Tom Roper's Weblog

The Pitman's Derby

Today is the day of the Northumberland Plate, nicknamed the Pitman's Derby. Sadly there will be few pitmen watching at Newcastle races today; Thatcher and McGregor saw to that a few years back.

Newcastle 210: Greek Renaissance
Newmarket 300: Eastern Anthem
The Curragh 310: Sharleez
Newcastle 320: Far From Old
Windsor 340: Mac Gille Eoin
The Curragh 345: Anna Pavlova

Carnegie and Greenaway awards announced

The Carnegie Medal this year goes to Philip Reeve's Here Lies Arthur while the Greenaway has been won by Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears by Emily Gravett

On the Guardian's book blog, Olivia Laing writes about past winners, including B B's Little Grey Men, which I read aged 7 or 8, and Lucy Boston's Green Knowe books.

Review: Our Longest Days: A People's History of the Second World War

More than sixty years later, it is still 'the war'. Its popular, anti-fascist character distinguishes the Second World War from, on the one hand, the imperialist hecatomb of 1914-18, and, on the other, from the colonial and neo-colonial adventures we have been dragged into since 1945. I was born ten years after VE Day, part of a generation for whom the war, though outside our direct experience, was, through our parents and teachers, an important part of our formation. The playground question, 'what did you Dad do in the war then?' was for us an important conversational ice-breaker and an excuse for tall tales and one-upmanship. In my case, the truthful answer I would give, that he had been Medical Officer with the rank of Bimbashi, literally leader of a thousand, in the Sudan Camel Corps, was not always believed by my interrogators at the Fawcett Infants School in Trumpington. But even in the minds of generations for whom the subject of the question would be not a father, but a grandfather or even great-grandfather, it remains 'the war'.

The late Sandra Koa-Wing's collection of extracts from wartime Mass Observation diaries stresses this poplar character. The diarists are two-thirds civilians. I believe King's Regulations forbade servicemen from keeping diaries, though this did not stop five of them who served in the forces at home from recording some details of service life. Of the others, one is a conscientious objector, while others work as land girls or volunteer for the Home Guard. From fifteen diarists, Sandra has taken entries which show the impact of great events, but also the mundane. There is no better way to understand the progress of the war than through the accounts of how Dunkirk, the Blitz, the Soviet Union's entry into the war, the later entry of the Americans, the battle for Stalingrad, the struggle for a Second Front, the D-Day landings and the V1 and V2 rocket attacks affected people. One can also trace in the entries the development of the determination that post-war Britain would be different, as the foundation of the sixty year-old National Health Service exemplified

The strength of this book is the way in which these great events and the domestic detail of everyday life interact. Food is a constant preoccupation, whether for Jenny Green who tries to convince a well-meaning fellow worker that a pork pie sent to the British Expeditionary Force in France would be unlikely to survive the trip and still be safe to eat, or for Nella Last who sends her husband to do battle with a butcher who claims he has no meat, to return victorious with a leg of lamb. A chemist tells a diarist that the demand for 'tonics' has fallen sharply. Historians of Mass Observation will enjoy the episode when a star-struck Muriel Green goes to London to visit Tom Harrisson, the anthropologist co-founder of the organisation.

How much background knowledge can the editor expect from the reader? Some explanations, for example that of duodecimal, currency, pounds, shillings and pence may be useful for readers not yet born and of an age to spend money in 1971, but not for those like me who can remember being given 6d, sixpence, 2.5p pocket money per week, supplemented occasionally by 2/6, half a crown, or 12.5p from visiting uncles. Taken chronologically by year, each year's entries are prefaced by a helpful summary of the course of the war in that year. The first entries are from 3 September 1939, the day war was declared, and the book ends six years later on 3 September 1945, a month after VJ Day. I might take slight issue with the footnotes on the situation in Greece on 1944-45, which misinterpret the role of British forces in the beginnings of that country's civil war, attributing to them a more impartial role than they actually played.

The editor of this collection of material from Mass Observation diarists, Sandra Koa-Wing, died very young in 2007. Sandra worked in the University of Sussex Library's renowned Special Collections and there is a fund in her memory. Her blog, A Glimpse from the Attic, survives her,

Koa-Wing, Sandra
Our Longest Days: A People's History of the Second World War
London: Profile, 2008

A footnote: as this review was gestating, I saw Nöel Coward's In Which We Serve; there could be no greater contrast than between the realistic picture of war-time life in this book and Coward's sentimental myth-making, his rough but loyal other-ranks. decent officers and cheery civilians. I also had news of the death of Angus Calder, whose work with the Mass Observation archives did much to bring them back to attention. There's a tribute by Dorothy Sheridan on the Mass Observation website: http://www.massobs.org.uk/angus.html

Royal Ascot: Saturday

The last day; five days is really too much. So, groggy, but still standing, I go for the following:

2:30 Chesham Stakes: Seaway
3:05 Hardwicke Stakes: Macarthur
3:45 Golden Jubilee Stakes: War Artist
4:25 Wokingham Stakes: Tombi
5:00 Duke of Edinburgh Stakes: Mad Rush
5:35 Queen Alexandra Stakes: Enjoy the Moment

Score so far: of twenty four selections, I have had six winners and four places

Royal Ascot: Friday

2:30 Albany Stakes: Cuis Ghaire
3:05 King Edward VII Stakes: Bronze Cannon
3:45 Coronation Stakes: Infallible
4:20 Wolferton Stakes: Bushman
4:55 Queen's Vase: Captain Webb
5:30 Buckingham Palace Stakes: Docofthebay

The story so far: out of eighteen selections, five winners and three placed

Royal Ascot: Thursday

Will the draw today be as significant as in yesterday's Royal Hunt Cup? Today punters will divide themselves into those supporting Yeats, and those who think Coastal Path can manage the 2m4f trip in the Gold Cup. I am firmly in the former camp. 2:30 Norfolk Stakes: Flashman's Papers
3:05 Ribblesdale Stakes: Arthur's Girl
3:45 Gold Cup: Yeats
4:20 Britannia Stakes: Hurricane Hymnbook
4:55 Hampton Court Stakes: Unnefer
5:30 King George V Stakes: Colony
Out of 12 selections, 3 winners and 2 placed.

Marmalade

I should have listened to the mad old man on the top deck of the bus. His gouty feet enclosed in slippers, a dirty checked shirt buttoned tightly over his beer gut, spittle flying, he was shouting his selection for this afternoon's big race at Ascot into a mobile phone. 'Duke of Marmalade', he yelled, "Marmalade, marmalade, marmalade...' over and over again.

Royal Ascot: Wednesday

A good start to Ascot yesterday, with two winners, and Cesare was unlucky to be able to find his way to the front in the Queen Anne, while Mamlook was only narrowly defeated in the Ascot Stakes.
2:30 Jersey Stakes: Jupiter Pluvius
3:05 Windsor Forest Stakes: Sabana Perdida
3:45 Prince of Wales's Stakes: Phoenix Tower
4:20 Royal Hunt Cup: Oceana Gold
4:55 Queen Mary Stakes: Heart Shaped
5:30 Sandringham Stakes: Cruel Sea

Royal Ascot: Tuesday

2:30 Queen Anne Stakes: Cesare
3:05 King's Stand Stakes: Kingsgate Native
3:45 St James's Palace Stakes: Henrythenavigator
4:20 Coventry Stakes: Art Connoisseur
4:55 Ascot Stakes: Mamlook
5:30 Windsor Castle Stakes: Saucy Brown

Federated access resources

Masha Garibyan has kindly given permission for me to post her list of resources from her presentation at Tuesday's CoFHE LSEC meeting on federated access:

JISC Federated Access pages http://www.jisc.ac.uk/federation

UK Federation website http://www.ukfederation.org.uk/

JISC Institutional Business Case Toolkit http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/themes/accessmanagement/cc297d001-1.0%20business%20case%20toolkit.pdf

JISC federation support pages for library staff http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/themes/access_management/federation/federation_libraries.aspx

JISC ‘Federated Access Management: Guide for Academic Libraries’ Briefing Paper http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/pub_accessmanagementbps/accessmanagementlibrariansMar2008v1.aspx

Training

Janet http://www.ja.net/services/training/

Netskills http://www.netskills.ac.uk/content/products/workshops/range/accman.htm

Third party providers of FAM solutions briefing paper http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/identityprovidersbpv1.aspx

Service provider information

List of live services available via the UK federation http://www.ukfederation.org.uk/content/Documents/AvailableServices

List of Service Providers JISC is currently negotiating with and their current federation status http://access.jiscinvolve.org/federated-access-and-publishers/

Article in May CILIP Update: http://www.cilip.org.uk/publications/updatemagazine/archive/archive2008/may/GaribyanUpdateMay08.htm

Podcast: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/05/podcast42mashagaribyan.aspx

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