The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,100 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 7 years to get that many views.
It’s strange where your family history research might lead. I’ve been busy with my other blog, of late, and I have done little on the family history front, however a post on my other blog, from 1915, suggested I had a relative who had died in World War 1 that I didn’t know about. The post is a letter to the Scottish Farmer from Margaret Shanks asking for help raising money for a hospital bed. In this she says “Too many will be like myself in having a painful personal interest in that bloody field”. Now I did not know of any ‘Shanks’ war dead on my side of the family, that is Margaret’s brother Robert my Great Grandfather. However, Margaret did have three other brothers and it turns out her brother James had a son born in 1896 – just the right age for service in WW1.
Douglas Brown Shanks would have been a 1st cousin twice removed. A quick search of the Commonwealth Graves Commission gave me the information I needed. Douglas had been killed on 27 May 1915 Age 19, he had been in the “D” Coy., London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles). It seems like so many he had just been unlucky, his regiment had been fighting in the Battle of Festubert from May 15, 1915 to May 25. So most of the fighting was over when he was killed on the 27 May.
The family were obviously devastated and it prompted Margaret to try and do something. She was successful and they eventually raised enough money for a bed on the Somme, which must have given her great satisfaction.
Philippe Halsman was one of great photographers of the twentieth century, a portrait photographer, he was famous for photographing many famous people such as Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein and Salvador Dali. However, as a young man he was wrongly accused of patricide (murdering his father), while on a walking holiday with his father in Austrian Alps, and incarcerated in an Austrian Jail for two years. His case was a major cause célèbre at the time and gained a lot of media attention as well as famous supporters (such as Albert Einstein) who petitioned for his release. After two trials in which he was found guilty, he was pardoned and he moved to France where he began his photography career.
The story is told from his point of view and the effect it has on his psyche. Starting in 1928 through to 1940 and beyond The Jump Artist is a fictional account of the the murder trial, his time in jail and Philippe’s eventual rise from the depths of despair and guilt back to the light. The author uses contemporary accounts and letters to tell the story from Philippe’s point of view. But as he says in his Authors Note this is “not a biography .. an artistic tribute …. a portrait or a sculpture”.
Of course much of this was during the rise of Fascism in Europe and as a Jew, one gets the impression that much of his misfortune was anti-semitic in origin. The book is beautifully researched there are historical facts I was totally unfamiliar such as the fact that Nazi’s promoted an alternative theory to that of the the Jewish Einstein’s. The Weltteislehre theory, devised by Hans Horbiger, was complete bunkum of course, but it suited the Nazi propaganda of the time.
The scale of of the anti-semitism that Philippe experiences is shocking, and this is before Hitler and the Nazi’s have even come to power. He moves to France where drifts into photography, mainly through his desire to photograph beautiful women naked. He drops out of university and eventually becomes successful photographing models for fashion magazines such as vogue. When the war does come, his family is able to escape to America however he can’t as he doesn’t have French citizenship. He eventually moves to Marseilles and eventually to Portugal where with the help of Einstein is able to get a visa to America. What isn’t said and the impression I had throughout the book is that without the murder accusation he would almost certainly have stayed in Germany (following his studies to be an engineer) or returned to Latvia after becoming an engineer and would not have survived the holocaust.
This is an imaginative novel that spans a shameful period of European history, and by focusing on one person it really brings home to you the scale of the anti-Semitism in Europe at the time. What of the title “The Jump Artist” – reading up about Philippe I think it comes from his fame for taking photographs where he would have his subjects jump as he photographed them.
I enjoyed this book enormously, and it is certainly up there on my all time list of favourite novels , probably some where in the top fifty, and I would certainly recommend as a good read to anyone.
I have recently become part of the Penguin Proof group on Google+. The idea of the group is that members get sent books to review on their blogs. I have been lucky enough to have already been sent a book “The Jump Artist” by Austin Ratner, which I am well on my way to completing, so my first review will posted here very shortly.
I thought it might be a good idea to set out what my loves of the literary world are. I tend not to like a particular genre, I don’t like formulaic books. In general I like one offs, quirky books that are distinctly different to anything else I have read. Of course I don’t necessarily always stick to that, and given the time I will read just about anything. I read Harry Potter, to and with my Kids, they grew up with him and being able to connect with your children through books is one of the joys of being a parent. That I didn’t find the books as rewarding as some others I might have read, that connection made it worthwhile.
Probably my all time favourite author is John Irving, I have been reading him since I was teenager and I eagerly wait for his new novels. My favourite novels of his are “A Prayer for Owen Meany” and “Cider House Rules”. Other authors I seem to read a lot of are Ann Tyler, Iain Banks, Iain M Banks (same person I know), Tony Parsons, Nick Hornby, Anita Shreve, Sebastian Faulks and the list goes on and on. I am also trying to work my way through the complete works of Charles Dickens, 3 years in I have 4 novels to go. I did try reading Jane Austen and I hated every page so gave up.
My favourite books (in no particular order) are:
On another the day the list might vary and new books may be added at any time. Who knows The Jump Artist may make it on to the list.
When you’re doing family history research there are some characters that just refuse give up their secrets without a lot of effort. One of these was Lewis Jones whom I have written about before. Another is Reuben Jones, mentioned in the previous post as a good cricketer, he refused to give up his secrets for a long time. As brother to my 2X Great Grandfather and being blessed with memoirs that cover that period of history, you would think it would have been easy. However, it didn’t turn out that way, it seems there was an estrangement and little is ever mentioned of him. I reckon it has taken 15 years to uncover what I have and there is still more I would like to know.
Reuben was born in 1845 and he married Mary Miles in 1867 and they seem to have been happy for a few years appearing in the 1871 census as living in Falmer and working, like much of his family, as a carpenter. In 1881 Reuben is in London Living with Mary working as a dairyman, but by 1883 he has a daughter, Amy Maud Jones, to another woman. This is probably what led to the estrangement. Mary ultimately dies which allows Reuben to remarry in 1886. He eventually marries Amy Constance Hoare after having a son, Richard James Jones, in 1885.
Reuben eventually dies in 1914, I suspect with no further contact with his family in Sussex. Amy his daughter doesn’t appear to have married, but his son Richard marries a Florence Elizabeth Mary Lyons and had five children. Sadly this side of the family never reunite with my side. Even at funerals there is no mention of them in obituaries as attending. Richard died in 1976 and in all likely hood his children are now dead but I would be intrigued to speak to any descendants and see if they have any more insight into the family split. I believe Richard and Florence’s children were:
