Hello all -
Happy Sunday!
Do you remember your English Literature at school? Shakespeare plus one recognised literary piece and a touch of poetry for good measure? It was pretty dull, to be honest, but who can’t still recall one or two of those momentous lines etched in memory:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Shakespeare
I wandered lonely as a cloud
William Wordsworth
Or how about,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
from Ozymandias
Have you ever wondered why the sonnet Ozymandias was often taught alongside the novel Frankenstein? Well, here's one suggestion.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, the English romantic poet, was born today on 4 August 1792. His best-known work is Ozymandias, a sonnet first published in 1818. It describes a crumbling statue in the desert as a metaphor for the transience of power and the tyrants who wield that power. Napoleon (who had been defeated at the Battle of Waterloo three years earlier) and King George III (who died two years later) have been cited as motivations for Shelley writing this piece.
Two years before writing Ozymandias, Shelley married Mary Godwin. They had one surviving child, Percy Florence, and became close friends with Lord Byron. They lived a fairly nomadic lifestyle, and on one such nomadic interlude, while visiting Byron in Geneva, Byron challenged his guests to write a ghost story during their stay (in contrast to my own trips abroad with friends where my intellectual prowess is rarely sought).
Mary’s effort worked out pretty well. It was a story about a young scientist who recreated a creature from the parts of various corpses. Victor, the scientist, abandoned his monster in disgust. The monster wreaked havoc. Victor then chased the monster all the way to the Arctic but died before tracking him down.
Mary Shelley: Richard Rothwell, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Of course, the book was Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, as she was then known by her married name. It was first published under that name 202 years ago next weekend, 11 August 1822.
Like all good science fiction, Frankenstein explores elements of human nature which remain relevant today, explaining its continued popularity: For Victor's unrestricted ambition, think of I.T. entrepreneurs creating social media networks and Artificial Intelligence; For his ability to create new life, think of multinational corporations who tamper with nature beyond environmental common sense.
So that’s the Ozymandias-Frankenstein link. My link with Mary Shelley is that she is buried up the road in St Peter’s Church, Bournemouth.
Podcast episode... a look back
Today is World Psychic Day, not an event I have been particularly waiting for. Contacting the dead doesn’t necessarily float my boat. But if you’re like me, you might occasionally think that you’re the one who’s got it all wrong, so better keep an open mind, eh?
One way to keep an open mind would be to chat with my holistic therapist, Jules. She has admirably held my failing body together for quite a few years but has other arrows in her quiver. She runs an Airbnb service and, most pertinently, she is a psychic medium.
The thing about Jules is that she is so…… normal. She is a delight to spend time with and could actually be an angel in disguise; she is constantly putting the needs of others ahead of her own.
Here’s an idea: You could plan a bumper weekend. Stay in one of her rooms in Ringwood, Hampshire, relax with some Reiki, Indian head massage, hot stones, aromatherapy, lomi lomi or whatever takes your fancy, and finish off with a psychic reading to explore the world of communicating with spirits. How about that?
With tongue in cheek, I asked Jules if I could interview her about this mystical ability, and to my surprise, she said, “Yes.” Our interview was a blast; no matter what questions I posed, she had a totally rational answer. Have a listen and let me know what you think.
Thanks again Jules.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music or just about any other podcast player of your choice. Check out the Episode 7. Is Anybody There? for the links and transcript to learn more.
My favourite quotes from the episode…
Jules: I’m a psychic medium. So for example, if I was doing a reading, I generally work with the same guide. If I was doing healing, I can work with very different guides.
Steve: You're answering all my questions here by the way. Very good. Very good.
Jules: I must be psychic!
Steve: Do you know what your guides look like?
Jules: I don't. I have a knowing of one, a native Indian called White Owl... and she has been with me from the day that I was born. And I know her energy. As soon as she comes in, I know her presence.
Steve: Was that something just then...
Jules: ...and that was her. The lights flickered. So that was her letting me know that, you know, she's around.
Steve: So just for the record, some light behind me...
Jules: ...is flickering.
Steve: …at the point when you mentioned her name. Interesting!
Dates with History…
Tuesday…
Robert Falcon Scott’s story of heroic failure to reach the South Pole ahead of Norweigan Roald Amundsen in 1912 is legendary.
If Mary Shelley could look out from her resting place in Bournemouth, she would see the Isle of Wight where Scott departed on his first three-year Antarctic expedition, remembered this Wednesday, on 6 August 1901. The trip was part human challenge and part scientific research that laid the foundations for his fateful Terra Nova expedition of 1910.
Scott of the Antarctic: Henry Maull (1829–1914) and John Fox (1832–1907), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Despite reaching the South Pole, they were beaten by Roald Amundsen, who had arrived 35 days earlier. Scott and his team paid with their lives. Remember Lawrence Oates’ final words as he walked out into the blizzard, never to return?
I am just going outside and maybe some time.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson was a resident of the Isle of Wight for much of his life. He was born this week on 6 August 1809, ninety-two years earlier to the day that Scott had left the Isle of Wight on his first expedition. So it is fitting that the memorial cross commemorating Scott and his team on Observation Hill in Antarctica is inscribed with the final line from Tennyson’s monologue, Ulysses:
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
In 2017, a team from the Antarctic Heritage Trust explored the old building at Cape Adare used by Scott in 1911. They studied over 1,500 artefacts left behind from the Terra Nova expedition. On 10 August 2017, they came across some fruit cake wrapped in paper inside a small tin. They described the cake as “Looking and smelling (almost) edible".
By the way...
In 1967, the film classic The Comedians, based on a novel by Graham Greene, was released. There was little to laugh about in the film, though, as it was set in Haiti during the brutal and oppressive François "Papa Doc" Duvalier regime of the 1960s.
Two of the lead roles featured Richard Burton and Alec Guinness, which indicates the gravitas of the film. The two actors are also often linked with reference to spy films; Burton played a British intelligence officer in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold in 1965, and Guinness played George Smiley in John le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in 1979.
Their final and most poignant connection was to be the day they died, which is remembered this week. Richard Burton died on 5 August 1984, while Alec Guinness died on 5 August 2000. Guinness outlasted Burton by some 16 years despite being born 11 years earlier.
As Mrs Doubtfire once said,
No, he was hit by a Guinness truck. So it was quite literally the drink that killed him.
Question of the week...
Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was a Dutch exotic dancer and World War I spy. What name was she better known by?(answer at bottom of newsletter)
And finally...
Full marks this week to Times Radio presenter Darryl Morris, who extracted my first laugh-out-loud moment for some time.
Morris was talking with a guest in the studio and asked if he’d been watching any of the swimming at the Paris Olympics. The guest replied that he found swimming a little boring and preferred mountain biking, particularly when they risked life and limb in the downhill sections.
Darryl retorted in typical dry fashion:
So you'd like to see more jeopardy in swimming? I suppose they could throw a shark in the pool. Would that do it for you?
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Thank you for joining me. Have a great week!
Steve
HOST & CHIEF STORY HUNTER
P:S: Incidentally, I am always keen to receive your feedback to help me continuously improve this newsletter and the podcast. Just hit reply to this email and...... let it rip! I respond to every email that I receive.
Answer to Question of the week: Mata Hari, born this week on 6 August 1876. Under her guise as an exotic dancer, Margaretha was employed as a spy by the French but later was accused of being a double agent, apparently working for the Germans at the same time. She was executed by firing squad in 1917. Her legend lives on.
NEXT WEEK'S BREEZER
Cars, cautionary tales and Bridget Driscoll
LAST WEEK'S BREEZER
Following the path of British democracy one step at a time
Attribution (cover image): Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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