Thursday 2 August 2012

William Golding and WMD


I will be driving through this countryside today, to go and see about a very boring job for a very interesting person.

I had said that the work on offer was not really the sort of thing I did these days, and despite me giving him the contact details of six ordinary stone masons in his immediate area, he - through a mutual friend and employee - made it clear that he really wanted me to sort it out, for some reason.

So I eventually agreed to drive there and begin to assess the damage, so to speak, and decided to make a day and a night of it, staying there in an extremely interesting environment which should produce a lot of good pictures for the weekend.  Hopefully I will be able to tell you more about him and it later.

Has anyone read the William Golding book,  'The Spire'?  Set in the time of the building of Salisbury Cathedral, it is a factitious account of the building of the tallest ecclesiastical tower in Europe, and the problems which had to be overcome when erecting it on what was then marshland.

Instead of piling deep into the wet earth with solid foundations, they used a bit of lateral thinking and built the 404 foot-high spire on a bed of rushes, 754 years ago, and they have - in the recent past - employed a diver to go down into the beds below it to inspect and repair the footings of the 6,500 ton pile of masonry above.

It has the world's oldest working clock (dating from 1386), and the original medieval, wooden scaffold and treadmill can still be seen inside the spire, looking as though it was built in about 1940.

About thirty years ago, some remedial, structural work was done on the inside of the spire, augmenting the original old wooden framework with lightweight, stainless steel.  A friend of mine - a Scotsman, who lived in Bath - was one of the main architects in charge of this project.

One evening, he was leaving the pub which I still use as my local every day, and he stepped out from between two parked cars into the road and was hit by a car being driven by a young, recently qualified driver.  He was killed instantly.  His body ended up about 20 yards away, landing right in front of the house of another mutual friend - Bath is a small place.

Everyone felt extremely sorry for the driver, as it was no fault of his, even though a little extra experience may have quickened his reactions to the unforeseen behaviour of our notoriously erratic Scottish mate.  What a way to begin your life as the driver of a car.  I hope he got over it quickly.

I said that Bath is a small place, but - actually - England is a small place.  There are connections linked to connections linked to connections, and - as I will explain later - it seems the world is a small place too.  There is a strong link between this little trip I am about to make, and Saddam Hussein's fictitious Weapons of Mass Destruction too.

Confused?  You will be.


21 comments:

  1. Hello:
    As late teenagers we were absolutely enthralled by William Golding's 'The Spire', a novel somewhat overlooked in favour of 'Lord of the Flies'.

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    1. 'The Inheritors' was worth a read too. I didn't think anyone would be able to write a story in which the characters were Neanderthal humans, but Golding almost pulled it off!

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  2. Even your blog today has connections linked to connections linked to connections Tom. You certainly know how to leave your readers in suspense. Can't wait for episode 2.

    Thanks for the facts about Salisbury Cathedral - haven't read the book, didn't know any of that information you gave. As usual, I think Blogland is fantastic for such info.

    Enjoy your trip and get your skates on with episode 2.

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    1. I hope I will be able to explain, but - as is suggested - the subject is an extremely sensitive one, so I will have to decide about that later. It's not as 'cloak and dagger' as it sounds, though.

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  3. I'm still confused about Saddam's WMDs; maybe he hid them in an underground bunker. Have a good trip; sounds intriguing.

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    1. I don't think that even the CIA believed his lies, Cro, let alone Bush and Blair's.

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  4. I'll have to get The Spire, thanks for the tip! My Grandfather was an architect, so was his brother and their father too. My brother is a civil engineer. I was the dullard.

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    1. It's a good read - a sort of forerunner of Brother Cadval, really, with a bit of masonry thrown in.

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  5. Great! What an interesting beginning. Hopefully you will get closer to God and then ... and then ... actually, I believe it ends badly for us mortals. Be careful. We want to hear the rest.

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    1. Just got back. It (the situation) is more amazing than I could possibly have hoped for. More tomorrow.

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  6. Sounds exactly like the sort of read I would enjoy! Pity I didn't know earlier, my brother (He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named) is on the plane right now from Germany. Never mind, I will find someone coming who can hand carry it for me.

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  7. I once foolishly climbed up to the base of the spire as part of a small guided party. Foolish because I suffer from vertigo and after climbing out on to the narrow parapet I could only cling on to the tower with my eyes closed, frozen with fear, whilst everyone else was admiring the wonderful views of Salisbury. (Yes, I've read the book.)

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    1. Well, at least you didn't suffer a heart-attack... hopefully.

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  8. isnt it about a mad vicar who likes red hair?

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  9. Didn't I hear we're all 6(7?) aquaintanceships away from knowing everyone in the world?

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    1. Yes, and every glass of water you drink contains a drop of Julius Caesar's pee. I don't know why he was singled out.

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  10. That sounds just about right, Dominic. I've thought about that plenty before, and it all makes perfect sense in a unsettling, yet comforting way.

    -Adam Ahmed
    Brookyln Waterproofing

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    1. As a rep of Brooklyn Waterproofing, you may be able to help us out about Caesar's pee, Adam?

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  11. I cannot wait to tell you all about my meeting with Donald Sutherland today, but I am going to have to. Watch this space...

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