A Case for Upcycling

As much as I quietly loathe car crash neolexic portmanteaus like 'chillax', 'bridezilla' and 'stagflation', today I find myself 'upcycling'. Oh the shame.

Upcycling is the art of recycling a thing into something better. Apparently. That's still recycling in my view. Or repurposing. But, whatever we call it, I've done it. Or, rather, Mrs C has.

She's spent the last couple of days preparing for an upcoming craft fair by making pencil cases and laptop and tablet bags from old off-cuts of material (she is a very experienced and exceptional seamstress and tailor). And it suddenly occurred to me that here was a possible new use for the promotional T Shirt I had printed to wear at fundraising events for my book. The book is now funded, has a different cover and will soon be in the shops so the shirt is redundant ... so the poor thing's future was looking bleak. It would probably end up spattered with paint and plaster or cut up for use as dust cloths. That just seemed ungrateful. Was there an alternative? There was indeed.

The T shirt lives on as my new pencil case - Upcycled and reincarnated. Isn't that cool?

I think so.

If you're going to get RSA, this is the way to get it

Yesterday I did a mass signing of copies of Constable Colgan's Connectoscope at Unbound HQ. What a joyous job.

And here you can see Isobel and Caitlin working hard getting all of your copies into envelopes ready for posting. Excitements!

Great Red Spot!

Following quickly on the heels of Ron Miller's 'What if Earth had a ring like Saturn', here is his visualisation of what our sky would look like if Jupiter was as close as our Moon. Of course, we'd be the moon in that relationship.

 

And here he gives us the same view for all of the other planets. Fascinating.

 

I also found these images but can't credit them, sadly, as I don't know who did them:

 

 



Breast plates

I was doing some research about coats of arms this week. And, while discussing this with my friends Terry Bergin and Mo McFarland, Terry unexpectedly said: 'Where I work there's a shield on display that includes three topless women.' Terry is a barrister. Naturally, I was somewhat intrigued. Lions, yes. Gryphons, occasionally. But Page 3 girls? Anyway, Terry sent me this photo the next day:

I was interested to know who saucy Thomas Marowe was so I went looking. I discovered that he was once the 'Common Serjeant of London' (full title The Serjeant-at-Law in the Common Hall) and took over the role from Thomas Frowyk in 1496. As this is the first date on the shield above and it is hanging in an area where barristers have their offices, this would seem to represent his dates in office. The Common Serjeant is a title, first recorded in 1291, for the second most senior permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court after the Recorder of London. The Serjeant acts as deputy to the Recorder. The office was once held by the infamous 'Hanging Judge' George Jeffries but is now in the hands of the more moderate Judge Nicholas Hilliard, QC, who was appointed on 16th May 2013. He is the 80th incumbent. So that was quite interesting. But then Mo -  a professional researcher and archivist - discovered more about the arms themselves.

One William Marowe (d. 1464) was a wealthy property owner who was Lord Mayor of London in 1455. He owned quays on the River Thames and a brewhouse called Le Maydenhede (The Maiden's Head) on the north side of Thames Street, three doors along from the eastern corner of Bear Lane in Petty Wales. When he died, it passed onto his son - also called William (b.1453) - who first adopted the coat of arms. W. F. Carter, who wrote a history of the Marowe family, believes that the arms evolved from the sign that would have been hung on the front of the brewhouse building. The arms are officially described as: 'Azure a Fess between three maiden's heads couped Argent crined Or'. Carter espouses the notion that the maiden depicted was the virgin Mary as the 'ground' is blue (azure) in the later arms, a colour invariably associated with her. If this biblical connotation is true, it was evidently lost on later Marowe armigers who emblazoned 'very profane or impious and immodest ladies as charges on their shields'.

I can't find out much more about Thomas Marowe. I know that he was William jnr's brother and one of five children: William, Thomas, Johanna, Agnes and Katherine. I also know that Thomas married a woman called Isabella Brome but I can find no record of their having children. I wonder if he actively used his family arms? Whether he did or didn't, they are now permanently associated with him.

Having found this all out, we wondered whether this was the only instance of  heraldic use of breasts ... and we soon discovered that it wasn't:

Those are the rather bizarre arms of Peter Dodge of Stockport, first recorded in 1613 and described thus:

ARMS (in trick).—Barry of six Or and Sable, on a pale Gules a woman’s dugg or breast distilling drops of milk Argent. CREST.—A demi sea-dog rampant guardant Sable, tufted and collared Or.

What a bizarre thing. As it happens, there is some debate over its authenticity. And, anyway, as you can read here, the 'dugg' was later changed into a 'weeping eye' to appease Victorian sensibilities.

Fascinating stuff.  

Sources:

http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=wjhonson&id=I148803
http://cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/dodge.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lord_Mayors_of_London
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Serjeant_of_London

If the Earth had a Ring

This artwork by Ron Miller is amazing and the full feature can be read at io9.

We once did have a ring around the Earth. When the proto-planet Theia crashed into the Earth, a huge amount of material was thrown up into orbit, forming a ring. Eventually, however, it coalesced into our Moon. But imagine if it hadn't. What would our view from Earth be like?

If we had rings in the same proportion to our planet that Saturn's are to it, it is pretty easy to figure out what they would like from different places on the earth. From the equator the rings would look like a bright line arching from horizon to horizon:
 

 

If we travel just a little further north to Guatamala, the rings begin to spread across the sky. 

 

 

Moving to somewhere in Polynesia on the Tropic of Capricorn, a 180° panorama gives an idea of what a magnificent sight the rings would be. The dark, oval-shaped break in the middle of the ring is the earth's shadow.

 

 

From Washington, DC (at 38° latitude), the rings begin to sink below the horizon, though they would still be an awe-inspiring sight as they dominate the sky both day and night.

 

 

At the Arctic Circle, the rings barely reach above the horizon. Seen here from Nome, Alaska, the brilliant rings illuminate the barren landscape scarcely more than a full moon would. Unlike the sun or moon, however, the rings neither rise nor set...they are always visible, day or night, always in exactly the same place.

 

 

It doesn't get any more exciting than this ...

Yes indeedy, those are the trade paperback and special edition hardback editions of Constable Colgan's Connectoscope in the flesh. Well, paper. They arrived in the warehouse last week so they should soon start being posted out to all of you lovely people who pledged on it through Unbound.

The ebook is being prepared as we speak and should be available for release soon. And I start recording the audiobook in a couple of weeks. Good news!

Oh, and if you want a copy of the special hardback edition - get yourself over to Unbound pronto! They won't be around forever and they won't be available in the shops.

A Fat Rascal in Harrogate

It's been a busy week so far ... three more episodes of the new QI 'K' series in the can on Monday and Tuesday, a trip to Yorkshire to speak for Salon North at the Harrogate International Festival and then a whizz back to London for the first production meeting for series 6 of The Museum of Curiosity, which we record mid-June to mid-July.

Harrogate was great fun. I was sharing the stage with cutting-edge geneticist Professor Tim Spector and classicist, comedian and Booker Prize judge Natalie Haynes. Both lovely people and awesomely talented. Our show was themed 'Ch-ch-changes' and began with Tim explaining how the new science of epigenetics is revealing that our lifestyles have a much greater impact on re-writing our genetic code than we previously thought. Then Natalie spoke about the fact that nothing really changes in drama; how the plots of most modern soap operas follow the plots of the great Greek tragedies and comedies. And then I spoke about change within organisations - and also about changing people's attitudes towards tackling problems of crime and disorder. We had a lovely attentive audience and some great Q and A sessions. The event was staged at The Club in Victoria Avenue, a splendid venue of dark wood panels, creaking floorboards and high ceilings ... and banners that read backwards when the breeze catches them.

Also of interest is the hotel that the festival organisers booked me into. It was none other than the Old Swan Hotel, the place at which Agatha Christie was found alive and well after her mysterious disappearance in 1926. If you don't know the story, here's the quick version ...

In December 1924, Christie's husband Archie revealed that he was in love with Nancy Neele, and stated that he wanted a divorce. He then left their home in Sunningdale, Berkshire, to join his mistress at Godalming, Surrey. That evening, Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving behind a letter for her secretary saying that she was going to Yorkshire. Her car was later found at Newlands Corner, near Guildford. On the back seat was found her driving licence and some clothes. Her disappearance caused an outcry from the public. The Home Secretary, William Joynson-Hicks, put pressure on the police to find her and a reward was offered. Over 1000 police officers, 15,000 volunteers and several aeroplanes were used to scour the rural landscape. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle took one of Christie's gloves to a spirit medium in order to discover the location of the missing woman. But despite an extensive 10 day manhunt, she was not found.

Then on 14th December she was identified as a guest at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel (now the Old Swan Hotel) in Harrogate, Yorkshire, where she had been registered as 'Mrs Teresa Neele' from Cape Town.

Christie never explained her disappearance. Although two doctors had diagnosed her as suffering from 'psychogenic fugue', opinion remains divided. A nervous breakdown from a natural propensity for depression may have been exacerbated by her mother's death earlier that year and her husband's infidelity. Public reaction at the time was largely negative, supposing a publicity stunt or attempt to frame her husband for murder. Or, if you're a Doctor Who fan, some ludicrous plot involving giant wasps.(All of the above adapted from Wikipedia.)

Cool eh? All I know is they do a cracking breakfast and the breakfast room is glorious.

And, talking about my tummy, you can't leave Harrogate without having tea at Betty's, the famous tea rooms. And, on this occasion, buying a box of Fat Rascals to take home. Oh yes.

London 1927 - In Colour

This is just wonderful.



This footage was shot by an early British pioneer of film named Claude Frisse-Greene, who made a series of travelogues using the colour process his father William - a noted cinematographer - was experimenting with. It's like a beautifully dusty old postcard you'd find in a junk store, but moving.

Music by Jonquil and Yann Tiersen.

Found on Vimeo - thanks to Tim Sparke for posting it.

Coming to a festival near you (maybe) ...

I start a busy few months of talks next week with Salon North in Harrogate. Next Wednesday (15th) I'll be at The Club in Victoria Avenue along with epi-geneticist and author Professor Tim Spector and comedian, writer and historian Natalie Haynes to talk about Ch - Ch - Changes.

Then on the 27th and 28th I'll be at the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts promoting my new book as part of the Unbound team. I'll be talking about the interconnectedness of stuff, of course, and will be joined by such luminaries as Robert Llewellyn, Katy Brand, Salena Godden, George Chopping, Francis Pryor, Charles Fernyhough, Adrian Teal, David Bramwell and ex-Stranglers guitar genius Hugh Cornwell. Most excitingly (for me anyway!), it'll be the first outing for physical copies of Constable Colgan's Connectoscope. Smiley face.

Dates are being added to my schedule all the time and there's a running list over on the top right of this page. If I'm near you, come and say hello!

And yes ... that is a (small) part of my View Master collection. Pity me, dear reader, pity me.

Bucking Brilliant!

I spent a very nice afternoon at Buckinghamshire New University today. I was giving a talk to second and third year psychology students and then watching some of them give presentations of their dissertation proposals. Very, very interesting subject matter and very well presented. I also had to act as a judge to award a prize to what I considered the best. Deciding 'best' was impossible as they were all so different but I had to choose one ... so I went for the one that really impressed me the most - An interpretive phenomenological analysis of a mother's experience of applied behavioural analysis by Emily Stretch (seen on my immediate left).

 

The other excellent presentations were by Mike Parsons, Kimberley Dancer, Sammie Bull, Vicky Mullan, Sophie Rogers and Kaylie Davis.

We're constantly being told that the 'youth of today' is feckless, lazy and violent. Spending a day with young people like this restores my faith in society.

Well done everyone!

And thanks again to Matthew Smith and Ciaran O'Keeffe for inviting me.

Wild Men!

Just recently, while doing some research for the new series of QI, I stumbled upon the photography of Charles Fréger (I should add that there are no spoilers to be had here; this won't be appearing in the new series).

Fréger has spent the last few years roaming about Europe capturing Wild Men. What I mean by that are the 'wild men' costumes worn during traditional - some very ancient - ceremonies, celebrations and feast days. We have a fair number of these in the UK; where I grew up in Cornwall, people dressed as dragons and demons for Flora Day on May 8th and, further up the Duchy in Padstow, May the 1st every year sees the population being whipped to a frenzy by the whirling demonic card table known as the Obby Oss.

 

 

In Scotland they have the Burry Man, in Hastings there's the Jack in the Green and Lancashire has the ritual of Pace Egging and the black-faced character of Old Tosspot (true!). However, these seem almost tame compared to some of the pagan characters to be found in rural Europe. Here's a taste (all photos copyright Charles Fréger ):

 

 

 

Aren't they amazing? Fréger originally planned on covering 12 countries but, as he became immersed in the project, he found himself traveling to more and more places. In an interview with Slate magazine he explains that the concept of a 'Wild Man' is connected to changing of seasons, rites of passage, and other life changing events. He says that many of the traditions are full of joy and, regardless of the country, have a lot in common. 'There was a slight touch of universality because a lot of the groups were doing something similar without knowing one another', he explains. 'Because many of the festivities were focused on animals and vegetation, you could photograph someone dressed like a bear for example in Portugal or Spain or Romania. To me this was really exciting and interesting.'

  

There's an exhibition of these images currently in New York at the Hermès flagship store on Madison Avenue, and a different selection of photographs is also being displayed at the Yossi Milo Gallery, in Chelsea. I was so taken with these images that I really wish that I could pop across the pond to see them. Instead I invested in Fréger's book of images Wilder Mann. It is fantastic.