Category: Culture

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)

After the WW2 bombing of London, the County Council decided that a new, up-to-the-minute, airy, Scandinavian-style concert hall was just the thing to lift people’s spirits. The Royal Festival Hall was thus sited on the southern bank of the River Thames in Lambeth. It was the only permanent building in the ‘Festival of Britain’ exhibition promoting British scientific and engineering expertise and in 1988 it received Grade I listing.

Some 63,000 cu.yds. of material were excavated and half that amount in concrete was put back during construction. Another major element was steel, 260 tons of it in the roof alone. Critics wondered whether the time and resources would be better used for much-needed homes and factories instead, especially during the severe winter of 1949/50 when no expense was spared to maintain the temperature required for concreting operations to continue.

Nevertheless, King George VI (1895-1952) opened it in May 1951 and it has hosted countless world-class concerts ever since. It currently has 2,410 auditorium seats, plus bars and dining areas off its large foyer and riverside balconies. The original contract price of £1,628,260 is dwarfed by the cost of several refurbishments (or ‘restorations’) it has undergone, but these have preserved its status as an uplifting refuge from city bustle.

(Top image: Paul Robinson at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Edward Benjamin Britten (1913-76) was born in Suffolk and spent most of his life there. In 1948 he co-founded Suffolk’s Aldeburgh Festival in a venue close to his childhood home and from 1957 he lived in a 17th-century Aldeburgh farmhouse with 5 acres, together with his partner, tenor Peter Pears (1910-86). On being awarded a life peerage just before his death, he chose the title ‘Baron Britten of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk’, so great was his affinity for the area.

Britten began composing from the age of 5 and grew up knowing exactly the career he wished to pursue. At age 16 he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music and by the time he turned 18 he had written over 700 musical pieces. He was influenced by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell (1659-95) but was rather dismissive of later luminaries Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

Britten played piano and viola, and wrote song cycles and orchestral works but his most celebrated compositions were his 16 operas, the first of which was ‘Peter Grimes’ (1945), the last being ‘Death in Venice’ (1975). With these he began a new English-language pathway for the genre. His musical style was characterised by clarity and tension provided by contrasts, laced with childhood reflections.

(Top image: Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)

The UK’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community is roughly estimated at 120,000-300,000 people. They have the poorest life outcomes of all the minority groupings, with the shortest life expectancy, lowest educational attainment, more health issues and a high crime rate leading to over-representation in the prison population.

The sudden arrival of GRT caravans, trucks and cars on public parkland is almost always greeted with police visits and dismay from neighbouring householders. To tackle the problems of discarded rubbish and invasion of amenity space, local councils provide facilities in designated spots around their districts, but these may already be occupied or insufficient for a particular travelling group.

GRT families will often stay long-term if someone is old, ill or completing school exams, and many now opt for permanent bricks-and-mortar, though this may never feel quite ‘right’. Apart from New Age Travellers originating from the 1960s’ hippy culture, GRTs have a centuries-old history. Some came from northern India via Europe and it is said that people thought they looked ‘Egyptian‘, which morphed into ‘gypsy‘. Their nomadic way of life was well suited to seasonal farmwork, for example. They were skilled in various manual trades and crafts, but these are more regulated today.

(Image: Peter O’Connor aka anemoneprojectors at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Lord Robert S.S. Baden-Powell (‘B-P’, 1857-1941) was born in London but always enjoyed being outdoors, immersed in nature. He joined the Army, served in Africa and India, and worked his way up the officer ranks for 34 years. His experience led him to write many practical books on tracking, surveillance and survival skills, his first being ‘Reconnaissance and Scouting’ (1891) aimed at other officers.

After running a trial camp for 22 boys in 1907 on Brownsea Island, Dorset, he wrote ‘Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship’ (1908) and from this sprouted the Boy Scout movement. It became popular very quickly and numerous boy scout troops were set up by enthusiastic adult volunteers. However, the London regional leader, Sir Francis P. Fletcher-Vane (1861-1934) from Dublin, seceded a sizeable membership into the affiliated ‘British Boy Scouts’ in 1909 as he feared B-P’s main organisation was becoming too militaristic.

Although Fletcher-Vane did much to spread Scouting at home and abroad, he was never re-admitted, though some of his ideas were incorporated, such as having a junior section. Today, there are the Squirrels (4-5 years old), Beavers (6-8), Cubs (8-10½), Scouts (10½-14), Explorers (14-18) and Network (18-25) and there are over 54 million Scouts worldwide. In the UK, girls were permitted to join from 1991 onwards.

(Top image of painting of B-P in Africa: J. Matthews at Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)

The oil paintings of John Constable, RA (1776-1837) were ground-breaking in their day. He rebelled against the teaching of the Royal Academy of Arts in terms of subject-matter, painting technique and working methods, and was a key figure in the Romanticism movement. Today, his work attracts the ‘chocolate box’ label, but this vastly downplays his talent and pioneering spirit.

Born in rural Suffolk, Constable soon realised his artistic calling. His father supported him financially while he began his prolific output of paintings of the surrounding landscape. After his father’s death his income came from portraits, of which there are over a hundred. Yet his passion was for depicting meadows, trees, cloudy skies, rainbows, cottages, mills, boats, farmwork, streams, rivers and churches, all painted from life rather than imagination.

He was also unusual in making full-size preliminary sketches of his larger paintings (‘six-footers’) such as his most famous, ‘The Hay Wain’ (1821). His French counterparts quickly took to this new style, but Constable vowed never to cross the Channel, so did not develop this fanbase himself. Instead, he enjoyed his eventual election as a member of the Royal Academy in 1829 and continued painting until his sudden death in his London studio at age 60.

(Image of ‘The Hay Wain’: Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)

While some children in the UK do unfortunately finish their time at school without any or very few qualifications, most will breathe a sigh of relief on receiving their exam results in the summer. Under current regulations, they must remain in education until age 18, giving them plenty of time to amass their individual collections of school-leaving qualifications. The options include GCSEs, GCE A-Levels, BTECs, OCR Nationals, Scottish Highers and the International Baccalaureate Diploma, depending on what is offered at the particular secondary school or college.

The school-leaving age has steadily risen from 10 in the late 1800s and at that time the concept of obtaining a qualification at school was fairly new, with the very first examinations having been set in 1858. From 1918, by which time the school-leaving age was 14, the School Certificate was introduced for the 20% of children who stayed on until age 16 and the Higher School Certificate for those still there at age 18.

In 1951 a range of subject-related General Certificate of Education (GCE) O-Levels and A-Levels came into being. In 1965 the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) appeared but was not valued by employers as highly as O-Levels, so in 1988 they were merged into the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE).

(Image: David Hawgood at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The British solution to most situations is ‘a nice cuppa tea‘! No matter how flustered, exhausted, worried or upset someone is, a cup of tea is generally thought to be the thing to offer and, sure enough, it does seem to calm the nerves and refresh the mind. Millions upon millions of cups are drunk every day in the UK, the vast majority of them brewed from individual tea bags rather than from loose tea in a teapot.

It is strange to reflect that before we became a nation of tea drinkers in the mid-1700s, our favourite beverages had been ale and gin. The timing of this transition was propitious since clear heads were certainly required to operate the new machines of the Industrial Age. However, the factory ‘tea break’ later caused some dispute, with employers wanting to ban it while trade unions claimed it as a right to be enjoyed at least twice a day.

Elevenses, afternoon tea, high tea, teatime, tea gardens, tea shops and tea dances are all products of our tea affinity. Although four cups a day is considered optimal, many people consume a lot more and each cup can bring that customary sigh of relief.

(Image: David Martyn Hunt at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

The Royal Opera House (ROH), situated in London’s Covent Garden district, began life as the Theatre Royal in 1732 and has only specialised in opera and ballet since 1946. It had previously hosted a range of artistic genres, including pantomime, the last of which was staged just before WW2. It is now the home of the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet companies, with the Royal Ballet School next-door and connected by the Bridge of Aspiration.

The ROH saw the first public piano performance in 1767, the first use of limelight (invented by Sir Goldsworthy Gurney) in 1837 and the first complete performance of Wagner’s ‘Der Ring des Nibelung’ in 1892, conducted by Gustav Mahler on his only visit to London. By that time the name had changed to the Royal Italian Opera House, but the Wagner/Mahler event prompted the owners to drop the word ‘Italian’ in acknowledgement of all the French and German composers then gaining popularity.

The building itself has been destroyed by fire twice, in 1808 and 1856. Following remodelling works in 1996-9, only the façade, foyer and 2,268-seater auditorium are left from the 1858 reconstruction designed by Sir Edward Middleton Barry (1830-80), along with the statues and frieze salvaged from the 1809 building designed by Sir Robert Smirke (1780-1867).

(Image: Norio Nakayama at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Genuine Chippendale furniture fetches top prices at auction because it was Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) who turned this household essential into an art form. Yorkshire-born, he was brought up among carpenters, honing his skill in York before moving to London, where he found a burgeoning market for his products. He responded with an ingenious new marketing ploy ~ an illustrated catalogue.

‘The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director’ was first published in 1754 with several later editions to meet increasing demand. Not only did it include 160 of Chippendale’s drawings of the pieces he could supply, but it also promised that he could combine and tweak designs if a customer wanted a bespoke service. The gentry flocked to his establishment in St. Martin’s Lane, London’s centre for cabinet-makers and upholsterers.

The downside of publishing his catalogue was that others tried to imitate the Chippendale style, but antiques experts can tell the difference in, for example, the quality of the mahogany used and the sheer skill of the ornate carving. Chippendale employed up to 50 assistants in order to focus on sales. He also went into partnership with two financiers since handling money was not his forte. His son took over the business in 1776 and it eventually closed in 1804.

(Top image: picryl.com / Public domain)

Ralph (pronounced ‘Raif’) Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was born in Gloucestershire and wrote his first song at age 6. His father was a vicar, his great-uncle was Charles Darwin and his grandfather was Josiah Wedgwood III, Darwin’s brother-in-law. Coming from such a high-achieving family, it is unsurprising that Vaughan Williams took time to consolidate his skills before setting his music before the public. When he did, it received enthusiastic acclaim and he was credited with giving English classical music a renewed international status.

He lived through two World Wars, lying about his age in order to serve in the first one. His most famous piece, ‘A Lark Ascending’, was completed in 1914 but had to wait several years before being performed. His influences were many and varied, from traditional English folk songs which he collected himself, to orchestration techniques from French composer Maurice Ravel, from whom he had lessons in his mid-30s.

He wrote nine operas with nine different styles and tones. The seventh, ‘Sinfonia Antarctica’ (1952), was based on his music for the film ‘Scott of the Antarctic’ (1948) and includes a wind machine. He also wrote chamber music, operas and music for ballet, choirs and church. He is said to have refused a knighthood.

(Top image of the Ralph Vaughan Williams statue outside Dorking Halls Theatre: mira66 at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

Gone are the days when an advertisement was brief and to the point, consisting only of text giving the product name, manufacturer, uses and price. Today’s multi-billion-pound advertising industry uses every type of available media and images are key. Adverts are inescapable and all businesses and charities regard advertising as an essential part of their marketing.

The first television advert in the UK, for a toothpaste, aired in 1955 in England. There was an outcry against this perceived attempt to fire up unfettered consumerism, which turned out to be prophetic. When people excitedly await the launch of the Christmas TV adverts for certain shops and then debate their merits on social media for days afterwards, it is a sign of how advertising has come to be an integral part of the culture.

The first media adverts featured their own jingles. Then advertising agencies began to create customised lyrics to existing tunes and finally they used original old songs. The music is as important as the camera-work in forming the illusion. Memorable adverts tend to be the witty ones, such as the Smash Martians, the R.White’s ‘secret lemonade drinker’, or even the Benson & Hedges claim that ‘happiness is a cigar called Hamlet‘:

(Top image [cropped]: Peter Blanchard at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0)