.

  • Call of the Native

    On the 30th July, 1818 the English writer and literary scion Emily Bronte was born. She was the fifth sibling in an illustrious and talented family, her elder sister Charlotte spoke of her as “a native and nursling of the moors”. The Brontes lived amidst the foreboding presence of the Yorkshire moorland, literally inhabiting a landscape that almost had human characteristics of its own.

    This distinctive environment shaped the young Brontes. It was a major influence on their writing. A profound sense of time and place provided the inspiration for their most famous works. They were also the inheritors of a new literary sensibility which elevated the natural world to a semi-mythic status.

    This is evident in Emily Bronte’s poetry, an all pervading feeling of awe and magic imbues her verse, as she expounds,

    “Almighty ever-present Deity!

    Life, that in me has rest

    As I undying Life, have power in Thee!”

    In contrast, another poem is much darker and fatalistic, as she laments,

    “O for the time when I shall sleep

    Without identity,

    And never care how rain may steep

    Or snow may cover me!”

    Bronte was an unmistakable part of the wilderness of Yorkshire, and this native and wild spirit inspired the figure of Catherine Earnshaw, the main protagonist in her stark and Gothic novel “Wuthering Heights”.

    Earnshaw’s short but eventful life is as fateful as the creatures that inhabit the heath. It is as tragic and as bleak as the surroundings suggest, to “wuther” means to “howl” or “eddy”. This landscape is open and bare, with black hollows and crags. Wind and rain are perennial features in this cold and forbidding location. It is a perfect place for ghosts to roam.

    However it is her doomed romance with Heathcliff that ultimately seals her fate. Heathcliff, haunted by Cathy’s ghost, succumbs to death himself. Yet, as the novel concludes, the torment that afflicted these characters soon ends,

    “I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone could imagine unquiet slumbers, for the sleepers in that quiet earth.”

    The protagonists, cursed by their mortal enemies have finally returned to the land that gave them life, and now preserves their memory for eternity.

    Bronte herself had a short, tragic but eventful life. She died from tuberculosis aged just thirty. However her startling precious literary talents are her greatest legacy. It must be acknowledged that she owed a debt to the stunning Yorkshire landscape that breathed life into her work.

  • A Monstrous Melody

    On the 30th June 1685 the English poet and dramatist John Gay was born. He was a renowned and celebrated satirist and a friend and contemporary of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. These writers were part of an artistic collective called the Scriblerus Club. The club was an informal gathering of esteemed literary figures dedicated to cultivating and expanding their craft through the mutual exchange of ideas.

    The club shared similarities with other literary salons in continental Europe, where contentious theories of the day were debated at length in coffee houses. However, there was an important cultural distinction which differed from the affairs of the high-minded intelligentsia of Paris or Vienna, in that its primary purpose was to mock the earnestness and pomposity of the self-appointed intellectuals.

    The English have always regarded intellectuals with suspicion, and sometimes with scorn. Continental Europeans, in contrast, have a tendency to place learned people on a pedestal, and would never even consider the prospect of questioning their reputation, let alone make fun of them. In England though, many suspected that there were individuals with affectations and pretensions, but in reality they had no real intellect or literary talent whatsoever.

    While the greatest literary minds on the Continent collaborated to produce work of the utmost profundity, in London the atmosphere was infused with cunning and mischief. The Scriblerians were focused solely upon the art of satire. They invented a character who embodied the shallow cynicism of the eighteenth century intellectual, Martin Scriblerus, and named the club after him.

    Scriblerus is insincere, dull and vapid. His entire personality is fake, designed chiefly to impress the publishing houses, and as a consequence will adopt any fashion or cause for his own gain. He even passes off other people’s work as his own, to acquire personal glory without putting in any thought or effort.

    In the summer of 1716, Swift made a suggestion to Pope about writing a play set in Newgate prison. Gay was inspired by this suggestion, and the result was the tour de force, “The Beggar’s Opera”. This proved to be so influential that it spawned numerous imitations. It is widely considered to be a satire on the corrupting influences of the Whig administration, and the perceived tyranny and thievery of the leader, Sir Robert Walpole.

    The character of Macheath, a devious highway robber, was modelled on Walpole. Audiences loved it, and recognised the allusions. The opera exposes the hypocritical nature of the rich and powerful, who frequently escape punishment while the poor and weak are always condemned for the same crimes.

    It is timely to revisit this, as the current administration of the UK is being accused of enacting two-tier justice, and condemning the poor and weak to their fate. Humour is often the best weapon to attack such regimes. It is much more powerful to wield wit in self-defence, as it is clever and insidious in its methods and execution.

  • In Praise of Cats

    The English poet, Christopher Smart was born on the 11th April, 1722. He is chiefly remembered for his startling and innovative religious poetry. However he was misunderstood in his lifetime. He was part of the tradition of fragile genius, epitomised by other original and solitary poets like John Clare. Clare was declared mad and confined to an asylum, an unhappy experience which nonetheless allowed him free rein to develop his poetic sensibility.

    It is a fine line to tread, as the division between truly original thought and madness is tenuous. Conventional society is suspicious of free thinkers, and those who are blessed with the gift of imagination often find the business of ordinary living stifling. It is hard to feel confined by the everyday restrictions of life, and authority figures always attempt to undermine anyone who dares to be creative. It is therefore inevitable that artistic and creative people are prone to mental illness as they are overwhelmed by prejudices and philistinism.

    In 1757, Smart was committed to St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics. He was isolated in this bleak, forbidding asylum with only his beloved cat Jeoffry for company. While interned at St Luke’s he composed a moving paean to Jeoffry. In “My Cat Jeoffry”, Smart pays tribute to a creature who, in his mind, embodies godly virtues. According to the poet, every action, no matter how banal, is Jeoffry’s way of communing with God.

    However the poem is much more than an outpouring of love for a cherished pet, it is actually an important lesson in humility. This is something that humanity rarely takes heed, as it is a species in which the ego is paramount. As Smart acknowledges,

    “For he is good to think on, if a man would express himself neatly.”

    The poem is reminiscent of St Francis’ profound eulogies to animals. The animals are holy and noble, and part of the wonder and beauty of God’s creation.

    Smart’s verse resonates with anyone who has ever had the privilege of owning a cat. It is not far-fetched to state that they are imbued with a distinct quality of magic wisdom. Jeoffry was just one remarkable cat among a magnificent species.

  • A Glass of Blessings

    On April the 3rd, 1593 the poet and Anglican priest George Herbert was born. He was born into a prominent and influential Anglo-Welsh family. His ancestors included luminary figures, one notable member was the Earl of Pembroke. Herbert’s older brother Edward became the learned and respected Lord Herbert of Cherbury. Edward was revered as a renowned philosopher and theologian who later acquired the sobriquet “the father of Deism”. This philosophy championed the dual power of nature and reason.

    The Herberts elevated education and the arts as noble pursuits. His esteemed family background meant that his ultimate destiny was certain, it was inevitable that he would make his mark as a man of letters. When he was eight years old, the family moved to a dwelling close to the Charing Cross in London.

    At that time, this now unremarkable London landmark still had profound national, and spiritual significance. It was one of the twelve “Eleanor crosses”, dedicated to Eleanor of Castile. These were memorials commissioned by King Edward I to remember his late, lamented wife, and these were built at strategic points across his kingdom. Although three centuries had passed since its construction, Londoners understood the importance of the monument. The sixteenth century playwright George Peele composed a drama based on the life of the King, and devoted a section of the play to the assembling of the Charing Cross. The location, at the heart of the capital, was imbued with myth. Many other writers sensed the resonance of the King’s crosses, and inspired poems of a distinctly visionary nature.

    The poetic and numinous elements of central London had a tremendous influence on the young Herbert. His spiritual sensibility continued to invigorate him throughout his literary career. His faith in a higher power provided a comforting light during the darkest episodes in his life. In spite of his privilege he was prone to episodes of ill health. He experienced tubercular disease and prolonged fevers which stifled his intellectual ambitions.

    Nonetheless his inner resilience and resolve carried him through his years at Cambridge, where he ascended to the position of fellow. In 1619 he was appointed assistant to the University Orator. The Orator’s role fascinated him, and it helped deepen his understanding and appreciation of the art of rhetoric. It gave him an important grounding in his future career as a poet. He ascribed to Cicero’s maxim that the purpose of oration was to teach, to delight and to persuade. Meanwhile his mother, Magdalen, was encouraging him to seek a vocation in the Church.

    Magdalen was an educated and well connected lady who regularly entertained respected figures like John Donne and William Byrd. Both used their considerable talents to promote Christian virtue. A year later Herbert himself became the University Orator. In 1623 he delivered a “farewell oration” to King James I who was on a visit to the University. The King was so moved by the sermon that he requested a written copy. Emboldened by the flattery of the King, and supported by his cousin the Earl, Herbert entered the realm of politics and he represented the constituency of Montgomery. However when the King died, his enthusiasm for politics ebbed away.

    Herbert felt that he was drifting through life. In 1626 this period of torpor and ennui ended when he finally entered the priesthood. He was assigned to minister at the small parish of Leighton Bromswold in Huntingdonshire. This relatively unassuming English village was situated close to Little Gidding, an Anglican religious community later immortalised by T.S Eliot. In Herbert’s mind, however, this was a place that encapsulated the English soul. The founder of Little Gidding was Nicholas Ferrar, a close friend and confidant. Ferrar became a mentor to him, even in times of despair and doubt. He helped to cultivate and refine his poetry.

    In 1629 he moved to another parish, Fugglestone St Peter with Bemerton, which was near Salisbury. While serving as rector he worked on his poetry, which had spiritual themes. He entrusted his collection to Ferrar. Unfortunately four years later his tuberculosis returned and he died. Ferrar published his entire work the same year, and he wrote the preface. Ferrar’s intervention introduced an entire readership to some of the most affecting religious poetry ever written. It is poignant to consider that in his short, painful but immensely productive life Herbert continues to inspire us today.

  • Gloriana

    On the 24th March, 1603 Queen Elizabeth I died. She was the last monarch in the Tudor dynasty. Her impressive legacy as a ruler and national figurehead continues to be revered today. She is remembered for the many successes achieved during her reign. Her achievements include the restoration of Protestantism, the preservation of Royal Supremacy, quelling any malicious attack upon her crown and stopping foreign invasion.

    Her place in English history is assured. In her lifetime, she was admired for her popular appeal and cultural potency. Her position in our national story is down to her intelligence and insight. She understood that our identity has always depended upon our ability to absorb other influences without compromising our uniqueness. It is indeed a strange paradox that we are defined by our ambiguity.

    Our lack of clarity ensured our stability and continuity. In contrast other European powers foundered under the constraints of rigidity. Elizabeth sought a pragmatic solution to the religious conflicts that were tearing the continent apart. Her religious settlement was her ambitious attempt to find a middle path between the polar opposites of Catholicism and Protestantism. Her ambitions rapidly bore fruit. Her reforms engendered a sense of national pride which had failed to flower under the bitter and vengeful rule of her sister Queen Mary I.

    The unmarried Queen soon acquired a cult status, and she became an object of veneration. Central to her myth was her inviolability. This inspired poets like Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser. Spenser was a key figure in the Elizabethan national project, in 1580 he was appointed secretary to the Lord Deputy of Ireland.

    The Queen faced rebellion from her Irish subjects who were implacably opposed to her Protestantism and had instead chosen to ally themselves with her enemies. She decided to grant land to her courtiers to prevent the rebels from establishing a base for their allies in Spain.

    Spenser was given a castle and estates in County Cork. While residing here he composed a remarkable elegy to his beneficent, in the form of the epic and allegorical poem “The Faerie Queene”. He dedicated the poem to her, and honoured her strengths, virtues and distinctly feminine intelligence. These qualities are embodied in the character “Gloriana”, a regal archetype and personification of imperial might.

    Another aspect to our culture is our innate conservatism, and our inclination to pay homage to our past. At the height of Tudor power, allusions were drawn to the court of King Arthur. The Tudor monarchs relied upon legend to cement their popularity, and other mythical figures were invoked, including the supposed founding father of the nation, Brutus. The poets of the era absorbed these conventions in their work.

    Spenser utilises Arthurian myth and legend in the poem to reconstruct his vision of the nation under the reassuring helm of Gloriana herself. Her Empire, unlike the Catholic theocracies across the continent, is free from tyranny and oppression. It is inhabited solely by the brave, the good and the godly. In spite of the threats, her Knights have the courage to defend the Crown, the nation and her people.

    In 1589, Queen Elizabeth I awarded Spenser a pension, however nine years later his castle in Ireland was set on fire during Tyrone’s rebellion. It was burned into the ground, and his youngest child succumbed to the flames and was killed. He returned to England a year later and died from a broken heart. Spenser’s verse is a vital part of the myth of Elizabeth, and his vivid depictions of the glorious Queen continue to inspire us today.

  • Worlds Of Mystery

    On the 19th March, 2008 the pioneering English science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke died. He was renowned as a singular and unique figure in the canon of scientific literature. His fiction illuminated the almost infinite opportunities of space travel. At the beginning of his literary career, the journey into space was a relatively new innovation. These expeditions into the unknown seemed to have endless possibilities. It was an exciting prospect to venture into uncharted territories, as mankind had a ceaseless desire for exploration.

    Clarke’s interest in other planets began while he was still in his early teens. He grew up on a farm in Somerset, and fortunately for him this gave him an unparalleled view of the skies above him. This inspired his imagination and he became an enthusiastic stargazer. He later joined the Junior Astronomical Association and was a prolific contributor to their in-house magazine “Urania”. He moved to London in 1936 and became a member of the British Interplanetary Society. When the Second World War broke out he joined the RAF and worked as a radar specialist.

    His research proved invaluable to the war effort. He was part of the team that helped to create the early warning radar defence system. He was credited as one of the first inventors of the satellite system. After the war he attended King’s College London to read mathematics and physics. He graduated with a first class degree. He was appointed assistant editor at “Physics Abstracts”, and continued to pursue his interests in space travel, eventually ascending to the position of President at the British Interplanetary Society.

    He continued to write a mixture of scholarly work and fiction. Many of his short stories were published in fanzines and pulp magazines. In 1948, “Startling Stories” published a novella which focused on the last days of planet Earth, a subject which he returned to some years later.

    The real turning point in his writing career arrived in 1950, when he published “Interplanetary Flight: An Introduction to Astronautics”. The publication of this book proved to be immensely lucrative, and allowed him to become a full time writer. He now had the luxury to cultivate his imagination.

    In 1953 a small American publisher called Gnome Press published a revised edition of the 1948 novella “Against the Fall of Night”. It is a stark and chilling vision of the future, as the last human beings living on a dying planet contemplate their fate. The last city, “Diaspar” has fallen into ruin after a devastating war with alien invaders. Once a great and proud civilisation, it has become decadent.

    It rapidly becomes clear that the inhabitants existing on this desolate landscape have forgotten their ancestral roots and are totally dependent upon machines. However the youngest inhabitant, Alvin questions his existence and seeks greater meaning. He decides to delve deeper, and he discovers that there is a parallel civilisation on the other side of the planet called “Lys”. Unlike Diaspar, Lys is attuned to the natural environment.

    Alvin realises that Lys was deliberately hidden along with the true history of Earth and the war with the aliens, chiefly for the purpose of propaganda. The population were psychologically manipulated by myth. He discovers that it was all part of a devious plan to prevent insurrection after the failures repelling the aliens during the cataclysmic war. However, in spite of the differences, both civilisations combine in a collective effort to rebuild.

    Reflecting upon Clarke’s experience in the war, it is easy to see the connection between historical events and the nightmare vision of a decadent human civilisation unfolding. However the hope for a brighter future is embodied within the youthful figure of Alvin, an eternally inquisitive character and symbol of renewal in a rapidly diminishing world.

    Clarke taught us an important lesson. Mankind is on an eternal quest of exploration, and it is a path that seemingly has no end destination. We must remember that our intelligence as a species is not fixed, it is constantly progressing, as long as we stay curious.