difference between the gifted amateur and the accomplished professional. Take a look at his work www.danieltink.co.uk Why are soaps so popular? They are a staple of our viewing habits, aren’t they? Some people dismiss them as they are ‘not real’. I think this is wrong. They reflect our feelings and, at best, are ahead of trends. Take the most successful of recent years on UK TV – Emmerdale. The most popular couple are Aaron and Robert played superbly by two straight actors, Danny Miller and Ryan Hawley. They are far from ‘moral’, in the existing sense of the word as they both lie and cheat. But there is love there and that is enough to have legions of fans, girls, boys, old and young. Why? Because we need to believe in love. When this strange old life is over, it will be the only thing that mattered. As someone once said, on your death bed you won’t be regretful because you didn’t spend more time at work. Goodbye my old mucker Sad but oh-so-inspired by the death of one of my old muckers. I used to live in a Buddhist
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community and this chap lived there. A big chap in every sense. He was loving and kind. He died in a hospice looking awful but his last words were that we should all learn compassion. Making jellies Just to share this – when I am stressed I make a jelly. It’s a very simple creative process and it involves hot water and (for me vegetarian) jelly granules. You can add strawberries or any fruit. You can make it into a trifle if you want with sponge fingers and custard. You dissolve the jelly in boiling water and you can imagine your troubles dissolving away. Then you can eat it. What’s not to like? Brexit As I see it, we had a referendum and that’s that. It reflects how we are – isolated maybe, but that is how England has always been. Dunkirk reinforced the idea in modern times. Maybe stupid, maybe not but we have always wanted to govern ourselves. It’s how we are. What did Hitler want?
I have been thinking about this lately because I have just completed two books on the First World War (released) and a second on WW2 (out next year). I have read a couple of novels about how life would have been after a German victory – it really was ‘touch and go’ at some stages, eg, if Hitler had obliterated allied forces at Dunkirk, which, from a military point of view, would have been easy. These are some of the things that would have happened to us. 1. There would have been huge swastika flags over the Town Hall, City Hall and the Castle. 2. Some people – Jews, gay people and those disabled mentally or physically, amongst others – would be deemed not to exist. Just as in Russia today. Those with dementia would be invited to take a pill. 3. Pop music, raves and any free expression in the Arts would be suppressed. 4. School children would swear allegiance to the Third Reich. 5. The Duke of Windsor would have been a puppet king, and the present sovereign his
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