Dickens for Sepia Saturday

For me there could only be one interpretation of the Books theme this week. Today, 7 February is the 200th anniversary of this man's birthday.:

Charles Dickens 1868

Source: Project Gutenberg ebook of Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens, 1911.  From a photograph by Gurney

Source: Project Gutenberg ebook of Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens, 1911.  From a photograph by Gurney

In pride of  place on my bookshelf is a book I won as a form prize way back in 1949.

The Pickwick Papers

It so happens that I discovered Mr Pickwick and Sam Weller in an illustration which I though you might enjoy.

Wood engraving: 19th century. 

Characters from the books of Charles Dickens

(Photograph 1950 -1970 - unknown author)

The description with the photograph says, "The man seated in the chair is  Mr. Pickwick, a character from Charles Dickens’ first novel The Pickwick Papers, listening to his astute and humorous valet, Sam Weller, as he points out other characters from Dickens’ books. For example, midway up the left edge, from A Christmas Carol, are Ebenezer Scrooge in a night cap, and Bob Cratchit carrying his crippled son, Tiny Tim. In the bottom left corner, from The Old Curiosity Shop, are Little Nell and her grandfather. Fagin, from Oliver Twist, is third from the left in the front row with Mr. Bumble (in the bicorn or cocked hat), his wife Widow Corney, Oliver Twist, the Artful Dodger, and Charley Bates nearby."

I must say you need very good eyesight to make them out. There is no doubt however about who is in the next photo.

Artist Fred Barnard (1846-1896)

Title "Mr. Pickwick Picnics"

Date 1870s

• Source: "The Anniversary Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens, February 7, 1812". The books were published in 1911 by P.F. Collier & Son of New York. This illustration is from the book, "Pickwick Papers Part I"
• Flickr: Mr Pickwick uploaded by Sue Clark
• License: CC BY 2.0

Today, thanks to Stockton Central Library's Facebook post I learned something new about Dickens. Apparently Dickens' study had a secret door designed to look like a bookcase which was full of fake books with titles such as Noah's Arkitecture, a nine-volume set titled Cat's Lives and The Virtues of Our Ancestors, which was so narrow that the title had to be printed vertically. Are there fake books on your shelves?

 And a final picture of the great man who ranks close behind Shakespeare in literary merit.

Charles Dickens, circa 1860

Project Gutenberg ebook of Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens

Photo by  J. & C. Watkins

Charles Dickens, circa 1860

Project Gutenberg ebook of Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens

Photo by  J. & C. Watkins

As some of you may know I have been a volunteer text corrector for the Dickens Journals Online Project. They are celebrating his birthday by announcing the completion of all the correction process. You may find out about the project at http://www.djo.org.uk/

To immerse yourself in more books just click here

National Library Day and Peter Robinson

 

National Library Day

Saturday 4 February was National Library day in the UK. I had the pleasure of attending Stockton Central Library for a talk and book signing by Peter Robinson, the creator of the Inspector Banks detective/mystery series - http://www.inspectorbanks.com/.

The event had been ‘sold out’ but the first snow of the winter resulted in some empty seats. Fortunately Peter had only travelled from the town of Richmond, Yorkshire not that many miles away; he had left his home in Toronto earlier in the week and, as he said, had just about got over the jet lag.

Peter’s first library, that used by Alan Bennett and novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, was at Armley in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Before the Poison

For his talk Peter chose to explain that his latest book ‘Before the Poison’ was not part of the Banks series. The inspiration for the story came from a rundown house he found beyond the old racecourse at Richmond. At one time there had been limekilns in the area; in the book the house became Kilnsgate. Somewhat creepy, a love story of the past and present ‘Before the Poison’ covers the life of Grace Elizabeth Fox hanged in 1953 for poisoning her husband. Chris Lowe who has returned to live at Kilnsgate becomes entrapped by Grace’s story and comes to believe she did not poison her husband.

Peter Robinson explained how he incorporated Grace’s journal in the book. He read an extract which covered Grace’s experience as a Queen Alexandra’s nurse during the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in WWII.

Question and Answer Session

Interestingly Peter does not know who the murderer is when he starts a Banks book. He may be three-quarters of the way through before he decides who is the culprit. He does not have an outline or plan for his novels, nor character profiles.

He described the recent TV episodes with Stephen Tompkinson playing Alan Banks as two hours of mindless entertainment. He finds the TV version not to be the way he would do it. He believes Tompkinson is growing into the part but is too tall to be the Banks he wrote about.

The Eastvale location is based on a combination of Richmond and Ripon; TV scenes use Otley, near Leeds.

His best place for writing is in a cottage overlooking a lake north of Toronto. At Richmond he writes in the guest bedroom. He is not one to write while travelling or in hotels.

His next Banks book is to be based in Tallin, Estonia with the title ‘Watch in the Dark’ about a girl who goes missing while on a hen party in the city.

When asked how many drafts he produces before a novel is complete, Peter said his first draft has already been revised as he goes back to change details as he goes along. He may produce a further draft before the book is read by his wife, and his editors. The final version will then go to the copy editors. Effectively he has three goes at each book. He finds that writing with computers encourages you to make revisions as you go along.

When asked about his favourite authors Peter mentioned Michael Connelly, Mark Billingham and Ian Rankin. He mentioned specifically ‘The Greatcoat’ a ghost story by Helen Dunmore. He uses a Kindle for convenience while travelling, but agrees the e-readers will not replace books. Peter is also reading Alan Hunter’s books featuring the detective George Gently and stressed that the TV stories are nothing like the book.

Note:

‘Before the Poison’ is to be published in hardback in the USA on 7 February.

Charles Dickens - Sunday Stamps

The 7th February is the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens. I have been a volunteer text corrector for the Dickens Journals Online (DJO) Project. The project aims to have all his works in the magazines Household Words and All The Year Round available for reading on line in time for his birthday. As of today they are 98% complete. You can read about DJO and listen to Simon Callow explaining what's going on at http://www.djo.org.uk/

Meanwhile the stamps I have for you this week are those issued in 1970 on the centenary of his death.

Charles Dickens 1812/1870

Top row: Pickwick Papers - Mr Pickwick and Sam (Weller); David Copperfield - Mr & Mrs Micawber

Bottom row: David Copperfield and Betsy Trotwood; Oliver Twist asking for more.

You will find other selections at Viridian's Sunday Stamps

The White House - Rotterdam

Among the postcards of Rotterdam with views by Weenenk & Snel was this panoramic view:

River Maas

When I saw this I wondered what the large building was in the centre. Another of the postcards soon told me.

Het Witte Huis (The White House)

The White House was one of the few buildings in central Rotterdam to survive the German bombing campaigns in WWII. It was built in 1898; I found this photo of it in the American Library of Congress,

Het Witte Huis - 1900

And a much more recent picture too of what has become a National Heritage Site.

Het Witte Huis Rijksmonument 2007

(Photo by F Eveleens - CC BY 3.0 unported license)

Rob from Amersfoort kindly gave me this lnk to an old map  in my previous post on Rotterdam - http://www.engelfriet.net/Alie/Hans/stadsplattegrond1897.jpg 

If you view and enlarge the map The White House is situated on the end curve of 'Haven; above the Maas Hotel (in red) where there appears to be a letter 'E'.

Dogs in My Life

From an early age I was used to playing with dogs, The first I remember was an Airedale named Punch, then Laddie, a white Labrador/Lurcher, followed by a whippet named Flick. But the first photograph I have is this from the 1950s.

Major

Major belonged to my wife's sister, but was looked after by her parents. We have never owned a dog ourselves but our younger son and our daughter have made up for this. My son has had three Irish Water Spaniels over the years, two of them at the same time.

Milly and Cara

You may read about Milly and Cara here

Sam and Maxie were my daughter's first two Golden Labradors who became known as the Dogs of Troy.

Sam and Maxie are the stars

The pictures in the video also appear with a commentary at this post.

Later they became part of the gang of four known as the Deer Trail Hounds.

Gem, Sam, Jack and Maxie.

Gem is still alive; Sam suddenly went blind when he was 10 but survived another two years; Jack was known as the brown bomber because of the havoc he could cause while Maxie found fame as the Trash Queen in Dogs Today.

Gem now has to share the house and grounds with three Retrievers - Lily, Scout and Cody. Lily is the youngest and always in trouble but will run for miles after a tennis ball. Scout spoils the games by hiding the balls and has earned the title of Scouty-Two-Ball, which is strange because he hasn't any, as he can run with two in his mouth at once.

Lily and Scout in water; Cody and Gem on land

But Alan's prompt was, let me remind you, man and dog,

So here's one of me.

Cody - more in hope, than expectation.

For more shaggy dog stories you need to check out others at sepia-saturday-111

Screens - Thematic Photography

When I saw that the topic for this week's thematic photography was 'Screens' I decided I only needed one new shot,

Thematic Photography - picture archive

I just hope you can read the header. Other photos are a selection from my files.

Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge - Visitor Centre

Wall display plus small screen of bridge in action

The Tees Barrage is up-river from the Transporter and there I found a different type of screen, this time designed to keep people out.

Archimedes Screws at Tees Whitewater Rafting Centre

The four screws recycle water from the rafting course back to the start. Only the two centre screws were lifting water when this shot was taken.

There's a ghostly look to my next set of screens in use back in the early 1940s.

Mosquito Nets - Egypt - UK naval base

You may think my next picture does not include a screen but there is still a maritime connection.

Rudder on SS Great Britain in Bristol Dry Dock

I would claim that the glass cover to the dock screens out the sunlight at least..

In the next a glass screen in the form of a box encloses a model.

Truro Cathedral inside Truro Cathedral

The crowd has still to arrive in this basketball stadium in Lansing, Michigan and the screens are blank.

Graduation Day for Thomas Cooley Law School

And for the golfing fans.

Olazabal Takes A Putt

For a leisurely ride home there is nothing to beat the view through a windscreen like this.

Helicopter approaching Nice.

Here's two who are saying it's time to go.

You Drive

But before you go make sure have your sunscreen on when you visit Carmi's Written Inc. screens

Dragons - Sunday Stamps

Viridian has chosen to celebrate China and the year of the Dragon this week.

China’s first stamps appeared in 1878 and had dragons on them! They are known as “large dragon stamps” and are very rare. I wish I had one of them, but the nearest I can offer you is a an image of a stamp from 1897.

China - 1897, Dragon

In the year of the Dragon, many different countries issue dragon stamps. The year 2000 was a dragon year, and dragon stamps were issued in Macau, U.S.A, Canada, Christmas Islands, Hong Kong, Japan and China, of course. I'm told that the first Japanese stamps in 1871 also depicted dragons.

I looked hard for other dragon stamps and was disappointed to find I had very few. However I was pleased to find this dragon's head on a Norwegian stamp.

Norway - 1972

Viking longships had dragon heads like this on their prows. However I have not been able to confim whether these are dragons on these other stamps from Scandinavia. Perhaps someone can tell me whether they are.

Finland

I looked hard to find stamps with komodo dragons but had to give up as my stamps from Indonesia had pangolins.

I was on much safer ground closer to home as a dragon is always depicted on the regional issues from Wales.

Great Britain - Wales - pre 1971 - Wilding design

Wales - post 1971 - Machin design

1971 was the year Breat Britain changed from pounds, shillings and pence to decimal currency.

Wales - Commonwealth Games 1958

My favourite dragon stamp is one I don't possess - it's from the set of mythical creatures.

Great Britain