Round the Herne

  My reading of the sixteenth and seventeenth chapters (the final ones) of Kenneth Grahame's children's book "The Golden Age" (1895). A sibling tiff is resolved through an appropriate offering, and then comes the grim day when the eldest brother is packed off to boarding school. The whole story has been about the gulf between children and adults with their differing views of the world and contrasting priorities. In the end it is also about the inevitable pull of the upgrown world that drags all small boys and girls into its thrall. Is the narrator accepting the way of the world, mourning a loss, maybe a bit of both? you decide.

  My reading of the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of Kenneth Grahame's children's classic "The Golden Age" (1895). The loathed governess moves on to pastures new, and a subsequent tutor arrives to dint knowledge into the unwilling heads of the siblings.

  My reading of the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of Kenneth Grahame's children's story "The Golden Age" (1895). This time the young hero encounters a mysterious artist with whom the realm of fantasy is shared, and then an old bureau proves itself to be an object of mystery - a reminder that, to children and a tiny number of adults, the world can either be prosaic and dull or a source of wonder. the difference is in the eye of the beholder rather than the innate quality of the objects that fill the world.

  My reading of the tenth and eleventh chapters of Kenneth Grahame's childhood nostalgia trip "The Golden Age" (1895). Feminist sensibilities may be offended by the prepubescent mullings as to what it is exactly that girls talk about, then the lads venture off in search of Grecian adventures and encounter a figure from mythology.

  My reading of the eighth and ninth chapters of Kenneth Grahame's children's classic "The Golden Age" (1895). The narrator encounters an eccentric vicar (with whom I feel a certain sympathy) and then the adult and child views of reality clash - whose ontology will prevail? Only further chapters will show, but the governess's views of the fairy folk are the ones that held sway in late Victorian times and continue to do so in many parts of society to this very day. I may need to re-record chapter eight to include some Greek words that I skipped over - being able to translate on the hoof is not a skill I possess. One thing I love about Grahame's work is the extensive vocabulary he naturally assumes his young readers (as well as characters) possess. I do not know how loquacious middle-class Victorian children were, but Grahame clearly assumes they have a much bigger vocabulary than even the average 19-year old has these days. The ninth chapter tips the seasonal w...

  My reading of the sixth and seventh chapters of Kenneth Grahame's nostalgic children's story "The Golden Age" (1895). One of the brothers has amorous stirrings for a neighbour and intrusions by a curate lead to some spontaneous storytelling. I quite like the way the children in a world that is as much imagination as reality, whilst they regard the Olympian adults as being trapped in a dull, one-dimensional existence.

 A recording mainly for the Suffolk Jungian Circle, ahead of our virtual discussion about Jung's ideas on the Sensation Type of personality.

  My reading of the fourth and fifth chapters of Kenneth Graham's children's book "The Golden Age" (1895). The narrator has an encounter with a neighbour and then his sister's dolls spring into imaginal life.

  My reading of the second and third chapters of Kenneth Grahame's "The Golden Age" (1895). Here the narrator's reflections turn to useless uncles and an encounter with soldiers - presumably in late Victorian livery. The joy of doing not very much beyond daydreaming and mucking around. The observant may notice I have had a trim and am a bit less beardy, feel I should do a bit of promotion for him given his willingness to fit in with my weird schedule - Charlie Paternoster in darkest Ipswich (highly entertaining patter alongside the scissors and trimmers). Reminds me of a younger version of my friend James.

  My reading of the prologue and first chapter of Kenneth Grahame's children's book "The Golden Age" (1895). Grahame is, of course, most famous for the fabulous "Wind in the Willows" - which I would love to record when time and the world allows. This reflective work shares much with Willows, particularly the love of the natural world and the sense of a simplistic age lost to modern readers. It is a mix of Grahame's own boyhood recollections of larks and games fused with fictional imaginings of what a group of orphans get up to on their holidays. The children are looked after by aunts and uncles who seem on a par with the ones that Saki describes in his works - vaguely well-meaning bores and domestic tyrants. The children, doubtless benefitting from an expensive classical education, refer to them as the Olympians because they are as distant and arbitrary as the Gods themselves. The children's lives are much more taken up with the kinds of rustic deiti...