April Fools’ Day
At 9:00 this morning I met with a consultant retained by the Government Office of the East of England region who wanted to gauge my understanding of the Local Delivery Framework within the context of Watford’s Sustainable Community Strategy. It soon became uncomfortably apparent that my understanding of the Local Delivery Framework fell short of her aspirations for me. I did suggest that we talk about the Sustainable Community Strategy proper, where I find firmer ground, but the consultant’s focus stayed on the Local Delivery Framework.
After this, I sat in for Anne to advise a WBC meeting deciding on grant allocations from their one year programme. Next, I spent a short time with Leigh Hutchings discussing various issues related to the Watford CVS and the Watford Disability Forum. And in the afternoon I drove to Rickmansworth for a meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Forum.
Recent reading – aka “You’re not interested but ...”
I tried to read Christopher Brookmyer’s All Fund and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye, which was ok until about page 12 when I realised I was not his target audience. And I don’t think John McCabe had me in mind when he wrote Herding Cats, but my interest was sustained because however glibly he wrote, he did at least address some important questions - until p 330 when he wrapped the tale up in double quick time (I assume after reaching his contracted word count).
Erik Durschmied’s The Hinge Factor illustrates “how chance and stupidity have changed history” and recounts some good history: I am not sure the “what if” slant adds anything to this.
What if The Beatles had never met George Martin? All You Need Is Ears is George Martin’s 1979 attempt at autobiography, assisted by Jeremy Hornsby. The book offers a fascinating insight into the world of The Beatles where it is too easy to overlook George Martin’s astonishing contribution. And his first wife taught me music in Hatfield in the 1960s.
Sir Ernest Gowers’s The Complete Plain Words (written in 1948; I read the 1974 edition revised and updated by Sir Bruce Fraser) was perhaps the first major salvo in the battle for Plain English. Both authors write with knowledge, commonsense and a lot of gentle humour: when discussing a split infinitive used by some Welsh nationalists, Fraser (I think) observes, “if this is really what they meant, I suspect they will have split their supporters as well as their infinitive.”
Easily the cream of the crop of my recent reading is Peter Hunter Blair’s magisterial 1956 survey An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England. The first half of this book is a chronological history from 400 to 1066, while the second half explores the themes of Church, Government, Letters, and the Economy. I am not sure how our knowledge and interpretation of the period will have changed since 1956, but good history never loses its lustre.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
A relentless blog of 1,000 days (from Nov 2006 to July 2009) - giving far more detail than you want about my personal life and my role as CEO at Watford Council for Voluntary Service.
