Bliss Blue Diagonal [Book Blurb Friday #22]

Bigger than the Beatles, more talented than Radiohead, Blue Bliss Diagonal came, sang and conquered. Four highly talented musicians who wrote lyrics of an originality and relevance to today’s high-speed culture, sung in a voice described as that of a ‘sultry angel’.   Songs with a conscience, sung with honesty and passion which not only equalled but surpassed the Blues, held heartstrings tighter than grass roots Folk music and shivered the spines of everyone who heard them.

Then overnight – 21st July 2010 - they stopped: disbanded, went their separate ways without publicity or announcement.   And left behind a bereft and heartbroken fan-base.

In the past twelve months one of their greatest fans has undertaken hours of assiduous research and carried out dozens of hours of interviews in an attempt to answer some of their fans’ desperate questions – not all but most of the answers can be found HERE.   [148 words]

Week #22’s response to Lisa Ricard Claro’s Book Blurb Friday challenge and Christine Claro’s challenging photograph,    Each week Lisa posts a photograph which represents a book cover.   Participants are challenged to “Write a book jacket blurb (150 words or less) so enticing that potential readers would feel compelled to buy the book”  

http://www.writinginthebuff.net/p/book-blurb-friday.html

London Migration

It is human nature to take written facts of names and places, dates and occupations, however sparse, and use them to build a picture our ancestors and of the lives they led.   My husband was born in London, as were his parents, grandparents and all but two of his great-grandparents.   Of the sixteen in the generation previous to that only two were London born – twelve others had, between 1826 and 1872, migrated into London from all corners of England:  Devon, Warwickshire, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridge, Suffolk, Essex, and Kent.

Of these twelve, three couples had married and had at least one child before migrating (two marrying spouses from adjoining countries), and three males met and married their wives in London, their birthplaces bearing no relationship to those of their spouses.

The two couples of this generation who remained in the county of their birth were a stonemason and his wife (both Shropshire-born) and a carpenter and his wife (both born in Devon).

For this series of London migration prints, both country and city ‘portraits’ were produced for each migrating ancestor.   As in life, the juxtaposition of sixteen disparate people failed to present a unified image, therefore these were variously combined and allied to relevant texts in order to create a harmonious composition.


London migration I combines of country ‘portraits’ for each of the sixteen ancestors known to have migrated into London, with maps and place names of where they originated.   The decision to move from one’s birthplace might be prompted by dreams of success or by harsh economic necessity.


 
London migration II combined city ‘portraits’ for each of the sixteen ancestors known to have migrated into London with the street names of their first known address; further information is also embedded within the image.

 
London migration III Names, birthplaces and occupations have been worked into this image.   As well as commenting on the difficulties of unravelling such information when tracing London-born ancestors, it underlines the need to reappraise conclusions in the light of new evidence.

London migration IV is the final piece in this series and attempts to comment on dislocation and loss of identity, and the fact that while some families go on to achieve financial success, others most definitely do not.

From censuses it was seen that the fortunes of at least three families improved, since they became employers, but that one might have been better staying where he was, at least in terms of habitation.   For all but one it would have been necessary to come to terms with living, and raising a family in a crowded and rapidly-expanding city while losing both family support and the possibility of solitude amidst natural beauty;  that the one who migrated from the equally thrusting city of Birmingham was also by far the most financially successful might be little more than coincidence, but might not.

(All images measure 40cm x 40cm 15¾” x 15¾”, etching with soluble graphite on 250 gsm Somerset Satin)

This piece was written for the 9th issue of Language>Place> blog Carnival

 

Grandson

An early morning premonition
a midday phone call
and earlier this evening photographs

A grandson - with a face of such individuality
and a most beautifully-shaped mouth.

I do not know who he takes after.

Averting the echo of history (Book Blurb Friday #21

Agatha Jane Merriman

12 July 1879 - 12 September 1899

Steadfast to the end

Although the self-possessed accusation in the face of the stone girl had startled her, it was the memorial inscription at her feet which terrified because she was Agatha Jane Merriman, her birthdate identical but for a century - and today was the first day of September 1999

Impelled by urgent and insistent premonition, acutely aware that only with knowledge of past events could she prevent her own death in less than a fortnight, Agatha visits the local Record Office, where the very mention of her name sets in motion a treacherous and increasingly smoke-screened hunt for evidence and information.  Coincidences abound and history threatens to repeat itself on many levels, even down to the man from the past with the same name as Agatha’s would-be fiancé.  Can the echo be averted or is her premature death inevitable?  [150 words]

Week #21’s response to Lisa Ricard Claro’s Book Blurb Friday challenge and Sioux Roslawski’s fascinating photograph,    Each week Lisa posts a photograph which represents a book cover.   Participants are challenged to “Write a book jacket blurb (150 words or less) so enticing that potential readers would feel compelled to buy the book”  

http://www.writinginthebuff.net/p/book-blurb-friday.html

HoW now over

We met on line at Six Sentences, got to know each other through writing and comments and wanted to extend the many friendships.   Last weekend we met in North Carolina.    Imagine fifteen of us, in one house, sat in a circle, taking it in turns to read out our stories on a theme of 'freedom' written especially for the occasion, imagine the pleasure in hearing the voice of the person whose words had previously only sounded inside our own heads.   Later that afternoon, as had happened the previous day, we used the Thinking Ten format to write, using randomly-generated prompts to kick start a ten minute tale.   No-one could be in any doubt whatsoever that they were in the company of most excellent writers as each in turn demonstrated originality and a truly impressive turn of phrase.

Now the question is "When shall we all meet again?"

HoW now

Boarding pass for first hop printed
passport, visa, where to meet
to-be-packed clothes and open suitcase
pile of books to be thinned out
panic vies with anticipation:
I fly to Atlanta in the morning.

This not turning out to be quite the small stone it was originally  intended to be I've put it here.   'HoW' stands for 'House of Writers' or 'House of Words' which will be the second gathering of fellow bloggers on the Six Sentences social site, all of whom have become friends over the past year or so.   The first one was in New Orleans last September, this second event will be in North Carolina - three times the number attending and much anticipation of good chat and getting to know each other and, of course, lots of talk about writing.

Letters out of place - [Book Blurb Friday #19]

The places were always secondary to the people.   The men always secondary to the girls.   And sometimes Greg Hardstaff didn’t travel much further than his hotel bedroom.
Yet he never missed a deadline, never failed to entertain his readers.

And never EVER admitted to anyone that he kept a diary

NOW - transcribed by his long-suffering and regular travelling companion and in print for the first time - the FULL, UNEXPURGATED AND NEVER-SAW-THE-LIGHT-OF-DAY TRUTHS behind the words that appeared in print – and some that didn’t.   The scrapes and escapes, the sex and the lies:  death threats, one shooting and three attempted stabbings and no fewer than fifteen blackmail attempts – every colourful detail all here in black and white.   [113 words]

Week #19’s response to Lisa Ricard Claro’s Book Blurb Friday challenge and Lynn Obermoeller’s cannot-fail-to-inspire photograph,    Each week Lisa posts a photograph which represents a book cover.   Participants are challenged to “Write a book jacket blurb (150 words or less) so enticing that potential readers would feel compelled to buy the book”  

http://www.writinginthebuff.net/p/book-blurb-friday.html

Layers of change

 

At any one time

some part or other of the North East

is re-inventing itself

regenerating

expanding mental horizons

and revising the urban blueprint

It could be better

if only ‘retail opportunities’

and acres of car sales

weren’t always included

but could be a lot worse:

at present there is still space to live

still time

no rush

no over-crowding

and still air to breathe

   

Teesside’s industrialisation

arose from man’s exploitation

of its natural resources

and the subsequent creation

of infrastructure

to extract

refine

manufacture

and transport

the resulting products

    Necessary urban growth

to accommodate the workforce

paralleled

the industrial

 

Man’s intervention

seems solid

and irreversible

but obsolescence

and the passing of the years

obliterate

man-made constructions

and Nature’s

often beautiful

regeneration

of the abandoned

blends them back

into the landscape

under layers

of natural decay

For me

contentment lies

in knowing

that I can see the horizon

at the far side of the sea

without having to travel

too many miles

   And knowing

that when I reach the coast

I can stand in silent

and solitary contemplation,

absorbing

the grey green dampness

of the sea-fret

or the promise

of the early morning sun

while nourishing my soul

Plotting ancestors

In 2009, as part of an exhibition entitled 'Plotting ancestors' I attempted to comment on my husband's sixteen great grandparents who had emigrated into London from various counties of England.

City ‘portraits’ were produced for each person.   By combining, by overlaying, the plates for husband and wife an 'image' of their marriage was produced.   Where this was less than visually successful, the back of the plate was used as a ‘wildcard’ (the plates having been cut from a larger plate which had held a family history image), adding an interesting extra dimension.   It is, of course, impossible to say whether or not the marriages themselves were as successful.

This image is for Thomas and Mary Ann Goodfellow - Thomas migrated from Birmingham and was probably the wealthiest of all my husband's ancestors since he was a silversmith and electro-plater with a business in Hatton Garden, and at one time owned some thirty properties in London.   All sold after a dispute over a will.

What IS it about decay?

Peeling paint, weather-worn wood, corroded rusty metal - I have umpteen photos of such.

And will take many more

And I know I'm not alone ... but I do not know why the compulsion, why the textures are so often translated into 'beauty' in my eyes.