What
started out as a visit to the British Library followed by one of our ‘mystery
bus tours’ suddenly at 1400 became something else.
But
let me start at the beginning.
Propaganda:
Power and Persuasion was the name of the exhibition. I’d seen it advertised a
while ago and thought it looked interesting, and it was
Propaganda is all around us. It is used to fight wars and fight
disease, build unity and create division. Whether monumental or commonplace,
sincere or insidious, propaganda is often surprising, sometimes horrific and
occasionally humorous. While it’s never neutral, it can be difficult to define
and identify.
There
was also an exhibit of very old documents.
I was
blown away to be so close to things like:
A
letter written by the then Princess Elizabeth dated 1553.
Later
after she had become Queen Elizabeth I she signed The Earl of Essex’s death
warrant. He was supposed to have suffered the awful procedure of being hung,
drawn and quartered, but his sentence was commuted to just beheading, and there
in front of us was the warrant.
There
was a letter penned by Isaac Newton to Samuel Pepys dated 16 Sept 1693
He man
spotted a picture drawn by a Tahitian chieftain depicting the first contact
between New Zealand Maori and Captain Cook. Nothing unusual in that you might
think, but this one was dated 1769.
The
we were looking at the oldest known English Document from 679, and no I didn’t
leave off a number one at the beginning.
All
cultured out we decided to get on the next bus for a bit of a mystery tour.
Shortly after the bus drove past Holloway prison my phone rang. Seems I had
mixed up the dates for The Man’s session at the London Glass Studio!
Hmmm…
Luck
was with us, the bus was at a stop right outside Finsbury Park Station, so
there was a mad dash to get down from the top deck and get off the bus. We
leapt aboard the tube, switched trains a couple of time s and reached the glass
studio only half an hour late.
Phew
The
Man had a great glass working session; it will be another few days before the pieces
come out of the cooling kiln. Can’t wait to see them.
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