Month: April 2022

Entertainment

Restoration Comedy

Given that youth sub-cultures (e.g. punk, hippy, emo, rocker) deliberately set out on an irreverent, anti-establishment path, Restoration Comedy (1660-c.1700) can be […]

Given that youth sub-cultures (e.g. punk, hippy, emo, rocker) deliberately set out on an irreverent, anti-establishment path, Restoration Comedy (1660-c.1700) can be seen as an early example. After Oliver Cromwell‘s staid Puritanical rule, in which theatres were forced to close in 1642, the return of the flamboyant, pleasure-seeking King Charles II (1630-85) in 1660 inevitably opened the floodgates to young playwrights’ mischievous revelry in subverting society’s norms.

Their comedy plays were immoral, bawdy and rude. The plots mocked refined standards and appealed especially to young aristocratic circles, as they portrayed their way of behaving and talking, thereby re-introducing the line between them and the peasants. The topics were love, courtship, marriage and much infidelity. Conflict was represented in a ‘cape-and-sword’ swashbuckling style.

Aphra Behn (1640-89) from Kent, our first professional female writer, joined the ranks of Restoration playwrights with plays such as ‘The Amorous Prince’ (1671) and ‘The Rover’ (1681). Actresses also emerged for the first time, even playing male roles in figure-revealing breeches, much to the enjoyment of the men in the audience! Indeed, Nell Gwyn (1650-87), who played in ‘The Rover’, was an actress who famously became one of Charles II’s mistresses.

The pendulum swung back gradually to morality and serious drama after Charles died.

(Images LtoR: Nell Gwyn & Aphra Behn’s ‘The Rover’ title page / Public domain)

29/04/2022
3 min
3 years
220 words

English language

British dialects

At the time of WW2 there were at least 50 distinct British dialects, some with derived names such as Cockney, Brummie, Scouse, […]

At the time of WW2 there were at least 50 distinct British dialects, some with derived names such as Cockney, Brummie, Scouse, Smoggie, Janner and Geordie. A dialect denotes the pronunciation (accent), vocabulary (slang) and some aspects of grammar used in speech in a particular area, while standard English is generally adhered to in writing, unless an author is including true-to-life dialogue in a novel.

Today, with social mobility and the advent of radio and television channels with nationwide coverage, the differences have been softened and the language has evolved, resulting in broader groups of dialects. Nevertheless, there remains a whole host of niche dialects, some belonging to specific cities, such as Sunderland, or “Mackem-land”, as the young man in this video refers to it. You may need to watch it a few times to catch every word he says!

Professor Harold Orton (1898-1975) from Co.Durham was a dialectologist who realised that some dialects were melting away or changing over time. While at the University of Leeds he conducted an extraordinary 11-year survey of 313 localities, which he published in 1962-72 in 12 volumes. It was the major work of his entire career and is a unique historical record.

(Image [word cloud added]: Ananian at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

20/04/2022
3 min
3 years
207 words

Discoveries

Aeroacoustics

With air travel increasing in popularity in the early 1950s, scientists were faced with the new problem of jet noise. Nowadays this […]

With air travel increasing in popularity in the early 1950s, scientists were faced with the new problem of jet noise. Nowadays this is called ‘noise pollution’ as it is judged to be detrimental if excessive or prolonged. Sound levels are monitored at all airports and the field of aeroacoustics has thereby progressed hand-in-hand with the aircraft industry.

The very first scientific paper on aeroacoustics was published by Sir Michael James Lighthill (1924-98) in 1952 on the theory of sound radiated by a turbulent flow over surfaces. This gifted mathematician took only a fortnight to complete the maths, but 16 months to decide how best to explain his theory in words. Ironically, though an expert on fluid dynamics, Lighthill died swimming around Sark Island in the English Channel, attempting to repeat the feat he had accomplished several times before.

In fact, Professor Geoffrey Lilley (1919-2015) from Middlesex earned the accolade of ‘the Father of Aeroacoustics’ for his work on sufficiently reducing the noise from Concorde to meet New York’s strict regulations. Professor John Ffowcs-Williams (1935-2020) from Conwy was another who, using Lighthill’s ‘aeroacoustics analogy’, tackled Concorde’s take-off noise. He and his student David Hawkings subsequently introduced the Ffowcs-Willlams-Hawkings Equation, central to solutions for reducing propeller noise.

(Image of aircraft approaching Heathrow: Matt Kieffer at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0)

12/04/2022
3 min
3 years
218 words

Culture

Literary Festivals

In the land that produced Shakespeare it is unsurprising that many aspire to write their own masterpieces but, this being a solitary […]

In the land that produced Shakespeare it is unsurprising that many aspire to write their own masterpieces but, this being a solitary activity, Britain’s myriad of literary festivals, or ‘litfests’, is an important adjunct to their lives. Avid readers also gain much enjoyment and insight from these extravaganzas and can, of course, make purchases. Consequently there are around 350 litfests to entice all bookworms.

The oldest is the Cheltenham Literature Festival, established in 1949 and the biggest is the Edinburgh International Book Festival, running annually since 1983. These two have hundreds of events, including workshops, readings, book signings, selfies, on-stage interviews, debates, talks and question-and-answer sessions. One of the longest litfests is the month-long Essex Book Festival, achieved by spreading its events all round that county. Perhaps the most famous litfest, however, is the Hay Festival in Powys, begun in 1987. It has expanded its reach in several innovative ways.

The concept of literary festivals now also includes those dedicated to a particular classic author. For example, the Jane Austen Festival in Bath puts on 10 days of plays, readings, Regency music and costumes, and even Regency dance lessons. Naturally, Shakespeare is not to be outdone, with tributes such as the 8-week-long Cambridge Shakespeare Festival.

(Image of authors at Chiswick Book Festival 2021: Roger Green at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0)

05/04/2022
3 min
3 years
215 words

History

The Miners’ Strike of 1984-85

Britain has utilised its vast natural coal resources for 1,000 years and many inventions (including railways) arose by way of improving mining […]

Britain has utilised its vast natural coal resources for 1,000 years and many inventions (including railways) arose by way of improving mining safety and efficiency. Coal was essential to the Industrial Revolution since it was the means by which iron was produced. For centuries households had coal-fired boilers and homes would have individual bunkers or cellars for coal storage.

Mining areas were renowned for community spirit engendered by shared toil in difficult conditions. This was a big factor in the miners’ strike that ran from March 1984 to March 1985.

Yorkshireman Arthur Scargill (1938-) led the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against 20 pit closures, the first of 75 scheduled over a 3-year period. Miners from Yorkshire, Durham, Scotland, Kent and South Wales went on strike, but others in North Wales and Nottinghamshire did not. Margaret Thatcher‘s government rejected the NUM’s arguments and after thousands of sackings and picket-line arrests and injuries, the strike failed and still workable mines closed.

When the coal industry was nationalised in 1947 there were 850 collieries employing 700,000 men producing 225,000,000 tons of coal per year. Controversially, the National Coal Board (now the ‘Coal Authority’) proceeded to shut down almost all operations, with the last remaining deep mine ~ Yorkshire’s Kellingley Colliery ~ closing in 2015.

(Top image of march in Port Talbot 1984: Alan Denney at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

03/04/2022
3 min
3 years
217 words

Quoting Neil Oliver...

I love Britain more than anywhere else in the world. With all my heart I declare that those of us born here, or who have made a home here by choice, are the luckiest, most blessed of all people. I am British. I will always be British.