The Great Library of Alexandria.

 

 Since writing about the proposed extension to the British Library, I seem to have been besieged by the word ‘Library’.First of all I had already bought a magnificent volume, The Library. A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree & Arthur der Weduwen, which is devoted to books and the concept of libraries. It is, in effect, an astonishingly detailed history of libraries which obviously and inevitably included the history of the book as it developed. Interestingly, the very earliest libraries preceded the invention of the book as we know it! The rulers of the Assyrian Empire of Mesopotamia [present day Iraq] gathered considerable quantities of documents, all carefully inscribed in their distinctive cuneiform script on to clay tablets. Such a library could survive, was impervious to heat or damp but with the major problem of storage and transport, being bulky and heavily awkward to move. These libraries were situated in royal palaces or temples, intended for the exclusive use of royals and scholars. On one surviving clay tablet are the instructions, “One who is competent (or knowledgeable) should show this only to one who is also competent, but may not show it to the uninitiated.”

Papyrus  letter in Greek.

All of these rare “monuments of written culture”, while often extensive, [the royal libraries of Nineveh reputedly stored 35,000 tablets] were destroyed when the Assyrian Empire was conquered by the Babylonians in 614-612 BC. In their turn, the Babylonians were gradually overtaken by more functional alphabetical writing systems and importantly, by the discovery of parchment and of the papyrus plant with its excellence as a writing medium. The emerging Greek

Papyrus plant

culture moved gradually, over centuries, from an oral to a written form and papyrus grew abundantly in the Nile delta while the techniques of splitting the reed stalks of the papyrus plant and weaving them together, were easily learned. Papyrus quickly became the pre-eminent writing medium of the ancient world, exported from Egypt to Greece and later, to Rome and contributed importantly to a huge capacity for, and urge to accumulate, knowledge.

Aristotle.
Roman copy of Greek bust.

By the fourth century B.C. Greece was a highly literate society at the elite level. There developed a flourishing commercial book trade which ensured that literature and texts taught in schools were relatively widely available though the word ‘books’ always refers to the universal and uniform, papyrus scrolls. There developed much writing and copying of texts on to papyrus and by 338 BC the authorities in Athens had become so concerned with the poor quality of some of the writing and copying, that an official archive of authoritative texts was established. The philosopher Aristotle, tutor to the young
Alexander the Great, gathered a personal collection of scrolls of considerable size while also imbuing a love of books in the young Alexander. Aristotle’s own remarkable collection of books eventually found themselves in Rome, removed in 84 B.C from the conquered city of Athens by the victorious general S
ulla and helping to inspire the subsequent formation of the world-famous Library at Alexandria.

Ptolemy 1. 323-285 B.C.
Gold pentadrachma Alexandria.

Although Alexander began to develop this important Greek city on the northern coast of Egypt in 331 B.C. the idea of a grand Museum may have been part of Alexander’s original imperial plan but one he did not live to see. The establishment of Alexandria became a major achievement of the first two Ptolemaic kings, Ptolemy the First having obtained Egypt on Alexander’s death during the power grab among Alexander’s top generals, of his huge empire. With the birth of this new city began the rapid growth of an important research institution called the Mouseion, a scholarly research academy dedicated to the Muses of which the library became a spectacular part. The library grew exponentially in size under the Ptolemaic regime’s aggressive and well-funded search to procure texts, with generous benefits to tempt researchers and philosophers to commit to this exciting project. Scientists like Strabo, Euclid and Archimedes were among those attracted particularly by the academic quality and range of subjects offered including mathematics, geography, physics and medicine. Acquisitions on a huge scale were effected with high status scholars, in effect missionary ‘librarians’, fanning out across the Greek territories, well-financed, to buy the classics of literature and serious subject texts. The extent of this famous Great Library cannot now be ascertained but estimates range from 200,000 to half a million scrolls. Both in volume and quality, this tour de force was not equalled until, perhaps, the nineteenth century and the almost unimaginable scope of the scrolls, physically demanded sophisticated and extensive storage. It is believed that organisation was by alphabet and genre and the sheer size of the ever-growing collection demanded systematic cataloguing with many rooms in use to house branches of the collection. An impressive parade of Head Librarians was appointed over the next century from among the ancient scholars such as Aristophanes (257-185/0 BC), appointed when he was sixty. Unsurprisingly, Alexandria itself, because of the Great Library, became known as the capital of knowledge.

Great Library of Alexandria.
Roman depiction.

The Great Library functioned as a hub of scholarship and knowledge for around 300 years surviving the Ptolemaic line of Egyptian rulers but Plutarch reported that in 54 A.D. Julius Caesar, pursuing a campaign to regain Egypt for his lover, Cleopatra, in attempting to burn the Egyptian navy in Alexandria harbour, accidentally burned an adjacent dockside storehouse where there were many books awaiting transfer and the fire spread to at least part of the Library and its contents. This is the most popular version of the demise of the Great Library though there are others. Nothing is really known of what happened to the extensive contents but the name and fame of this wonderful library of the ancient world lives on!

Possible head of Cleopatra. Roman painting
first century A.D.

Two portraits of Alexander? The right-hand mosaic was 
discovered in an Israeli synagogue in 2015 and may
depict Alexander.

 

Sarapeum of Alexandria. Ancient Greek temple built by
Ptolemy 111, 280-222 B.C.. Also housed an offshoot collection,
part of the Great Library.

.

The British Library Extension

  

Artist's impression of the proposed extension to 
the British Library.

Central Somers Town

I have just read that Camden Council has approved a £500 million twelve storey extension to the British Library, next door to the Francis Crick Institute, which will feature extra galleries, commercial space and shops. It will include a new home for the Alan Turing Centre for data intelligence and artificial intelligence plus two new entrances and better access to St Pancras Station. The basement will include the infrastructure for the proposed new Crossrail 2 rail link and a pedestrianised walkway running the entire length of the space to a ticket hall. This exciting and optimistic project features no Government money and the commercial support needed to finance it, accounts for the commercial space and shops in the planning. 

Visualisation of an inner courtyard in the proposed extension.

The entire package must now seek the approval of the Lord Mayor of London. Local residents are however restless! The Somers Town Neighbourhood Forum which represents local residents, has expressed concern for the effects of the bulk of the extension on a nearby housing estate and fears that, during the probably extended period of the construction of the extension, that there will be, can be, no community garden, a much-loved present feature. There is, however, a community garden planned and due to open when the extension is eventually complete. The British Library has, meanwhile, offered to make a £23 million contribution to affordable housing in Somers Town. Its chief executive, Roy Keating, says, “This long-planned extension will make it possible for even more people to access and enjoy the library, with a host of flexible new spaces including a new bespoke learning centre and spectacular new exhibition galleries.”

But dealing smoothly with the criticisms of local residents is one thing but there are also vociferous objections to the architecture of the proposed extension from fellow professionals. Lynch Architects director, Patrick Lynch, called the plan,' 'bloody awful”; others labelled it, “an unimaginative office slab” and asked, “How can such a fantastic opportunity end up with such a bloody awful, third-rate wedge of nothing?” The plans involve the demolition of buildings to the north of the Library including the 2007 British Library Centre for Conservation [BLCC] and this particular act has provoked the ire of Docomomo UK, a modernist architectural heritage organisation which insists that the high grade of listing for the BLCC had intended to protect it from such a fate, suggesting that twentieth century listed buildings generally lack conservation parity with architecture of earlier periods. The Twentieth Century Society has also insisted that the BLCC is an integral part of the British Library and must be kept although the BLCC had already been earmarked as a temporary construction compound for the mothballed Crossrail 2 project. Clearly, there is an architectural and conservation battle to be fought before any spade strikes the earth. However, Camden Council’s planning officers believe that the public benefits of the development would outweigh the harm and on this basis, recommended the proposed development for approval.

British Library Centre for Conservation.
Stylish, and built as recently as 2007,
with listed building protection.

In the current climate of strikes, inflation and general gloom as the UK seems to be slipping down all possible tables of national and international achievement, GNP, standard of living, national debt etc, it is immensely moving to read of the idea of this huge and imaginative undertaking. This Grand Extension with its multi-faceted proposals, is a prestigious project on behalf of a library and a nation, by the local Camden Council. The Design War will rage on for some considerable time, but the central idea of extending a huge and important Library in central London, is a testament to the enduring power of the library concept to a nation. The ‘library concept’ may have changed to include digital access, meeting spaces for myriad activities, even commercial outlets, but importantly, it still rests on the central appeal of the almost ageless book and its free access by all citizens.

British Library Piazza.

 

Francis Crick Institute.

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better .....

 

Although this blog does not consider private/prep/public schools, this 100 year old photo still  sums up social inequality in Britain

Earlier this week, a U3A group which I have joined had an interesting discussion on the Attainment Gap in U.K. education. This refers to the inherent inequality in British education which contributes to the reduced academic, achievement experienced by children and young people in the poorest or most dysfunctional families. This educational inequality in fact echoes, and is caused by, the social inequality in British society.

Pre-School.

Published in 2016 though applicable 2023.

A research project, the Millennium Cohort Study, showed differences in cognitive development between children from richer and poorer backgrounds by the early age of three and demonstrated the widening of that gap by the age of five. Children from poorer backgrounds often face less advantageous early childhood caring/life-enhancing environments. This research found for example there might be lower birth weight; lack of breast feeding; maternal depression; less family interaction with possibly less mother/child closeness; less effective home/learning environment such as daily reading or mother/baby communication; parenting styles and routines such as bed times and meals.

Primary School

In Primary School by the age of 11, 75% of poorer children had reached the level of Key Stage 2 compared with 97% of children from more advantaged backgrounds. Poorer children who had performed well in Key Stage 2 at age 7/8 were more likely than their wealthier peers to fall behind by 11 while poorer children who had performed badly at 7 were less likely than their peers to improve their ranking. Some of the factors which might explain this important, widening gap were found to be:

a) Parental aspirations for higher education.

b) How far parents and children believe their own actions can affect their lives.

c) The presence of children’s behavioural problems such as levels of hyperactivity; conduct issues and problems relating to peer relationships.

Parental aspirations and attitudes to education varied strongly, according to socio-economic position with 81% of wealthier mothers of nine year olds saying they hoped their child would go to university, compared with 37% of the poorest mothers. It is believed that such adverse attitudes to education held by the poorer mothers are one of the single most important factors associated with lower educational standards at eleven. But it also suggests that government policies aimed at changing mothers’ and children’s attitudes and behaviours during primary schooling could be effective in reducing the growth of the rich-poor gap during this time.

Secondary School.

The Longitudinal Study of Young People in England found evidence of a slower widening of the gap during the secondary years though, by the time GCSEs were taken, the gap between privileged and deprived youngsters was large. Only 21% of the poorest obtained five good GCSEs at grades A*-C including Maths and English against 75% of the top quintile. It is also more difficult to reverse patterns of under-achievement by the teenage years.

The research suggested that young people are more likely to do well in their GCSEs if their parents:

a) expect their children to go on to university.

b) can devote material resources towards education such as computers; private tuition.

c) spend time sharing family meals and outings,

d) quarrel with their children infrequently.

While a young person can improve his chances of GCSE success if he

a) has a greater belief in his own ability at school;

b) believes that consequences result from his own behaviour;

c) thinks it likely he will successfully apply to get into higher education;

d) avoids risky behaviour such as frequent smoking; use of cannabis; anti-social behaviour;

e) does not experience bullying.

An Intergenerational Picture.

Analysis in the British Cohort Study found that children’s test scores were lowest when poverty had persisted across generations and highest when material advantage was long-lasting. Parents’ cognitive abilities play a very important role in explaining the gap between test scores of the richer and poorer children. Almost one fifth of this gap can be explained by an apparent direct link between the childhood cognitive ability of parents and their children. This was found even after controlling for a wide range of environmental factors and taking into account various factors through which cognitive ability might operate, such as parents’ subsequent educational achievements, adult socio-economic position and attitudes to education. There was also a strong inter-generational correlation between a wide variety of other behaviours and attitudes such as whether a parent regularly reads to a child and parental expectations for advanced education. This passing of such traits across generations also helps to explain the persistent disadvantage that children from poorer backgrounds face in their educational achievement.

The research project, An Unfair Start, focussed on educational inequalities in 41 of the world’s richest countries all of which are members of OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and/or the E.U. European Union. In this rich club, Britain ranks 16. Clearly, Britain needs to improve the life chances of all its children and further, sustained academic and financial support are required for those young people who need it. It is somewhat depressing that this attainment gap and the contingent social problems, have been known about, both informally and through research projects, for decades. So far, efforts to change the status quo have had some small successes but there is far to go.

An interesting comment on educational inequality in the U.K. appears in the title of a new report [Sept 2022] issued by the Institute for Fiscal Studies:

The report is entitled:           The U.K. Education System Preserves Inequality.

Populations that have attained, at least, secondary education. 2006

P

At Sixes and Sevens.

 

En route from Polpo to Six

My title indicates a state of utter confusion which describes my condition after the family theatre outing to see Six last Saturday. I think we were 13 at the Vaudeville Theatre [after a lunch party of 17] all in a state of pleasant anticipation. We have been going on annual outings for lunch in Soho followed by a West End musical since Tom was seven; he will be 30 in one month’s time! During that time, I have enjoyed and often loved, the musicals we saw. My latter confusion, plus stunned amazement, stems from the fact that I really hated the show while two others, shared my reaction. Most of the group thought it was fantastic while three, possibly four, flinched from the maximum volume pop singing and accompanying music. Physically, painful; visually, bright, sparkling, fast-moving, non-stop pop concert-style, gyrating attractive chorus girls-turned- solo singers/dancers/ twerkers who Never Left The Stage, did not use dialogue nor deviate from max pace and volume. Unsurprisingly, I later discovered online that the show’s originators had been students at Cambridge when they composed it. That explains the youthful concept and the ultra-confidence in pursuing it.

The Musical

Two of the Queens

Catherine of Aragon

To be fair, the mixed reactions may be generational; and partly, perhaps, a reflection of musical taste. Also it must be reported that the audience last Saturday, rose as one, to its feet in hommage at the end! Seated,

I felt stunned by the ear-splitting assault of the performance having longed for it to be over.

I have since found online opinions ranging from:

“The energy in the show is amazing. Such fun, great woman empowerment, got a standing ovation. I have seen at least 50 shows in the west end and this is in the top 5, real feel good.”

“Really good fun musical/Quite short but fantastic/We should see it again/All the performers were great

Geoffrey Chaucer
See below!

 “Saw this in Woking, it was like being in a big nightclub. One of the girls in the audience had an epileptic seizure probably all the flashing lights and loud music. No warnings anywhere about this.”

 “ With the gyrating and dubious lyrics not really one for the kids; with the lack of content not one for historians; and with poor diction, shambolic choreography, lacklustre performance and under whelming costumes; not even one for theatre goers. It totally missed the point of the significance of the wifes and how they changed history.”

Meanwhile Critics’ Reviews opined:

“SIX: HOLD ON TO YOUR HEADS, WITH CHEERS AND HUZZAHS! It has mass appeal, immediacy, enthusiasm, and an incredibly high sense of style: and it revels in what used to be called ‘girl power’ but can now more properly be described as simply, or not so simply, power.”

Mediaeval dice games like Hazard

There seems little to add though an explanation of the title might be of interest! We already know that ‘to be at sixes or sevens’ signifies complete confusion about some situation or topic. Interestingly, in use since the 1300s when originally it referred to a popular dice game, Hazard, where throwing a 6 or 7 meant risking one’s entire fortune. By the early 1600s it had come to mean “to take a careless risk” though by the mid to late 1600s, ‘to be at 6s and 7s’ was to be in a state of confusion.

A similar phrase, “to set the world on six and seven” is used by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Troilus and Criseyde, dating from the mid 1380s and seems to mean “to hazard the world” or “to risk one’s life.” William Shakespeare uses a similar phrase in Richard 11, around 1595:

“But time will not permit: all is uneven,

Gilbert and Sullivan

And every thing is left at six and seven.”

The phrase is also used in Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic opera, HMS Pinafore, 1878, when Captain Corcoran, the ship’s Commander, is confused as to what choices to make in his life, and exclaims in the opening song of Act 11,

“Fair moon, to thee I sing, bright regent of the heavens,

Say, why is everything either at sixes or at sevens?”

And from the sublime to the ridiculous; the debut studio album of the Norwegian Gothic Metal band, Sirenia, was called, “At Sixes and Sevens” and was produced in Norway in 2001.

William Shakespeare

Example of the elaborate footwear
worn by the Queens in SIX.

Sirenia.

Beginnings and Endings.

 

Festive Fun

 It is January 2^nd and I am alone all day after spending lots of time with my local daughter, two grand-daughters and one wife-of-grand-daughter over Christmas and then for lunch on New Year’s Day when a hungover friend and her daughter were also there to enrich the meal with truly magnificent Yorkshire Puddings! A superb meal, as it happens, the like of which I used to cook myself but no longer do since I have become a Cook-follower and stopped any thought of actual cooking myself, or catering or feeding others from my kitchen! This chosen non-culinary course affords me much gratification and enables me to spin the stamina a little further every day, energy having become a rare and valuable commodity!

+

It is the time of year for talk of New Year Resolutions and my present welcome quietude enables me to think about resolutions and my intention to make none. New Year Resolutions are for those

Robert Frost

younger than I; for those earnestly wanting to lose weight; stop smoking; go to the gym more often; give up alcohol, etc Pondering this I am reminded of the blessings of growing old. Gone are the unrealistic, possibly unreachable hopes/ dreams/ aspirations/ resolutions. I no longer want to slim, quit smoking, follow this or that trend. Chiefly, these illusions cluster together on a multi-factorial road not taken! Thank you Robert Frost for painting that particular image in 

The Road Not Taken!

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence

Two roads diverged in a wood and I-

I took the one less travelled by

And that has made all the difference.

Though whether that makes much difference, I doubt, beyond the surface satisfaction of not having to try to do that which no longer interests me. Another grateful nod to the philosophy of ageing; one really does not have to do anything much which does not interest or appeal! No wonder that the upper slopes of ageing, despite the obvious drawbacks, can be tranquil and satisfying.

It is from the above musings that the words Beginnings and Endings have emerged into focus. For almost a year my acquaintance with Bury St Edmunds has begun and grown, the beginning last February, certainly obscured by a persistent feeling of bewilderment and an almost physical feeling of a lack of mooring. I felt slightly, but unmistakably, adrift. So many of my lovely family giving cheerful and valuable help during the early weeks while I tried hard to help sort out, to decide what I might keep but also what I could, and must, give away or sell. My present apartment is perhaps one quarter the size of my Bruges flat and my 

View of my Kentish garden

earlier Kentish house and I had a persistent sensation of mental claustrophobia as books were stacked on the floor, and excess furniture and other belongings piled up, lending a sales-room atmosphere to the every-day. I was pleased to have arrived here, hugely grateful for all the help received but I missed Bruges more than I had anticipated and it took an astonishing length of time and continuing effort before I began to feel that this was home. It was not the facing up to giving away items I had loved for forty years or more; I could do that. The challenge was finding places, people, charities to whom precious objects should be given. It all seemed an enormous, sustained effort, bigger than the actual move! There was a giant chessboard before me with no clearly defined rules or routes.

Some of the Abbey ruins in the Abbey Gardens where
my daily walk occurs.

Eventually, gradually, slowly, all was done and I began to build a life; I felt positive about doing that and positive about my new flat but I didn’t find that spontaneous feeling of joy always present in Beloved Brugge. I recently found a quote from T. S. Eliot which I like.

Little Gidding.

“For last year's words belong to last year's language

And next year's words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning."

View from the Bonifacius Bridge in Bruges.

It occurs to me now that leaving Bruges [which I didn’t want to do] was an ending, not only to a well-loved location and home, but to that natural stage of growing older, gladly accepted in its comfortable inevitability. I suddenly felt significantly older around a year ago, without any medical reason to account for that, and my decision to move back here, made alone, was the right one; I wanted to be nearer to family, an inchoate feeling at first but gradually came the realisation that it was because of my emerging but unexpected vulnerability. Not quite recognised or acknowledged but intuited. No one can know the future but then again, no one is helpless in the face of any problem whether defined or vague. I decided not to wait, passively, but to create change by design; engineer an ending, unwelcome though that might be! The sense of moving in to action a response to what was a sensation both indistinct and uneasy, rather energised me and it may have been then that the possibility of another beginning in my life began to take shape. As Maya Angelou wrote in

A mature Maya Angelou.

On the Pulse of Morning

“The horizon leans forward

Offering you space to place 

new steps of change.”

And so, to live in Bury near my daughter and grand-daughter, and a beginning to the next phase of life. I am growing accustomed to walking more slowly and clumsily; with a walking pole without which I already feel lost; to slower reactions, both physical and mental; to the occasional memory lapse. But the phrase, "Could be worse" comes to mind quite frequently and I am blessed with an iron will which takes me through the beautiful Abbey Gardens on an early morning walk each day and sees me through two separate hours of personal training each week designed to help my balance, keep me relatively flexible and generally delay, if possible, further depredation. Yes indeed; could be worse!

Part of my Bury terrace with the little 
Bruges boy smiling in his new home.

Farmers' Market in Bury with the listed 
Market Cross building in the background.
That is where we play Mah Jong twice a week.

Longer shot showing the stone pelican from
Waingroves Hall where we lived in the 70s.