Amelia Gentleman - Social Affairs Journalist

HERECOMESEVERYONE THE HEROES ISSUE

Akumbu Uche - Journalist Amelia Gentleman - Social Affairs Journalist

Emily Densten - Author Changming Yuan - Author Ben Nightingale - Opinion John Kitchen - Author

‘All slaves begin by demanding justice, and end by wanting to wear a crown.’ - Albert Camus CONTENTS

Hard Times for Tolerance - Ben Nightingale...... Page 5 Poems & flash fiction - John Kitchen...... Page 6-7 Swimming Lessons - Akumbu Uche...... Page 8 Smile For Me - Emily Densten...... Page 9 Martial Arts Instructor - Carol Berg...... Page 10 Greek God’s Gift - Phillip Monks...... Page 10 Poems - Dwane Reads...... Page 11 Scarlet Fields - Adam Steiner...... Page 12 Dead Pop Stars - Gary Longden...... Page 17 Memoirs of the Irish Revolution - by Eugene Egan ...... Page 18 Epstein’s St. Michael Trouncing the Devil - Guy Legge ...... Page 22 My Orwell – Right or Left - E. A. Boxer...... Page 23 Interview: Amelia Gentleman...... Page 26 Action Figures - T W Garland...... Page 27 My Hero - Sarwah Osei-Tutu...... Page 28 Tolpuddle Martyrs - Mollie Davidson...... Page 29 Two Meditations on Hero Worship - S J Fowler...... Page 29 Time Passes - Benjamin Hayes...... Page 30 Poems - Changming Yuan...... Page 31

Want to Submit or Get Involved? Contacts Us:

Editor/SP Co-Founder - Gary Sykes-Blythe: [email protected] Deputy Editor/SP Co-Founder - Adam Steiner: [email protected] Art Editor - Jennifer Easley: [email protected]

Tell us what you think of The Heroes Issue on Facebook or Twitter using the #heroes tag!

WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME 2 Editorial

hen I was a con- of the First World War this The one hundred year anni- vour of men, but it also says siderable amount month, but the significance versary of the Battle of Wa- things about who we relate Wyounger, the of November as a time of re- terloo occurred during the to as people. By contrast, Teenage Mutant Ninja Tur- membrance is far, far older fighting in 1915, but it seems the hero of Emily Densten’s tles were the absolute must- than 1918. The reason that odd that there were no re- story is a hapless passer by, see cartoon. In my first year Hallowe’en (All Hallows’ membrance ceremonies for abused by common geniality at primary school I went to Eve) is at the end of October the men who died there and and T W Garland’s Action fig- at least five Teenage Mutant is because it marks the end the national guilt horizon ures story explores perspec- Ninja Turtle themed birthday of the pagan year: a time defiantly stops at the turn tives upon our own heroes. parties. The reason for this when pagans celebrated the of the twentieth century; detour via Memory Lane is end of the year and the lives before that there were only As a final thought, Clive that when I read Dwayne of the dead; Christians used ‘good’ glorious wars. HCE’s Dunn died this month, at the Reads’ poem about those this as a convenient hook Adam Steiner explores the age of 92. He lived a good, same turtles,Turtle Verse, I to hang their own remem- National Memorial Arbore- long life, full of adventure felt an overwhelming urge brance ceremonies called All tum to try and find a sense and relative happiness. Why to watch the original late Souls’ or All Saints’ Day (or of place for remembrance. does that matter? Put sim- eighties series. I took myself All Hallows’ Day until rela- ply, many people’s ideas off to YouTube and settled in tively recently). It sounds An individual’s personal he- about the war, growing old, to enjoy myself just like I was very neat and convenient, roes can say much about the Home Guard and veter- six again. Obviously it was but when it is remembered them. My heroes tend to be ans generally were informed awful. Not just poorly aged, that the same men who ne- people who achieved a lot by his most famous char- but everything about it con- gotiated the truce at the with their individual skill or acter the blundering, dod- fused me. To paraphrase Ed- end of the First World War personality. Some of them dering enthusiast Corporal ward Gibbon: they weren’t actually decided to drag the are monsters, like Lenin or Jones in Dad’s Army. Con- teenage; they weren’t mu- war out for a number of un- Genghis Khan, men who’s fusingly, though, Dunn was tants; they weren’t ninjas; necessary hours so that the ambition and drive allowed only in his forties when the they weren’t turtles. The war could end on the 11th them to profoundly change show was made and when obvious point is that child- November at 11 o’clock. On the world around them his very own number one hood heroes don’t stand up the 11th of November, 1918, through their force of will; record, Granddad, topped very well in the cold hard troops were ordered to at- others are humanitarians the UK charts he was only light of the adult world, but tack by commanders who or great inventors, William in his fifties. He had served it’s more than that. No hero knew the war would be over Caxton or Edward Jenner, during the Second World can stand up very well in the in a matter of minutes and or people who brought War as a soldier and spent real world, even heroes who that the lives lost were of no great social change, like See- much of the conflict in a Ger- came from the real world benefit whatsoever. Doug- bohm Rowntree; some are man prisoner of war camp. don’t do very well in the las Haig, the most success- much more mundane even He was not a ‘war hero’ in cold light of day, consider ful and controversial of the than that, people like Da- the sense that he did not die the Dambusters who are still First World War’s victorious vid Attenborough, Michael nor did he especially kill, but revered in Britain, despite commanders founded the Palin or Professor Robert he is worth remembering as the fact that what they did poppy appeal, but many still Winstone, who are just very much for the fun he poked would see them tried for curse his name for the need- good at presenting informa- at war as for the fighting war-crimes if carried out to- less slaughter of the Battle tion to the world. The point he did in it. We introduce day. Anyone who has been of the Somme. It should be is that all of these individu- our new regular columnist, rebuffed by their favourite remembered, though, that als reflect on me and where Ben Nightingale to observe celebrity in the hunt for an Haig did not have another I came from. I have not that there are limits to tak- autograph will know the choice, if he hoped to save met them and do not know ing offence too seriously. feeling of disappointment France and Russia from col- them, but I have chosen to of meeting a hero who is not lapse (in fact the Somme model myself on how I see quite what they’d hoped. was considered by the Ger- them. Each represents a mans as a defeat, but no- facet of an idealised person One of the key inspirations body realised at the time who I wish I was. They have for the issue was the Re- that the 600 000 killed and things in common. They’re membrance Ceremonies wounded on the allied side all men, for a start, which that will be held all across were what victories in bat- speaks much of the bias the world to mark the end tles of attrition looked like). society still contains in fa-

3 In this edition Everyone was:

Big thanks to everyone at Writing HCE Contributors: West Midlands. Changming Yuan John Kitchen Thank you to the West Midlands Inde- pendent Publishers Network Gary Longden Eugene Egan Thank you to Radio Warwickshire for Sarwah Osei-Tutu insightful interviews Ben Nightingale

Thank you to Nick Wilson at Coventry Benjamin Hayes and Warwickshire Co-operative Devel- Akumbu Uche opment Agency Emily Densten Dwane Reads We are particularly grateful to the following people: Guy Legge Alyson Hall – Marketing Philip Monks Jen Easley – Art Editor Carol Berg Benjamin Hayes - Sub-editor E A Boxer Kate England – Web Consultant (www. T W Garland zilladesign.co.uk) Harry Corr – HCE logo design S J Fowler Mark Wales – Web Support (smallhad- Mollie Davidson roncollider) Adam Steiner

Tune In and Turn On! Radio Warwickshire is a new radio station created to share free media and inspire creativity. We offer magazine-style media for the web-savvy listener wishing to be entertained and kept well informed! Our team have a background in presenting, journalism and media production - all mixed up into one creative melting pot radio station! Get involved and share your talent at: www.radiowarwickshire.com

4 WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME Hard Times For Tolerance by Ben Nightingale

Inside Birmingham’s Hall of Currently playing on Broadway, is Memory it is written on the wall: a musical called The Koran from ‘Of 150,000 who answered the makers of South Park. In it, the call to arms 12,320 fell: Muslim missionaries are mocked 35,000 came home disabled.’ for proselytising for their proph- Facing this statement, et – Muhammad – to disinter- on the other side, is writ- ested tribal locals. Previously, ten the simple command: Parker and Stone lampooned ‘See to it that they shall the story of the prophet in an not have suffered in vain.’ episode of South Park, where One of the things for which our – to the refrain "dumb dumb servicemen and women fought - ‘Islamaphobia’ is a new idea used dumb dumb dumb" – Muham- and still fight - is our freedom to to denounce critics of Islam, an mad emerges as a charlatan, and speak. It is now under threat, not act of censorship which ought to his followers as gullible fools. just from jihadis who would take be outrageous. Islam is an idea it from us, but from those among which one may turn to or from, Followers of this prophet have us who are determined we like any other. To scrutinise an borne this ridicule stoically, in should cave in and give it away. idea is not irrational, but the ac- marked contrast to Mormons. cusers mean to link creed with In 1988, Salman Rushdie pub- The recent film ‘Innocence of race or culture (most often Paki- lished The Moronic Verses. Mitt Muslims’ has received as much stanis and Arabs) with the inten- Romney issued a fatwa and of- condemnation as the destruction tion of elevating ‘Islamaphobia’ fered money to suborn the au- which followed it. A Pakistani to the level of racism – an inten- thor’s assassination. Bookshops minister has issued a bounty for tion that is itself intrinsically racist. in the freedom loving Iran and the film-maker’s death but the What a difference ideas make Syria were bombed by Mormon film remains a greater scandal - ever heard of a Jainist jihadi? fanatics. Rushdie spent nearly a than the state-sponsored con- Jains are required to bring no decade under police protection. tract-killing it spawned. Historian harm to any other living crea- The fatwa remains unrevoked. Tom Holland has been publically ture, sweeping the floor before The Vatican, Archbishop Robert pilloried for questioning the his- them lest they step on an ant, Runcie, Rabbi Avraham Ravitz, torical record of Islam. Channel wearing masks lest they inhale Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, Aya- 4 has scrapped his film and hung a bug. As Sam Harris puts it, the tollah Khomeini and Osama Bin him out to dry. Salman Rushdie more fundamentalist Jains be- Laden condemned the book as has said that his Satanic Verses come, the less we need to worry ‘offensive’ to Mormons and re- would not be published today. about them – and anyone who fused to condemn Mormon intim- believes we ought to fret about idation, bombings and murder. The UN General Assembly has Jainism (or Anglicanism, or the In 2005 after cartoons depict- passed a motion requiring all na- Amish) as much as we fret about ing Joseph Smith appeared in tions to criminalise blasphemy Islam ‘is reading the wrong part the Danish press, embassies in against Muhammad. When his- of the newspaper’ – the prob- America, Canada and England torian David Starkey broached lem is not so much fundamen- were torched. 139 people were the matter of culture and religion talists as the fundamentals. killed in the protests. Pakistani regarding the Rochdale sex abus- and Arab titles refused to re- es, socialist hack Laurie Penny The following scenario will il- publish the cartoons, notionally called him a racist. Starkey must lustrate the problem (Richard out of ‘respect’ for Mormonism have seen it coming – her broth- Dawkins would call this a ‘con- but under clear threat of danger er in arms, Owen Jones, likes to sciousness-raising exercise’): from Mormon extremists. The label others as ‘Islamaphobes’. Vatican made the chilling state-

5 ment that free speech ‘cannot and telling us that this is right. such a statement, it would be imply the right to offend the re- There is – of course – a prob- shameful if our fellow country- ligious sentiments of believers.’ lem with my argument. Inno- men condemned me, rather If this imagined scenar- cence of Muslims was made than my murderers, forget- io teaches us one thing, it with provocation in mind, not ting how many thousands must be this: different ide- with any noble intent or artistic died that we might speak. as have different outcomes. merit. It is difficult to defend it, But what happens when we but it is defensible in two ways. speak out now? We used to have The idea of a world-wide Mor- The first is that the reaction to C. Hitchens, who complained mon threat is absurd, but we it fits a pattern of violence in re- at the willing complicity of the are accustomed to the idea of sponse to almost any perceived West in its own muzzling. Theo an Islamic threat as being, in slight, regardless of the quality Van Gogh died for making a some bizarre way, normal. For or intent. Satanic Verses is great film and is now posthumously this reason especially, Islam re- literature, but Rushdie is still in damned. We still have a Harris quires scrutiny and our free so- danger. Submission is a powerful and a Dawkins but, as they have ciety grants citizens the right film, but Van Gogh was murdered sadly noted before, their fierc- to do so. When Comedy Central for it. It need not be bad, it mere- est critics are secularists and claim that they censored South ly needs to be – that is enough. atheists who treat Muslims as Park’s depiction of Muhammad a race and religion as a taboo. out of ‘respect’, it stands in stark The second point is that ridicule, contrast to their previous ac- as opposed to methodical analy- Ayan Hirsi Ali continues to pub- tions, as they have never had a sis, is a valid form of scrutiny, for lish but lives in mortal dan- problem airing attacks on Catho- it is difficult to ridicule something ger and – like Tom Holland lics, Scientologists, Job, Jesus or which is not ridiculous. To some – is constantly fending off -at Joseph Smith. Clearly, the 're- of us, the idea that God would tempts on her credibility and spect' Comedy Central are refer- entrust his final, perfect, incor- integrity. Heroes all, and brave. ring to is the kind of feudal obei- ruptible revelation to an illiterate, And all the while they are fighting, sance demanded at gunpoint. epileptic, hallucinating desert the rest of us are giving away the Comedy Central and almost merchant in the dark ages is intrin- freedoms for which our forebears all other media are capitulat- sically ridiculous. Ridiculing this gave their lives, in order respect- ing to blackmail and terror- idea ought to be my prerogative. fully to avoid causing ‘offence.’ ism, surrendering our rights If I should be killed for making Social Enhancement by John Kitchen Dear Citizen,

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WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME 6 Hero’s Wife by John Kitchen

You, soft machine,

Thinking machine, but

You didn’t, did you – think ?

It was pure reaction, adrenalin hit, the

Headlong dive into dark depths, the

Flicker of flame, smoke and choke when

You forget how vulnerable flesh is To bullet, knife-blade, IED, Why To tyre, boot, fall of masonry. What is the value of posthumous praise, by John Kitchen Citations, medals, a mention in dispatches,

And all those thanks from the men in suits, cowboys and army shoot ‘em up Your name spoken in reverence ? count to ten when you’re dead fantasy spill-over it’s no bloody good to me. steel-feel oiled & smooth the deadly mechanics in your grip the power boys’ toys creep & crawl supersense supersilent can’t wait to see the whites of their eyes action trigger squeeze fire recoil HCE says: hit miss code 4 not to freeze not John’s use of shape and texture in his writing is a dem- to cower do your bit onstration to all of the power of verse. His short, bleak, for your (not to let them down) flash-fiction submission at once robs the individual of mates value and yet promises to add more. don’t think of sudden death limb loss fanatics the threat John is one of the strongest writers currently submit- you don’t recognise can’t trust ting to HCE and, no doubt, a hero. (not even yourself) and they keep coming coming & don’t ask why

7 Here Comes... Akumbu: Akumbu Uche is a Nigerian writer. She holds Swimming Lessons a degree in Mass Communication and currently works as a TV Correspondent by Akumbu Uche in Uyo

I am standing at the edge of the sea. The sun is minute until I get to the point where the bottom out but I can feel a chill. The water in front of me tiles dip into a gradient. is calm, blue. I hear voices telling me to jump. I need to get out of the water. Right now. Another voice, an inner one tells me to walk away. This happens several times a day and as such, I Either way I am going to die. By drowning or from spend most of our lesson time in the shower stall. shame, which will it be? The way Coach sees it, I have a problem and it is not my bladder. August 2001. Port Harcourt. It is the start of the “You are AFRAID of the water and we are going to long vacation and my aunt has signed us up for CONQUER that fear.” swimming lessons at Elf Club, the one on Ogoja At the time of this insight, my siblings have mas- Street. tered the art of diving whereas I still have not Thanks to five years of planking, frog-jumping and made it past the slope. kneel-walking at my all-girls’ military school, I am I will be completely cured of my phobia, he assures the textbook definition of physical fitness – lean, me, once I make a jump from the deep end of the flexible and strong. pool. In water however, I find that my normally quick He goes on and on about upthrust and how the and agile limbs might as well be made of lead. To law of gravity is reversed in water. Seeing as my keep from sinking, I hold on tightly to the edge of feet remain rooted to the ground, he drops the the pool and practice kicks while my brothers and science talk and hurls himself into the pool. To sister are excitedly racing one another. show me that if it comes to it, he will save me from Unlike the officers and airmen at school, Coach drowning. does not yell at me to “move those hockey sticks!” “Just jump” he says, “jump.” Like it is the easiest He yells quite all right, but his words are motiva- thing in the world and the others agree. “JUMP, tional; things like “I’m going to turn you into an JUMP, JUMP!” OLYMPIC champion” and “You have the legs, the To me the water looks both inviting and forebod- height, the WINGSPAN.” ing at the same time. I drop my gaze to my feet Inspired and brimming with confidence, I take a and take backward steps. deep breath and propel myself through the chlo- rinated water at the rate of one breaststroke per I have never claimed to have Olympian guts.

WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME 8 Smile for me by Emily Densten

I was standing against the wall of the subway sta- person who lives in this world can actually say tion, waiting for the train to take me home after a something like that to another and be serious.” long day of classes when he walked by. Although His eyes shifted from side to side, and I I was tired and had a long week ahead of me, I could tell he was starting to feel embarrassed. certainly didn't need cheering up. I mean, most Good. people I know aren’t exactly overjoyed to be wait- “Do you smile all day long? Do you grin ing around in a dank, underground tunnel. But from ear to ear in every grimy subway station in there was nothing wrong. This guy, whoever he the city?” was, just did not like the look of my natural face at “Well no, but—” rest. “Well no, but—But no one expect you “Smile, sweetheart. Maybe it’ll never hap- to be Pollyanna every waking fucking second, do pen.” they?” People were starting to watch us as they He was not the first stranger to ask me to walked by, and a few who were waiting for the smile sweetly for him, and he wouldn’t be the last. train were listening intently. I hoped another girl That realization, more than anything else, is what like me was walking by, maybe even one who’d made me react. Because if I didn’t say something had a run-in with him personally. to this bozo, he'd probably keep spouting his “I guess…well, no.” He looked right at bullshit all across the city. And, yeah, he probably me. would anyway – but at least I wouldn’t be letting “How do you know “it” didn’t already him get away with it. happen? How can you pretend you know anything “Excuse me,” I called after him, pulling my about me?” I waited for a response, but he gave headphones off. The train I'd been waiting for, none except to look down at his mirror-shined the train this stranger had just gotten off, was pull- dress shoes. “I’m not here to be set decoration ing away. Well, I thought, I have to wait for the for you,” I finished, walking past him toward the next one anyway. I started to follow in his wake. stairs. “Excuse me!” My heart was pounding, and I was almost He stopped and turned around just as I scared to look back, but I had one last thing to say. caught up with him. Though there was nothing When I reached the bottom step leading up to the extraordinary about his appearance, I took note street, I turned back. “And my name is Ashley, not of every detail. He looked about fifty, and had sweetheart.” I stomped up the rest of the steps, short brown hair just starting to grey. His eyes deciding I would take a cab home. Whatever sign were blue, and he wore a tailored suit. His leather of a frown he had seen on my face five minutes briefcase was an expensive one, just like the ones I earlier was gone now. sold to similar men every weekend. “What did you just say?” I asked, refusing I dreamed it happened that way, anyway. to break eye contact. My stomach was churning On my way home, all that night, and periodically but I couldn’t back down. “I think I must have throughout the week. Dreamed I stood up for my- misheard you. I’m sure I misheard you.” self, finally, for once. Dreamed I at least called him “I was just saying to smile. No one likes to an asshole as he walked up the stairs. Dreamed see a frown.” He actually chuckled. I didn’t just ignore him, get on the train, and go “You’ve got to be kidding me, right? home. I dreamed for a long while that I didn’t Because I cannot believe that one adult human pretend it didn’t mean anything.

9 Martial Arts Instructor by Carol Berg

In his gi, with the wide hide-something inside sleeves, how like an angel he seems. Appears out of nowhere. How he holds himself. How he bends. How he bows to each student and grins. Mirrors can’t hold his image as he flutters and kicks. Leaps off the ground with bare feet. Speaks in the language of control. How committed he is to the sharpened edge. How he glides. How he looks you in the eye as he sweeps you off your clumsy feet.

Greek God’s Gift by Philip Monks

He fought the Minotaur and yes, he won. He’s what you’d call a right good ’un. Bit of a rotter too, bit of a ladies’ man, Knows a good time, likes a bit of fun.

Strong meat, nice pecs, all over body tan, He can sort the rough from the bland. If someone gets hurt, that’s part of the deal, Nothing like danger for keeping it real.

A jaw so granite you could stub your nose, A skull so thick it can take life’s blows, Never had the thought ‘I don’t suppose…?’ Unreconstructed, like they were long ago, With huge biceps to carry his Olympic ego. So, Come and get him, if that’s your idea of a hero.

10 WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME Turtle Verse Piracy (Heroes and Villains) by Dwane Reads

Ninjas verse pirates century’s apart Trained in the skills of mixed martial arts From storm sewers hidden deep beneath our feet Treasures of lost merchandise swashbucklers seek

Cereal box back toy patch for an eye Secrets on trade cards coin scratched away Logoed torn clothing emblazed with jewels Sold to the masses as must haves’

Teenage mutant Turtles our Heroes in a half shell

Ninjas battle Pirates the reward being gold Via Video pixcelation so the story unfolds Raise Jolly Roger skull and bones Prepare for attack the defeated will hang Switch on…let battle commence

Hero Was Always Villainous by Dwane Reads

Hero turns villain in the public eyes Secrets untold are realised Allegations speculations of the traumatised Childhood hero evil to the marrowbone In our homes appearing via goggle box How the millions wrote sat and watched Perceptions altered caught found out

11 Scarlet Fields Adam Steiner visits the National Memorial Arboretum for HereComesEveryone

“I have said before/That the past experience revived in the meaning/Is not the experience of one life only/ But of many generations — not forgetting.” -T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets. When shown the first design of squares representing the tradi- a place of worship and remem- the Victoria Cross, Queen Victo- tional fighting formation used to brance. Here we meet the first ria picked fault with the motto defend against cavalry attacks. of many volunteers, David Mark- which initially read: “For Brav- After casting your gaze along land, who served in the Royal ery”, commenting that all of the wide expanse, the eye is Navy for 33 years. We talked her soldiers were brave and so immediately drawn to the cen- about his experiences meeting the VC was only to be awarded tral Armed Forces Memorial, people from all over the world for acts of exceptional bravery the highest point on the site, who come to visit the National in the face of personal danger. where nearly 16,000 names are Memorial Arboretum. David then The revised medal reads “For recorded in strict alphabetical introduced us to Paul Hughes, a Valour” as suited for its purpose. order; the only exception given keen historian and school teacher to groups of comrades who died with a particular interest in World It is worth bearing this brief anec- together in service. This principle War I. For just a couple of pounds, dote in mind as you enter the Na- is repeated throughout the site, he and other volunteers act as tional Memorial Arboretum site, where all troops of the various personal guides and expand on a former quarry of 150 acres, op- regiments and military organi- the history of the many regi- erated by 160 volunteers with the sations are given equal recogni- ments. Paul was keen to answer support of the British Legion. It is tion, equally brave, and all hav- many of our questions on the na- almost perfectly flat and coated ing made the ultimate sacrifice. ture of remembrance and the Ar- in a fine layer of grass, the memo- boretum’s relationship to the his- rials themselves and the arrange- After entering the site, we wait tory of Britain’s armed conflicts. ments of trees, varying from outside the chapel, nominally dense copses to nine-by-nine Christian, but open to all faiths as Moving away from the chapel

12 WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME (which is worth visiting in its sert conditions of Iraq and so it of the site, where the River own right) I was struck by the is sunk into the foundations of Thame flows and meets up with intense atmosphere of care and a replica wall that features the the much larger Trent, the trees precision given to establishing original brass plaques for every on either side lose their formal- a sense of place, a physical con- soldier. It is the human signs, the ity and lean thicker around the nection between distant sites of continuation of life, which are path. Paul reminds us that “every conflict, a regiment’s home soil most poignant; messages from tree is special to someone” and and the act of remembrance it- friends and loved ones to the we discuss the somewhat tem- self, through the use of regional disappeared. I thought to read poral mode of an arboretum as stone or battlefield artifacts one of the cards, no one would a kind of living memorial to the transposed from their original have to know, I could simply pick dead. The site is maintained by a places of meaning to the Arbore- it up and read of the thoughts continual lease and while some tum site, many of them remade and feelings of the living to the trees may be relocated within into new shapes. The effort dead and discover a brief in- the site according to space, the spent upon these details, though sight into their lives, but I didn’t. understanding, a kind of gentle- you would never notice them un- Not that I would judge oth- man’s agreement, is that many less you were guided by an ex- ers who explore these endless of these trees will remain in situ, pert, remains quietly inspiring. narratives that reach on after in perpetuity. We also talk about Like a physical tour through pri- death, but to me it felt too pri- the similar sites graves in France, vate lives, visitors walk along vate and intimate a correspond- Belgium and all across Europe the paths and at various points ence, to eavesdrop on heartfelt where there are dedicated routes converge and people words meant for someone else. graves where British and troops meet; it is this melding of histori- from other nations are buried. cal narratives and personal ex- When comparing the different periences which help to give the memorials, by style, simplicity or In a secluded glade, next to the site its richness as thousands of even scale, I noted a faint sense river, lies the Shot At Dawn me- people visit every day, and share of competition as regiments jos- morial. Here 35 wooden posts their memories of dead com- tle for position and military sta- fan out in a crowded semicircle, rades, relatives and wartime ex- tus: the more money you have, each one represents an Brit- perience, all of which adds to the the more ornate and spectacular ish soldier executed during the heritage of the Arboretum itself. the monument. As with the or- First World War, with only a nate cemeteries of London, Glas- small black plaque detailing their There is a sense of contrast be- gow and other former industrial name, rank and, where known, tween the memorials and the cities, your place in the acropolis the age at which they died. Many trees, all persisting against time, is determined by your standing in inviting both erosion and regen- society and how much you could eration, but where the memori- afford to spend. In the Arboretum als are allowed to weather and the situation is both simpler and show their age, the trees shed also more complicated. Whom- their autumnal leaves, but will ever is funding a given monu- also grow new shoots again in ment, be that a charity, commu- the spring. This conscious act nity or regimental association of preserving memory, along- can request or select a site within side the relentless cycles of na- the Arboretum grounds, though ture and time, gives the site a the land itself is not bought or strange and slightly fantastical sold. However, some memorials tension, hovering in a state be- may be more prominent or have of the soldiers were shot for acts tween permanence and flux. a greater number of VCs than of cowardice, desertion or other the next regiment, or be civilians petty crimes such as theft and Of all the memorials within the even, but it seems fitting that all have since been pardoned and site, I found the Basra Memorial who gave their lives in service are remembered here as victims Wall most affecting, the original must be remembered equally. of a more brutal form of military stone was designed for dry, de- As Paul guides towards the rear justice. Those who committed

13 more serious crimes, rape and The focal point of the site is the ish living room, create a delicate murder, are not remembered. It Armed Forces Memorial. Strong- surround-sound effect so that is very interesting to walk among ly influenced by the layout of our words reverberate for many the posts and read the young age Stonehenge, it attempts to echo echoes. As we discuss the loss of of many of the troops (some as historic primal landmarks as it submarines and their crews or young as 17), no doubt terrified charts the death tolls of 20th cen- the number of British incursions by the intense bombardment and tury conflicts onwards through on foreign soil, we read dates and mass carnage of the WWI trench- a kind of ‘processional way‘. It names from the cold stone. You es, either conscripted into mili- must be visited last, the crown- stare and follow the mesmeric tary service or having lied about ing glory in a site that is almost columns of text, a solipsistic tun- their age in order to volunteer in a entirely flat, with a sense of antic- nel vision overwhelms as you feel noble act of patriotism which can ipation at rising several feet and utterly alone with only the bro- seem naïve, given that the mech- seeing the rest of the site from ken narratives revolving around anisation of warfare was only above. There is a central stairway you for in both text and speech, just around the corner. Tellingly, and then a winding path which humbled and awed by the vast none of the plaques detail the spirals around it, like Glastonbury weight of guilt-edged stone. crimes each man stood accused Tor: conceived as a way for peo- of, these are forgotten, and the ple to experience something of a central stone figure, young in the journey to the top. Paul mentions face and blindfolded, highlights similarities to buildings in other countries, such as a minaret in Iraq with a mosque at the top.

The memorial sits atop two sculpted stepped hills circling the central block of Portland stone, an iron poppy laurel at its heart, an overlooking obelisk from the At this point we met another East and wrapped around them: volunteer, David Faul, who is on cool stone walls curved in two hand with information and sup- large Cs the names of every port for visitors of Armed Forces serving member of the British Memorial. He told us more about Armed Forces who has died in the two sets of untitled bronze action or off-duty due to terror- statues by the artist Ian Rank ist attacks since 1946 is written Bradley (who also designed the in straight and dignified columns. image of the queen’s head on a There are reminders throughout coin) that form a kind of narrative that some conflicts are by their tableau between life and death nature less well-remembered at the heart of the Arboretum. than others. This serves as a reminder of several ‘forgotten The first part depicts a wounded wars’ in which British troops soldier borne above by his com- have either fought or intervened rades, one hand hanging limp the modern understanding of as part of peacekeeping opera- from the stretcher’s edge. To the effects and impact of war on tions, such as the Korean War, the right of them sits his griev- troops, now acknowledged as Vietnam and Bosnia, including ing mother and father and to post-traumatic stress disorder or those killed by terrorism off-duty. the left his wife and child, all of shell-shock, as it was then known, them left behind with their grief though in spite of this, many of The Armed Forces Memorial is and sorrow, these other players these soldiers actions were writ- immediately strange and ethe- are designed to remind us of the ten off as cowardice and a lack real. The off-white walls, not dis- wider impact of a soldier’s death of good character under fire. similar to that of the average Brit- upon their friends and family.

14 WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME image of a paratrooper pulling his heavy pack up a slope, a tes- tament to the strength and de- termination of the armed forces.

The grandness of the statues and allusions to classical figures are contrasted with the more simple tributes of poppies, palm crosses, photographs and small messages to the deceased. It is impossible for the casual visitor to imagine the feelings of those who come to the National Me- half dropped by a female sol- morial Arboretum as a dedicated The central scene of brothers in dier and a Gurkha, as a corpse. act of remembrance, when con- arms is modelled on the death of fronted by the rows of trees and Patroclus, who died in Achilles’s Perhaps the most striking visual artistic tributes, but the site gives borrowed armour and was car- crescendo of the Memorial, is the everyone a place to go, whether ried off the battlefield on a shield small gap between a monumen- to grieve or simply to pay their by his comrades, calling on he- tal pair of stone doors, where respects to the fallen. Whether roic legend as part of the piece. at 11am on the eleventh day of you question the motives of The male figures are quite beati- the eleventh month a single ray foreign invasions or peacekeep- fied in the sheer muscularity of of sunlight shines through, illu- ing missions, past or present, it their bodies, as literal towers of minating the poppy laurel at its is important to recognise that strength, but this does nothing centre. Next to it a tall figure, all the names that are recorded to detract from the sense of life the epilogue of the sculpture, in the Armed Forces Memorial, slowly ebbing away. Each of the points to a green and blue sliv- and on each regimental memo- soldiers has their own distinct fea- er, where the land and the sky rial within the site, represent an tures, a reminder of the individu- meet, as if pointing on to some individual who gave their lives al in war; any sense of the gran- ultimate destination of spiritual for others, and whether or not diose is announced through the afterlife or perhaps meant to they might be termed “heroes” expressions of the actors them- depict the repatriation of mem- in the classical sense, they are selves, not in the scene itself. bers of the armed forces as they all of them equally brave, and are returned to home soil for here they are all remembered. David related that the artist was burial by their family and friends. once asked whether or not the soldier held aloft on the stretch- It is important to remember that er was meant to depict some- no bodies are buried at the Na- one dead or merely dying. Brad- tional Memorial Arboretum and ley replied that on some days there is no religious emphasis he was working the wounded outside of the chapel near the soldier appeared to already be entrance. The site is full of ach- dead, but at other times, the ingly conceived statues in the work of the day had made his classical style and more nods to face change and the expression heroic mythology. The brilliantly was more of someone close to designed Paratroop Regiment death, still clinging on to life. Memorial features the Greek The second statue group on legend, Perseus riding Pegasus other side is more spiritual atop a stone plinth, signifying with the striking image of the flying mobility of the troops, the same soldier, half carried, contrasted with the far grittier

15 16 Dead Pop Stars by Gary Longden It has come to my attention that the calibre of dead pop stars, And their deaths, Is not what it once was. I just thought that I should mention That it is my intention to point out Whitney Houston was not the greatest, Or rather, that her greatest, was in fact, Dolly Parton’s. If greatness is measured by a capacity to consume alcohol, crystal meth, downers and cocaine – then she is of course, right up there Yet that is overlooked by record company execs, Who always expect To increase product prices, And ignore all the vices , Of the deceased. To keep them in alcohol, crystal meth, downers and cocaine Just the same – ironic isn’t it? Or was that Alanis Morrissette? Taking waiting to exhale just a little too seriously, A life slipped by as it sank beneath the cooling bath waters of a Beverley Hills suite As if being baptised into a holy sect, where a premature death is the ultimate encore Amy Winehouse lived her surname , rather than the dream, and just two albums into a career, What Dusty Springfield would have turned out in a year, She is now feted because she has been “lated” Why? Because of her great output? No Because she did it, the rock n roll suicide which we all love to watch, But not participate in, or die of – there we stop short For celebrity death is still a spectator sport Michael Jackson’s doctor is now in jail just for giving his fans what they wanted, fifty shows in London from a body too frail to cope, too riddled with dope The greatest black dancer ever, apart from Sammy Davis Jnr, the greatest black singer apart from Marvin Gaye, the greatest performer apart from James Brown, the greatest entertainer, apart from Nat King Cole, even in death they cannot live up to the standards we set them in life. Because rock n roll death is just not what it used to be: Buddy Holly had to be brought down in a plane, John Lennon shot just to stop, But hey, both won fame, for what they had achieved. Jim Morrision completed a life’s work in a summer, Three decades it took Joe Strummer, before checking out Jimi Hendrix defined an instrument, no doubt, Before saying “beat that” not “beat it” – forty years on, no-one else has We expect too much, and accept too little HCE says: From departed lips coated with drying spittle Gary, a DJ on Radio Wildfire, Not a purple coloured haze, just a purple coloured hearse speaks out with black candour An ignominious demise which confirms the worst of the decline in standards of of dead pop stars and bad taste the dying. His ringing damna- Proof beyond the grave of talent laid to waste tion echoes the true value of the And that in your quest for immortality ‘Rock and Roll’ lifestyle, whilst You’ll need more than your funeral played live on MTV. emphasising the price of glory.

WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME 17 Memoirs of the Irish Revolution by Eugene Egan Sean Doyle should have been happy living in Dub- detectives. He had managed to evade being pulled lin, but he wasn’t. He’d upset a local traveller clan in for questioning but unfortunately his comrade, and had somehow managed to get suspended Liam, was arrested and taken into custody and from the Republican Movement for bringing it into released a couple of days later. He was not happy disrepute. This was due to socialising with anti- with Sean. social elements and he was now on amitriptyline The night before the raid Sean was to pass on a following advice from his psychiatrist. “It wasn’t message to Liam that a raid was imminent and to meant to turn out like this”, he mused, lying down stay away from home, but he’d got too drunk sing- on his bed contemplating his next move. ing rebel songs in the ‘war office’ on Cork Street Sean was an idealist who had come to Dublin and failed to pass the message on. To top it all he to fight for the Irish Republic and to free Ireland was fretting over a cheque he gave to a local Re- from 800 years of British rule. Although born and publican businessman as it belonged to his absen- bred in Birmingham, he strongly identified with his tee landlord and was worried it would bounce. Irish roots. His father was Irish and his mother’s He didn’t care too much about his landlord as parents were Irish. He went to a catholic school they had a bad name in the annals of Irish history, and church in Moseley in Birmingham. Many of his due to English absentee landlords charging exorbi- classmates were also of Irish descent. Sean went tant rents to the Irish people to live and farm their on regular family holidays as a child to Limerick own land, but the Republican businessman was a City, in Ireland. As he got older and visited Irish different matter. pubs he would listen to Irish men and Irish women singing rebel songs about patriots who heroically He needed cheering up. Then he got a call from fought against British rule in Ireland. Now Blair’s Liam. talk is all peace. He’d read everything there was to know about “Do you want to make amends, Doyle. There’s a Ireland’s heroic struggle against British Colonial function tonight for the POWs.” rule. He read about Wolftone who led the 1798 Uprising. The brave and heroic men of Easter “Yeah, no problem, I’m up for that Liam.” Week, such as James Connolly and Patrick Pearse, who took up arms against the British in 1916 and “You’re lucky I never had ya whacked, Doyle, who were then subsequently executed. He was anyway it’s in Monaghan so I’m asking Paddy to inspired by the 1981 Hunger Strikers who had drive us up. It should only take a couple of hours.” endured a slow agonising death rather than be criminalised by the withdrawal of political status Although relieved that he had got back on under Thatcher’s government. As far as Sean was the good side of Liam, he warily agreed to go to concerned it was time to live the revolution rather Monaghan that night. Sean was extremely weary than merely reading it. It was time for action! of Liam. He had a very serious side to him includ- He’d been living in Dublin for about six months, ing a bad temper. Nobody crossed him and lived and had managed to secure a single story two to tell the tale. bedroom house on Eugene Street, behind St Teresa’s Gardens in the Southside of Dublin. “I’ll get back to you, Doyle. Soon as I’ve spoken Living there brought back memories of drinking to Paddy and make sure you answer your phone.” in The Dubliner in Birmingham, where he grew up. However Sean’s new landlord recently had a Well, thought Sean, nothing can go wrong. breakdown and wasn’t aware he’d moved into the We’re only going to a Republican function to house as he’d fled to England. Apparently Sean’s raise money for the prisoners’ families. It’ll be no absentee landlord had had enough of the police problem. We’ll just head up there, sing a few rebel and the psychiatric services, who wanted to speak songs and get drunk. It will be a good craic. to him. The phone rings again. It’s Liam. Sean had to leave his previous address in Rath- mines in a hurry after it had been raided by armed “Okay, Doyle, I’ve spoken to Paddy. He’s meet-

18 ing us straight after his finished work in the ‘war lads. Can’t fucking wait. lads” said Paddy. “Don’t office’ at six o’clock so make sure you’re there on worry I’ll get you there lads.” Sipping his Guin- time.” ness, Doyle was intrigued to find out how Paddy would react when he gets there and realises there “I’ll be there, Liam.” is a party but it’s for political prisoners, and there won’t be any nurses. “Oh yeah, and don’t mention it’s a Republican function. I’ve told Paddy it’s a nurse’s party we’re Mad Pat, Liam and Doyle were Republicans, but going to.” they needed a car and driver, and Paddy, although not a Republican, was the man for the job. He was “What about Mad Pat?” a decent hardworking, stocky chap who didn’t have any time for politics but he could be trusted. “Tell him to be there, too.” Sean suspected that Paddy felt that he and the others were misguided but that was harmless “No worries, Liam, see ya later.” enough. Driving to Monaghan was taking longer than Sean’s mood was beginning to lift now he was they expected, but Paddy was happy enough. “I’m on speaking terms with Liam and was looking gonna book into a B&B for the night as I’ll need to forward to linking up with the other lads too. He be up early tomorrow, if that’s okay lads. I’ve got phoned Mad Pat and told him to be at the ‘war work in the morning. Well, ya never know, lads, office’ for six o’clock. Sean didn’t trust Mad Pat, I might get lucky with one of the nurses. I’ve got thought he was too unstable, he’d grown weary some condoms, too. Always best to be prepared,” of Mad Pat’s antics, too, always pulling you aside said Paddy excitedly. It was all Paddy talked about. and asking if you wanted to join a new revolution- He couldn’t wait to get there. ary army he was setting up. “Not a problem, Paddy. We’ll sleep in the car,” replied Liam. The journey up to Monaghan went “Where would we get the money to buy the well despite the potholes and the rain they arrived arms,” Doyle asked him. a little late but safe. Paddy managed to get a room at a B&B where he’d quickly washed and shaved. “Easy we just rob some banks and all the money goes to buy arms, do ya know what I mean, “You look grand, Paddy,” said Sean. Doyle,” staring at him with his mad eyes, “and I mean all the money goes to the movement and “A million dollars,” added Liam. I’m the Chief of Staff.” Arriving at O’ Reilly’s Bar, Paddy wanted to buy Doyle was fed up with all these wannabe ‘Chief all the lads a drink, but Liam insisted on getting of Staffs’: there was no shortage of them in Dub- the drinks. Doyle bought the next and Mad Pat lin. It certainly had its fair share of lunatics, who the one after that. The band was playing rebel couldn’t make up his mind if he wanted to be a songs and everyone was in a happy mood as the hari krishna or a freedom fighter. When he wasn’t Guinness was flowing, including Paddy who kept at the temple attending hari krishna meetings and asking when were the nurses coming? chanting, Pat was spending most of his time reading Machiavelli’s The Prince and The Art of War, or Sitting in O’ Reilly’s, Mad Pat was up to his an- browsing the internet looking up The Anarchist’s tics as usual telling Doyle he’d got a shotgun and Cookbook. Unfortunately whilst experimenting a baseball bat and was he interested in joining up with home-made explosives in his shed Mad Pat with him. Doyle told him he needed time to think had seriously injured himself and had the burns about it. Mad Pat’s behaviour was causing Doyle and scars to prove it. to increasingly question the way the liberation struggle was going. “I didn’t come to Dublin to When he arrived at the ‘war office’ Doyle get involved in these antics,” Doyle thought. Also was amused at Paddy’s eagerness to get to the he couldn’t relax as he was still fretting over the ‘nurse’s party’ at O’Reilly’s Bar. cheque should it bounce. He knew the punishment for defrauding the Republican Movement was “Ahh it’s gonna be great craic tonight up there, severe and was considered a kneecapping offence.

WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME 19 He needed a drink. The return journey was a haze and a blur apart Liam has the job of telling Paddy that the from the occasional jolt out of their drunken sleep, ‘nurse’s party’ had been cancelled. Fortunately due to Liam scraping the odd wall and fence. The Paddy took the news kindly as he was having a alcohol and lack of sleep was affecting his ability good time anyway. to drive properly. Dumping the car, minus wing mirrors, in St “Ahh, no worries, I’m having a great craic but Teresa’s Gardens, Liam and Sean bid each other how come you know all these people in here, farewell and headed their separate ways. Sean Liam?” hurriedly walked along Cork St till he reached Eu- gene St. “I need my bed,” he thought. “I’ll worry “Oh this is a Republican bar, that’s why I know about Paddy in the morning.” them all,” replied Liam. Hours later and sobering up with the usual hangover, Sean’s phone was hopping. It was prob- “You sure ya haven’t been blagging me, Liam? “ ably Pat. He was too frightened to answer it. God I hope he hasn’t reported the car stolen thought “I’m sorry Paddy, I was having you on about Sean. I better phone Liam. the nurses party. It’s a republican function for the prisoners.” “Hello”

“You’re a blaggard Liam and a piss taker, it’s a “It’s Sean.” good job I love ya,” he smiled. “You best keep ya head low for a while, Sean.” Paddy knew that he’d been hoodwinked into taking the lads to Monaghan, but to hell with it. He “Me! It was your idea to drive back and leave was having a good time and even belted out a few him there.” ballads himself. Sean was happy and simultaneously relieved “I know, Sean, but he’s blaming it on you.” that he took it well, as he knew Paddy had a bad temper and could handle himself. But neither was “What do you mean?” it a good idea to get on the wrong side of Liam as he was a dangerous man to upset. That’s why it “He’s been phoning me and asking have I seen was left to Liam to tell him. that English bastard. He said he’s going to kill you Walking back to the B&B where the car was and he’s going to enjoy doing it. He sounds really parked Paddy left the keys with Liam and said angry just give him a bit of time to calm down. goodnight while the lads tried to make them Keep ya head down and leave it with me Sean.” selves as comfortable as possible in the car. However, it was so cold it was hard to get to sleep “Okay, Liam. Speak soon.” and the rain was beating down against the roof so Liam decided to drive back to Dublin- leaving Sean was getting anxious and agitated and took Paddy asleep in the B&B. one of his anti-depressants to calm down. “I came “What about Paddy,” asked Sean, worried to fight for Irish freedom and follow in the foot- about his reaction when ad Pat woke up in the steps of Ireland’s heroic martyrs. It wasn’t for this morning to find his car gone. “How’s he going to fucking shite,” he pondered. “I need to get the get to work or get home.” fuck out of this. I can’t take it anymore. I’m seeing a psychiatrist whose put me on medication, been “Jesus, it’s fucking freezing. Paddy can look suspended from the Republican Movement and after himself,” retorted Liam. now I’ve got people wanting to kill me.” Doyle felt it was time to return to England. It The truth was that nobody gave a dam about was time to move on he’d had enough of living Mad Pat as they were all still pissed and just the revolution and playing the patriot game. It wanted to get back to Dublin. At least with the en- was time to go. No more heroes for him anymore. gine running it would be warmer, so Liam started up the car and they all headed home. Goodbye Monaghan and goodbye Paddy.

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WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME 21 Epstein’s St. Michael Trouncing the Devil by Guy Legge

22 My Orwell - Right or Left By E A Boxer

classic, 1984 and his more “auto- his background, and how, es- biographical” works on poverty, pecially in Edwardian England, such as Road To Wigan Pier and classes were strictly divided and Down And Out In Paris And Lon- so any initial “forays” into the don and not forgetting the popu- lives of others, was coloured by lar school fable of Animal Farm. unknowing, an entrance into a completely different way of life, However, questions still re- and as with many colonial expe- main over Orwell’s hold on the riences, a hint of voyeurism at modern world of journalism; venturing into the exotic, a boy’s is he a hero to be imitated or own adventure with added con- a false prophet who over-sim- sequence of responsibility as he plified in order to editorialise? was in a privileged position to re- Let’s start at the beginning: far port factually from places where from being poor, young George’s many would never dare to go. family were quite comfortably- off, in spite of the early death of This notion is present in both To many, George Orwell repre- his father, colonial investments metaphorical and the physical sents heroism and journalistic and pensions kept them safe sense of Orwell venturing down integrity in service of the Left. and secure from genuine hard- into the dark, dirty and hot rab- A lone figure who boldly went ship. Especially as he enjoyed a bit-hole of the coal mines in The wherever the need was great- scholarship education at several Road To Wigan Pier. His com- est; where upper-class exploita- prep-schools (designed to ready mon revulsion at the black dust tion undermined the nobility of young lads for Eton/Harrow and and dirt and his intense descrip- the working classes in the fall- on to Oxbridge). His article on tion of the sheer muscularity out of the industrial revolution the school of St. Cyprians, Such, of the poorly-fed men working and beyond. To others, Orwell Such Were The Joys, is often seen eight to ten hours a day, bent was a rabid propagandist, paint- to be a grossly misrepresentative double, highlight the contrasts ing a one-eyed and ultimately account of his time there. Yes, his between them, both physical naïve picture of the noble poor first word was no doubt “beastly” and mental. Where the workers from the biased remove of his and during his time at the school are familiar with the coalface, Eton education and his deliber- he frequently wet the bed, but Orwell is cringingly disgusted, ately played-down “lower-up- both the owners of the schools and where the miners are physi- per-middle class” background. and his former classmates tell a cally strong in spite of their dep- more mannered and prosaic ac- rivation, Orwell is already sickly, These days, Orwell is chiefly count compared to Orwell’s tales gaunt in the face and weak. recognised for two things: his of ritual bullying and abuse. Even essays and articles in which he in a relatively straightforward Along with his deep personal in- sought to “turn journalistic writ- tale as this, we already note Or- vestment in literature and what ing into an art”, with both hon- well’s flexibility with the truth to he saw as the need to be politi- est and clarity of prose, such help tug at the heartstrings and cally aware and active beyond that it became as transparent engender sympathy for his cho- the familial support of union as a window pane, presumably sen cause, in this case, himself. representation, many of Or- one overlooking the truth; and well’s background perspective, his all-pervasive influence on Another schism that seems pre- his way of seeing the world, popular culture, most of which sent from Orwell’s earliest days must have seemed alienating came about though his modern is the strong determinism of and jarring to the day-to-day

WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME 23 trudge of the miners, tramps with the assumed nobility and it. In this regard, Orwell displays and soldiers he met, work- condescending innocence of the his greatest journalistic rigour ing only to survive, not to live. poor at large. He cites a man who in his account of the following Because of this, his neatly man- always kept himself clean-shav- events, Homage To Catalonia, aged sojourns into areas of pov- en as he tramped from town to and in his prediction that the in- erty and genuine destitution, town and a homeless street art- terference of Nazi Germany in his attempts cross the border ist who paraphrased Wilde in ar- the Spanish struggle, exempli- of journalistic objectivity, can guing that all who live in the gut- fied by the German fire-bombing seem forced and leave him no ter should keep their heads high of the Spanish town of Guernica closer to the life experience of and remain looking at the stars – and immortalised in the cruci- the lower classes, making him a hollow consolation for the poor fixion-style painting by Picasso, that worst kind of middle-class and the needy, a living by-prod- would lead to a greater conflict outsider, unwelcome at both uct of the selfish and greedy. to spread Nazi ideals across the ends of the societal spectrum. Orwell used some of his writ- world was proved right in 1939. However, I also have immense ing (especially book reviews) to respect for Orwell’s willingness force these narrow, rose-tinted If poor George had one terrible to try and bridge the awkward ideals, how he saw the world, fault as a moral being, it was, gap of his class and escape his onto others; when in reality, the in a very Wildean sense, that background. Through his inves- masochistic effects of his tramp- of consistency, choosing only tigative journalism he carried- ing and harsh way of life no to tell the truth when it suited out some of the first investi- doubt exacerbated his ill-health him. In two of his most famous gative reporting, albeit under and helped bring about his tragi- essays of his service in Burma, the influence of the American cally early death. In that sense, he Orwell gave straightforward ac- author, Jack London, who got was as much conservative in his counts of shooting an elephant down and dirty with “The Peo- view of an old-fashioned England and watching it die (“Shooting ple of The Abyss” (in the East and a simpler way of life, an ide- An Elephant”) and describes End of his metropolitan name- alist’s future that was slowly be- the humiliating alienation he felt sake) in 1902, published in 1903. ing pulled from beneath his feet from the native Burmese as they Had Orwell retained his pith hel- with the privations and global laughed at this skinny imperial- met as a policeman in Burma, terror of the Second World War. ist figurehead, a British police- adopted a bowler and braces man no less, trying to wield a to join the civil service or af- Another aspect of the journalist giant rifle in order to shoot an fected foppish cuffs to become as hero; Orwell is commonly the even bigger marauding elephant. absorbed by the bloated self- thinking man’s fighter, uncom- And in “A Hanging” he gives congratulation of literary Lon- promising in his beliefs and will- a moving tale of a man about don, we might be less conscious ing to risk his life in their name. to be executed for some petty today of the need to be aware He was famously rejected for theft and on his way to the gal- of the lot of those less fortu- military service in WWII (and lows, side-stepping a puddle. For nate than ourselves, who live instead spent his days reading Orwell this is something of an and die within the walls of pov- BBC propaganda over the wire- epiphany as the man about to erty, entombed within a secret less in Room 101 of broadcast- die gives confirmation that he is society that is all prosperity on ing house) but in his slightly a thinking, sentient being which the surface, while hiding the rot healthier days he had gumption awakens Orwell to the cruel fu- beneath, the detritus of empire. enough to fight fascism in the tility of capital punishment, a Spanish Civil War, joining one of similar point made by Existen- A great example of this is Or- the many militia groups repre- tialist poster-boy, Albert Camus. well’s heavy-handed but intense senting working Spaniards and account of what happens to the European intellectuals keen to So, we have an elephant face- working classes when admit- fight against Franco’s fascist dic- off which confirms that while ted to poor quality hospitals in tatorship, and getting shot in the suppressed peoples may fear his essay, How The Poor Die. throat and betrayed by the Rus- their occupiers they will rarely But that tainted Orwell’s great sian communists for his trouble, respect them; and philosophi- escape was his lame fascination although he did get a book out of cal meander of what it means to

WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME 24 end the life of another human to far surpass the holocaust in clear definitions being supplied being, these are not meant to both its scale and the number of to us, only co-opted examples. be straight news pieces, merely dead, Orwell was both prescient Orwell has become the sacred lessons learnt from experience, and he was right, these events cow of Wigan Pier, an apologist and yet there very little tangible have since become one of the for colonialism and yet a charac- evidence that Orwell either killed key standards by which any re- ter indelibly forged in its shadow an elephant or was ever present appraisal of history is enforced, and a product of the much of the at a hanging in all his seven years lest we should miss something. old boy’s educational system, with the Burmese police – he Orwell could not have foreseen though he opted out of Oxbridge simply fails to tell the truth and was the way in which his satiri- and got a job instead. But does all builds ideological fictions around cal Newspeak, the reductive lan- of his struggling, his stretching hollow cores. As with much of guage of 1984 that brought Eng- and selective deployment of truth his future writing, particularly lish language to its knees, where as a means to a better end make when looking back upon past truth is always assumed and him a hero? And if so, for whom? events of his life, the political never questioned, would evolve His enterprising spirit drove or moral aims take precedence to become the norm in the all- him to try and expose the harsh over the facts or even realism. consuming media landscape that truths of living under poverty, A prime example of this: when dictates much of modern poli- crossing the fine line from- ob Russia was Britain’s most timely tics, a lazy shorthand for embar- jective reporter to active par- ally in World War II, before the rassing gaffes and leaked emails, ticipant, and his desire to speak vast wealth, resources and man- used by Left, Right and all those out against falsehood, and the power of the USA came onto the in-between. This throttling of rewriting of history, no doubt scene, Orwell remained its great- expression, where acronyms, ab- marks him out as an inspiration est critic, like all good journalists breviation and cast-off phrases as to many of the current young war he was determined to unveil the “et cetera” are used as stand-ins journalists who put themselves manifold deceptions of Stalin’s for emphasis and forgo thought at great risk and personal ex- regime and to highlight the revo- before speech. As Orwell noted pense to be where the action is. lution betrayed as a fault of Com- in his brilliant exploration of hu- But for me, Orwell is more con- munism at that time, not with the man nature and the Huoynyms venient icon than raging icono- principles of socialism at large, in his essay on Swift’s Gulliver’s clast, a false prophet who blurred and doing his best to remove Na- Travels, the purpose of language fiction and fact to make his point tional-Socialist stain of Fascism. is primarily, if not to communi- while hypocritically accusing cate truth, is to reflect on the others of doing the very same. This argument hit a brick wall of state of things as they are. It denial and ignorance from a pa- also gave rise to the foreboding While the readability of his triotic readership and war-mind- throwaway of “Orwellian” which straightforward prose is beyond ed governments alike. It was roughly translates as “anything question, its truth value must later given full hearing when we a bit Totalitarian” and the car- be decided by the discerning re-read the warnings of ideologi- crash voyeurism of Big-Brother. reader who may be swayed by cal cannibalism and the threat Since the (other) Blair years, the surface yarn or the deeper of future world war in Homage the fine art of miscommunica- argument. The high values of To Catalonia, and through the tion parading as fact has been straight-up journalism Orwell steady slide into Cold War apart- employed by all political parties demanded of himself, and ex- heid as parts of occupied Europe and has reached its arrogant na- pected of others, were rarely were once again carved up and dir with the current Conserva- reached, despite our best efforts, to several victors went the spoils tive half of the Government, and thus it is perhaps best to re- of Germany and Eastern Europe, although the other parties do member not as a saint or a mar- with focus later fixing upon the their best to keep up. So instead tyr to some mythic cause, but as push and pull of East and West of practical change and tech- a human being, as prone to error Berlin. In simple numerical terms nical detail, we are fobbed-off and easily swayed by untruth in the immense slaughter and cruel- with policy sloganeering (Big the name of his ideals, just like ty of the Russian gulags and exile Society, Localism, Brand Britain) everyone else, no matter what which has since been calculated without any innate meaning or their class, whether right or left.

25 Amelia Gentleman Amelia Gentleman writes on social affairs. She won the George Orwell prize 2012 and Feature Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2011. Previously she was New Delhi correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, and Paris and Moscow correspondent for the Guardian

Adam Steiner: What social or and wondered a bit whether it only appear online. The move to political issues interest you would feel less exciting to return digital formats is rushing ahead. most as a journalist? to the UK and report from here, This is good because it means but I've enjoyed writing about new writers have interesting Amelia Gentleman: Since return- what's happening in this country new places where they can post ing to the Guardian in London just as much as reporting from their own writing – blogs, Twit- four years ago, I've been writ- Russia and India. Often the most ter – which is positive because it ing about social affairs, which interesting projects are the ones means it provides a way of build- broadly means looking at the which sound like they'll be the ing up a bank of pieces before impact of government policy least exciting when you embark you even think about finding a decisions on people's lives. I on them. I was sent to spend a job. On the other hand, writing write about politics, not in the week in a care home for the el- blogs isn't yet an obvious way to Westminster sense, but beyond derly, something which is a very earn a living. Be realistic about the House of Commons, as the routine part of British life, but the state of the industry – there impact of policies ripple downs which turned out to be a fasci- is no recruiting frenzy at the mo- towards individuals. nating (and sad) place to spend ment among newspaper editors, The hardest part of my job is time as journalist. http://www. because most organisations are working out how to make arti- guardian.co.uk/society/2009/ having to make major cutbacks. cles about often highly unappe- jul/14/older-people-care-home Be sure that this is something tising themes - welfare reform, you feel passionate about - it's care of the elderly, disability AS: Who are your writing he- not an easy job to do part-time. benefits - interesting to people roes, in the fields of literature Make sure you have an endless who don’t have any real reason or journalism? Do you have any? supply of curiosity and enthusi- to be interested in them. asm for what you're doing. Since the government began its AG: I've just reread All Quiet on austerity drive, obliging councils the Western Front, Erich Maria to introduce significant cuts to Remarque, which obviously isn't their budgets, I’ve been travel- journalism, but which takes you ling around the country a lot to to the German trenches in an look at what that has meant in amazingly powerful way. Ran- practice. I’ve visited care homes dom Family: Love, Drugs, Trou- that are in the process of clos- ble and Coming of Age in the ing, interviewed people whose Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc benefits have been cuts and who is an incredible piece of writing have lost their jobs. I’ve spent about American life which took time in hospitals trying to under- 10 years to report. stand how cuts are being made. I’ve been talking to people who AS: What advice might you give are at the sharp end of the cuts to others who wish to become programme. political journalists?

AS: What is one of the most AG: Don’t expect the industry interesting stories you’ve ever to look the same as it does now covered? in a few years' time. We've just had the announcement that AG: I’ve worked a lot abroad, the magazine Newsweek will

26 WWW.HERECOMESEVERYONE.ME Action Figures by T W Garland

He jumped out of bed as early as he could. Going and returned to his classroom. to sleep had been so difficult. He had lain awake in Lunch passed with listless chewing of tasteless the dark, the light from the hall casting shadows food and he proceeded into the afternoon only to against his spaceship light shade. Hours seemed to be surprised by his teacher’s request to take out pass as he waited to hear his dad come home. To maths work books. know that dad was in the house, that dad would Maths was trouble and times tables a curse from come along and kiss him goodnight, even if he which he could not seem to escape. More than was asleep, was all he wanted. Drifting into sleep, anything he just wanted to give up. He did not he promised himself he would see his dad in the want to be sitting in the classroom. He wanted to morning. He would get up super early. be lost in a big hug and to let it all go, but he bat- Running into his mum and dad’s room, he only tled against the tears and tried to remember his noticed the absence of his father’s jacket and homework. briefcase. His homework of a couple of weeks ago returned “Sorry honey,” his mum said as she tucked down to him. Dad had come home early. The key in lock the corners of the bedspread. “Dad left early this had alerted him too late and he had remained sit- morning.” The delight of youth drained from his ting at the dining table working through his times face and he compelled the tears back. tables when dad arrived. “It’s okay honey,” mum said wrapping her arms “No hug at the door,” dad asked as he ruffled his around his unresponsive body. “Let me make son’s hair before giving him a kiss on the cheek. you your favourite breakfast and we’ll see daddy “Times tables. I love times tables. In my job, I use later.” them every day. Want a little help?” He dropped As he sat eating scrambled eggs with syrup, his his case on the floor and without taking off his mum let out a cry from the other room and came coat sat down and they tackled the three times in carrying his action figures. tables. “Honey, I nearly stepped on these. You need to Now he had his work book open in front of him. take care of your toys.” His teacher indicated his intention of asking ques- “Ok mum.” tions. He took a deep breath and it began. “Dad told me he was looking forward to playing “Can anyone tell me three times seven?” Captain Nebulous later.” He knew he had to answer. “Really?” The cautious note of delight in his voice made her smile. He knew he had to answer. “Really,” she reassured, making a mental note to “Can anyone tell me how the figures from the text the information to his dad. Jacobson account add up?” His walk to school was sluggish, dragging the toes The meetings had hit him one after another like of his shoes along the ground more than usual and the rounds from a Tommy gun in the trenches. Cal- surrendering to the tugs of his mum on his arm to culations needed to be checked and finalised. He hurry. had to set up and test the new estimates. The day In the morning, science had involved measuring finally closed, he picked himself up and headed beans and checking different stages of growth. home with a bundle of work weighing him down. His partner did most of the work as his attention He struggled with the door. Coat, briefcase, files, drifted out of the window and down the road. keys. Too many things and not enough hands. At break time, he sat on the edge of the sandpit. Fighting into the hall, he encountered his son Danny asked if he wanted to play space captains. waiting expectantly and too close, arms open and He declined. Stephanie gave him a shove and he action figure in his hands. fell back into the sandpit. For a while he lay look- There had been no way for him to have seen the ing up at the sky. When the bell rang, he picked spontaneous flash in the boy’s eyes when the himself up, did not bother to brush of the sand sound of his dad’s keys scratched against the lock.

27 My Hero There was no way for him to have seen how quickly his son jumped up and ran to the door or by Sarwah Osei-Tutu the look of sheer delight as his dad arrived home. All he saw was a recently bathed little boy in his pyjamas waiting to make a request. The boy instigated a hug around his dad’s legs as his dad stood fixed in place by the burdens of his A hero work day. She is to me “Hey, champ. Can I just put some of this stuff From day one down?” The boy moved aside but remained close behind as his dad started to unload his arms. Never abandoned me “Dad, do you want to play Captain Nebulous Taken care of me with me?” Loved me “Maybe in a minute champ. I’ve had a busy day All her life and need a minute.” A minute wasn’t going to be enough. A minute was only going to help him There is no other that can compare remember everything he needed to do around The love we share the house and allow him to start imagining the It embraces me ordeals of the next day, but he did not get his Caresses me minute. His phone rang with the promise of ad- Just goes on and on ditional chores and responsibilities. For a second, he considered avoiding the call, but then a help- She has helped me ful boy jumped up and delivered the phone with To crawl and led me a swoop of Captain Nebulous’ jetpack. From strength to strength A reluctant hand reached out for the phone. Never doubting Within moments the expectation of added obli- All day long gations was washed away with an invitation. He stood up, still talking on the phone and walked There is no other that can compare around the room, animated by eagerness. He No hero too great twisted and stopped. Standing in the middle of Who could touch me the room was a boy who looked as small as the Feel me action figures discarded at his feet. He said good- Like my mother has bye and switched off the phone without turning All my life long away. “So, how about Captain Nebulous…”

HCE says: ? TW Garland and Sarwah Osei-Tutu deal with the kind of normal, parental heroism that frequently is overlooked in the capes and machine guns, but heroism is more inspiration than action.

28 Tolpuddle Martyrs by Mollie Davidson

The Tolpuddle Martyrs worked in a field, with wives and children on nothing, men on even less. A common background with grass and trees and rain, a life deprived of pride and dignity, wage and work. A secret friendship of hard men, who altogether caused some other men to feel quite scared. Altogether they came, not one at a time, to try to talk again they tried. In the docks but not earning it was sad to see, men courageous and as hardworking as these.

Australia is a long way away, away from home and love and grass and trees and rain.

Away from the smell of change and the clinking of machines, madness and a hysteria of a new age and rain.

Australia is very different to Tolpuddle. Two Meditations on Hero Worship by S J Fowler

#20 is it blasphemy to say priests have sex with animals? #22 aubrey beardsley died so young in an age of giants the mothman prophecies say shopping tangled in the bubble fence is good here i could say worse half built moscow hospital but my wife won’t let me that is a scent worth capturing why only in the west all full of Baphomet do we need our sex scentless? the full bankers come, the very first perfumiers said the spaniard, the true nez forgetting the moors. Ernest Beaux is the hands of the Bishop his is the act of art in the human nose arguably it ain’t half honoured enough.

29 Time Passes by Benjamin Hayes

When the bomb detonated, it was not thunderous. “I honestly can’t say I remember him terribly well. I The sound was just pain, then a deafening, deaden- know I went to school with him, but... well, I went to ing silence. Nobody in the vehicle could hear the school with a lot of people. And back then, he wasn’t screams. a hero, just a guy I sat next to sometimes.” On a hilltop, some two kilometres distant, the man “Oh my God, I used to have such a crush on him! I who had set it watched through binoculars, his spent ages trying to work up the nerve to leave him a knuckles white as he clutched the drab plastic. His note on Valentine’s Day!” mouth twitched jerkily into some semblance of a It was righteous; we must be rid of these invaders smile, though a deep and visceral horror took root in after all. I still remember the first time they came to his belly. my village – laughing and joking as if it were a game. Time passes. I remember what one of them did to my sister, I re- “PERSONNEL CARRIER DESTROYED BY IED; CORPO- member how they shot my little cousin, just because RAL KILLED” he climbed over their fence – because he couldn’t “They’re calling my boy a hero for, for dying in the read their signs. He still can’t walk. service of his country. But he – we never needed Time passes. that. He was a hero to his little sister, just ‘cause he “CELEBRITIES DENOUNCE MILITARY INVOLVEMENT” could lift her on his shoulders. We never wanted him “He was one of my students. I didn’t even realise it to go. He didn’t want to be a hero, he just wanted until someone pointed out the article to me a couple the money, not even for him; for us.“ of days ago. Not a bad kid, but... I don’t know. I sup- “The corporal? He was a good soldier, uh, we all re- pose the army wasn’t a bad fit for him. It’s good he ally liked him. He always had time for you, and uh, found something.” one time he caught me... doing something I shouldn’t “The corporal? Yeah, well... He would’ve wanted us have, and he never told the sergeant about it. I’ll miss to move on. Could have been any of us; one of the him. We all will.” guys from that APC will never walk on two legs again, “My big brother? I miss him. Mummy says he was and most of them still can’t hear right.” killed, that bad men... that they want to rule the “My aunt was just... shattered, when he died, you country, and my brother tried to stop them. I wish... I know? A parent shouldn’t ever outlive their child. The don’t care, I just want my brother back.” media circled her like fucking vultures; gotta make I can still see the flash sometimes, when I close my a martyr, you know? Like it doesn’t count, doesn’t eyes. The little dark bits flying into the air, metal and mean anything unless they can use his death to make glass and... other things. It seemed so very much like more boys into soldiers.” a game, out there on the road that night, when we I don’t feel like a hero. I just feel dirty. Someone laid the bomb. The boss said it was for our cause, showed me a foreign newspaper they got, about a that our actions were righteous. And it was... Dig soldier who died in that truck. I couldn’t read it, of the hole, bury the bomb... I remember I broke my course, but they had a photo of this boy, smiling. And fingernail, it caught under the screw when we were the guy with the paper laughed, and said he wasn’t wiring in the fuse. It still hasn’t grown back. But it all smiling any more, and told me what a great thing I’d seemed so mundane, just little things we were do- done, how I’d helped our cause... ing. But now I can’t stop seeing it. And we sit around Time passes. the fire in the evenings, and they call me ‘hero’, and “ACTOR CAUGHT IN DATE-RAPE SHOCKER” my mug is never empty. And no matter how much I “Just fuck off! My son is dead, okay? He doesn’t want drink, it’s not enough. your fucking credit cards, he doesn’t want any double Time passes. glazing, just leave us alone!” “MINISTERS DEMAND INQURY INTO WAR SITUA- “What? Oh, him. Well, he joined the army. The risk of TION” getting killed is part of the job – not that I mean to “Oh yes, that young man from across the road. Such say it’s not a noble thing to do, but it’s hardly surpris- a shame... We got into this fight for all the right rea- ing when a soldier gets killed, is it?” sons, but reality is so much more messy than ideal- “See that house? You know that soldier who got ism.” blown up a while back? He lived there! I used to go to

30 school with him. I still remember the time he punched me “Goddamn savages, killing good men and women. We in the face and called me a faggot because I was reading go over, try and help them out, and those fuckers... we a book at lunch.” should just bomb the whole lot of ‘em, raze their cities to They keep saying I should lead another attack, maybe the ground, like Jericho, yeah!” hit one of the convoys the next time they pass through. People don’t talk to me so much anymore. They stopped But I just can’t. I keep thinking, what about the brother calling me a hero a while back. Now I’m just the drunkard. of the soldier I killed. Does he have a brother? They hurt I don’t know, maybe I should just leave. Just go some- my family, and I stood up to fight for our cause, and I where else. But there’s nowhere to go, nothing else I can hurt someone’s family, and maybe now some other child do. Not like I have a trade. I never learned; just joined the somewhere is promising their father they’ll fight for their cause and trained to fight. To drive out the soldiers, make country and avenge their brother. our country our own again. It all seemed so clear, back Time passes. then. “NEW STUDY LINKS iPODS AND BRAIN CANCER” Time passes. “I’m going to be a doctor, a military medic. When I’m “MEMORIAL ERECTED FOR NEW WAR HEROES” older, I’ll join up, and maybe I can help make sure no-one Just... squeeze the trigger, and it’s over. Please, forgive- else loses their brother like I did.” “Yeah, the corporal got to be a hero, because he’s dead. The gunshot is like thunder in the small tin shed. I just got crippled, mustered out. I can’t get a job, can’t even fucking walk, and who gives a shit about me, huh?”

At an Autumn Auction Urban Portraits (2): by Changming Yuan the Pigeon Feeder by Changming Yuan This pair of human hands used to belong to Neither da Vinci, nor Mozart, nor Napoleon No one knows He finally failed to appear Nor Newton, nor Van Gogh, nor Thomas Edison When the old man started Then another day, a third… Nor Shakespeare, nor Doug Henning, of course nor Li to do this Bai But every evening he would Later, he was found stone Look, the blood is still dripping! prop up dead From nowhere, coming On his lonely bed, in a But it once warmed the heart of a frozen crow To the foot of a statue at rented room Opened the door to a stranger starving to death the square Definitely bigger than a Added a handful of soil to a withering rose With a dusk-painted con- cage Waved to a breeze blowing from nowhere tainer But containing no other Wouldn’t it be a big fool to buy these hands? To feed the pigeons furniture Cooing and flapping around Even a desk, a chair Most important, the hands carry with them authentic Like wantons retuning Except some bird food spirits home for supper Left on the window ledge Inherited from gods though still unknown to us, and Two small paper boxes the owner Each time he would take Full of receipts from pawn Has cut them off to donate to an honorable human extra care shops cause Making sure each bird got And a note To Whom It May Our initial price is set at ten hundred thousand 200, its fair share Concern: 200? 300, 300? 350, 350? 400,400? Whether it was warm or Please continue feeding the chilly pigeons Windy or rainy until one day

31 Here Comes... Paul:

Paul Francis is a retired teacher, who lives in Much Wenlock and writes poems and plays. “I’ve always be- lieved that some poetry should deal with what’s in the news, and encourage readers to respond to it as active citizens.’’