The Reith Lectures : Current of Death -not imagined?
Is violence normal ? In her 2024 Reith Lectures, Dr Gwen Adshead, addresses four questions that she has most commonly faced in her work as a therapist with violent perpetrators in secure psychiatric units and prisons: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0025cmg. It’s not surprising that I opened my first whodunit, Current of Death, referencing Hannah Arendt.
‘… Death by natural causes – a heart attack – Giovani’s body was found after considerable exertion in a bedroom at the Club …’Alex Hornby was imagining it all, so there had to be more to it than that. She’d just read The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt. It left her considering how easy it is to be deceived and to deceive oneself. She wanted to explore that theme in her latest book.’
Hannah Arendt described the ‘normality’ of Eichmann.
‘For when I speak of the banality of evil, I do so only on the strictly factual level, pointing to a phenomenon which stared one in the face at the trial. Eichmann was not Iago and not Macbeth, and nothing would have been farther from his mind than to determine with Richard III ‘to prove a villain.’ Except for an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement, he had no motives at all… He merely, to put the matter colloquially, never realized what he was doing… It was sheer thoughtlessness—something by no means identical with stupidity—that predisposed him to become one of the greatest criminals of that period. And if this is ‘banal’ and even funny, if with the best will in the world one cannot extract any diabolical or demonic profundity from Eichmann, this is still far from calling it commonplace… That such remoteness from reality and such thoughtlessness can wreak more havoc than all the evil instincts taken together which, perhaps, are inherent in man—that was, in fact, the lesson one could learn in Jerusalem.”
That’s why a normal village, like Kennington, where I live is such a good location.
Geographical and historical reasons for the location of Current of Death
My village is home to the most dangerous stretch of water in the county of Oxfordshire. Sandford Lasher is the name given to the weir just above the lock at Sandford-on-Thames, adjoining the island known as Fiddler’s Elbow. The calm surface of the water is deceptive, hiding strong currents below. One of many young victims was Peter Pan- well the inspiration for Peter Pan! Michael Llewelyn Davies, the adopted son of J.M. Barrie drowned there in 1921.
Jerome K. Jerome in his classic Three Men in a Boat describes the spot as ‘a very good place to drown yourself in’ and comments that ‘the steps of the obelisk are generally used as a diving-board by young men now who wish to see if the place really IS dangerous.’ The obelisk is a memorial to drowned Christ Church students. So the obvious destination for a fictional watery death!
Some locations in Current of Death
Sandford Lane leading from the industrial estate to the Thames often floods.
To reach the lock, I crossed the Pooh Sticks Bridge where the World Championship now takes place.
WITNESSES ? Cormorants on the cormorant tree not far from Sandford Lasher.
One character lives on a house boat.
Alex and Kate meet in the Kings Arms and have a useful conversation with the volunteer lock keeper- a character inspired by John Argyle.
Proof Social Bakery which appears in Current of Death and was where I had a book signing event.
How can somewhere so peaceful and beautiful have a dark side? 15 years ago a Kennington house was raided. It was being used as a cannabis factory. Here is a recent example in an unexpected place.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/27/there-are-worse-places-to-hide-armed-police-arrest-wanted-man-in-north-wales?
Lovely feature in Round and About Magazine
The launch of Current of Death was fun – discussion on Oxford Murder Capital of the World with the help prolific crime writer Peter Tickler and Chris Andrews who has photographed Oxford for forty years .
Wow! Philip Pullman and I had the same response to questions.
It’s the wonderful Oxford Arts Week. On Tuesday, I was on a panel in Littlemore church exploring the creative process. This evening, I attended the annual Arts Week Forum which had a distinguished panel including Sir Philip Pullman.
Imagine my delight to discover that I had answered a question in a similar way to him! Asked about how I begin, I explained that some writers know what will be in every chapter but I’m not like that. I have a vision, an idea of the end but mostly I create the principle characters and let them take me on journey.
Philip described how he created the character of Lyra and imagined her in a room where she was not meant to be, hiding and overhearing something she was not meant to hear. Then he let her lead him.
On my panel, some talked of the magic of creation. While Philip did not dismiss that idea, he said ‘The magic comes because you put in the hard graft.’ He stressed that writing is mostly about putting in the time and the effort and the discipline.
The previous evening, I had described an interview I did with Colin Dexter the creator of Inspector Morse. Colin began by saying ‘Education has dominated my being, indeed, my first books were educational not crime fiction. I was Senior Classics Teacher at Corby Grammar School when deafness struck and blighted my life. After that I came here, in 1966, to work as Senior Assistant Secretary at the University of Oxford Delegacy in Ewert House where I continued to work until I retired in 1988.’
I realised that meant he had written his first seven novels in his spare time after the day job and wondered how he did it? Colin joked that after supper, listening to the Archers and a pint of good ale at the local, if he wrote one page a day that was 365 a year and a book written i.e. the hard graft!
With Coli Dexter at an Oxford Castaways Oxtopian event .
Cosmic Cats: A World First for World Book Day? Connecting children across continents. Purrrfectly Pawsome
Cosmic Cats: A World First ? Charming feature on BBC South Today covering the school’s launch .
Click on the link below to see it.
Here’s how you buy a copy
Cosmic Cats brings together stories written by children in my village and in Mumias. Reading and telling stories, creates empathy and understanding. New residents of Kennington may not realise that for fifty years, through KOA, Kennington was the only village in the UK, possibly in the world, which fundraised every year for overseas projects. It was done through events that villagers loved, like the fete, fun run, pop -up shop and children’s concert. Well here’s another FIRST for our village. St Swithun’s CE Primary School and Mumias Primary School in west Kenya have come together to produce this anthology of stories written by pupils. St Swithun’s CofE Primary School, Kennington (Oxon) and the Nasio Trust are proud to announce the launch of ‘Cosmic Cats’, an anthology of stories written by children from Kennington, Oxfordshire and Mumias, Kenya. The book celebrates the collaboration between the two communities to help set-up the first community library in the west Kenya district of Mumias/Musanda.
Cosmic Cats was launched at St Swithun’s School on the 6th of March, 2024 and included a virtual interaction with the children from Kenya. The internationally loved children’s illustrator Korky Paul gave a presentation and well known children’s author, Julia Golding, thanked the authors individually. The public launch and book sales will be from 11-12 am on 9th of March in Kennington Village Centre.OX15PG.
Winnie’s cat ,Wilbur, has endorsed Cosmic Cats as Purrrr-fectly pawsome!
Cosmic Cats Nasio Trust: Feature on BBC South Today
The library will be built by the Nasio Trust led by, Nancy Mudenyo Hunt, the co-author of Not so Black and White .Cosmic Cats will be the first book to be put on display in the Musanda library when it opens in 2025. This has been possible thanks to our long term association with the Nasio Trust. In Musanda, there is a spirulina factory built thanks to KOA. St Swithun’s School took part in the Spirulina Cookbook too. All proceeds from sales £8 will go towards the Nasio library. Cosmic Cats will be the first book in the library so the children will know their library, like Kennington library, welcomes them.
Feel the force of fifty children’s voices. Recognise the bravery of turning an empty page into a living story and celebrate how art and story-telling brings together young people who live continents apart. Cosmic Cats connects Mumias Township Primary School (Kenya) and St Swithuns CofE Primary School (England).
Aged seven, I discovered libraries and a love of reading and writing but the idea that a working-class girl from Luton could become an author was as crazy as eating the straw boater with which my birthplace was associated. Middle class parents can afford to buy books for their children. Lack of access to books for children without them, is a handicap for upward mobility. That is why I asked the illustrator Korky Paul to lead our 400 yard Pied Procession to save our library from closure and it changed the leader of the County Councils mind. Our library is still open and supported by the County Council but it is a community library so the Friends( FOKL) have to raise £4,000 per annum to keep it open. Please support your library . You may not need it but lots of people young and old do.
March 6 School’s launch: Mumias authors
St Swithun’s Authors
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Head Teacher Mrs Knighton talking to Mumias School authors
Korky Paul with Mrs Knighton and I and his rendering of Cosmic Cat! The children had a purrrfectly pawsome time!
Excellent news about the fab Proof Social but Kennington is NOT a SUBURB but is the site of a world championship
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24256468.oxford-bakery-named-among-best-bakeries-britain/
Excellent news but I object to my village being called a SUBURB by the Oxford Mail! Oxford would love it to be but Kennington has always resisted the take over. My whodunit, Current of Death is inspired by the VILLAGE where I live. In my foreword I describe it thus,
‘It’s an independent sort of place somewhat dwarfed by its famous neighbours. To the north lies academic Oxford with its dreaming spires overshadowing the town with its multicultural east and Cowley car factory where Harry King, the protagonist of my novel Sculpting the Elephant, grew up. Abingdon, which claims to be the longest inhabited town in England, is a few miles south of Kennington. Being overlooked means that villagers have got on with their lives without obvious interference.’
Proof Social Bakery is a perfect fit for the independent culture of the VILLAGE of Kennington. That is why Proof Social appears in Current of Death and why I had a launch there. Round and About magazine covered it and got it right!
It is also the location of a World Championship!!! See below. Proof Social will serve coffee there this year!
Afterwards some of the kind people who attended went with me on a walk to some of the sites in the book . 
Chris Patten – last night’s moving farewell Chancellor’s event and why I appreciate his generosity of spirit .
In February, Chris Patten announced that he will retire as Chancellor of Oxford University. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-02-05-lord-patten-barnes-announces-his-retirement-chancellor-university-oxford So the Chancellor’s event last night was an interview with him. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2024/march-18/chancellors-lecture-from-china-to-the-middle-east-and-ukraine-a-world-in-turmoil
I was moved for many reasons by last night’s interview. He was asked to give advice to young people. I’m summarising it as .
The Three C’s
Be Curious
Be Courteous
Have Courage
He added, ‘Don’t do something just for the money.’ Chris Patten has lived by those values. I’m not a Conservative but remembering the likes of him and Rab Butler, who was Chris Patten’s inspiration, and John Major and Michael Heseltine, who gave tribute to him, I long to return to their example of good manners in political life. Rab Butler’s advice to Chris Patten was to place more value on ‘generosity than efficiency’.
Chris Patten showed generosity towards me, a freelance writer, by allowing me to cast him away on Oxtopia for The Oxford Times . He squeezed 30 minutes for me into a hectic schedule. I wrote up his early life to the point where he lost his seat in Bath and asked him to approve that, so in our 30 minutes we could concentrate on China and Oxford.
He said the years in Hong Kong were the best five years of his life. Last night he described how the city he loves is in handcuffs. I share his interest in China. When I interviewed him , I was writing Brushstrokes in Time . In 2014, China had been changing for the better but just as civility and rationality in British politics has gone down the pan , a dark cloud of oppression looms over China. Brushstrokes in Time was based on real events inspired by the life of the Stars Artist Qu Leilei who I interviewed every month for three years. My novel ended with hope. In these dark times, the chancellor has a refreshing quality – a sense of humour.
This quote is from my memoir Food of Love Cooking up a Life across Gender, Class and Race.
‘When I interviewed Chris Patten, the Chancellor of Oxford University, I asked him, ‘What would he, when a student at Oxford, have said if told he’d one day become the Chancellor?’ He shrugged and said that he would’ve suggested the speaker was high on marijuana!
If middle-class Lord Patten of Barnes’s future was so unexpected, how much more so was mine? Women were second-class citizens and working-class women were at the bottom of the pile.
Here is his castaway feature : Chris patten
What does the world hold in store for us in 2025? Three quarters of the world’s population is now led by leaders who think of themselves as demi-gods. Who would have predicted that even the Netherlands would have joined that club? Global warming is the most important issue facing humanity but the likes of Putin, Trump and Netanyahu care not a jot about that issue. So the question is
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Chris Patten says he will continue to write. I would love him to write on that issue because he has a grounding in history, unique in depth life experiences and the wisdom , generosity and open mindedness to make a fine job of it. He also has access to the world’s best brains.
WOW! Michael Rosen has endorsed Cosmic Cats – a project of love in a hate filled time .
The former children ’s laureate , Michael Rosen has endorsed Cosmic Cats on his Facebook and Twitter accounts . Feel the force of fifty children’s voices. Recognise the bravery of turning an empty page into a living story and celebrate how art and story-telling brings together young people who live continents apart.
Cosmic Cats is live on Amazon Kindle now.
The anthology contains stories by 24 children from Mumias school in west Kenya & 24 from St Swithun’s Primary School in my village of Kennington in Oxfordshire. Cosmic Cats celebrates the collaboration between the two communities to create the first community library in the west Kenya district in Musanda next to the Nasio Trust’s Health Centre.
Cosmic Cats will be its first book so the children will know they belong there. We’re launching it with a zoom connecting the schools for World Book Day. African born illustrator, Korky Paul, designed it for me and I’ve paid the publishing costs so the sales will go to https://www.thenasiotrust.org/towards the library.
I was privileged to interview Michael, when I wrote for The Oxford Times. I cast him away on Oxtopia so his story is in Oxford Castaways 2. Click here to read Michael’s story written by me. Michael Rosen
I also quoted him in a chapter about saving libraries on Food of Love Cooking up a Life across Gender Class and Race – my memoir endorsed by journalist Yasmin Alibhai Brown, Professor of History Rana Mitter and the poet, Sudeep Sen.
Michael Rosen, the famous children’s author, was the curator of stories at the Story Museum when I cast him away on Oxtopia. He told me that the evidence from everywhere in the world is that children who read for pleasure, do well academically. They find a lifelong friend in books. My story is evidence of the role they play in social mobility for kids whose parents can’t afford to buy books.
I wouldn’t have passed my 11+ and enjoyed the life I’ve had without access to Luton Central Library. That’s why I’m passionate about libraries and so are Michael and Korky! The role of libraries in upward mobility is much under estimated #worldbookday #libraries
To buy copies of Oxford Castaways 2
Go to
http://www.oxfordfolio.co.uk
and click on the cover image.