Start the week #46

Another bookshop, eats, persiflage, links, more persiflage

Greetings!

I think the subtitle tells you all you need to know, so without further persiflage, on with the newsletter!

Terry

Brick Lane Bookshop

I love the Brick Lane Bookshop. Situated in Brick Lane (obvs), in east London, it's an independent bookshop which has a fine range of the Graphics Guide To... books.

In addition, it often seems to have other books I haven't heard of, and there are always thin books, like an Orwell essay, for a few pounds.

The Brick Lane Bookshop, by Terry Freedman

They also do events, though I've not managed to get to one yet. In addition, they offer a 10% student discount on presentation of a valid student card. I told them I was a student in the school of life, but they said that doesn’t count. Neither does being a member of the Society of Authors. Neither does being a super nice person who deserves a discount for that reason alone. Oh well, worth a try I suppose.

It's small, packed with books, warm, cosy and the staff have always been friendly whenever I've ventured in.

Details of where the Brick Lane Bookshop is, plus opening times and lots of other information, may be found here:

Brick Lane Bookshop

The Beigel Bake

The famous Beigel Bake. Photo by Terry Freedman

Perhaps even better news is that if you become hungry after the strenuous activity of searching for, and buying, books, the famous Beigel Bake is just a three minute walk down the road. Unlike the bookshop, that's open 24/7. It's a shame in a way that it isn't the other way round, but we can't have everything I suppose!

Note that it’s spelt the original European way: beigel, not bagel, and pronounced ‘Bye-gal’.

It was a pretty rough area back in the 70s, and one night I was in there buying something when a police van pulled up and decanted about twenty police officers, who all rushed in.

I thought it was a raid, until they all started ordering salt beef beigels and smoked salmon ones!

Famous last words have to go to a youngish man who seems to have worked there forever. I once said to him, “Don’t you get hungry working here?” He answered, with a huge shrug, “I eat!”.

Brick Lane

I love Brick Lane. Just walking along there is much to see, like this, in the pavement:

Photo by Terry Freedman

It doesn’t matter what time of day or night you go there, it’s always vibrant, and a real pot pourri of cultures. Take the Brick Lane Mosque, for example:

Photo by Michael Shade CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED

It started life as a Huguenot chapel. Centuries later it became a synagogue. For several decades now it’s been a mosque.

Brick Lane at night — photo by Terry Freedman

You can get all kinds of food in Brick Lane and the surrounding streets, and there are vegan cafés and restaurants as well. I once made a classic faux pas. I walked into a café and saw that I could get a latté with soya milk, oat milk, lactose-free milk (?) and loads of other sorts of milk.

“Don’t you do coffee with ordinary milk?”, I asked.

“This is a vegan café”, came the response.

Oops!

Finally, I suppose I ought to, at this point, mention the book Brick Lane, but I’ve not read it yet so I won’t.

The Gunpowder Plot

Terrorism is not a new thing. Back in 1605, Guy Fawkes and his cronies intended to blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder. The event was due to take place on 5th November, but was discovered the day before. Here’s what the conspirators looked like:

I think I took that picture in Westminster station, which would make sense because that’s the nearest station to the houses of Parliament. The conspirators were executed, but to this day before the state opening of Parliament someone called the Yeoman of the Guard goes around looking for gunpowder — using a naked flame. What could go wrong?

Well, to be honest it’s a ceremonial thing; I believe they have more robust anti-terrorism measures in place!¹

Before 5th November kids go out with a stuffed effigy of Guy Fawkes, and ask passers-by for money with the refrain, “Penny for the guy"?”.

(Maybe it’s a pound now, what with inflation.)

I did that too until I was ten years old. The headmaster of the primary school I attended said in an assembly that going out with a guy was tantamount to begging. I thought he was right, so I stopped.

The night of the 5th November is when people hold bonfires and let off fireworks. The best firework displays are official ones, as they tend to be quite spectacular. Inside Freedman Towers we have eschewed the dubious pleasures of fireworks night. It’s noisy, dangerous, and involves seeing your money go up in smoke. Plus it scares the living daylights out of our cats.

Here’s a poem to help you remember what Guy Fawkes Night, the 5th November, is all about:

Please to remember

The fifth of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason

That gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.

For more information see:

FAQs on the Gunpowder Plot

Commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot

Other writings

There’s a good review of Macbeth as being performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford Upon Avon. I’d read that it was dreadful, and this review bears this out. It’s very funny, but includes some rather unrestrained language.

The village stocks (and shares) by

Jill

at

Life Litter

Thanks to

Rebecca Holden

for drawing my attention to it. I already subscribe to Life Litter but had somehow missed that post.

My own review of a different version of Macbeth is here: Macbeth Tour. Keep reading after that for my review of the performance of the play and my updated (and much improved) version in the form of a cartoon.

How a fraud broke my trust in myself, by

david roberts

is pretty gut-wrenching, as are the stories told in many of the comments.

Over at the Soaring Twenties Social Club

Thomas J Bevan

has collated another great collection of work on the theme of risk. (Disclosure: I contributed an essay myself.) I’m really looking forward to reading it, because all the writers featured are brilliant at what they do and I love the variety of writing there.

Rebecca Holden, who I mentioned earlier, has written a very interesting article called Years in Arrears.

Rebecca and I correspond with each other here: we write to each other on alternate Wednesdays. Her last letter to me was here, and I intend to respond this coming Wednesday. Make sure you subscribe to both of our newsletters in order to maximise your chortling potential.

The 15th October was the centenary of Italo Calvino’s birth. In case you missed it I reviewed his book of essays here:

The Written World and the Unwritten World

My other recent articles:

Effective writing

My grandfather and me

Experiments in style: the naming of parts

My blogging course

I will be running another online course in blogging in the evenings² of the 17th and 24th November 2023. The course lasts a total of 5 hours and costs £69 (before any concessions).

Here is a sample of the feedback I’ve received about this course:

• Really enjoyed this overview of blogging and the information shared, its something that is interesting and the information provided will help to take the ideas that I have and move them towards reality.10/07/2023

• Really comprehensive insight into blogging, structure and what to expect. Loved the ideas generation section the most and was such a treat to hear everyon elses ideas. Terry was very inspiring and supportive, clear and concise and gave great notes and feedback.

• Really enjoyed Course wish it was longer. I am a novice to this blog world and really enjoyed interaction with other professional and the Tutor Terry Freedman his expertise his experience live his mistakes and how to navigate, and about how you could move your company or idea into a blog space and how to protect your work — the inside information.

For more details and to book your place go here:

Writing for blogs: a taster

Well, that’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed this.

By the way, a paid subscription gets you access to the full archive (a few hundred articles so far) and behind-the-scenes articles and other kinds of articles that I don’t want to list now because there’s a message telling me I’m near email length.

1. At least, I hope so. Oo-er. 😱

2. GMT time, which means that people in other parts of the world ought to be able to join.