Round the Herne

 Earlier this month we had the third annual Suffolk Jungian Symposium at West Suffolk College. My contribution to the day was a talk applying Jungian principles to Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (which also has plenty to say about the human psyche in general and not just as a bit of pretentious lit-crit. The recording of the original event did not come out at all well, so this is a slightly more rambling version of the same thing.

My reading of the twelfth and final chapter of Kenneth Grahame's lovely children's classic, "The Wind in the Willows" (1908). The heroes besiege the Wild Wooders who have taken over Toad Hall - will they succeed in putting the world to rights? Well, duh! I rather enjoyed recording this (even if the listeners didn't!) and it's one off my bucket list. I'll give it a breather and do other things before I think about recording any more books.

 My reading of the penultimate chapter of Kenneth Grahame's classic story "The Wind in the Willows" (1908). Toad is reunited with his friends but finds that disaster has befallen his ancestral home during his incarceration. 

 My reading of the tenth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's delightful classic "The Wind in the Willows" (1908). Toad's flight to freedom continues, peppered with meetings with a variety of characters with highly unconvincing accents.

 My reading of the ninth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's beautifully lyrical "The Wind in the Willows" (1908). I love the sophistication of language, delivered confident in the assumption that children would understand it - back in the day when things were not dumbed down. Anyway, the story moves on to Mr Rat and his encounter with both the call of the seasons and a seafaring Rat filled with tales of the briny deep. Went for a wander down by the River Gipping this afternoon, just to get in the mood for Grahame's story.

 My reading of the eighth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's classic "The Wind in the Willows". Mr Toad makes a daring prison break in a scene guaranteed to inspire thoughts of criminality in anyone listening to it!

 My reading of my favourite chapter (the seventh one) of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's classic "The Wind in the Willows". Here a baby otter goes missing and, on the adventure to find him, the friends encounter Pan Himself - in a scene that still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up even after multiple readings. I do wonder if this scene came to Grahame as some kind of dream of visionary experience - to me it feels like a genuine spiritual encounter and it sits quite strangely in the wider story.

 My reading of the sixth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's book "The Wind in the Willows". In this part of the story an intervention is staged to deal with Toad's obsession with cars - and the miscreant goes totally off the rails.

 My reading of the fifth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's fantasy "The Wind in the Willows". In this chapter, Mole experiences the irrevocable call of home, drawing him back to his tunnels and the gentle joys that they hold. Apologies for the execrable 'singing', but that's field mice for you.

 My reading of the fourth chapter of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's story "The Wind in the Willows". Mole finally gets to meet with Badger in his home deep in the Wild Woods.