Ozymandias in a northern park

The Griffins at Wallington

by Simon Currie

These chimeras were brought

from Bishopsgate for ballast:

an empty collier sailing back

London to Newcastle.

 

Ozymandias in a northern park,

four heads rest on sober grass

as if, landlocked icebergs,

their bodies bulked below.

 

No more than emblems,

they face rude frosts,

gaze from blank orbs

that give away nothing.

 

So odd, they make strangers

appear familiar, ghosts

come back from years ago

to stare them out.

The four carved limestone griffin heads that glare across the lawns at Wallington Hall in Northumberland date back to the 16th century. They were brought back from Bishopsgate, London, around 1760 as ballast in one of Sir Walter Blackett's returning colliers. The heads were first used to ornament the surroundings of Rothley Castle - a folly constructed in the eighteenth century deer park at Rothley which is now outside the property. The heads were subsequently moved to a site near the Chinese Pond inside the grounds, to the east of Wallington Hall. It is said they were moved to a spot in the woods and that their wings are still somewhere nearby. They finally found their current resting place on the east lawn in 1928.

There are four of them, each slightly different all staring out to the rising sun. The photograph is mine.

 

Switching genres

 There's such a lot to learn when switching genres. 

I am busy doing research and the police would think me a serial killer if they they looked at my research folders on my PC. Titles like Forensics, Poisons, decomposition rates, and fingerprints abound. 

I can think of plots but so far nothing has really grabbed my attention. So much has already been done so it is very hard to find a new angle on killing someone. I am discovering authors in the genre and so far I've found Caroline Graham, Peter James (of the Roy Grace series) and next I'm going to try Robert Galbraith (Cormoran Strike fame).

I already knew L J Ross, Mari Hannah and Robert Goddard, Ian Rankin and Val McDermid, Tess Gerritsen, Jack Cartwright, J M Dalgleish and Ann Cleeves but what I am delighted to find is the wide range within the genre. Some are too gruesome for me and those I avoid. Some are a tad wordy, and some are quite brief - I am always surprised when I get to the end of a Joy Ellis!

It might be right

 I am easily confused by the verb "may."

May, might. When to use?

May is the 3rd person singular in the present tense. ie "It may be true."

"You may well lose your way...."

May I come in?" (asks for permission)

"May he live to regret it..." ( a wish)

"Who are you, may I ask?" (Irony)

Might is the past tense of May (and often followed by "well" for emphasis)

Often used in reported speech expressing possibility, ie "He said he might come."

or permission, ie "He asked if he might leave."

or expressing a possibility not fulfilled, ie "if you'd looked you might have found it."

or expressing a wish, ie "You might call at the butchers."  "It might be true...."  "Might I have the pleasure of this dance?"

There are similar confusions with Shall/Should, Will/Would and Can/Could but I struggle through and I think I get it right most of the time!

It's all in the detail

 

I’m busy adding detail to an important scene in my next historical romance story. I actually began it before I side-tracked myself onto Friday Night Murder and now that is published on Amazon KDP, I‘ve come back to the one that currently goes under the title of Maeve.

They do say that if the story keeps a fast pace then the reader feels intense emotions, reads faster and loses track of time. Every writer wants that, don’t they? So here I am, hopefully writing a story that moves at a fast pace. The heroine has been kidnapped and in mounting a rescue, her rescuers have caused a fire. She is on the wrong side of it and with no escape. So what happens next? I’m not sure yet, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out…

Designing characters

 Flicking through one of my notebooks this morning and found this:

Bad storytelling: 

lack of progression; false motivation; redundant characters; empty subtext .

They all result in bland, boring text. So says Robert McKee in his book STORY published in 1999 and I wouldn't dare disagree with him. Why would I? what he says is true.

Designing a story: 75% of the work goes into deciding who are the characters; what do they want; how do they go about getting it; what stops them; what are the consequences. 

I don't spend long enough on designing. I'm always so keen to get going, to start writing my characters and get into the story. Maybe I should have spent longer on the  consequences of ignoring good advice.

People

 Today's population figures (2019)

    England: 55,992,661

    Scotland: 5,254,800

    Wales: 3.125,000

    Northern Ireland: 1.871.000

    London: 8,787, 892

Total Population of the British Isles 67,611,849 

Changing Times

 How things change.

On New Years Day 1900 Victoria was still on the throne and the first bicycle was in use. The Public Records Office was set up. The Daily Telegraph, Mail and Express were in circulation. 

There were 41 million people in the British Isles, 32million were English or Welsh and 4.5million were Irish. Victoria ruled over a further 300 million people around the globe.

£1 would buy 5 US dollars.

Women did not have the right to vote.

The average wage was £40 per year.

Members of Parliament did not receive a salary.