Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
One of my Christmas buys, I was really looking forward to reading this biography of a man - Engels - who with Marx had so much to do with Manchester, and indeed so much to do with the founding of Communism which of course has been one of the major forces of the twentieth century. Tristram Hunt, who is now Director of the V&A, is obviously a well-educated not to say academic man. The book bristles with detailed research and references, and investigations of some of the more abstruse of Engels' ideas. I'm afraid I have even now yet to get fully to grips with dialectical materialism. And large chunks of the text were consumed with very very involved discussions of the development over time of the two mens' philosophies. Again a lot of this was over my head, but at the same time a lot of their thinking was frankly puerile - which the author doesn't seem to realise'. However, I read a biography to get to grips with the man, to find out about his life and therefore him, and I was expecting to find, as per the Guardian quote on the cover "an endearing picture of Friederich Engels as a man it would be difficult not to like... a bon vivant of the first order". What I found was a man who, whilst no doubt heroic to his friends, the whole Marx family in particular, being happy to subsume his work in that of his colleague, and to subsidise the family's expenses, was without doubt one of the most unpleasant individuals I have come across. Anyone who is happy to criticise one of his critics as a "Jewish nigger" gets 'nul points' from me, and indeed his anti-semitism is rife throughout his life. But, more than that, he was man who would go to any lengths to do down potential rivals - and there were many. Everything from public belittling to gross personal insults was grist to his mill. He was also a drunkard and typically didn't enjoy his fox hunting with the Cheshire set for the chase but for the blood at the end. How on earth we can be expected to like such a man is beyond me, but then that's the modern day Guardian for you. An interesting read which took me a long time. I wonder whether the Guardian critic actually did read the whole book. This is the latest in the 'County Guide' series of murder mysteries. I have enjoyed them all immensely. Set in the 30's they celebrate and to some extent send up the Crime novels of the time. The idea is a good one. Professor Morley, a larger than life character, is intent on writing a guide to all the English counties, and he is aided by his glamorous daughter Miriam, and a note-taker and side-kick called Sefton. Naturally in every county they visit they come across murder, and solving the crime is a part of the plot, but what amuses all the way through, apart from the development of the relationships between the leads, is the characterisation of Morley himself, the People's Professor. Seemingly there is no arcane subject which he does not know about, or is willing to explore or write about. Titles like 'The Sussex Dew Pond : A Brief History' are the sort of things he likes to write about. And when he comes across something he knows little about - the making of seaside rock is one extended example in this particular book - he gets his teeth into it and doesn't let go. Sorry about the pun. As it happens I was really interested in this development as my grandfather owned a factory which made Blackpool rock! I honestly can't wait for each instalment to appear. This is the fifth in the series.
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August 2023
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