Round the Herne

 All five parts of my reading of Forrest Reid's supernatural teen romance "The Garden God" (1905). This is a somewhat controversial work, when it was published same-sex romances were illegal and, whilst there is no sex and it is all sighing and gazing rather than anything else, it was still incendiary ground for any author to tread upon. Even today the work is challenging, given that the main characters in the flashback sequences are about 16-years old. Teen romance novels have become very popular of late, but some of us are sufficiently old and crusty that we would sooner ignore adolescent crushes! However, this work follows the same intensely lyrical style that Oscar Wilde adopted, including the same great love of Greek mythology that weaves throughout this short story, and the vivid embrace of nature imagery. Reid, like his fellow Irishman Wilde, was clearly deeply wedded to the countryside. The supernatural elements are low-key, mostly centred around the possibility t...

 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.

 I gave this talk at a college event in December 2024, recording it now on the off-chance that it might eb of interest to some followers on YouTube or this Blog. The talk interprets some of the ghost stories written by E F Benson, Saki, M R James, and Forrest Reid in the light of sexuality and social isolation. If nothing else, I rather hope that this talk will inspire listeners to want to read the works of the respective authors.

 I have been thinking a lot about a Taoist deity lately, Tu'er Shen. Yesterday I created an altar to him and painted a (not very good) backdrop to it. The painting needs working on, as I have never painted an East Asian portrait before and the skin tones do not look quite right. I also got the urge for poetry, after  along break from writing any. The metre is of a spontaneous design and the poem is told from the perspective of the unnamed Fujian Inspector who orders the execution of the mortal soldier Hu Tianbao, whose soul is lifted to the realm of the gods and become the rabbit god Tu'er Shen. It is, of course, the Year of the Rabbit on the Chinese calendar and this poem (and the myth it is based on) also contains decidedly Easter-like themes seasonal to this time of the year. Incidentally, should any readers know the shop which sells the wonderful statuette of Tu'er Shen featured in the photo - please let me know. I would love to add it to the altar.    RABBIT R...

 Back in November I gave a talk/poetry reading about the life of Oscar Wilde, using samples of his poetry and other works to illustrate the story, as a fundraiser for the Albert Kennedy Trust. This recording is the general gist of that talk (if you enjoy it, please donate some cash to the AKT or other charity of your choice). The spirit of Oscar has been hanging around these last few months! This is a rather long recording, but at least you can pause it and get a coffee when it all becomes a bit much! Loom version  link  

  My reading of the first surviving chapter (Agamemnon) of Petronius's vulgar comedy 'Satyrica'. This is widely considered to be the earliest version of a novel, recounting the bawdy adventures of a former gladiator, Encolpius, and his boyfriend Giton. Much of the original work is lost which goes some way to explain why the story tends to jump about all over the place. It is written in the first person, from Encolpius' point of view, as he travels about with Giton and two friends whom he'd probably be better off without. The first few chapters are missing, so this recording picks up with Encolpius some way into his torrid life. Quite what happened earlier is open to speculation, but I assume it involves how the gladiator met Giton and some palaver in which they sowed a lot of coins into the hem of a garment (presumably to hide them) that was then stolen or lost - reappearing in this chapter. Unusually for a Classical work, the characters in the Satyrica are almost e...

I had what might be best described as a narrative dream in the early hours of Monday. A long standing friend died back in January and, in the dream, she was telling me the story - although I couldn't, as such, see her. She was more a voice "off stage" and I was watching the events she was describing without participating in the dream world ~ the story of the prince, recorded here. This isn't word-for-word what was said in the dream because most of it is a bit vague. However the sequence of events and some of the phrases use are the same. I am not sure why my friend should tell this story, because none of what happens is relevant to her life - however dreams, as Jung wrote  ton of texts telling us, are full of cryptic meanings and layered symbolism. I awoke with the sense that the story needed to be told - though without any idea of who to, so it may be that any meaning within it is more important for someone else to hear than it is for me (though it has relevance ...

I wrote this poem some years ago, and it appeared in the Moon Books anthology (published in 2014). It was inspired by the Greek myths of the sea deities Poseidon, Nerites (who was transformed into a sea snail), and Proteus the seal herder - a lovely idea, of a god looking after seals and steering them through the oceans. I'm recording this because 2017 is the anniversary of the decriminalisation of gay sex in the UK and so this year is being marked with various events, films etc. Also recording this because I'm sick to death of the General Election, but also more than a bit perturbed by the sudden elevation of the very hard line anti-LGBT Irish political group, the DUP, to the position of "king makers". So, this poem is my attempt to focus on a more positive view of such issues.

Watching the unfurling horrors in Manchester and London, I am as bewildered as anyone else by the level of hatred and malevolence on display. I was born in London and still have family and friends there, so yesterday's incident is particularly close to the bone. London is a city rich in mythology and legend (I'm sure Manchester is too, but I know very little about its stories) and the incident brought to mind both a favourite song - I am an admirer of the Golden Age of music from the 20s, 30s and 40s, including the Noel Coward number below, which I heard delivered to great effect by Kitt Hesketh-Harvey and Dillie Keane some years back. The song in turn brought to mind a semi-prophetic folk story from London's wide raging traditions. My spin on the story is included below - I hope it does not feel "too soon" to tell it. London Pride Karim’s lungs burnt as he raced through the city in hot pursuit of his friend, his once-friend, friend...

On June 8 th this year West Suffolk College’s Religious Studies & Ethics department held a free conference on the role of animals in religion and ethics, which a number of pagans attended and spoke at. It’s an intriguing area and practically every religion has drawn on animal imagery to convey lessons and philosophical concepts. For example, take the regal lion. In the New Testament, Revelations 5:5 predicts a future descendant of the tribe of Judah: " And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof ”. Many Christians regard this as a reference to Jesus, though he is more usually depicted as a lamb – partly because they are very gentle creatures, but also because they were a common sacrificial animal at that time, and the crucifixion was seen as the final sacrifice. In Judaism the Meshach, or messiah, is seen as a far more forceful character who...

I was asked to contribute to the PF disability team's virtual moot over the Lughnasadh weekend. The theme was transitions, so I recorded this waffle about declaring one's sexuality - it's a bit rambling, and I'm not sure it really says what was vaguely circling round my three remaining brain cells, but here it is anyway....

A short story belated finished to mark the summer solstice. For readers unfamiliar with the area, Dunwich is a coastal village in Suffolk (once a thriving medieval town). This is the second story it has inspired for me - I'll post the other one at some stage. About the Buoy Charles, never Charlie even when he was young, stood on the shore and listened to the mournful dolling of the bell on the buoy. The early morning sea mist hid the distant float, but could do nothing to muffle the sound. The longest day would shortly dawn, and old Charles would mark it as he had done since his own grandfather had dragged him from bed at the age of ten. Fifty-eight solstices he has witnessed since then, come rain or dry, come joy or grief. Born and raised in Dunwich, there was a special joy in being the farthest east and so the first to witness the spectacle. The solitary buoy marks the tides both lugubrious and tumultuous as surely as it marks Charles’s solitude, whether contente...