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Wicked Fantasy: Orks: Children of Pain
February 28, 2012 by Paco G. Jaen
This pdf by John Wick Presents is 26 pages long, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC/prelude, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement and 1 page SRD, leaving 21 pages of content, so what exactly do we get with these Orks (yeah, with "k", just like in German!)?
You have probably read the Wicked Fantasy-series of articles in Kobold Quarterly, but just to be sure: Wicked Fantasy centres on a new takes on classic fantasy races, a reimagining so to speak. An example would be the Uvandir, genderless (but male-looking), eternal dwarves who can toil all day and night, never starve etc. In this pdf, we get an expansive take on the Orks in the vein of a widely-expanded ecology-article.
The reimagining of the race essentially makes the Orks what you've come to know: An evil race, created by evil gods. Orkish doctrine, for ages, had them consume their foes to take in their strength and worship pain – until they evolved. For which foe might offer more strength than one's god? In a feat of unheard-of racial uprising, the orks stormed their god's sacred hall, vanquished their pantheon and ate them, thus gaining their strength. (Though some sages speculate that some orkish gods may have escaped…)
Thus, via the divinely-infused bloodlines, Orks changed and diversified and had to deal with the lifting of the red haze of rage, for now, they encountered a state of mind as of yet unknown – free will.
The nomadic tribes have made tentative peace with the other races, as they seek to understand the powers their newfound freedom and the darkness of their ancestors blood offer them. Depending on the bloodline of one's ancestors, special abilities and dispositions are available to the green-skins. 6 of these divine bloodlines are included.
The Orks can also create so-called Feth'Ork-creatures by feeding animals and beasts their blood in order to mutate the critters into allies and negate the loathing regular animals exhibit when encountered by Orks.
I mentioned the worship of pain as well and it defines Orkish culture to this date – their sacred scars, the Va, all come with their stories and knowing these has to be earned. More importantly, 5 masochistic feats enable Orks to harness the power of pain and actually get stronger via hurt, pain and punishment. I really loved these feats and while they seem to be kind of powerful, the steep price they demand is worth the benefit. 3 feats are focused on the divine bloodlines and we get a new mystery for the oracles, the so-called blood mystery, which essentially provides the tribal shamans and makes for a neat piece of writing. We also get a new archetype for barbarians and one for bards, the latter being rather interesting, as it focuses on insulting foes and bolstering allies via epic story-telling, thus hearkening back to our own world's intricate webs of poetic allusions displayed in saga-literature and Heian romances like the Tale of Genji, to quote only two.
Editing and formatting are good, though not stellar: I did notice about 7 glitches on my first read-through and an additional pass at editing would have been nice, as some of the extensive bookmarks consist of only one letter. layout adheres to a 2-column standard and comes in full-color, with a parchment-like background and neat pieces of artwork. I really liked the writing, which makes this pdf rank among the most compelling ecology-articles I have ever read. On the other hand, though, I feel that some of the pieces of writing like the feats could be more concisely-written: I had to re-read some of the feats before I got how exactly how the crunch is supposed to work. Were I to rate only the quality of the writing, I'd settle for a higher rating, but as presented the glitches and minor hick-ups just accumulated and thus I'll settle for a final verdict of 4 stars.
Wicked Fantasy: Orks: Children of Pain is available from:
Filed Under: Authors, Pathfinder, Role Playing Games, Thilo Graf Tagged With: children, fantasy, game, john, orks, pain, paizo, pathfinder, playing, presents, role, roleplaying, rpg, wick, wicked
Book of Beasts: Wandering Monsters
This pdf from John Brazer Enterprises is 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving 5 pages for the new monsters.
The Blightdaemon (CR 4) is a small, imp-like harbinger of disease and comes with a new disease. The Death Adept (CR 8) is an undead priest with divine casting abilities. Kind of like Huecava, but more focused on being an undead cleric. Mantians (CR 5) are giant, preying-mantis-like creatures that come with their own poison I don't get why they don't get keen claws or more damage on their primary attacks. Their defensive qualities list "Compound Eyes", but not what they do. I gather that, similar to Dreamscarred Press's Dromites, they grant the Mantians +2 to Perception checks, but I'm not sure whether that's already fractured in the +8 racial modifier to perception they get or whether having compound eyes grants them additional benefits. It should be noted that this does not impair the usability of the creature, though, so I won't detract a star. Remembrents (CR 3) are shrieking, corporeal undead with some spell-like abilities. Rock-Ophidians (CR 3) are minor dragon-like beings that can spit acid and for a limited amount of time harden their scales. This is a rather strange ability, as no in-game explanation or true reason is given for the creature to have this ability.
Layout adheres to the 2-column standard and is printer-friendly b/w. The b/w-artwork the monsters get is nice and for the price very nice. Editing could have been better – I noticed a relic "a" in one of the statblocks, an adjective/adverb-mix-up in the Remembrents text and a mix-up between horde/hoard in the Ophidian-text. Due to the shortness of the pdf, I think they could have been avoided. Apart from the typo-pet-peeves of mine, I have another point of criticism: In e.g. stark contrast to the "Monsters of the River Nations"-book, the critters in this pdf lack any iconic quality whatsoever. Mantians are Mantis-like creatures and do exactly what you'd expect. The same goes for the other beasts – they just feel generic. And unfortunately uninspired. There is nothing wrong with the creatures or their mechanics per se and their artworks are ok. However, none of them felt unique or inspired in a way that made me want to use them in my campaign. While the pdf is cheap, I still can't recommend it – due to the low price, my final verdict will be 2 stars.
Book of Beasts: Wandering Monsters is available from:
Filed Under: Pathfinder, Role Playing Games Tagged With: beasts, book, brazer, enterprises, game, john, monsters, paizo, pathfinder, pdf, playing, role, rpg, wandering
The Laundry
By Neal Freeman
The Laundry is a roleplaying game based on the 'Laundry Files' novels by Charles Stross, written by Gareth Hanrahan, Jason Durall and John Snead. It's by Cubicle Seven, powered by Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying and licensed by Chaosium.
Having exceptionally high standards as a reviewer, or something, I considered it my duty not just to read and play through the game but also to read the first 'Laundry Files' book. I bought 'The Atrocity Archives' – at my own expense I'll have you know, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. The game manages to capture the feel of the book quite well, though the stories are a bit more serious in tone; the game makes more of the humorous fighting-Cthulhu-despite-lots-of-red-tape motif. But that's a very minor quibble.
So what's it really about? Well, imagine what would happen if James Bond was investigating cultists of the Elder Gods instead of terrorists, but he was working for the civil service. Well, yes, I know that technically he does work for the civil service already, smarty-pants. The civil service with its bureaucratic elements hugely magnified then. Honestly.
The writing is uniformly good. It's clear, and to the point. There are examples throughout, and the opportunity is taken to clarify the rules and the background using letters and official documents taken from the game world. These are neatly executed, and many of them are usable as handouts. As someone who has worked for a highly bureaucratic monster in the past, it all rings rather true.
The game system is Basic Roleplaying, which is tried and tested over many years, and there are no major rules innovations. So no issues there.
The book is a standard hardback weighing in at nearly 300 pages. The cover art is functional rather than beautiful and bizarrely appears to feature my mate Kingsley holding a gun and beset by various nasty beasties. He says it wasn't him, but I'm suspicious.
Inside, there's plenty of good, clear layout which makes it easy to read. Internal artwork is on the whole reasonable, but not very usable in a game. This personal bugbear of mine is shared by so many role-playing games so it's not fair to level particular criticism here. There's such an opportunity to enhance games with art you can use, but it's so rarely taken. Why not?
If I was going to pick a minor fault, it would be a lack of consistency of artwork style. Most of it is clearly the same artist, but this means that the occasional piece by someone else in a different style really clashes. For me, consistent feel really helps to bring the game world alive, and a little more attention to detail here would have been welcome.
There's a nice foreword by Charles Stross, author of the 'Laundry Files' novels, followed by an introduction for players which is very useful indeed as an initial handout. Then, a history of the Laundry which is similarly useful. It's a good start.
What follows is the obligatory standard page on how to play roleplaying games. Good to see this not laboured. Let's be honest, nearly everyone who picks up this book will already be an experienced role-player. All in all, the first few pages leave you with a good feeling about what's to come.
I'm not going to patronise you. You've already heard of Basic Roleplaying. It uses that. Job done. Skip to the end.
What, I have to do better than that? All right, then. Basic Roleplaying is a d100-based system, and pretty much every roll you make will use percentile dice. You roll really well and it's a critical success. You roll really badly and it's a fumble. There's damage, and there's hit points. It's quite old school, but it all hangs together and works.
For me there are a few flaws in Basic Roleplaying. Number one is that most skills are not linked to an attribute, so that for example your 'Jump' skill starts out at 25% whether you're a ninja or a university professor. Number two is that the skills start so low that you find yourself failing most tasks at first.
But, since Basic Roleplaying is the system for Call of Cthulhu, the biggest target audience for this book will be right at home here, and my petty grievances count for little. It works fine, and doesn't get in the way of the play too much. What more could you ask for? There's a slight preponderance of tables which rankles a little with my keep-it-simple ethic but that's a pretty minor point because you won't be using those tables very often.
Character creation is nicely written and well laid out. Pretty much what you'd expect. Skills are all pretty standard. There are rather too many of them in my opinion, and for someone new to the game it can be a little difficult to remember whether you need Sorcery or Computer Use (Magic) at times, but skills are at the heart of the d100 system and I guess you'd expect this. There are some nice tips for character generation.
System rules and combat are nicely presented. The dear old resistance table is here, which never fails to remind of the 1st edition Dungeon Master's Guide and those 'to hit' tables. A bit unfair perhaps. This chapter is comprehensive and functional; it's difficult to get excited about, and the best you can do is get it over with quickly and without fuss. This is achieved. The Sanity section will be very familiar to Call of Cthulhu players.
Overall, the rules are executed very well. No major innovations, but then perhaps none are needed.
The next chapter starts detailing the background, and this is where the game starts to score. Plot ideas ooze out of the history and structure of the Laundry. If you like complexity, there's plenty here. If you don't, you can safely ignore it.
Then, we're on to equipment, and a very nice section. I think lots of players will like what they can do with their smart phone, and personally I'd love to have an enhanced smart car. Cool stuff from the books, like the basilisk gun, is reproduced in game terms very well. There's magical stuff and standard spy stuff and plenty of guns, so you can fail to kill anything to your heart's content. An aside: as in Call of Cthulhu, don't get into combat. Someone's going to die.
The next chapter is my personal favourite. It's called 'Budgets, Requisitions and Training'. No really, stay with me here. This is at the heart of the feel of the game. It really gives you the flavour of a big bureaucratic machine. I like the approach to possessions (of the equipment rather than demonic variety): much of what you need during play is requisitioned using a neat mechanic. Good job guys.
The background continues with chapters on all of the other organisations around the world you might run into. Again, this immediately throws a whole load of plot possibilities at you.
Next is a big chapter on sorcery. It's a bit confusing at first how sorcery works in this world, so I'd advise reading it a few times. A key difference from Call of Cthulhu is that a player's POW makes no difference in using magic – it's all (or nearly all) in the technology. One thing I like very much is how the setting makes sense of the history of magic in the real world. This means I can bring in Merlin, or John Dee, or whoever my favourite wizard is, and make them fit into the game.
There follows an excellent chapter which is intended to reproduce a Laundry manual. I liked this a lot. Not only would it make an excellent handout, it summarises a lot of important stuff for the referee and helps clarify a number of game concepts.
Gamers need help. As well as being generally true, it's true here. Two well-written chapters on expectations of play and game-mastering come next. If you've been in the hobby for a while there's nothing particularly new, but we can all do with being reminded of this stuff every now and again. The game-master chapter ends with a mission generator which looks useful if you're short of inspiration and need some help. Lastly, the all-important Cthulhoid buzzword table, when you can't remember a synonym for 'squamous'. Don't tell me you don't know what 'squamous' means.
There's a chapter giving 'personnel records', or character sheets to you and me, for a number of characters from the books and also some player characters. The only slight problem with these is the layout of the skills. They all run into each other and are difficult to pick out. In addition, they have left out a number of skills (the ones which weren't advanced) so you have to resort to the rulebook if you want to do something you're not skilled in. Otherwise fine.
Another excellent section. The stats are dealt with, of course, plus some entertaining field guides. A chapter on general threats comes next, followed by a description of the Cthulhu apocalypse, where all hell breaks loose…literally.
What I'd love to see is a full-length campaign for this game. It could be terrific. The scenarios in the final chapters of the book are not bad, but they don't do the game full justice. The first, 'Going Down to Dunwich' actually does a pretty good job of introducing a lot of the concepts of the game, in-game. The alternative would be talking this through with your players, which would be much less interesting, so it works well. When I play-tested it, my players all said they liked it, but that it wasn't particularly gripping. One of them said it played like the training mission at the start of a computer game. That seems fair enough.
The final scenario, 'The Greys', looks pretty good but I didn't play it through.
We all liked the British style and thought we could have a lot of fun with the setting. Because it's modern, there is of course an internet full of resources out there. Personally I can't wait for my players to be using Google street view during the game. Hmmm, that gives me an idea…make some random thing on street view an important clue…
One of my players wondered whether we needed another 'Cthulhu' game – after all even apart from Call of Cthulhu itself there are a number of alternatives. In the final analysis, I think this is a good game, for which I hope to run a campaign. I hope it's appeal isn't too limited – it's well worth a look if you want to run modern horror with a British edge.
The real test of a roleplaying game book is this: does it make you want to run a game? As I was reading through, several ideas for campaigns were occurring to me, and I'm now itching to throw them at my players. So it passes. Overall, I like it, quite a lot, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.
The Laundry is available from:
Filed Under: Role Playing Games Tagged With: chaosium, Charles, cthulhu, Cubicle, Durall, game, Gareth, Hanrahan, Jason, john, laundry, magic, monsters, playing, role, roleplaying, rpg, Seven, Snead, spells, Stross
Gender specific games
February 6, 2011 by Paco G. Jaen
Recently I came across an indie game called Kagematsu and I was very taken by the premise that the GM is meant to be a woman, while the players are meant to be males playing female characters. I thought it was intriguing and started to wonder how much thought is given to gender and sexuality at the time of designing games.
In my life as a gamer, I have played many characters, both male and female. However I must admit that it only started as a laugh, and not really giving any consideration to the realities of being, feeling, behaving and reacting as a person of the opposite sex.
Let us leave sexuality out of this equation. Although I am a 38 years old man, I understand there are young adults and quite a few children playing Role Playing Games, and these games are not necessarily the best place to explore that issue.
However, as an adult and as a psychotherapist, I do find the subject fascinating, and even more fascinating that very little thought it is given to the whole thing generally.
Our hobby is predominantly male. The percentage of men to women is overwhelming (at least in the UK, and in Spain when I was growing up) and I have always wondered why women didn't find the game scene at all interesting.
I actually think I might have found part of the reason: Games companies are not run (usually) by women and few women are hired to write about games.
This would appear to sound feeble as an excuse, but think about it.
Let's make something clear. Men and women don't think the same way. We look at things in a different way, appreciate things differently, react differently… Of course that is not always the case and it is very often that men and women do see eye to eye. I do believe, though, that the different sensibilities are not really kept in mind from the moment go at the time of writing or even coming up with adventure hooks.
This lack of women in the game scene is genuinely surprising to me. It is surprising because the women I have met and I have played with make a fantastic job of it. Also the women I know of who write games material are indeed very good they have nothing to envy to any male writer.
When I started to think about this subject a few days ago, I went to LinkedIn and asked in the three groups of role players I frequent. As usual, people were only so happy to offer ideas and opinions about my question, and one jumped at me that also gave me a great amount of insight:
"FWIW, I'm pretty sure that if any game tried to limit the gender of GM or players, every gamer I know (male or female) would completely ignore such stipulations"
Although probably very true, I also felt it was missing the point of gender in games completely.
When a game expects a player or a character to be male or female, is for a reason. Or for many reasons. Games and adventures are not written "on the fly". A lot of thought and consideration is given to plot, characters, situations, motivations and a long etcetera. If a character, or a player, is meant to be female (or male), to ignore that, or not to make attempts to represent the gender in accordance with the scenario, could have a very detrimental impact on the way the adventure is meant to run, and spoil the fun for everyone. Needless to say, it is also disrespectful for the team of people who came up with the idea and spent so long working on it.
Something else that also surprised me is that not a single woman replied to my question.
It does appear, though, that there are a good number of games that do require to have PCs or players of a certain gender, and I have to thank Aaron McLin for his generous contribution of the following list. The list comes partly from memory and, to his own admission, it could be incomplete or mistaken:
Thirty – by John Wick. The players take on the roles of Knights Templar that escaped the Inquisition. They are, pretty much by definition, men. Wick does allow for players to create female templars if they wish – he "won't show up on your doorstep with the Historicity Police." But he's also quite clear that there are no female knights in his own games, and the male pronoun is used throughout. Thirty is more of a programmed campaign than a fully-fledged role-playing game.
The next two games on the list are both set in girls high schools, and the only player role available is that of schoolgirl, so all of the PCs are expected to be female – there's no "well, if you really want to play a boy" out given. And teenagers at that.
Hellcats and Hockeysticks – by Andrew Peregrin. This game is set in St. Erisians, a British girl's school modelled after "The original St. Trinian's cartoons and films." As an American, I'm not at all familiar with these, but the overall concept, British schoolgirls creating as much anarchy as they can get away with, seems to be pretty clear.
Panty Explosion – by Jake Richmond and Matt Schlotte. Despite the resoundingly unfortunate name (WHAT were these guys thinking?), this is actually a serious game, featuring schoolgirls (Japanese this time), some with psychic powers, attempting to deal with supernatural threats, and advance their own agendas. "Mai the Psychic Girl" comes to mind, along with any number of other anime and manga titles.
Recon – Palladium games Vietnam war game. I think all of the PCs are American infantrymen, so all PCs would be male.
Behind Enemy Lines – Allied Soldiers in WW II. Again, the limitation to male PCs is created by the historical setting of the game.
All For One: Régime Diabolique. It states that Musketeers must be male, but allows the GM to waive that rule. But within the "standard" rules, the only way for a PC to be female is to masquerade as a male (the Spy sample character does just this).
Another game that has been mentioned to me recently is Maid. A Japanese role playing game in which all PCs are female and maids in a house or another. Unfortunately I have also heard pretty disturbing things about that game, such as the appearance of a 10yo female maid wearing a transparent uniform. Although some people have dismissed it as "a Japanese thing", I have to say I find it too close to many paedophiles fantasies and can't condone it.
So what is gender's place in Role Playing Games? Is it a tool to provide with a different and more interesting experience. Does it help us think out of the box and empathise with the opposite sex? Or is it just another excuse to end up behaving like silly grown ups and have a laugh with our mates?
Over to you!
Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: allied, andrew, diabolique, explosion, game, games, gender, hockeysticks, jake, john, kagematsu, kellcats, panty, peregrin, play, recon, regime, richmond, role, rpg, sexuality, soldiers, specific, thirty, wick


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Set-up to overseer the development of all Church assets (land & buildings) in order to derive income to assist in funding Church programe subsequently sustaining itself.
Since its establishment the department has been able to carry out land subdivisions at Davuilevu, Hunter Street(Flagstaff), Levuka and various other places, and has issued leases in those developed plots. The department is administering those leases for compliance of the lease condition, particularly the timely payment of land dues. The department has also put in place lawful mechanism for the collection of arrears of land dues.
We are continuing the administration of all leases with periodical (6 months) issue of rental statements and notices to ensure timely payments of annual rent. This process is still being done manually and the department is very anxious in converting this manual system to a computerized system to assist in the timely issue of statements and notices and at the same time gain easy access to our records.
Furthermore, the majority of prime freehold land previously held by the Trustees of the Methodist Church in Fiji (administered by this Department) has now been transferred to the Methodist Church in Fiji Holding Trust.
There are numerous leasehold properties registered under the Trustees of the MCIF, located within various Circuits and Divisions - these are also being administered by the department.
With our present policy of 'User-pay Policy', Chief Stewards in respective Circuits, Divisions and other Institutions are urged to fully utilize these leasehold properties and more importantly, the timely payment of all land dues to respective landlords (tltb, Director of Lands, Housing Authority etc).


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All information is believed to be accurate but is not guaranteed & should be independently verified.


An irony of the 808 is that it began as an everyman's machine – a disliked relic that no-name musicians could acquire for prices approaching free. It helped that Keyboard infamously likened its sound to "marching anteaters." (Note to self: idea for DJ name.) Yet now, the quirky Roland original commands high prices that have transformed it into an (often-unreliable) luxury item.
Correction: It seems the story about Keyboard's Dominic Milano referencing drum machines that sounded like "marching anteaters" was true – but not that it was in fact a Roland TR-808 that Dominic meant. See Kurt Werner, Ethnomusicology Review.
The fall and rise of the 808 isn't just arbitrary, however. There is something distinctive about the sound design and usability of the original beast, the result of a twist of fate and history that compelled Roland engineers to bend their will into an instrument that was neither entirely synthetic nor entirely natural. People scoffed at violins and pianos when they were new, too, after all; while the TR-808 isn't exactly on that level, it is a unique entity, one with a personality all its own.
But as KORG reissues a part-by-part remake of the MS-20 and fits 1970s filters into … well, nearly everything imaginable, Japanese rival Roland is thus far silent. Names make comebacks, yes. Actual circuitry, not so much.
The Yocto isn't the first hardware to attempt to clone the original 808. It just happens to do it in a way that is promising – in function, in price, and in claimed accuracy.
Cost: 379€. Just be prepared for some DIY.
Each of the eleven drum sounds from the original 808 are here copied component-by-component, say the makers, with only the BA662 VCA Clap replaced by a BA6110.
The front panel, too, looks strikingly similar.
And pattern-making lives up to the predecessor, while adding additional functionality. With the added MIDI sequencer, you can store up to 256 patterns (16 banks times 16 patterns each). And for a generation accustomed to more-complete sequencing, you can now mute each sound, chain, copy, paste, and clear.
If they've done this right, in other words, this could be a perfect techno machine.
And there's reason to root for them. As a set of samples, the 808 … well, is kind of crap. The real appeal isn't the raw sound samples of the Roland so much as hands-on control of sounds and sequences.
Just be prepared for a DIY project that isn't for the feint of heart. This isn't even close to a good build for someone with limited experience; you'll want some good tools and, as the makers suggest, time for testing and patience. Then again, for those of you with the experience, that may be part of the fun. It's also nice to see that the board here can be opened in the free version of Eagle, the CAD software.
In addition to the Yocto, if your tastes run differently, you can also try your hand on a 606-style sequencer or an Ableton-esque MIDI sequencer in their projects section.
If anyone knows more about these folks, we'd love to hear.


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State Bank launches UK subsidiary SBI (UK) Ltd
Tuesday, April 10, 2018 Banking Awareness, News Leave a Comment
India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has announced the launch of it's UK Subsidiary, SBI (UK) Limited, with an initial capital commitment of 225 million pounds. SBI UK is the largest Indian bank in the UK. With this SBI becomes the first foreign bank in the UK to ringfence its retail division from its wholesale business.
SBI said that the ringfencing and subsidiarisation of the retail franchise SBI UK, the bank's largest overseas operation, offers UK customers "stability and reassurance" amidst continuing uncertainty around the UK's decision to leave the European Union (EU).
"We are extremely proud of how far the bank has come from the first time it opened its doors to UK residents in 1921," said Sanjiv Chadha, Regional Head of SBI UK.
"The launch of our UK subsidiary shows our commitment to operate in the UK market. Many banks primarily see the UK as the gateway to Europe and are fazed by the impact of Brexit. Our calculus is different. We see London as the ideal launch pad for a global presence and have full faith that, despite Brexit, London will remain the premier international financial centre," he said.
Important Note : SBI operates 7 Branches in London and 5 each in Manchester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester and Coventry - all cities with a large concentration of Indian diaspora population.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Title Paddington - Rome
-Paddington, London, St Mary Magdalene
-Paddington, London, St James
-Paris, France, Holy Trinity American Cathedral
-Peasemore, Berkshire, St Barnabas
-Pewsey, Wiltshire, St John the Baptist
-Pickhill, North Yorkshire, All Saints
-Piltown, Kilkenny, Ireland, St Paul
-Pimlico, London, St Barnabas
-Pimlico, London, St Gabriel
-Pitcombe, Somerset, St Leonard
-Pitstone, Buckinghamshire, Vicarage
-Plymouth, Devon, St Peter
-Plymouth, Devon, St Peter's School
-Pokesdown, Hampshire, St James the Greater
-Polesworth, Warwickshire, St Edith
-Pontesbury, Shropshire, St George
-Portsmouth, Hampshire, Royal Garrison
-Purley, Berkshire, St Mary
-Rodney Stoke, Somerset, St Leonard
-Rome, Italy, proposed English church "for an undesignated site within the walls near Porte del Popolo"
-Rome, Italy, All Saints English Church
-Rome, Italy, St Paul American Church
-Rome, Italy, St Paul, Rectory


I'm a creature of habit and manage to filter through The Salt Lake Tribune each morning while eating my blackberry-laden Total cereal. I far enjoy the cereal. Given this is the Internet age, after reading the Tribune, I go online to read the Deseret Morning News to make sure the Tribune got the story right. On nearly any topic, one can find a twin-sister version of that story in the D-News. If they promised to hit my porch, I'd switch subscriptions.
I was reading a Dawn House (full disclosure: I like Dawn House) article in the Tribune the other day about how Utah is running out of restaurant liquor licenses. Frankly, I don't see a problem with that. The more the merrier. Full disclosure: I have consorted with many persons who consume liquor and have been accused of doing so myself. It was just a normal story until I got to the quotes from new Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control commission member Bobbie Coray.
I clicked onto the D-News site and read a nearly identical, positively damned-near-verbatim story on the subject. The D-News tale, however, was attributed to the Associated Press. Hmmm. I guess with mine cave-ins, fires and elections, the AP can still squeeze in some time to report on a lowly liquor-commission meeting. Or someone just tweaked the House article and called it a day. No matter, I hope they pay House for the service she provides both papers.
I understand the feminist Coray's position. But if Coray claims to be a Democrat, she should act like one. I'll bet right now, I've been a Democrat (full disclosure noted) longer than she has, and I accept that feminists comprise a strong wing of that party. Coray needs to reciprocate. She is going to have to play with the rest of us in that big tent. If she wants to act like a Republican, then she should join and besmirch that party. How can she tell what is sleaze and what is not? Stick on that commission awhile, though, Bobbie, and you'll begin to tell the difference.
For decades, a major rap on the liquor commission has been that it is made up of of people who don't drink, lending a disconnect not only to drinkers, but to any club or restaurant in the business of serving liquor. Coray's logic is nothing more than a throwback to decades ago when commissioners debated where the historic tradition of brown-bagging could still occur. They decided corked wines were superior wines consumed by superior people. Therefore, they allowed for them to be carried into "fine" restaurants when "screw top" wines were not. Foie gras, in; nacho platter out. It doesn't matter if Coray is a feminist, Democrat or Republican—she's just one more nondrinker on the liquor commission. And it shows.
And that isn't even the start of what is stuck in my craw today. On Monday morning, I read in Paul Rolly's (full disclosure: I like Paul Rolly) Tribune column how a 29-year season-ticket-holding BYU football fan had been hijacked out of his seats at LaVell Edwards Stadium. His tickets were sold to Cougar Club donors, and he wasn't even notified. Rolly expressed his sympathy by inviting him to join him as a Ute fan. Hey, Paul—what about me?
I won't be sitting in Rice-Eccles stadium this year—the same thing that happened to the BYU fan happened to me. Full disclosure: I'm a University of Utah graduate, die-hard Ute fan (going to Oregon State tomorrow—see ya!), and I'm pissed. Since this paper began, it has supported anything and everything the U asked of us from departmental and field-study cash donations to in-kind advertising for events, festivals, lectures and, yes, Ute football tickets. That's gonna change. A few weeks ago, we discovered our Ute season tickets had been re-issued. Never mind we stood loyally by during losing seasons and construction. We were told they're going in another direction. Excuse me? No forewarning? And, about that belated offer to move us far away from our friends and 20 rows higher? Forget it. This isn't new at all in Ute-ville. I know other people and businesses that have been treated similarly so, sorry, Paul, BYU isn't the laggard on this one.
I wish the Ute football team success, but I've chosen another direction, too. I'm dancing with a new partner, because today's mail came, and with it, my brand-new BYU season tickets. Of course, I bought them out of spite. Of course, I'm giving them away. All you have to do is e-mail me and tell me why you want them. No guidelines. I'll provide two seats for each BYU home game starting with the Arizona game this weekend. You don't have to beg. You'll score points, though if you lay some serious smack on the ticketmeisters of either program. Best entrant gets the BYU-Utah game.


This adorable Green Print Frog dog bone neck pillow would make a wonderful addition to any and all frog collections.
It has just the right support for your back, neck, or under the knee while watching television or traveling in the car.
This frog dog bone neck pillow was made by hand in Jacksonville NC.
This pillow will make a great gift for all frog collectors and all occasions.


So here it is. colours are a bit strange but then I ended up working out in the studio rather than in eca. At college I could not count on one specific work area and so opted, as nearly everyone else did, to work from home. I cut out and installed photos I had taken of the Close in order to add to another dimension in what is really quite a flat plain. I also wanted to give more of a sense of progression and journey. I have installed Roman Numeral dates - key points in my life on the road to where I am at now, and resorted to symbols in order to punctuate those events. This is in keeping with the dates and initials over door lintels. As influences I can cite Braque, Mondrian and Ben Nicholson.
In this piece I started experimenting with the shape of the painting. Rather than three distinct blocks, there is one flowing - hopefully - ascent from the bottom to the top. I wanted to convey the slick damp steps and the texture of the stone. Also wanted to be somewhat atmospheric in lighting.
Initial large piece based on the walk up Advocate's Close.
I got an introduction to N1 workshop - place of amazing tools with which to do very ambitious and potentially hazardous things and printing facilities. It was the latter that I engaged more fully with and really enjoyed playing with bits of paper and netting to create this very abstracted version of the Close.
This was done on card, split into three sections using photos and drawings I had made on site. I then used a ruler and added lines on top. Some aspects worked but I felt that it was too flat and cluttered a design.
Excuse the pun. Can't help myself. I had a couple of tries at painting, designed to capture the colours, textures and atmosphere of the Close. In the end I decided to actually manufacture the shape of the final piece to mirror the direction of the steps themselves. I used watercolour paper and layers of acrylic paint, watered down to act as watercolours. I also used the sewing machine. The stitch gave texture, knitted the interlocking sections together and also added to the general story of how lives, as with the Close itself, are a process of layers that are meshed together.
A few of the photos I took in researching for the project. They do not convey the smell - damp!
The new challenge - all 170 of us or at least all the First Years have to work collaboratively on resourcing, curating, promoting, documenting and producing a SHOW! The brief for this exhibition is the story so far ... It is about showing the tutors what we believe our specialist area of study to be .. so I need to paint! It is also communicate my experience, relections and thoughts during the last five weeks at eca.
I have decided to focus my piece on Advocate's Close in Edinburgh. I walk up it daily on arriving at Waverly Station. I climb up all of 119 steps or so to the Royal Mile. Each time I get a little thrill. Edinburgh is a very beautiful city and this part of it is steeped in history. Walking up the Close you get the feel of how over hundreds of years, various people/buildings and business ventures have come and gone. There are doorways that lead to nowhere, dates on top of lintels, old walls in front of more modern walls. Halfway up there is a sign on a lintel which reads ' He that tholes overcomes'. Timely advice when drawing breath and feeling wobbly legs.
To me the climb is also metaphorical. Going back to a teaching analogy - the ladder. If life's achievements can be likened to a series of rungs on a ladder, eca represents the pinnacle of achievement, the highest rung in a ladder. Along the way are other very important dates, such as those of the birth of my children. I have notions of creating a painting of the Close, making much of the overlapping nature of the steps and inserting my important dates over lintels of doors and windows.
This is how the 'Book' was exhibited in the Sculpture Court. Konstantina helped procure me a revolving table. I covered it in paper so to give it a clean-up and the piece sat on top.
The brilliance of the revolving table was that during my presentation I could turn the table round to reveal the reverse side of the pages!
The whole Sculpture Court was a complete buzz of excitement. The presentations were not as scary as I was initally convinced they would be, simpley because we kept in our group - Group A and by this time we knew each other quite well. The only downside to the proceedings was that due to the Court being very busy with lots of groups presenting at the same time, some of the quieter members of the group were very hard to hear. However it was a rewarding experience. We also got a very good write up from edinburghguardian guest blogger Emma Parks.
The bar has now been set!
I need to get Andrew to help me 'tidy' up the page. There appears to be random references I think to do with the photos that I uploaded and I do not know how to get rid of them!


Lead researcher Dr Gareth Hagger-Johnson, from the UCL Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, said: "Our research shows that despite recent social change, young people today who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual are twice as likely to have smoked as their heterosexual peers. Gay and lesbian young people also appear to have more frequent and more hazardous alcohol drinking patterns than heterosexuals. Smoking and drinking alcohol frequently and hazardously can lead to chronic disease in later life, and so we should be worried about these health inequalities in this minority group and the longer term consequences they may face.


11am - Family Service. Coffee by Good News Club in aid of CMS 200th Anniversary Lenten Project.
8pm - Prayers for the Parish upst'rs, Main Hall needs your support .
1pm - 'Architecture of Christchurch Cathedral' talk by Michael O'Neill.
10am - Lenten Holy Communion, Theme: 'Church & Culture' series.
8pm - Safeguarding Trust workers and panel members training in Kill O the Grange Parish Hall.
10.30am - Coffee morning in the small hall, all welcome! 10.30am – 12.30pm.
11am - Mothering Sunday Morning Prayer. (Clock goes forward).
1pm - Building of stage in the Priory for Now and Then's 'Jesus Christ Super Star', helpers wanted.
2pm - the Crafty Chatters meet in the Small Hall at the Parish Centre. Bring along whatever craft you are working on or learn a new one. 2-4pm All welcome.
7pm - Parish School Board of management meeting in the school Kilclare Ave, Jobstown.
10am - First Wednesday of the month Holy Communion, with laying on of hands for the sick and Lenten Service theme "Church & Society"


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is an ambitious sequel to the one of the Wii's premier games of 2008 and one that fans of Travis' quest to become the number one ranked assassin have been waiting for with bated breath for a long time. Well the wait is over, Travis Touchdown is back in a big way and with him comes more carnage, more mayhem, more awkward sexiness and of course more crazy moments from everyone's favourite anime loving, wrestling fanatic assassin. Does Desperate Struggle slice up the rankings or is this just another bloody corpse set to litter the streets of Santa Destroy?
For those who have played the original No More Heroes the control scheme for Desperate Struggle will come off as second nature. For the uninitiated, you move Travis with the joystick on the Nunchuck, 'Z' targets an enemy and 'C' switches between multiple targets. On the Wii Remote the 'A' button is used to slice at your enemies with the Beam Katana while 'B' controls your punches and kicks that can be used to confuse enemies, while the left and right directions on the D-pad are used for quick evasive rolls. The game is also very light with the motion controls but the ones present are used very intelligently. When an enemy's health bar reaches zero an arrow on screen will flash and a quick flick in the direction will eliminate the enemy with all kinds of gushing bloody goodness. The angle at which you're holding the Wii Remote dictates how Travis holds the Katana, allowing him to block incoming attacks. This is the only real motion control related issue with the game, as it's hard to gauge the needed height and movement needed to change Travis' stance; sometimes it's a subtle gesture other times you need to really move the remote vigorously. Finally to recharge your Beam Katana's batteries you must hold the '2' button while making movements that I'm sure most teenage boys are familiar with. (IE: holding the Wii Remote vertically and frantically moving it up and down.) The game also uses quick time events in the form of quick on screen flashes to indicate how to break a parry with an enemy or performing a wrestling move as a finisher. All in all the controls are very well executed. My only gripes being the exclusion of Wii Motion Plus support, which would have made the gesture based combat more responsive and also solve the issues with holding the Wii Remote at the proper height and the terrible camera, which always seems to throw itself into a corner just as the action is getting intense or you are staring down a boss. It should also be noted that the game allows you to use a Classic Controller for a more traditional experience, when using this option the motion gestures are simply replaced with a button based control scheme.
Several changes were made to the gameplay from the original No More Heroes. Once Travis is assigned a target for assassination, you can then move from your hotel room to the area where you are to meet your opponent. However the overworld navigation has changed dramatically, as now you simply choose the place you want to visit instead of riding there manually via motorcycle like in the original game. From the overworld map you can choose to either return to Travis' hotel room at hotel No More Heroes, to either play with your cat Jeane, who has gained some serious weight since the last game and needs help dropping it, read through the latest issue of Weekly Backdrops to learn a new wrestling move or simply visit the bathroom to 'drop a save'. You can then move to a variety of different locations throughout Santa Destroy, including the clothing shop Airport 51 to buy some new cloth and accessories, visit Naomi's shop to buy new Beam Katanas or visit Ryan's gym to upgrade your vital stats.
Once you reach your objective, you jump into No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle's basic gameplay, a straight up action brawler. You move from room to room facing off against various types of enemies armed with all sorts of different objects ranging from blunt instruments to swords and even guns. Once all the enemies in a room have been reduced to dismembered piles of human flesh you can move onto the next area and repeat. While it all sounds very repetitive, the game does a good job at keeping levels short, meaning you will run into the boss of a particular area long before you get bored. Boss battles are anything but your standard affair, one minute you will be 'simply' slashing away at a seemingly normal enemy and the next you will be in space fighting giant robots and no I am not kidding.
This variety in gameplay even carries over to the mini-games. In the prequel, you had to complete menial tasks to earn cash to spend on upgrades. The same is true for Desperate Struggle, however this time most (all but one) of the jobs are presented in a classic 8-bit style, complete with simple 2-3 button gameplay and even synthesised voices. In all, there are 8 jobs for Travis to find around Santa Destroy. These include Bug Out, which has Travis collecting insects and rodents. Lay The Pipe features Travis the plumber connecting pipes to make sure the water safely flows from one end to the other. Coconut Grabber, a re-imagining of the coconut collecting mini game from No More Heroes has an 8-bit Travis running from palm tree to palm tree knocking coconuts down and trying to catch them in a backpack. Pizza With A Vengeance puts Travis in the role of a pizza delivery boy who must reach his destination before time runs out, all while avoiding oncoming traffic and oil slicks. In Man The Meat you must take control of a grill station, making sure each customer's 'meat' gets cooked perfectly. Tile In Style is a puzzle game where you must place blocks (that bare a striking resemblance to Tetris blocks) in a perfect rectangle. Getting Trashed takes us to outer space where Travis must collect floating pieces of garbage and 'throw them in the ocean or something'. The last part-time job mini-game is Stings So Good and is the only one presented with the standard games graphics, this time around Travis is tasked with ridding Santa destroy of scorpions by slowly placing them in a bag and 'disposing' of them.
Apart from earning jobs the game features 3 more mini-games, two of which are located in Ryan's Gym, and are training exercises used to build both Travis' stamina (health) and strength (power), like the jobs before them, these are also presented in the 8-bit style. The final mini-game, Bizarre Jerry 5 is well… bizarre. On the surface it is a pretty basic vertical shooter in the same vein as a game from the Raiden series, the odd part is that you control flying anime style schoolgirls with abnormally large breasts and a penchant for wearing revealing clothing. If this wasn't disturbing enough Bizarre Jerry 5's intro cinematic (unlocked shortly into the game) is easily the last thing you want anyone walking in on. While all these mini-games both control and play very well, there are a few stand-outs. Both Pizza With A Vengeance and Man The Meat are extremely addictive and will easily have you putting hours into collecting cash. This hard-earned money can then be used to buy training time at the gym, weapon upgrades and clothing accessories.
The game also features multiple playable characters one of whom is Shinobu Jacobs, an assassin Travis defeated in the first game, but decided to spare her life. Well she is back, and this time she decides to help Travis along, even referring to him as her 'master'. For the most part Shinobu plays the same as Travis with one major exception. Instead of having melee attacks, Shinobu has aerial attacks and the ability to jump. And that is the major disappointment in the gameplay department, as most of her levels feature extensive platforming sections that, coupled with the already sketchy camera result in a frustrating experience as Shinobu will constantly fall off platforms or jump back to the ground floor after you have climbed to the top of a high area. The other playable character is (as of the time of writing) still considered a secret. Sorry.
With all these different gameplay styles it's easy to see that No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has a lot to offer in terms of variety. You will find yourself jumping from assassin missions, to 8-bit menial jobs to helping your cat lose weight, to the gym to build stamina, to back to your hotel room to watch the Bizarre Jerry 5 movie eleven times (or is that just me?) and finally back into another assassin mission, all of which will make sure you never get bored while playing the game. The only frustrations to be found are with a camera system that only works half the time and will leave you staring at the wall the other half and the terrible Shinobu platforming sections.
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is depicted in a unique grindhouse meets anime presentation, meshing elements from both to create a style that is unique to the series. Combine this with the amazing work that was done with the cel-shaded graphics and the amount of details that went into the environments and character designs and you are left with a game that is visually on par with the Wii's best looking games. In fact, the only faults that can be attributed to the game's visual presentation lie within the technical aspects, as slowdowns in the framerate are common, especially when the action gets frantic and there is a lot happening on screen at the same time. Another technical nuisance are the short but common loading screens that constantly break up the action and often result in the game being broken up by 3-6 second loading screens for every 2-5 minutes of actual gameplay. Also the 8-bit mini-games are very faithful to that long gone era of gaming that they are emulating, complete with 'blow in the cartridge' introductions. The graphics are clean and sharp and switching from the 'modern' graphics of the main game to the classic style is never intrusive and flows very naturally.
Most of the music in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle consists of variations on the standard No More Heroes theme made to fit the level you are in. For example, a stage set in a creepy forest will have scary sound effects and distortion the track while another stage set in a machine factory will have a heavy metal atmosphere. While this does limit the amount of tracks found in the game, the main theme is catchy and one that you have stuck in your head long after you have turned off the game. The mini-games all have their own 8-bit soundtrack and sound effects, complete with synthesised voices, like those found on the Intellivision back in the mid-80s. These are particularly hilarious, mostly for the foul language used as there's nothing funnier then hearing 'tastes like sh*t' through highly digitized audio.
Speaking of expletives, Desperate Struggle definitely earns its 'M' rating. Most of the characters drop the f-bomb as they are being decapitated and Travis is clearly also a fan of the word. As for the rest of the voice acting, the characters all speak well, with their dialogue and emotions registering clearly with the player. However, it does seem that enemies will spurt the same lines repeatedly until you silence them with a swift katana slice. Finally, it's obvious the same voice actress was used for most of the female characters in the game, and even uses the same accent for each. This is evident and can lead to some confusion as to who exactly is talking.
While the main story will take players on average between 7 and 11 hours to complete, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle does offer tons of replay value with loads of unlockables to find, like decorations for Travis' room and different outfits and clothing accessories. The game even has a deathmatch mode (has to be unlocked) so even after you beat the main game you can still come back for more blood soaked good times. All of this without even mentioning the eleven mini-games that can rapidly get quit addicting and have you sinking even more hours into your save file. However it seems that the developers missed a golden opportunity to include a multiplayer mode, as deathmatches against friends and competitive 8-bit mini-games would have made this game a must own for mature multiplayer gamers on the Wii looking for a hilarious way to spend time with friends.
While the original No More Heroes set the bar high for action games on the Wii, Desperate Struggle absolutely surpasses it in every way imaginable. Refined gameplay, stellar presentation values and hours of extra content past the main campaign all come together wonderfully to make this a must own for Wii gamers with a slight taste for carnage. Despite some slight technical miscues, Suda 51 has delivered a game that is loaded with his unique personality and one that Wii owners should not look over.


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Archive for the 'stories' Category
Greek Myths and their Symbolism
Filed under: james joyce, painting, Reflections, stories, story | Tags: archetypes, arthurian, brothers grimm, charlotte bronte, daedalus, dore, fairy tale, falling, greek mythology, greek myths, icarus, jane eyre, king arthur, legend, marvel, milton, mrs rochester, mythology, pandora, phaethon, poetry, psyche, rapunzel, spiderman, stories, sun, symbols, tennyson, towers, walter crane
I've been doing a course the last few weeks at City Lit round the corner from Red Bull Media House HQ in Covent Garden. It's about 'Greek Myths and their Symbolism' and I've been really enjoying the story patterns and archetypes that have been emerging from the lectures themselves plus my spin-off thoughts as I listened. Here's one for example…
People Locked In Towers
Daedalus and Icarus were locked in a tower by King Minos
The first myth we looked at was that of Daedalus, the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. The co-star of my favourite book, Ulysses by James Joyce, was named after Daedalus.
J. W. Waterhouse – I Am Half-Sick of Shadows Said The Lady of Shalott (1915) who was locked in a tower by Morgana Le Fay
Based on Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1832 Arthurian poem The Lady of Shalott. The enchantress Morgana Le Fay was jealous of the Lady's beauty and locked her in the tower with the curse not to be able to look out of the window or she would die. Compare Pandora who could not look inside the box and Psyche who could not look at her secret lover (Eros), invisible in the dark.
Mrs Rochester, Bertha Mason, was locked in the attic by her husband
This is the attic that inspired Jane Eyre's 'mad woman in the attic' scenario. It's in the stately home of Norton Conyers in North Yorkshire, which Charlotte Brontë visited in 1839. Brontë's character, the mentally ill Bertha Mason, is locked in the attic for ten years by her husband Edward Rochester.
Illustration for Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm drawn by Walter Crane (London: Macmillan, 1920)
Rapunzel was locked in a tower to keep away randy princes – in the German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, first published in 1812 in Children's and Household Tales. Their version is an adaptation of a story by Friedrich Schulz.
Here's another pattern spotted…
People Falling Out of the Sky
Icarus flew too near the sun and melted the wax of his wings :: Jacob Peter Gowy's The Flight of Icarus (1635–37)
Phaethon couldn't control the horses of the sun god, his father Helios :: The Fall of Phaethon by Sebastiano Ricci [b. 1659, Belluno – d. 1734, Venice] (1703-04) [Oil on canvas – Museo Civico, Belluno]
Like Icarus, Phaethon is an archetypical stroppy teenager. In Jane Austen's England a Phaeton was a sporty sort of horse-drawn carriage. Trying to drive Helios' powerful sun-horses before he was ready is a bit like nicking dad's sports car – see Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Satan was cast out of the sky by God :: Gustave Doré's illustration for Milton's Paradise Lost
Free Falling The Amazing Spider-Man #8 Artist: Humberto Ramos (Aug 2019)
Spider-man regularly falls from the sky mid battle. Falling from the sky is often connected to humans overreaching, striving for the divine or angelic side of our nature.
Story Snippet – Trondheim train
Filed under: david bowie, germany, Music, Reflections, stories, story | Tags: berlin, david bowie, iggy pop, story
I find myself sitting next to Sissel on the six-hour train journey from Trondheim to Oslo. She is an elegant elderly lady with a wicked laugh. A native of Trondheim, she used to be the projectionist at the Cinemateket where I delivered my lecture on Thursday. She is on her way to Oslo airport heading for Berlin, her first visit there since 1977. The last time she went she tried to call David Bowie and Iggy Pop. She found the phone number of their flat under James Osterberg (Iggy's non-stage name) in the phone book. She rang but a woman answered and said they were out.
Filed under: Reflections, stories, story | Tags: birth, brexit, john yorke, paradise lost, robert mckee, story, story structure, the bible, the godfather, trump, where the wild things are
In recent years the word and concept of Story has become fetishised. Every dull brand has a story, every prostituted hack is a storyteller. But despite this cheapening, Story remains a fascinating aspect of human behaviour. I have been interested in the structures underlying Story for many years. A couple of landmarks were being sent, on my second job, at Melrose Film Productions by my boss and mentor the late Peter Cole (ex-BBC Panorama), on an early outing of Robert McKee's Story course in London. And reading Into The Woods by my former Channel 4 colleague John Yorke (Head of Drama).
Also on the McKee course, which has since become something of a screen industry cliche, were John Cleese, Joanna Hogg and a famous British sci-fi writer, I think it was Brian Aldiss but I forget. It took place at the Liberal Club off Northumberland Avenue over a weekend and it was a profound experience. I remember writing to McKee after to thank him for a transformational couple of days.
Into The Woods I found a great synthesis of the various theories I'd heard over the years.
Another key experience was the first time I worked on a development with my Little Dot colleague Paul Woolf. I was a Commissioning Editor at Channel 4 at the time and he was a senior Development Producer at Maverick TV. He is now based in Philadelphia heading up Unscripted Development in the US for Little Dot Studios and we've been working together closely throughout 2019 – a lot of Skyping. I was struck by how Paul applied story archetypes to the factual entertainment programme we were developing at the time – not an obvious tactic but it worked really well.
I use concepts of Story Structure all the time in developing documentaries, even when derived from sources more focused on movie and drama scriptwriting. In the area I work in much of the time, short form online docs, there is a tendency to neglect narrative and default to what are in effect mini character portraits. I'm a real Story merchant, pushing all the time for narrative drive in documentaries.
A good example is the recent Real Stories Original Violet Vixen. The young director, Leanne Rogers, brought me some lovely footage centred on Leo, a charismatic 11 year old exploring his gender identity. But there was little story in place. I gave her a commission for a 25-minute doc on the proviso that she add an element to up the narrative drive. I suggested she encouraged Leo (and his mum) to go see his hero. It turned out his hero was Courtney Act, drag queen graduate of RuPaul's Drag Race. Leanne managed to pull off the encounter and the trip down to Brighton to meet Courtney (the charming Shane Jenek) gave the film a spine. Our timing was lucky too as Courtney won Celebrity Big Brother while we were in the edit – he has since been given his own show on Channel 4 this Christmas.
So I've been spending a lot of time over the last year thinking about Story Structure. My starting point was reflecting on Why Do Us Humans Love and Tell Stories?
My conclusions in brief can be summarised thus:
* to distract us / entertain us
* to find meaning / patterns in our experiences
* to get a sense of there being order
* to think about what we would do in the circumstances / rehearse situations
* to get guidance on how to understand other people
* to connect to others through shared experience
* to pass on information
* to pass on values
* to define our identity/give us common ground/bind the group
* to feel better about our lives (by comparison)
All of these seem to me to grow out of our Human Condition and the imperatives of evolution.
* to distract us / entertain us – the world is a tough place
* to find meaning / patterns in our experiences – evolution has made us great pattern spotters
* to get a sense of there being order – we need a sense of meaning and purpose
* to think about what we would do in the circumstances / rehearse situations – we're more likely to survive if we're well prepared
* to get guidance on how to understand other people – we're more likely to thrive if we have insight into how our fellow bald monkeys think
* to connect to others through shared experience – we have an inherent need to belong (to the family and tribe and race)
* to pass on information – e.g. to help our offspring survive & thrive
* to pass on values – to help our society run smoothly
* to define our identity/give us common ground/bind the group – we need the group to survive
* to feel better about our lives (by comparison) – the world is a tough place.
In the same way, archetypal stories grow directly out of the human condition. Let's start at the beginning – Birth. One of the main story structures is Paradise Lost. We spend nine months floating around in a benign place, well fed, nicely muffled sound, a steady reliable rhythm of heartbeat. And then we get ejected. Into a tough place.
When I was doing some research on that second job at Melrose I went down to the old Docklands to meet a bloke whose big theory was that the trauma of Birth was the defining moment of our whole lives. I've reflected on that from time to time over the years and I buy it more and more.
So what I'm calling the Paradise Lost story is: I was in a perfect place. I got ejected. I need to get back there. I reckon this is reflected in all sorts of human behaviour from people tending to drift back in their later years to where they grew up (or a place similar to it) to men spending so much time and effort trying to get back up that little birth canal. This story is intimately linked to the concept of Home.
It's the central human story of the Bible – the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It's there in The Godfather – Michael gets sent off to Sicily after tasting the forbidden fruit of illegal killing (the murder of Sollozzo and McCluskey) and works his way back not just to the family kitchen but also to the desk in the background. It's there in Where The Wild Things Are – Max gets sent to his room and from there finds himself in that wild place, it's fun but he's happy to sail back to the peace of his childhood bed.
Of course it also the story of both Trump and Brexit as highlighted in John Harris' excellent 3-parter for BBC Radio 4, The Tyranny of Story, which has been repeated this week. "Make America Great Again" – America was a great place (e.g. in the post-war 50s boom); that disappeared; Trump is going to bring it back. "Take Back Control" – Britain was a great place (e.g. when we had an empire); that disappeared; Brexit is going to bring it back. Neither Hilary nor Remain came up with an effective counter-narrative.
Over the holidays I'm going to reflect more on the connection between the human lifecycle (both as individuals and a species) and the core human stories.
The Fetishisation of Storytelling
Filed under: channel 4, musings, My Commissions, Reflections, stories, story snippets, travels | Tags: helsinki, osama bin laden, stories, storytellers, storytelling
I've noticed the increasing fetishisation of the terms 'storytelling' and 'stories' in the last couple of years, especially in commercial media. Everyone's a storyteller now, even if your 'story' is about baked beans. Many indie producers' websites single out skill in storytelling as their USP. When I see the word "storytelling" now I view it with scepticism and take a moment to assess if what's being said is meaningful or fashionable hype.
This morning on BBC Radio 4's Today programme the Thought for The Day was about the need to rehabilitate the children of Isis extremists by introducing them to new stories. They have lost their innocence to one perverted story.
On a brighter note, today was a good day for being reminded the rich weave of stories that thread through daily life. My day began chatting to a taxi driver cum news cameraman, half-Korean half-Russian, born in the bit of Russia nearest Alaska; grew up in Tashkent, Uzbekistan; studied in St Petersburg; moved to Helsinki sixteen years ago. It ended chatting to a roast chestnut seller from Innsbruck. I've spent a total of €12 in a week in Helsinki – on two bags of chestnuts.
Between these bookends I received this text exchange – 'Osama Loves' is a multiplatform documentary project I commissioned a few years ago at Channel 4, some months before the Big Bad O, ObL, got terminated.
Great story…
detail from 'Osama Loves' website
Media Technology & Stories
Filed under: Cinema, Movies, quotations, stories, technology, writing | Tags: evarts ziegler, hollywood, Movies, scriptwriting, stories, storytelling, technology, william goldman
I'm a bit wary of the fetishisation of 'Story-telling' in recent years, but nonetheless I really like this quotation recounted by Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman in his entertaining volume 'Which Lie Did I Tell? (More adventures in the screen trade)'.
The words come from legendary literary agent Evarts Ziegler (who acted for many top screenwriters) – he was told (back in the 70s) that technology was going to change everything about Hollywood. His response was…
I don't care what you say. I don't care if your fucking technology figures out a way how to beam movies from the moon directly into our brains. People are still going to have to tell good stories.
Story Snippet No. 399 – news commentary
Filed under: Music, radio, Reflections, stories, story snippets | Tags: paul weller, radio london, robert elms, style council
In my local coffee shop, Maurizio's aka Amici, there is a man who goes in early every day and annotates in biro the cafe's copies of the newspapers, in particular the Daily Mail, both text and photos. Rumour is he's a former journalist. By the time I get there the next wave of activity is under way. People are sitting around debating the daily annotations, their author long gone. This morning two middle-aged local women were connecting over the phenomenon, one sitting in the enigmatic author's habitual window seat. I joined in. The non-window woman referred to the cafe as a "community centre", celebrating the fact that, prompted by the annotations, you can discuss the news there freely without fear of offending or being offended whilst remaining lively.
I left after my emergency cappuccino and went back to the car, switching on Robert Elms' bank holiday show on Radio London. He started playing 'Shout to the Top' by The Style Council. As the first notes played, especially the piano ones, it prompted this thought and subsequent email to Robert:
From: Adam Gee
Date: 1 May 2017 at 10:11:32 BST
To: Robert Elms
Subject: LA Style
Is it just me or did the beginning of this Style Council track sound like something out of LaLa Land? Do those Hollywoodfolk owe Weller?
Within 60 seconds he was reading it out and launching into his theory of the common roots of the band and the film soundtrack, as well as a brief evaluation of Paul Weller's career. Always a kick. Gotta love London.
The one on the right shares a birthday with me and John Martyn
Update: 4/5/17
I got my second mention on Robert Elms this week. He wanted a suggestion for a 'fourfer', a quartet of tracks on a particular theme or by a particular artist which he plays every Friday. This was my suggestion:
Subject: Fourfer suggestion
Songs with bells in
Not little tinkly bells but full-on big ones
Think AC/DC – Back in Black or Pink Floyd – The Division Bell
He thought the category was too narrow and broadened it to 'Songs with sound effects'
Sinking of the Lakonia
Filed under: family, photography, Reflections, stories | Tags: Lakonia, Life, Life magazine, picture post
On 22nd December 1963 my grandparents lives changed forever. My grandmother started what she considered her second bite of the cherry of life. My grandfather watched rich men's possessions float by him in the water and never again put any value on them (though he was always modest materially being from an immigrant working class background). The night of 22nd December 1963 was the night the cruise ship Lakonia went on fire and 128 souls were lost at sea. A Christmas cruise from Southampton to the Canary Islands turned into a terrifying brush with death.
Yesterday my brother heard a trail on BBC Radio 5 for a programme about the disaster next Tuesday morning on Five Live hosted by Adrian Chiles. Today I tracked down the production team in Salford to offer some of our family archives. As I start to delve into them I thought it would be fun to share the investigations and discoveries here.
First (above) is the telegram my mother received from my grandfather on Christmas eve confirming her parents were alive and safe. She had just had her first child (yours truly) and was settling in to her first home of her own (it cost them £4,000 if I remember correctly). JFK had been shot 5 weeks earlier.
The sender of that telegram is mentioned in this article from Life magazine (edition of 3rd January 1964)
That's my grandma looking terrified on the left. Her husband was the "Ian Harris of London" referred to in the copy "the only man known to have taken pictures while on board the doomed Lakonia". He worked for Picture Post (the British rival of Life with photographers like Bill Brandt and Thurston Hopkins). He was a scientist involved with the technicalities of printing photographs and a keen amateur photographer so his photos featured in the Life picture story were the work of a man in the wrong place at the right time with his omnipresent camera (now you know where I got the bug from).
More to follow as I burrow away…
Update 17/12/16:
"Salta" referred to on the telegram above was an Argentine ship which was heading west to Argentina filled with immigrants from Europe, which picked up my grandparents after dawn of 23rd December from their lifeboat. The passengers were hauled up one by one by rope after a landing stage the Salta crew had dropped was smashed by the lifeboat. My grandfather thought it would make a great shot but my grandmother forbade him as she didn't want the indignity captured for posterity. He still seemed to regret missing the shot 36 years later when I interviewed him on film. He was wearing, by chance, a grey jumper he had been given in Funchal, Madiera after landing from the Salta in sea-shrunken clothes.
The Story 2014
Filed under: Reflections, stories, writing | Tags: abram games, alan rusbridger, bill wasick, bryony kimmings, Catherine Bennett, darian leader, endward snowden, fun palaces, Iain Forsyth, iplayer, Jane Pollard, Joan Littlewood, kyle bean, meg rossoff, nick cave, nick hornby, snow white, Stella Duffy, story structure, the guardian, the story, theatre royal stratford east, tony ageh
#TheStory2014
This year's The Story annual one day conference/gathering, brainchild of my former Channel 4 colleague Matt Locke, launched during his time at C4, was the fifth. I've been to all but one, last year's when I ended up being abroad on the day and passing on my ticket to a colleague, producer Jorg Tittel. The bitter-sweet hand-over took place at the Trafalgar Studios on Whitehall where Jorg and his wife's (Alex Helfrecht) excellent production of The Sun Also Rises was playing. I can remember that because it is a conference I actually care about and missing it is bothersome.
Stella Duffy and helpers
It was interesting coming into this year's model off the back of my story-writing sabbatical. What for me turned out to be the highlight and emotional core of The Story 2014 was a direct result of that sabbatical work. One of the chapters of my book, When Sparks Fly, is centred on Joan Littlewood. I began writing that chapter on the stage of the Theatre Royal Stratford East – it was lunchtime, no-one was about, I had my laptop on me and an hour to spare before the event I was attending resumed – it had to be done. Theatre Royal Stratford East was Joan's theatre, this year is her centenary and the event was a big gathering to help realise a vision of Joan's she ultimately couldn't pull off in her lifetime, the Fun Palace. The baton of her dream has been picked up by Stella Duffy who filled The Story slot just before the midday break. Having heard about her plan back in October to realise the dream in this centenary year by catalysing local events across the nation and beyond which bring Art and Science to regular people in an entertaining, fun way, I thought Stella's story would add to The Story in this particular year and hooked her up with Matt. She had helped me get going on my Littlewood/Theatre chapter and between that chat and the Theatre Royal Stratford East event my instinct was that she would fit right in to the proud heritage of The Story speakers just so.
As it turned out, her slot was more than I could have dreamed. She used her three decades experience of improvisational theatre to create a spontaneous and focused energy of extraordinary impact. She picked up on the contribution just before hers, Kenyatta Cheese on the history of the animated GIF and its role in digital storytelling, an account which used Disney's Snow White as the vehicle for its narrative, and started by getting six volunteers out of the audience (rarely have I seen people move so fast to get up on stage and help, including Matt's twin brother and his old BBC friend Tony Ageh, a subsequent speaker) and used them in place of a white board as a living graph-cum-tableau to illustrate the dynamics of a classic (Dionysian) story structure – the one underlying Snow White and, as Stella livelily demonstrated, the New Testament. You can see this coup de theatre here.
She went on to explain the background of the Fun Palace as conceived by Littlewood and architect Cedric Price. She, perhaps somewhat controversially, pulled up one of Price's drawings and suggested it had formed an important 'inspiration' for Richard Rogers' Pompidou Centre. And then she explained how we all (and you all) and everyone can get involved. Everything you need to know to make a Fun Palace in your neighbourhood on the weekend of Joan's 100th birthday you can find here. (And by the way, they need a media sponsor so if you can help please get in touch with Stella or her partner Sarah Jane Rawlings).
What made this perfectly judged performance all the more remarkable is that Stella has been having full-on breast cancer treatment recently and this was her first post-operative outing. She had to high-tail it off the stage to go straight to the hospital to have her dressing changed. A true inspiration capping a brilliant morning of all manner of story-telling.
Meg Pickard, ex-Guardian Head of Digital Engagement, presided, geeing up the already up-for-it crowd. The house charity, Ministry of Stories, set up by Nick Hornby, Ben Payne and Lucy Macnab, was showcased by Ben, demoing in a couple of videos the impact this imaginative literacy and story-telling project is having on the children and supporting adults involved. I walked past their Monster Shop in Hoxton Street just last weekend when out in flaneur mode with Enfant Terrible No. 1 and enjoyed how the display of MoS goodies like Fang Floss, some kind of monster snot, and Bah Humbugs fitted into the Hoxton context.
Bryony Kimmings as Catherine Bennett (and a monkey)
First up of this year's featured speakers was the engaging Bryony Kimmings. She explained the genesis of her Catherine Bennett project, a fun music project based on a manufactured popstar, played by Bryony as shaped by her 9 year-old niece, Taylor. Bryony mentioned a Stamford study which centred on asking kids what type of person they wanted to be when they grew up. For years the answer "Kind" came top of the list every year until a certain point in the 90s(?) when Kind dropped to 16th and "Famous" took top spot. Catherine Bennett, pop star and paleontologist, is designed as an antidote to the fame-seeking and twerking inflicted upon children today. The Miley Cyrus debate hit half way through the process of creating CB, emphasising its timeliness, a process which led to the creation of a stage play for kids, one for adults and a touring workshop for schools which we saw video of. I was charmed.
Next up was Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth who gave us insights into their film '20,000 Days on Earth' featuring Nick Cave. The dynamic duo met at Goldsmiths in 1992 and discovered they hated the same things. Then they discovered they hated the same things as Cave and a music documentary with a difference was born. Made by Film4 and the always interesting Pulse, they set out to make the antidote to rock docs by resetting the expectations of the audience (they covered nineteen thousand, nine hundred and ninety-something days or so just in the title sequence) and embracing the myth of their subject who plays his mythologised self pretty well. Self-mythologising is the subject of Chapter 2 of my book – centred on another UK music industry stalwart, Tony Wilson. Although they slipped into art jargon easily with art-school-bingo words like "practice" and "strategy" punctuating their commentary, Jane and Iain clearly communicated the kind of truth they were after, the emotional truth. A key sequence at the heart of the film features psychoanalyst and writer Darian Leader who was in my year at uni and marked himself out by hanging out with Jacques Derrida in the holidays while I as a lowest-of-the-low runner was driving film gear around London to promo shoots for Simply Red, Duran Duran and the like. He grilled Cave for ten hours until Nick "just couldn't be bothered to lie any more". This interrogation brought out Cave's greatest fear – losing his memory – and memory proved the key to the film as Iain and Jane created a Nick Cave archive in the basement of Brighton Town Hall to help get to a truth beyond the mementoes and facts. As Jane memorably said:
"the truth just doesn't matter – we should create, imagine and lie – it's good for us".
Kyle Bean and the future of the book
Illustrator Kyle Bean really pumped my nads with a talk entitled Materials & Messages. He specialises in tactile illustration – in other words,to fulfil mainly magazine/press illustration commissions he makes things from everyday materials and photographs them to create his 2D output. These range from a mobile phone Russian doll to a jelly hand-grenade, all best grasped by having a look at his portfolio here. He often uses word-play and combining pairs of concepts to prompt his creative approach. For a recent article on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden he combines a USB stick with a sports whistle to get the point across concisely and with impact. He has a real spareness which reminds me of a graphic artist well represented on the walls of my home. The other night I went round for dinner to the home of Naomi Games, daughter of graphic designer and poster supremo Abram Games who was a mentor for my mum when she was at London College of Printing. Abram had a ruthlessly spare style with nothing wasted in all his work, from the Festival of Britain logo to his famous ATS poster.
Kyle Bean illustration for 'hand-made' edition of Wallpaper
The afternoon also brought a rich mix of pleasures.
Foley Artist Barnaby Smyth illustrated his cinematic art (sound effects) with a scene from Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy movie which he worked on. He then did a live demo (for which we all closed our eyes, no peeking), memorably using tearing celery to create the sound of a corpse being ripped apart by dogs. TTSS was made at DeLane Lea which reminded me of my introduction to moving picture media as a child at DeLane Lea in Dean Street, watching Hungarian TV puppet shows for kids being dubbed into English by Louis Elman, as recalled here.
Bill Wasick (no actual corduroy jacket)
The Editor of Wired US, Bill Wasick, flew in to tell us a bit about the stuff of his recent book to do with why things go viral. He sat on the edge of the stage like a nice teacher with patches on the elbows of his proverbial corduroy jacket. He had very attractive yellow and white slides I'm going to copy. And he invented flash mobs.
So it's goodnight from me… and it's goodnight from him (BBC double act of Tony Ageh R and Matt Locke L)
Tony Ageh of the BBC Archive, iPlayer, City Limits et al, went a step further and brought a chair on stage to do a full-on Ronnie Corbett routine which went down a treat. He reflected on his career and the theme of Lists which seems to weave through it, all in a warm, understated way. His anecdote about how the iPlayer was thought up was a cracker. He concluded with a heart-felt plea for iPlayer to move on from being the first bit of BBC technology ever to carry BBC content only. Imagine, he conjoured up, a radio which only played BBC programes. It should never happen. It's not what the BBC was put on Earth to do.
Meg Rossoff getting the Conscious Rider attuned to the Horse of the Unconscious
And, just when you thought it couldn't get any better, novelist Meg Rossoff, who wrote her first novel aged 46, managed to wrangle a divergent shaggy horse story to illustrate the passage from the conscious mind to the unconscious in writers which develops with practice and helps bring dream into everyday life, thereby enabling her – and she encourages others – to "write fiercely with resonance from a really deep place". Makes a lot of sense of William Burroughs, with whom my book opens, who spent decades consistently taking the trip into that deep, dark place…
Shaggy hat story from Gruff Rhys
Gruff Rhys provided a music interlude with a journey story which roved from his native North Wales across the frontiers of America in a delightfully absurd meander.
Armagh non-poet Philip Larkin brought this to my life, for which thanks. He's a big fan of Vine and has a good sense of how to deploy those 6 moving seconds for comedy.
Lisa Salem told us a bit about her Walk LA with Me project which was interesting though felt like it could use the lightness of touch of an old school flaneur.
And the day was brought to a heavy-weight end by Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger telling us a story about a man called Edward Snowden, a character called Glen Greenwald and a big baddie called NSA which frankly was so fanciful and absurd I reckon he should try his hand at non-fiction 😉
Alan Rusbridger tells the tale of Snowden White and the Seven Spooks
So, bottom line, there aren't many better ways to spend a Friday.
Here's an old Friday called The Story 2012 for anyone who wants a yardstick to make a comparison. Thanks to Matt Locke and the Storythings team for a top day.
4 things I learnt from The Story
Filed under: Innovation & Creativity, inspiration, ireland, irish, Reflections, stories | Tags: alan moore, comic books, comics, david hepworth, donegal, graphic novels, harrison ford, lovelock and babbidge, matt locke, monkeys, rob bevan, stories, sydney padua, the story, The Word, tim wright
Tim Wright tests his sense of balance
Today I spent at the excellent The Story conference at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, organised by my fellow Commissioning Editor at Channel 4, Matt Locke (a labour of love on his part). The theme was stories and story-telling – little theory, no money talk, just narrative and tales about tales. So what I learnt…
2) The best comic books have a layer of history, a layer of mythology and a layer of contemporary relevance as evinced by Sydney Padua's Lovelace & Babbidge. She showed the development of their new adventure Vs The Organist which combines Victoriana with Orpheus & Eurydice with proto-geekage. Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has a similar combo, a bit more literary, and it's top of the tree for me. (Talking of trees, the frames in the new story where a band of monkeys break into Babbidge's office and drag him off to the underworld gave me a sudden flashback to a game we played as children with plastic monkeys, something I hadn't thought of for decades- there's so much buried in these memories and imaginations of ours, and connection, especially surprising connection, is the key to creativity.)
3) The best stories combine profound emotion and humour. My old friend and colleague Tim Wright stole the show with his Harrison Fraud story. It's about a mad time when he tried to convince his business/creative partner, Rob Bevan, that Harrison Ford wanted to work with them. The comic story of facial hair and faked letters was punctuated with insights into Tim's marital struggles, recounted with an unflinching honesty. That willingness to confront difficult themes head on – as demonstrated equally in Tim's wonderful In Search of Oldton project which has its roots in his father's tragic death – is what raises his stories to special heights. Tim and I worked together on the writing of MindGym back in 1996, a game about creativity, Rob worked on it too programming and designing – it was a landmark project for me, drawing me into the world of non-linear story-telling and interactivity, and I learned a wealth from Tim's methodical approach to scripting. I remember sitting with Tim in a bar in Clapham Old Town, asserting my dedication to film-making and that I'd be giving up this interactive thing before too long, not really my bag. 14 years down the line and here I still am.
4) The best fiction is less strange than truth. The day was rounded off in style by a besuited David Hepworth, he of The Word and Smash Hits, who told a lovely circular tale of the passage of wisdom from father to son to grandson via a bespoke tailor's in the Yorkshire village he grew up in. It involved the coincidence of a suit being made for him unknowingly by the tailor who had made his father's suits. It reminded me of my wedding ring. I wear two rings – the wedding ring my wife gave me in the top O of the OXO Tower by the Thames when the O X and O were all floor-to-ceiling windows and the tower was still a building site, and a plain silver ring I bought from a stall in Camden market several years before. To cut a long Irish story short it turned out that the posh jeweler in Gabriel's Wharf and the Camden stall holder were one and the same person from Inishowen in Donegal (where my wedding ended, 60 miles down the road from its start point in Derry). This stranger than fiction coincidence came to light one day when I was chucking out old chequebook stubs and I found the £10 cheque I'd bought the silver ring with. Recently I've had another such experience where I came across the same person (Pippa Harris of Neal St Films, Sam Mendes' business partner) through two totally different routes – one starting off in a novel I was reading, The Great Lover by Jill Dawson; the other through judging the RTS Single Drama Award for work – the true-life story weaving through all manner of themes from Rupert Brooke to Wikipedia. It's coincidences and dynamics like those that make life worth living.
I had a quick chat with David Hepworth on the way out about the merits of The Word podcast (very good for jogging I said, great for repetitive domestic tasks he countered) – it's the very best on the Web, a chat with friends over the kitchen table. Leaving the period lobby, it felt great to have spent the day in Conway Hall with its radical, left-wing vibe. It was here that I took my first published photograph – one of Gerry Adams and Ken Livingstone that appeared in An Phoblacht, the Irish Republican newspaper. But that's another story…
Monkeys test your sense of balance


text:
Guided Walk Around the Village:
A Walk Around the Village
There were over 20 participants on this evening walk, led by Howard Slatter and Andrew
Roberts. We started and finished at Trumpington Pavilion and included stops at Anstey Way,
the Village Sign, Maris Lane, Church Lane and Grantchester Road, the Church, the entrance to
Trumpington Hall, the War Memorial and the High Street, Alpha Terrace and the Estate. See
the separate report for a similar route around the village, followed in 2012.
Photographs: Andrew Roberts and Martin Jones, 10 September 2015.
Andrew Roberts talking to participants at the Village Sign and the
Church. Photograph: Martin Jones, 10 September 2015.
Howard Slatter talking to participants in the grounds of
Trumpington Hall and the War Memorial. Photograph:
Martin Jones, 10 September 2015.
Howard Slatter talking to participants in Alpha Terrace and at the entrance to Fawcett
School. Photograph: Martin Jones, 10 September 2015.