After ten years of Blair

…and one month before his own retirement as Joint General Secretary of the University and College Union, Paul Mackney (PeB 60-67) addresses the Fighting Unions Rally on May Day 2007 (12 minutes):

No mere deacon

HOUSEYBLOG wishes every blessing to the Rev John Ashe (ThA 66-70), seen here at his installation last May by the Bishop of Norwich as Archdeacon of Lynn.

Nanny knows best

A PHRASE coined by the late Bernard Levin (PeB 37-45) becomes the name of a beer.

Word in your shell-like

CHARLES HEDLEY (MaB 57-66) says farewell as Rector of St James's, Piccadilly.

100 more people have been added to my links page during September. All existing links have been checked and repaired where necessary.

"They wanted a riot"

WITH the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh now over, let Ben Beach (LaA, GrE 01-08) remind us what happened at the previous one in London (2½ minutes):

Fun And Games

…is the title of a new EP by indie-rock-acoustic four-piece hyphen-junkies Nately, i.e. Niall Barker (PeB, PeA 84-91), Alex Selby-Boothroyd (MdB, MdA 84-91) and two like-minded friends. Listen to all four tracks on their MySpace page, and/or experience Nately in person at The Fly in New Oxford Street on Friday.

Historical note: the band's former members include Will Shallcross (MdB, MdA 84-91) and James McAlpine (PeB, PeA 84-91).

One advantage of a CH education

ON her web page, the actress Louise Winstone (4's 77-83) observes that

Having spent her senior school years at boarding school, she was well prepared for the rigours and cramped living conditions of touring in Britain, and indeed Germany and Japan.

Sweet Thames, run softly

FORMER trade union leader John Edmonds (MdB 54-62) is honoured with a plaque at Teddington Lock for his work to improve the River Thames.

Bodies in motion

A SHOWREEL for choreographer Piers Gielgud (ColB 74-81, Dance/drama staff 88-89), whose credits range from Oliver Stone's Alexander to Lily Allen and the Pet Shop Boys (3½ minutes):

Heartening

BELATED congratulations to James Peto (LaA 71-76) on winning first prize in the popular medicine category of last year's Medical Book Awards for a volume he edited, The Heart.

He's Senior Curator of Temporary Exhibitions & Public Programmes at the Wellcome Collection.

Murdered in his church

THE shocking death of the Rev Peter Wagner (BaB 45-50).

Could do better

NAÏVE, vague, simplistic, lacking in rigour, not very successful, likely to remain obscure… Come off the fence, Wikipedia, and tell us what you really think of Henry Wentworth Monk (CH c. 1835-43).

Reared in the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim

LINUS ROACHE as Samuel Taylor Coleridge (CH 1782-91, Senior Grecian) in Julien Temple's Pandaemonium, with extracts from his poem "Frost at Midnight" (4½ minutes):

Babes who yearn

A BUSY week ahead for the band Yearner Babies, whose trombonist is Seb Goodwin-Day (MaB, GrE 00-07), with four London gigs in three days. They're at the Flea Circus, Islington, on Thursday; the Mitre, Greenwich, on Friday; and the Hungamunga Festival on Sunday. Seb, a student at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, is also a talented guitarist - hear a track or two on his MySpace page.

Another artist

ON the website of Patrick Duncan (Staff 86-92) - an established gallery artist, with six solo exhibitions to his credit - can be seen forty of his handsome watercolours of Scotland, Cumbria, North Yorkshire and the Greek Islands.

Death to jargon

SHREWSBURY teacher Alex Went (LaA 74-81) sounds off in The Guardian.

Ninety minutes of theatre

TAYO POPOOLA (MaA 86-93) considers football (1 minute):

Undeserved millions

DIVORCE courts are "unfair to men" - Baroness Deech (Ruth Fraenkel, 7's 53-61) makes headlines again.

Dr Vyner & Mr Scratch

AT dead of night, mild-mannered Matthew Vyner (PeB 98-04) morphs into drum and bass demon MATT:Scratch. Beware…

---

(PICTURE shows Jason Flemyng (MaB, MdA 78-83) as Mr Hyde in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 2003.)

Reflected glory

SHORTLISTED for this year's Hidden Art Cornwall Award, textile designer Hannah Maughan (Col A 85-92) lost out in the end but is seen here (left) accepting the award on behalf of the absent winner.
HiddenArtLondon.co.uk

Well, she should know

WHICH philosophers were great writers, and which couldn't write for toffee? Bryan Magee (BaA 41-48) addresses this question for two minutes before discussing the overlap between philosophy and literature with his guest, Iris Murdoch (10 minutes):



Watch the whole programme

"My job is incredibly worthwhile"

OUR new Clerk and Chief Executive, Rear-Admiral David Cooke, gives an interview.

Speech Day 1932: sound & vision

THIS two-minute Pathé clip must be the earliest surviving sound film of CH. Don't miss it.

Headmaster Oswald Flecker - two years into the job, with twenty-three to go - doesn't look too appealing. (This was the man who at Marlborough gave his pupil John Betjeman a lifelong fear of critics.)

Presumably the portly white-haired gent behind the Lord Mayor is the Treasurer; he seems less keen than his successor Barnes Wallis to insist on his right to walk at the Lord Mayor's right hand.

The band is smaller and less impressive than in recent decades, the marching somewhat smarter.

Boys in the school in the summer of 1932 - perhaps among the faces we see here - included the war poet Keith Douglas, the thriller writer Francis Clifford, the poet and songwriter Sydney Carter of "Lord of the Dance" fame, the man of letters J E Morpurgo, the painter Maurice de Sausmarez, Norman Guthkelch the doctor who identified "shaken baby syndrome", Donald Hopson the courageous diplomat who endured the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and some who died gallantly in the war such as Peter McRae and Michael Rennie; not forgetting the future headmaster of CH John Hansford, the future Treasurer Angus Ross and of course many notable figures in the Old Blue world like Barclay Hankin and John Gillham.

Hat tip: Foureyes

"A wonderful school"

JONATHAN SCOTT (Col A 59-68) remembers his CH days in yesterday's Independent.

Monsieur le tambour

FOUR minutes with Sarah Mitchell and her Quartet; the drummer is Sarah's partner, Tim Brickel (PeA, PeB 87-95):

This guy's serious

WHEN his character in Spooks was killed off, Alex Lanipekun (LaA 92-99) moved on to the Royal Court Theatre and then to the Donmar Warehouse, where he played opposite Jonathan Pryce in a role first created in the UK by Ben Kingsley. One result was this shrewd and informative interview, published in March.

Mocking bird

A PLEASURE to see Holly Walsh (LHB 92-99) on BBC2's Mock The Week last night:

What is amnesia? Is it:

(a) memory loss

(b) memory loss, or

(4) the Battle of Hastings?

Munna from heaven

HOW many clergy have four hundred fans? A Facebook group for Munna Mitra (Chaplain 96-08).

Tuba Tune on Sagina

BASED on the hymn "And Can It Be", this 1½-minute organ piece was composed by Christopher Tambling (PeA 76-82):

Starting as he means to go on

ASPIRING journalist Mortimer Pockett (LaA, GrE 02-09) found time during his A level term to write at least three columns for the West Sussex County Times: on England Under-18 rugbyman Joe Launchbury (MdB, GrW 02-09) and playing in the Band at Lord's; on Speech Day; and on his own band, Innocent Faces. And in late July he penned another, about leaving CH and touring the Rhineland with the Band.

New Blunden material online

PREVIOUSLY unseen manuscripts by the war poet Edmund Blunden (Col A 1909-15, Senior Grecian) have been added to Oxford University's First World War Poetry Digital Archive. This press report gives details.

Narrow Road to the Deep North

NO sooner had the One Mile Closer crew cycled from John O' Groats to Land's End than Andrew Ormanroyd (Horsham Staff 70-73) embarked on the same journey in reverse, in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease Association. He's 63 this year. Sponsor him here.

"Music, gently soothing power"

AN aria from William Boyce's Ode for St Cecilia's Day, sung by countertenor William Purefoy (La A 79-86) (6 minutes):

A good man at Monmouth

MONMOUTH SCHOOL, says the Tatler Schools Guide, "is becoming ever more successful under its newish head Dr Steven Connors [Deputy Head 00-05], an authority on Wordsworth who is as likely to be found coaching rugby or taking part in a charity abseiling event as abstracted in scholarly thought." Don't take their word for it: hear the man himself.

Too exciting for some

FORTY years back he was probably the most famous Old Blue in the country: John Snow (Th B 51-59) of Sussex and England, demon fast bowler, poet and rebel.

What counts is the story

SCROLL down this page for a spirited thousand-word reflection on film and TV sci-fi from the old Flash Gordon serials onwards, courtesy of Marcus Sprenkel (La A 79-86).

The Devil Wore A Crucifix

A SONG by Sydney Carter (Pe B 26-33), performed by Raymond Crooke (1 minute):

Chip in quick

ON Saturday in Hyde Park Sophie Lippiatt (LHB, GrE 99-01) and her sister Claire Lippiatt (LHB, Hertford, GrE 00-04) will be taking part in the Adidas 5km women's challenge to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation. Their dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer this year and hopes to receive a new type of treatment on a research scheme. More details and a chance to donate here.

Break, break, break

CONGRATULATIONS to Professor David Taplin (LaB 50-57), seen here (right) on his seventieth birthday last month receiving the Premier Gold Medal of the International Congress on Fracture in recognition of his research contributions to the field of creep and fatigue at high temperatures, and his vision and sustained leadership of the ICF for forty years. As he readily testifies, it all began in the Manual School at Housey…

Very ancient and fish-like

PAUL LYNCH (La B 67-74) reads The Compleat Angler by Sir Izaak Walton (1593-1683).

During July and August, 55 more people were added to my links page.