Douglas Adams at the End of the Universe

Cambridge, UK

 

In Douglas Adams' second novel in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the crew of the spaceship Heart Of Gold travel to the famous restaurant. Here Adams' scientific imaginings run riot, as diners at the restaurant watch the final, dying gasps of the universe. After each meal, the restaurant is maneuvered through time and space to allow the next group of diners to experience the end of everything all over again. Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Trillian and Zaphod also meet the Norse god Thor there. It seems even the gods frequent this restaurant.

Afterward, Arthur and Ford end up on another spaceship crewed by people who love bureaucracy so much that they never actually accomplish anything. Along with the crew of the ship, who are constantly organizing committee meetings, Arthur and Ford land on Earth amid the prehistory of Man. There, no one aside from Arthur and Ford possess survival skills. But there are Hominids, and Arthur learns to communicate with them.

Sadly for dinosaur fans, but fortunately for Arthur and Ford, all the dinosaurs have been wiped out. I know, bummer, right? Who wouldn't like seeing Arthur and Ford being chased by dinosaurs?

 

Kings College, Cambridge, UK

 

It's an intriguing way to end the novel, with Arthur returned to Earth, and being in no danger of living to see the Vogons demolish Earth to make way for an interstellar bypass. Considered together, the two books also suggest a fear of abandonment, or getting stuck somewhere you don't belong. In the first novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Ford had gotten stuck on Earth for years until the Vogons arrived, and someone aboard ship kindly allowed him to hitch a ride. Now The Restaurant at the End of the Universe finishes with both trapped on prehistoric Earth, again with little hope of rescue. 

I guess that's one of the dangers of hitchhiking: getting stuck somewhere, and waiting a long time until you can get a ride somewhere else. You can certainly feel for Ford here. When he got stuck on 20th Century Earth, at least he had plenty to do to occupy his time. What's he going to do this time on prehistoric Earth?

To me, these two books feel like the halves of a complete story. Indeed, while the six-part BBC adaptation diverged greatly from these two books, this is where the miniseries ended.

Cambridge, UK

 

As I read these novels, I was reminded that Douglas Adams studied in Cambridge, and graduated from this prestigious university town. While Ford cannot call Earth his home planet, he continually reminisces throughout the series about arguing some topic with a group of British students or college professors. When I visited Cambridge a few years ago, I didn't attend any university parties, or join in a scientific discussion in a pub. Still, it was easy to imagine Adams doing that.

I wonder if there wasn't a lot of Ford Prefect in Douglas Adams.

Dragon Dave

 

Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to Cambridge

 

Life along the River Cam in Cambridge, England

 

I wonder if anyone on Earth hasn't heard of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? While I've never listened to the original radio series, I've read Douglas Adams' novel--and watched the TV and movie adaptations--several times. I discovered this novel in my teens, and thought it was the coolest thing ever. As a member of the Science Fiction Book Club, I ordered each successive novel as soon as it was offered. Adams' story about Arthur Dent being whisked off Earth just before it's destruction with the help of his friend Ford Prefect, an interstellar hitchhiker and guidebook contributor--is indelibly inscribed upon my brain. 

For years, I've yearned to read the entire series again. Inevitably, I'd start with the best of intentions. Yet each time I read the first novel, other books forced their way into my hands, and I read no farther. This seemed strange as I remembered loving the novels so much. 

I might even go so far as to label the situation a paradox.

 

A busy street in Cambridge, England

This year, I vowed things would be different. To accomplish this, I broke my rule of never following one novel with another by the same author, and read each installment without allowing any other books to push their way into my hands. As a result, my memories of each individual novel may be a bit muddled, but I finished the Hitchhiker journey, and can now look back on the entire series as a whole.

The first novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, introduces us to Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, a Humanoid who can pass for an Earthling. It also introduces us to Trillian. Arthur once met at a party, and liked her, but she left Earth with Zaphod Beeblebrox in his spaceship. After the destruction of Earth, all four end up on a stolen spaceship named the Heart Of Gold, along with a morose robot named Marvin. The first novel ends rather abruptly, and leads directly into the second. 

 

The Blogger in Cambridge, England

 

After reading the novel, it was interesting to reflect on the scenes and characters the filmmaker's included in their big screen adaptation, and how much of Adams' novel they changed to make their more cinematic.

Aside from its more spectacular elements, I wonder if Adams was decrying the notion of destroying the old simply to build something new. Key events early in the novel, which prompt Arthur and Ford to begin their journey, include the destruction of Arthur's home to build a highway bypass, and the destruction of Earth to build a hyperspace bypass. 

 

St. John's, Adams' college in Cambridge, England

Before writing this novel, Adams backpacked across Europe. Did he see modernization trends that disturbed him, and prompted him to write a novel about the need for preservation? If so, his time in the university town of Cambridge would have taught him to appreciate historic places.

Dragon Dave 

 

Where Allo Allo Was Filmed

 

What do you do if you're a British airman shot down in WWII France? If you're like RAF pilots Carstairs and Fairfax, you hook up with the French Resistance, and hope they can help you sneak behind enemy lines and return to England. That may mean disguising yourself as onion sellers on bicycles, but better indignity than imprisonment or death.

What do you do if you serve in the military of a country whose leadership has been corrupted? If you're like Colonel Kurt von Strohm and Captain Hans Geering, you get assigned to a quiet town in France. There you can ride out the war, pay lip service to your own country's political agendas, and keep everyone happy without actually having to fight and kill others.

Of course, if you can salt away a few little prizes for your old age, like a priceless painting or a unique Cuckoo clock, so much the better.

What do you do if you're running your own business in wartime, and wish to avoid the fighting by continuing to use your talents and abilities to serve your community? If you're like cafe owner Rene Artois, you serve German officers like Colonel von Strohm and Captain Hans Geering, and do your best to keep them happy. By making friends, they're liable to can help you acquire things like butter, sugar, and paraffin that you need to keep operating and serving everyone.

Oh, and if your beloved serving girls must entertain the German officers in your rooms upstairs with things like pieces of wet celery and an egg whisk...well, you learn to live with it.

 

What do you do if a French Resistance leader like Michelle Dubois insists that you hide two British airmen in your cafe, along with a forger the Resistance has broken out of prison, until they can smuggle the chaps out of the country? If you're like Rene, with German officers constantly visiting your cafe, you hide them as best you can, whether it be in the chicken coup, or the closet in the room of your bedridden mother-in-law.

 

What if, as a result of your involvement with the French Resistance, you end up in jail? Well, if your crimes are deemed punishable by death, you hope that your German friends Colonel von Strohm and Captain Geering can supply the firing squad with wooden bullets, which should disintegrate before they hit you.

If you're presumed dead, you can always take on the identity of your previously unknown twin brother. That will allow you to keep running the cafe, and continue your life as before. Of course, the fact that your twin brother was also named Rene will make it easier to get on with things and survive this crazy war.

 

What do you do if you wish to keep safe and continuing serving others amid a pandemic? If you're like me, you read comics and books, watch fun TV shows like "Allo Allo," and write blogs. Of course, if you visited Lynford Hall, an old manor house in England where the TV series was filmed, you share your memories of that visit with others. And you keep believing that by doing your best to help yourself and others survive, eventually this crazy wartime occupation will end. Then you will be able to reclaim the liberties you once enjoyed, like traveling to such storied places.

Dragon Dave

P.S. "Allo Allo" was created by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd. David Croft oversaw the production of "Dad's Army," and the duo also created the unforgettable "Are You Being Served?"

E.F. Benson on the Sport of Shooting

Old British novels often portray the gentry shooting birds for sport. Period TV shows and movies reinforce this image of the British aristocracy. Movies and TV series set in recent decades, such as the James Bond movie "Moonraker" in 1979, the sitcom "To The Manor Born" in 1979--1981, and the 1980's-90s mystery series "Lovejoy," feature similar scenes. Typically, such scenes  occur amid pastoral beauty, and depict shooting as a genteel, if not regal, form of sport.

In their own way, such a portrayal of shooting birds for sport suggests a high regard for wildlife. After all, it takes a lot of work to manage the grounds of a vast estate, and a lot of education and experience to successfully maintain a healthy flock of birds.

 

Houses in the Sussex Downs

 

E. F. Benson's novel Limitations, originally published in 1896, speaks to this period of British society. Tom Markham, the son of a gentleman, has caught a cold, and stayed inside his father's mansion on the Surrey Downs for a few days. But the groundskeeper's cheery face lures him outside.

“Yes, I’ll come out in half an hour,” said Tom. “Get a few beaters, and we’ll just walk through the woods. And send down to the vicarage to ask Mr. Markham if he’d care for a tramp. They don’t have pheasants in Greece, Kimberley: there’s a country for you!”

After graduating from Cambridge, Tom recently spent a few months in Greece, where he studied the sculpture of Athens. Mr. Markham is the vicar of the local church, and like his son Ted (who studied at Cambridge with Tom) prefers to spend hours of each day translating ancient Greek literature. 

King's College in Cambridge

 

Mr. Markham was devoted to shooting, but of late years had not been able to indulge his taste.  Still, as a priest, some of his parish work, and even a quiet hour spent with his beloved Aristophanes, could easily be put off, for the opportunity to shoot birds for sport.

E.F. Benson describes Tom's favorite shooting spot this way:

It stood on a knoll of rising ground, some quarter of a mile away from the house, and by dint of long experience and frequent failure Tom had found that if the pigeons were artfully disturbed by beaters entering towards the centre from opposite sides they always broke cover at two particular points at opposite ends of the knoll, and that one gun stationed at each of these points became a fiery sword, turning, as far as the pigeons were concerned, every way.

While Tom has met Ted's sister May before, he's never paid much attention to her. But after studying the way ancient sculptors portrayed the likenesses of their gods, all thoughts of shooting flee when he sees May. "Oh, all ye gods," he says, "she is a goddess!"

As for Mr. Markham:

The beaters beat, and the pigeons started from the branches, and flew out in the pre-ordained manner, threading their way between the tops of the thick trees, as they and their deceased relations had often done before. Mr. Markham had one of the most delightful five minutes that falls to the lot of sportsmen, and straight over Tom’s head as he stood in the path the steely targets tacked and swerved.

Even May, who unlike her father and brother, prefers to spend her days visiting the poor and sick, exhibits no displeasure in the idea of her father or Tom shooting. "Have you had good sport?" she asks.

The Church in Grantchester, a relaxing & scenic stroll from Cambridge

 

Much has changed in century-plus since E. F. Benson wrote Limitations. Even scenes such as in "Moonraker," in which multimillionaire industrialist Hugo Drax and James Bond partake of this sport, might well be rewritten to appeal to modern sensibilities. And while the antiques dealer Lovejoy might still sell old guns to the aristocracy for their shooting, I can't recall a single episode of recent TV series "Father Brown" or "Grantchester" which depict a Church of England priest shooting birds for sport.

If it were filmed today, I wonder if Audrey would approve of Richard Devere's desire to shoot birds on the grounds of the mansion she once owned in the 1979-1981 British sitcom "To The Manor Born." It's hard to imagine series creator Peter Spence currently penning a script which involved Audrey helping Richard organize the Hunt Ball on his estate. A later episode, in which she encourages him to ride along with her visiting friend in a hunt, likewise seems a relic of earlier times.

Times change, and we change with the times.

Dragon Dave

Robert Masello on H.G. Wells and WWI

 

In Robert Masello's novel The Haunting of H.G. Wells, a middle-age H.G. Wells receives a summons from Winston Churchill. Before he can answer it, a German zeppelin flies over his quiet country cottage. These zeppelins have been flying over Britain, and dropping bombs on towns and cities. But this one is aflame, and crashes in fields near Wells' country home. In a scene reminiscent of the Martians' arrival in H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, the townspeople gather near the impact crater. Yet instead of an alien, a German soldier crawls from the wreckage. A local man kills the injured soldier, while muttering the epithet "Baby Killer."

Despite his wife's pleas to refuse Churchill's request, H.G. Wells leaves their country home and travels by train to London. There, in secret headquarters, Churchill explains that Arthur Machen's story "Angel Of Mons" has created a sensation in Britain. Because it was published in a London newspaper without being labeled "Fiction," readers believed that God had sent Saint George and the spirits of former warriors to aid British soldiers in the battlefields of WWI. Despite Machen's explanations that the incident originated entirely from his own creativity, the populace embraces this story as truth. 

While Machen holds a certain notoriety in literary circles, H.G. Wells is one of Britain's leading authors. So Churchill convinces Wells to join the soldiers in the trenches, and write inspiring accounts of British successes for the newspapers. Despite his wife's pleas, H.G. takes up Churchill's challenge.

Amid the duckboard wooden pathways, H.G. Wells observes how the British infantry live in the trenches in the dirt, while awaiting orders to "go over the top" and engage the enemy. He sees the deprivations the soldiers undergo. Nor is the high mortality rate a stranger to him, as he observes firsthand how soldiers are wounded, yet carry on serving their country. And then there are those who he interacts with, who he eats and chats with, who are not so fortunate.

Officers show him tunnels dug by soldiers in the hopes of carrying out sneak attacks from behind enemy lines. Despite the British officers' best intentions, H.G. Wells meets soldiers from different countries, who have been left behind amid the fighting, and have banded together to survive. These men, officially labeled deserters by their leaders, are also called ghouls. They are detested by those still fighting in the trenches, and usually shot on sight. 

 

H.G. Wells experiences more than enough to haunt him when he returns home. Yet he finds dangers aplenty in Britain. In his country home, it would seem that not all the Germans aboard the zeppelin died the night of the crash. And in London, a young Suffragette draws him into a mystery involving the mystic cult of Aleister Crowley, and a German terrorist intent on carrying out a biological attack on London. 

In The Haunting of H.G. Wells, Robert Masello intertwines plots that broaden our understanding of World War I. While we tend to think of this war as ancient history, he demonstrates own world of today faces many of the same dangers, societal struggles, and spiritual battles the British endured a century ago. Additionally, he shows a human side of H.G. Wells, a man whose stories continue to enthrall and inspire us. 

Dragon Dave

P.S. If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can download a copy of The Haunting of H.G. Wells for free this month, through the Kindle First Reads program.

Dame Judi Dench on "As Time Goes By"

The September 29, 2017 issue of Entertainment Weekly asked Judi Dench about the most important roles of her career. By way of introduction, interviewer Joe McGovern wrote, "She laughs a lot, including when you address her as 'Dame Judi.'" 

"In America, people get caught up in the Dame thing," the actress said. "I'm honored, yet it makes me sound very formal and self-serious, and you can safely say I'm not that."

This quote by Judi Dench may remind As Time Goes By fans of an episode in which Lionel and Jean fly from Heathrow Airport, England to Hollywood, California. There, the reunited lovers attempt to sell a CBS executive a TV mini-series based on their youthful--but sadly aborted--romance. Before talking business, the man attempts to put the couple at ease by asking a seemingly innocent question: "And how is your Queen?"

Needless to say, the very formal and self-serious Lionel is not amused.

 

 

Although she is better known in the United States for more high-profile roles, such as M in the James Bond movies, As Time Goes By gets an early mention in this American magazine.

"Unless you've done a situation comedy, you haven't experienced the most difficult job in acting," Dame Judi says. "I absolutely loved it, but it's terrible, exquisite agony to do."

 

 

Creator Bob Larbey once said that he would write scripts for As Time Goes By as long as actors Geoffrey Palmer and Judi Dench wanted to film the series. The fact that As Time Goes By spanned nine seasons and sixty-seven episodes (including three specials) affirms that Dench enjoyed playing Jean (alongside her cast-mates) very much indeed. 

As an American fan of the series, my only question for my British readers is: "And how is your Dame?"

Dragon Dave

The Week in Memes

Recently, I posted this series of memes on Facebook. As most people merely pay attention to their feed, I think my friends responded to them on an individual basis. I thought I'd share them all together in one post with you.

 

Before this is over, 

I'm gonna need 

a whole lot of serious therapy.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,

Who's the fairest of them all?

You'll never shine

If you don't glow.

It's on my To Do list.

Not interspersed with my Facebook memories, and placed all together on one day, I look forward to seeing how you interpret these memes.

Dragon Dave

E. F. Benson on the Pitt Club and Inner City Missions

In the novel Limitations by British author E. F. Benson, Cambridge students Tom Carlingford and Ted Markham decide to take a break from their studies. They leave their rooms at King's College, one of the most prestigious colleges in this English university town, and walk toward the Pitt Club, where they are both members. Along the way, Tom sees a crowd outside the mission rooms, and decides to see what has attracted so much interest. 

Tom says good-bye to his friend and wades through the crowd. The room is packed, banners hang from the ceiling, and the moisture from everyone's breathing coats the walls. On the platform,an impassioned greengrocer testifies how becoming saved led him away from a life of strong drink and regularly shortchanging his customers.

 

On the second day of our 2017 visit to Cambridge, England, my wife and I took a bus into town. We disembarked near St. John's College, the Round Church, and a candy shop. As none of these had yet opened for the day, we wandered along until we found a tea room in an old church, where my wife and enjoyed tea and scones, along with a Dalek and K-9.

Had we wandered the opposite way, we would have walked past the Pitt Club. Originally founded on political principles, by E. F. Benson's day the Pitt Club was a members-only social club. The club has a prestigious history, with writers, actors, politicians, and even royalty listed on its membership rolls. In addition to Prince Charles, other names most people would recognize are John Cleese of Monty Python fame, Tom Hiddleston who played Loki in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, and Eddie Redmayne, who plays Newt Scamander in J. K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts films (a prequel series to the popular Harry Potter franchise).

As with the church in which we took tea, the Cambridge missions were Anglican in nature. Many of the colleges also set up inner city missions in London. There they ministered alongside missions set up by Oxford colleges, as well as others like the Salvation Army. 

I'm not sure if any Cambridge colleges operate mission rooms in the university town anymore. Still, visitors are always welcome at the Pitt Club. There you can enter, sit at a table on the ground floor, and enjoy a pleasant lunch courtesy of Pizza Express, which leases the space from the Pitt Club. Maybe next time my wife and I visit Cambridge, we'll arrive a little later, and enjoy a pizza lunch on the ground floor of a building in which E. F. Benson often relaxed with his friends.

Then we'll head back to the candy shop near the Round Church, which ought to have opened by then.

Dragon Dave

Two More Stories From Chagford

During the Evensong service, the couple who had invited us to St. Michael the Archangel learned that Bernard Knight's novel The Tinner's Corpse had brought us to their Dartmoor village of Chagford. They invited us to the pub afterward to continue our conversation. As we told them about our lives and interests, we learned that they were retired doctors, who had attended Cambridge University when training for their medical careers.

Before COVID-19 struck, I attempted to contact them. I had a few questions for them about how the British medical and education systems functioned. I also wished to compare our 2017 visit to Cambridge with their time there. Despite a priest at St. Michael the Archangel putting me in touch with them, the couple ignored my emails. Subsequent emails to the priest also received no response.

It's hard to know how to interpret silence. Had the priest given me their email addresses without getting the couple's okay first? Were the couple drafted into help with the COVID-19 crisis in local hospitals? Or had they discovered that evening, that after sating their curiosity, they had no desire to converse with us ever again? There are people who are friendly, but who will never be your friend, after all. 

All I can do is pray that the couple and the priest are safe and well.

Another memorable event from that evening was a conversation I had with a man who worked behind the bar. I don't remember exactly what I asked him. Perhaps I inquired about historical associations regarding the town. In any case, he responded by telling me that occasionally he saw people sitting and interacting with others in the pub. These people are dressed in clothes from a different era, and their speech also hails from an earlier time. One moment he'd glance up and see them, the next minute they would be gone. 

Were these apparitions real or imagined? And does it matter? While Science cannot prove the existence of ghosts, authors beyond counting have imagined the world inhabited by the spirits of those no longer physically with us. Memories of loved ones can either plague us or help us get through our days. Long departed friends and family members often visit us through our dreams. Stories--whether included or not in holy texts--also help to anchor and sustain us, particularly in difficult times.

May these five stories about the British village of Chagford shine light upon these dark times, and bring interest and meaning to your life.

Dragon Dave

Related Link:
St. Michael the Archangel

Three Stories Of Chagford

Five years ago, during our tour of the British county of Devon, we spent an evening in Chagford. One reason the village, located in Dartmoor National Park, was on our radar was due to the TV series Doctor Who. In the mid '70s, Tom Baker won the role of the 4th Doctor, taking over from actor Jon Pertwee, who had brought the show to new heights of popularity. During Tom Baker's first season, the cast and crew spent their days filming for the story "The Sontaran Experiment" at nearby Hound Tor, and their evenings in Chagford. 

While filming around the windswept boulders at Hound Tor, Tom Baker fell and had to be rushed to hospital. As he had only filmed one previous Doctor Who story at this point, the actor worried that the BBC might scrap his first filmed story, and recast him. Tom Baker had been working at a building site for lack of acting roles when he won the starring role, so this understandably scared him. The rest of the cast and crew had similar worries. 

That evening, when Tom Baker reunited with the cast and crew in a pub in Chagford where they would be spending the night, he only had a broken collarbone. His jacket and colorful scarf could conceal his neck brace in closeups for the following day's filming, and a stunt man, clad in his clothes, could fill in for him on for distance shots. This allowed him to continue in the role, saved the series from scrapping the filming, and hiring a new Doctor. 

Tom Baker would star as the 4th Doctor for a record-setting seven years. During his tenure, the program would reach even greater heights of popularity, and the actor would become a national hero in Britain. But first, there was the crisis of "The Sontaran Experiment."

Another reason we visited Chagford was that part of Bernard Knight's novel The Tinner's Corpse was set in the historic village. This was the first novel I read in Bernard Knight's Crowner John series. The book so impressed me that I sought out more of his books. While these books may not be for the faint of heart, or those who prefer cozy mysteries such as those written by Agatha Christie, they paint a vivid portrayal of the working and living conditions faced by British coroners in the late twelfth century. 

At one point in The Tinner's Corpse, Crowner John visits Chagford, where the miners bring the tin they've dug from the Earth to be graded. Some of that tin would prove of sufficient quality to be used as coinage.

A third reason we visited Chagford was because the village had real-life associations with events that may have inspired part of the historic novel Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore. The local church, St. Michael the Archangel, has a memorial to Mary Whiddon, who was murdered outside the church on her wedding day in 1641. I have not yet read Lorna Doone. When I do, I imagine it will feel more real to me after visiting Chagford.

After checking into a local pub, we wandered around the village. As the afternoon waned, our footsteps led us to the church yard. As we sat and gazed at the local church of St. Michael the Archangel, we debated what to do that evening. We had spent the day driving, and exploring the windy moorland of Dartmoor National Park. We were tired from our exertions and exposure to the elements. 

A sign outside announced an Evensong service, but did we really want to sit in a pew for an hour? Yet, when a couple arrived, they invited us to join them. While we were tempted to return to our room above the pub to read and relax, we accepted, and followed them inside. Who could say what other stories we might discover, inside this country church, in the historic village of Chagford?

As you can see, we discovered a very beautiful church, which tells a story in its own right.

Dragon Dave

Related Link:
St. Michael the Archangel