Reading Proust in French for the French - the movie!

Proust Lu. Here I am reading Marcel Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu in French - an excerpt from Albertine Disparue, sometimes known as La Fugitive. Honoured to be involved in Véronique Aubouy's wonderful project. 'Beautiful bedroom, great reading' says a comment in Polish. A French comment says my reading has only 'a touch of Britishness'. I'm very flattered.

Credit to skill and patience of cameraperson, Lee Banting.

Reading Proust for the French - in French!

I am proud to have been involved in the monumenal Proust Lu project of Véronique Aubouy, a French film maker who has recruited 1500 people to read Proust's monumental A la Recherche du Temps Perdu to camera in a kind of literary relay.

Véronique allocated me a couple of pages of La Fugitive, sometimes called Albertine Disparue, the sixth of the seven novels that make up the work. Proust is not the simplest French - often very long sentences - and reading it aloud called for fierce concentration. I needed a lie down afterwards.

I'd first read A la Recherche when I was in my twenties, which was some time ago.

By the time it's finished, Proust Lu will probably run for about 180 hours. 

The 145 hours completed so far was shown at the Médiathèque de la Ciotat, not far from Marseille, in December. Here's an interview with Véronique Aubouy:

https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/litterature/2021-08-16/proust-en-180-heures.php

'Milkman' is a masterpiece

I do not say this lightly or often. In my opinion, Anna Burns' novel Milkman is a masterpiece. Its shunning of proper names gives it a universality as it tells the story of a young woman's life caught up in the turmoil of a violent political struggle.

It's written in Joycean, though more accessible, stream-of-consciousness style. I listened to the audiobook, read by the author herself, and found it a completely compulsive listen.

The Plagues of Britain and Devon - my radio interview

What was the worst plague to hit Britain and Devon? The Black Death, cholera, Spanish flu, covıd? And what can we learn from the diseases of the past about how we should deal with the coronavirus pandemic? I was lucky enough to discuss all this and more with Pippa Quelch on BBC Radio Devon.

How the Black Death killed nearly half the clergy in parts of Devon, how the authorities in Exeter took the right approach to cholera even though no one knew what was causing it, and how one Devon medical officer warned women that low-cut tops and thin stockings were spreading Spanish flu.

You and hear it here -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bf7sld

And learn more from my book A Disastrous History of Britain https://www.amazon.co.uk/Disastrous-History-Britain-Chronicles-Plague/dp/075093865X/ref=sr_1_3?crid=WCY5DXBCGGAD&keywords=a+disastrous+history+of+britain&qid=1642507048&sprefix=a+disastrous+history+of+britain%2Caps%2C209&sr=8-3

Literary corner: Catch-Brexit, with apologies to Joseph Heller

 

'That's some catch, that Brexit catch', said Yossarian admiringly.

'So hit me with it again. So everyone knows this Brexit is crazy, right? But the MPs say they can't do nothing because the referendum was binding, right?'

'So some guys go to the judge and they say: "Hey judge, not only is Brexit crazy, but the referendum was bent." And the judge, he says: "Sure it was bent. It was bent as a nine dollar bill, but I can't do nothing because the referendum wasn't binding."' 

'So Brexit is crazy, but the MPs can't do nothing cos the referendum was binding, and the judges can't do nothing cos it wasn't binding.'

'Man, that's some catch. That's some catch.'

Brexit: the complete works so far - Shakespeare, Beckett, Sherlock Holmes, The Crown etc

 Happy Christmas! Shakespeare, Beckett, Conan Doyle, Netflix - what the immortals of literature have written so far about Brexit plus secret recordings that reveal the inside story of the UK's departure. All on this blog:

Samuel Beckett's lost masterpiece Waiting for the German carmakers. World exclusive excerpt

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/02/brexitwatch-waiting-for-german.html

Shakespeare's lost masterpiece: MacBoris. A Tragedy (for the UK). World exclusive excerpt

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/07/brexitwatch-macboris-shakespeares-lost.html

The lost Sherlock Holmes story: The Mystery of the Level Playing Field. World exclusive

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/10/brexitwatch-level-playing-field-mystery.html

World exclusive sneak preview of Series 12 of The Crown - Boris Johnson's 115th Dream

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/09/brexitwatch-this-wasnt-meant-to-happen.html

Plus three world exclusive secret recordings:

Inside DUP headquarters. How they decided to back Brexit and destroy the Union

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/09/brexitwatch-this-wasnt-meant-to-happen_20.html

Inside Leave Campaign headquarters before the referendum

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/08/brexitwatch-this-wasnt-meant-to-happen_17.html

And the Johnson-Macron phone call that sealed Johnson's Brexit 'deal'

http://disasterhistorian.blogspot.com/2020/12/brexitwatch-world-exclusive-that.html

Collect the set!

The comedian, the sculpture, the pop song, the book....and the assassins!

One of the exhibits at the 'Summer' Exhibition at London's Royal Academy is a collection of eight little wooden models by the comedian, Harry Hill. They carry clues - Ford's Theatre, Dealey Plaza. 

Ah! I realised, fresh as I was from writing Assassins' Deeds. A history of assassination from Ancient Egypt to the present day. (Reaktion books) The little models all represent the sites of famous, or notorious, assassinations.

As I wracked my brains to identify them all, I could have saved myself some trouble by looking at the catalogue. The title of the piece is Abraham, Martin, John, Mahatma, Leon, Che, Malcolm and John. So Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi, Leon Trotsky, Che Guevara, Malcolm X, and John Lennon.

Is Hill's poignant piece inspired by the 1968 pop song Abraham, Martin and John, which was a hit for Dion? That mourns the deaths, and celebrates the lives of Lincoln, Martin Luther King and JFK, and concludes with the assassination of Bobby Kennedy.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Assassins-Deeds-History-Assassination-Ancient/dp/1789143519