William Beckford (1760-1844) was the heir of a Jamaican sugar plantation dynasty, whose wealth had been built on the exploitation of slave labour.  In his own lifetime Beckford became an infamous social outcast, for a homosexual affair he had with William Courtenay.  Beckford gained a mythical reputation not only for his fabulous wealth and a sex scandal, but also for the building of Fonthill Abbey on his estate in Wiltshire.  The Abbey was a gothic palace constructed over a number of years, which included a tower that reached almost 300 feet into the sky.  Its construction became Beckford’s own Tower of Babel, almost bringing him to financial ruin.  He sold his Fonthill estate in 1822 in order to repay his debts.  Beckford was lucky in this, as three years later the tower which had been poorly constructed collapsed.  Brian Fothergill in ‘Beckford of Fonthill’ takes the reader beyond the myth of Beckford, to those influences that manifested themselves at Fonthill Abbey.

Fothergill‘s biography of William Beckford begins with Beckford’s christening at the parish church of Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire on 29th September 1760.  William‘s father was Alderman William Beckford, who went on to become Lord Mayor of London.  Alderman Beckford was descended from Peter Beckford, a ruthless colonist who in the 17th century went out to Jamaica, established sugar plantations there and also became the island’s Governor.  William’s mother Maria Hamilton was a grand-daughter of the sixth Earl of Abercorn.  The marriage of William’s parents was typical of the method used by an aristocratic family to perpetrate its wealth and power, by taking into its midst a mercantile family such as the Beckfords, who had acquired a fabulous fortune.  William - as the Alderman’s eldest legitimate son - was set to inherit the vast Beckford estates and fortune, as well as the aristocratic social connections needed for a political career.

In spite of William Beckford’s glittering prospects, the story of his life has the theme of isolation.  This situation was not helped by the death of William’s father when William was aged 9, and the overbearing nature of his mother, who was keen to impose a strict Calvinist doctrine on her son.  His mother’s ideas contradicted the classsical education he was receiving from his private tutors, and from an early age William became interested in the arts.

Like many 18th century aristocratic men, William Beckford went on the Grand Tour.  This included the Netherlands, German principalities, Austrian dominions, France, and Italian city states including Venice and Naples.  It was while Beckford was on his Grand Tour in the years 1780 and 1781, that he visited the shrine of St. Antony at Padua.  Although Beckford was a Protestant, his sympathies were Roman Catholic - probably as a reaction against his mother’s Calvinistic beliefs.  This may be why Beckford became so obsessed with St. Antony of Padua.  His devotion to the saint proved useful when he was in Portugal a few years later, following his self imposed exile from England as a result of the Courtenay scandal.  He had been snubbed by Robert Walpole, the British Minister in Lisbon, but gained the approval of the Roman Catholic clergy in that city, when he was seen praying to the saint in a church.  He was then introduced to the Marquis of Marialva, who helped him during his stay in Portugal.

Although Beckford had married Lady Margaret Gordon in 1783 - with whom he fathered two daughters - his homosexual tendencies proved dangerous for him.  The scandal of his relationship with the 12 year old William Courtenay very nearly ended in Beckford’s prosecution, after Lord Loughborough - a man who was politically hostile to Beckford, and the husband of Courtenay’s sister Charlotte - got hold of some compromising letters between the young William Courtenay and Beckford.  Although Beckford escaped arrest and trial by luck and one or two powerful allies working on his behalf, his social ostracism meant that he would be shunned for the rest of his life.

Brian Fothergill’s biography is an interesting psychological study of William Beckford.  The book enters into the fine detail of the influences that shaped Beckford, and the way Beckford influenced those around him.  As well as building Fonthill Abbey for which he commissioned the architect James Wyatt, Beckford was also an author, musician and collector.  Beckford’s novel ‘Vathek’ inspired Lord Byron and Benjamin Disraeli.  Beckford had the money to live in his own fantasy world, he was decadent and extravagant but also mysterious.

©Jolyon Gumbrell 2009

The shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein, ISBN 978-0-141-02453-0, published by Penguin Books in 2008

‘The Shock Doctrine’ is about how the ideology of total free market capitalism was put into practice around the world.  This book is a reappraisal of the last 40 years of history, and tells the story of how violent means were often used to impose economic reforms on the people of many countries.  New harsh economic conditions: removing workers’ rights; deregulating big business; and privatising state industries, were forced on the populations of Chile and Argentina during the 1970’s.  Similar economic reforms have also been inflicted on other countries after natural disasters, when big business takes the opportunity to impose its will on a society when the population is least able to resist.

The architect of these economic policies was Milton Friedman, a professor of economics at the University of Chicargo from the 1950’s to 1980’s.  The fundamental belief that Friedman and his students espoused was that the state should have no role in the regulation of markets, as they believed markets were natural mechanisms that would balance themselves.  Their ideology was one of extreme capitalism, where the state was not allowed to: protect workers; set the minimum wage; regulate markets to protect comsumers; provide social housing; provide social welfare in times of need; or run infrastructure utilities such as water, electricity and public transport.

Although this extreme form of capitalism is diametrically opposed to Marxism, the Chicargo Boys - as Friedman’s followers became known - reserved their true hatred for the Keynesian economic model.  Under the Keynesian economic model there is a mixed economy where capitalism plays its part in providing goods and services, but government prevents the business world from damaging the social fabric of a country.  Under the Keynesian system, in times of economic depression the state steps in to invest in public works that will put the unemployed back to work.

Until the 1970’s the Chicargo Boys were unable to put their ideology into practice.  However, following the CIA backed military coup in Chile in 1973, the Chicargo School economic experiment became the basis for the economic policies of the new military government in Chile under General Augusto Pinochet.

‘The Shock Doctrine’ as a narrative is important because it makes connections between the implementation of Friedman’s free market economic policies, and the cost in blood of those who were rounded up tortured and murdered in Latin America by the military regimes.  Likewise Naomi Klein analyses the reasons behind the Tiananmen Square masacre in China in 1989, and finds that the Communist government was in the process of introducing market reforms.  The students and factory workers protesting against the government in Tiananmen Square, were unhappy about the way these reforms were being introduced.  Naomi Klein makes an interesting point when she says:

“The demonstrations were not against economic reform per se; they were against the specific Friedmanite nature of the reforms - their speed, ruthlessness and the fact that the process was highly antidemocratic.  Wang says that the protesters’ call for elections and free speech were intimently connected to this economic dissent.”

On 3rd June 1989, when the leadership of the Chinese Communist government ordered troops to fire upon unarmed protesters in Tiananmen Square, it appears that the aim of the Chinese government was to impose the free market capitalist economic model on the people of China by force.

During the 1980’s, Milton Friedman’s economic doctrine was taken up by conservative governments in the United States and United Kingdom which led to the privatisation of many state assets.  In Britain, Margaret Thatcher’s policy of selling off council houses was inspired by Friedman’s ideology.  The result of this would lead to house price inflation and the heavy burden of mortgage debt for many people on low incomes.

It is ironic that ‘The Shock Doctrine‘ was first published in 2007, shortly before the most recent economic crisis became apparent.  The global economic crisis brought about by the greed of unscrupulous speculators and the unrestrained excesses of global capitalism, means that the warning of Neomi Klein’s book has become even more relevant over the past year.  The irresponsible lending practices of banks in the United States and the United Kingdom was allowed to happen because governments were following Friedman’s ideological position that markets worked best when they were unregulated.

‘The Shock Doctrine’ leaves little to the imagination, when it comes to the consequences of the implementation of Friedman’s ideology on a global scale.  These extreme free market policies have allowed an elite of superrich corporate executives, a free hand to take what they want at the expense of a dispossessed population.  This book gives a voice to the victimes of Friedmanite capitalism, and ensures that history will remember Milton Friedman as an advisor to dictators, corrupt politicians and robber barons.

©Jolyon Gumbrell 2009

Blowing the Whistle by Paul van Buitenen, ISBN 1-90230-146-3, published by Politicos Publishing in 2000

‘Blowing the Whistle’ by Paul van Buitenen is a personal account of a whistle blower who discovered a culture of corruption at the heart of the European Commission.  Although the subjects of this book are fraud and mismanagement within one of the institutions of the European Union, these types of problems are not unique to the European Commission.  They occur in many other organizations both in the public and private sectors.

Paul van Buitenen was an assistant auditor for the European Commission's Financial Control Directorate, when in December 1998 he informed a member of the European Parliament about internal irregularities and fraud.  Since 1990 he had worked in several directorates - the word directorate refers to a department in the Commission - where the unwritten rule was to turn a blind eye to the misappropriation of EU tax payers money by senior European Commission officials.  Over the years Mr van Buitenen had tried to take his concerns about fraud within the European Commission through all the official channels, but each time his complaints were ignored.  Mr van Buitenen’s letter of 9th December 1998 to Magda Aelvoet, a Green MEP, was a last resort in his efforts to get somebody to take responsibility for corruption within the European Commission.

The letter was entitled ‘How the European Commission deals with its irregularities and fraud’.  According to Mr van Buitenen the purpose of the letter was: “to show that although many irregularities in the Commission were known about and even well-documented too little was done about them after that”.

‘Blowing the Whistle’ goes into the details of several corruption cases that took place in various directorates of the European Commission during the 1990’s.  The most notorious case is that of René Berthelot otherwise known as Edith Cresson’s dentist, who was awarded a contract as a scientific advisor on AIDS for which he was unqualified to carry out.  Mr Berthelot was awarded the contract in 1997 when Edith Cresson, with whom he shared the same address, was a European Commissioner.  Mr Berthelot did not do any work for this contract with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre for which he was paid over £125,000 of EU tax payers money through an offshore company called Kensington.

Fraud often happened in the European Commission, at the time contracts were awarded to outsourced companies in the private sector.  Although the tender process was meant to ensure that the best firm was selected for the contract, favouratism would often play a part when those with inside knowledge were able to circumvent the tender process.

Paul van Buitenen had many concerns about the way contracts were being awarded for the Leonardo programme.  The Leonardo programme was supposed to support vocational training initiatives in member states.  When programmes are run for a directorate such as the Directorate-General for education, training and youth in this example, an outside company with expertise in the field is awarded the contract to organise the programme.  The technical term used by the Commission for an outside contractor is TAO which stands for Technical Assistance Office.  Mr van Buitenen made the following observation of the way the TAO had been awarded for the Leonardo programme:

“I found out that Agenor had set up a TAO especially for Leonardo programme before this programme had been announced publicly.  It had already been working on the Force programme and had prepared for the contract well beforehand- and actually won it.  Was that chance?  Not according to some of the TAO staff.  They told me the Agenor’s selection in the TAO tendering procedure had been rigged.”

The problem for the whistle blower is knowing who to complain to, when their superiors are involved in the fraud itself or are just allowing it to continue.  This was the dilemma for Paul van Buitenen, and the reason why he informed the European Parliament of what was going on at the European Commission.  Unfortunately disciplinary action was taken by the Commission against him for his disclosure, being suspended from his job on half pay for four months.  When he was allowed to return to work, he was no longer allowed to work as an auditor.  It is sad that Paul van Buitenen was punished for conscientiously having done his job, whereas those who were involved in the fraud appeared to get away with it.  However the letter to the European Parliament, led to an investigation by a Committee of Independent experts into what had been going on in the European Commission.  The Committee’s written report also known as the Wise Men’s Report, resulted in the European Parliament voting no confidence in the European Commission, which forced all of the European Commissioners to resign.

‘Blowing the Whistle’ is an interesting book because it tells the story of how a culture of corruption at the heart of any organization can cause real damage.  The only real faults with this book are it does not have an index and glossary, which make it difficult to use for reference purposes.  This is a book which one might want to refer to again.

©Jolyon Gumbrell 2008

The Economic Consequences of Peace, by John Maynard Keynes, published by Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920. Published in electronic format by The Project Gutenburg eBook, 2005

John Maynard Keynes was a civil servant working for the British Treasury during the First World War, who attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 as the Treasury’s official representative.  The Economic Consequences of Peace is Keynes’s Account of the Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles.  Keynes resigned from the delegation at the Peace Conference, because he felt that the terms and conditions of the Treaty would lead to a catastrophy for Europe and the World.  The Economic Consequences of Peace gives the reasons why he was so concerned.  Although only written a few months after the Treaty of Versailles was signed, the book proved remarkably prescient at forcasting the economic conditions, that would allow nationalism to reassert itself in Germany, which brought about the Second World War.  If John Maynard Keynes’s warnings had been heeded, then perhaps the conflict could have been avoided.

The purpose of the Paris Peace Conference was seen by the Allies of Great Britain, France, Italy and the United States as one of making Germany pay amends for starting the First World War.  However, Keynes could see that having lost her merchant navy, overseas colonies, overseas investments, major coal and iron mineral producing territories, as well as the loss to her labour force caused by the death and injury of men during the war; Germany could no longer function as a trading nation and would therefore find it impossible to pay the scale of reparations demanded of her by the Allies.

The reparations that Germany had to pay, was overseen by a bureaucracy set up by the Allies called the Reparation Commission.  The first payment demanded from Germany was $5 billion due to be paid to the Commission by 1st May 1921.  Keynes believed it would be impossible for Germany to meet this payment, due to her loss of resources and economic collapse exasperated by the fact that Germany’s population was malnourished and psychologically damaged as a result of the war.  This prediction proved correct as Germany defaulted on reparations payments in May 1921.  In response to Germany’s failure to make reparation payments, British, French, and Belgium troops occupied the Ruhr region of Germany in 1921 and the French would again occupy the Ruhr in 1923 for the same reason.

The Economic Consequences of Peace is an interesting book for anyone wanting to understand the background to the causes of the Second World War. Keynes argued that the reparations imposed on Germany would cause so much suffering that despair would overtake reason.  With prophetic words Keynes wrote: “The power of ideas is sovereign, and he listens to whatever instruction of hope, illusion, or revenge is carried to him on the air.”

It was precisely under these conditions that Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party gained power in Germany in 1933.  John Maynard Keynes warned the World that the consequences of the ill thought out Treaty of Versailles would be catastrophic.  He was proved correct in his prediction.

©Jolyon Gumbrell 2008

Touché, by Agnès Catherine Poirier, published by Pheonix in 2007, ISBN 978-0-7538-2170-1

Touché, by Agnès Catherine Poirier is about Britain and France, and how their cultures, politics and societies are different.  This book is written by a French émigré who settled in London in 1995, first as a student at the London School of Economics, and then as a freelance journalist writing for both British and French publications.  The book analyses many of the different idiosyncrasies displayed by the British and French.

In examining the social norms of both societies, Agnès lets the reader know which values are important to one country, but not another.  For instance the French are interested in politics, while the British seem indifferent.  The French strive to protect their culture, whereas the British would be prepared to allow their own to be treated as a commodity.  The French like abstract ideas and concepts, whereas the British hate theory but pride themselves as pragmatists.  However, she recognises that national stereotypes are not always accurate and some individuals do not necessarily conform to type, when she says: ‘So I simply had to come to terms with the fact that cinema, like everything else cultural in Britain, wasn’t taken seriously, at least not in public.  There are, of course, serious art- and film-lovers in the UK, but they seem to have to hide, like the early Christians in pagan Rome.’

One of the main differences between Britain and France is the way things are run.  In Britain the private sector and free market are omnipotent, while the public sector and state are weak.  In France it is the other way around, with a powerful state ready to protect the social welfare of the people against the arbitrary nature of the business world.  However, Agnès recognised when she wrote Touché that things would change if Nicolas Sarkozy got elected as the President of France.

In the chapter ‘Death of the Independents’, Agnès explains how state regulation protects small independent family run businesses in French town centres against over powerful business corporations.  This is why when you go to France, you see a variety of independently owned shops such as the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker etc., in town centres there.

On the other hand in the United Kingdom, where there are few planning restrictions on where big supermarket chains such as Tesco, and franchises such as Next, Mac Donalds and Starbucks can relocate, small shops are often pushed out of business by the conglomerates selling cheaper, but poorer quality products and services.

Since Touché was published Nicolas Sarkozy has become President of France.  Sarkozy is famous for being a disciple of the free market ideology so favoured by the American and British establishment.  It is surprising that the French electorate were duped by Sarkozy in May 2007.  If they had looked towards the English side of the Channel, they would have seen that privatization doesn’t make the trains run on time.  Some English observers could see that Sarkozy had a secret agenda to create a paradis fiscal or tax free haven for the super rich in France, just as Thatcher and Blair had done in Britain, while at the same time making life harder for people on low or middle incomes.

©Jolyon Gumbrell 2008

The New Front Line: Security in a changing world, by Ian Kearns and Ken Gude, published by The Institute of Public Policy Research (ippr) in February 2008.

Review by Jolyon Gumbrell 25 th February 2008

‘The New Front Line’ informs the reader that in the 21 st Century the security threats to the United Kingdom are far wider than those of military or terrorist attack.  The dangers facing the UK’s population are also applicable to those facing the global population in an interdependent world.  The report lists the threats to global stability which would impact on the UK as: Globalisation and power diffusion; Global poverty and failing states; Climate change; The Growth of political Islam; and Social-economic vulnerability.

‘The New Front Line’ describes how power is shifting from some states towards others, just as power is generally moving from state to non-state actors.  Economic power is moving from North America and Europe towards Asia, as the economies of China and India expand.  According to the report China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is now the world’s fourth largest, which has allowed that country to accumulate huge foreign currency reserves.  The report estimated that: “China’s foreign currency reserves soared past US$1 trillion in early 2007 and kept racing up to more than $1.3 trillion by the middle of the year.”

The massive expansion of China’s industrial production in turn has made her a major energy consumer and therefore the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.  The report made the point that: “China surpassed the US as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2007 and its no exaggeration to say that without the cooperation of both China and India, a successful response to the challenge of climate change cannot be found.”

The report also talks about the power shift towards oil and gas producing states such as Russia, Nigeria, Iran, Qatar, Algeria and Venezuela.  As the UK is now dependent on importing her energy requirements there is a risk that she could be blackmailed by these and other energy producing states, if the supply of oil and gas is used for political leverage.

The non-state actors are military firms, terrorist groups, organised crime and some national political movements.  The report does not specifically mention global corporations and financial institutions, but these too are non-state actors.  Many of the themes dealt with in the report are interconnected, for example under the subheading ‘Socio-economic vulnerability’, weaknesses to the UK’s infrastructure are discussed.  Part of the problem here has been due to privatization as the report recognises: “David Omand, [former security and intelligence coordinator in the Cabinet Office] for example has noted that 80 per cent of the UK’s critical national infrastructure is in private hands, not all of it owned by UK companies.”

Elizabeth the Great, by Elizabeth Jenkins, published by The Companion Book Club (Odhams Press Ltd.) in 1958

‘Elizabeth the Great’, by Elizabeth Jenkins is a biography of Queen Elizabeth I, which focuses not only on Elizabeth I as Queen of England between 1558 and 1603, but also her personal life and the traumas of her childhood, which would influence her as Queen.  This well researched and detailed narrative of Queen Elizabeth I’s life makes us feel quite sympathetic to the Queen, who might otherwise be judged by history as someone who was cantankerous and spiteful.

The story of the Queen’s life poses the question: how does a girl then a woman cope with the knowledge that her father killed her mother, Ann Boleyn?   How does she cope with the fact that her father then went on to kill her stepmother, Catherine Howard?  These circumstances in Elizabeth’s life meant that she had privately made the decision never to marry, not even when she was Queen to her favourite courtier Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester.

On reading ‘Elizabeth the Great’ one realizes just how precarious Elizabeth’s position was on several occasions throughout her life.   After her mother’s execution the account for Elizabeth’s clothing allowance had been closed down and the little girl’s governess, Lady Bryan, had to write to one of the King’s ministers asking for new clothes for the child.

Things were particularly difficult for Elizabeth after her father, King Henry VIII’s death in 1547 when she was 14.  Her younger half brother Edward became king, but the country was then run by the new King’s guardian and uncle, Edward Seymour.  Edward Seymour made himself the Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector, and appointed his brother Thomas Seymour as Lord High Admiral.  The accession of such a young boy as Edward VI to the throne, marked the beginning of several years of struggle between various factions at court vying to gain control of the Kingdom of England and Wales.  By the time of Edward VI’s death in 1553, John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland was in control of the king. According to Henry VIII’s will, Elizabeth’s half sister Mary Tudor, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, was next in line for the throne. However, the Duke of Northumberland had been part of a plot to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne.  This coup against Mary failed, with the conspirators ending up in the Tower of London, where they were later executed.

For Elizabeth, Queen Mary’s reign from 1553 to 1558 was especially unpleasant.  Mary resented Elizabeth because the latter was the daughter of Ann Boleyn.  Shortly after Mary’s accession, Elizabeth was implicated in a plot led by Thomas Wyatt to overthrough Mary.  Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but managed to persuade the Earl of Sussex that she was innocent of any involvement.

During the 16th Century, in an undemocratic age, when all government was subject to royal prerogative, the main concerns of statesmen were questions of war, royal succession and religion.  King Henry VIII had broken the Church of England away from the Church of Rome.  Years later his daughter Queen Mary, an ardent Roman Catholic, wanted to re-establish the authority of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.  When Mary married King Philip II of Spain, the Protestants feared that Mary and Philip’s children would be Catholic heirs to the English throne.  However, the couple were unsuccessful in producing an heir, so on Mary’s death the Protestant Elizabeth became Queen.

Protestant Privy Councillors such as William Cecil, knew that the survival of the Protestant kingdom depended on a Protestant heir or successor to Elizabeth, as well as ensuring England was not invaded by a Catholic power such as Spain. Although Queen Elizabeth I never married, she did enter into marriage negotiations with various European Princes such as the Duke of Alençon.  These marriage negotiations were very much a diplomatic strategy in order to protect her realm and her position as Queen.

©Jolyon Gumbrell 2007

Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton, ISBN 0-141-01486-5, published by Hamish Hamilton 2004/ Penguine Books 2005

Alain de Bottom the philosopher and author has written ‘Status Anxiety’, which is a handy guide analysing the elements of status and why we fear the lack of our own status. The book is divided into two parts: ‘Part One Causes’ and ‘Part Two Solutions’.

In the first chapter of Part One of ‘Status Anxiety’, Alain de Bottom finds that love is the primary goal of high status, with wealth and power being the means to that end. This type of love is different from sexual love or the unconditional love a parent has for their child. The type of love which is the goal of high status is social approbation: of being deferred to, listened to, of getting noticed and not being ignored.

The phenomenon of the fear of low status within society has its origins in the late 18th Century when political, economic and technological events brought huge social changes in the western world. It is ironic that the revolutions in North America and France, whose aim it was to free those countries from the arbitrary rule of hereditary monarchs and create democracies, should in the process create meritocracies that were very unforgiving of those who failed to achieve high status.

Alain de Bottom lists some of the inventions over two centuries that contributed to the growth of our consumer society. Some of these such as sanitation: the invention by Doulton in 1846 of glazed stoneware sewage pipes and then George Jennings’s ‘pedestal vase’ toilet in 1884, have allowed us to live longer and more healthily. While on the other hand the inventions of such things as department stores and shopping malls have made us envious and discontented with our lot, as we attach too much importance to material things.

One of the most unpleasant aspects of a ‘prosperous society’ is the way that it treats those at its base, who have been unable to achieve great financial status. Alain de Bottom has included in his book some quotations, which show up the prejudice directed towards the weakest in society such as the poor and unemployed. Below is an example of such a quotation which came from the Victorian English Social Darwinist, Herbert Spencer:

‘It seems hard that the widows and orphans should be left to struggle for life or death. Nevertheless, when regarded not separately, but in connection with the interests of universal humanity, the harsh fatalities are seen to be full of beneficence - the same beneficence which brings to early graves the children of diseased parents...Under the natural order of things society is constantly excreting its unhealthy, imbecile, slow, vacillating, faithless members. If they are sufficiently complete to live, they do live, and it is well that they should live. If they are not suffiently complete to live, they die, and its best they should die’.

‘Status Anxiety’ in Part Two shows us how we can deal with such prejudices through philosophy, art, politics, Christianity or Bohemia. If we feel that others look down on us, we can either take up pursuits which cannot be judged in the same way, or free ourselves from what others think of us. We can enjoy the genre of the Greek Tragedy, where the wealthy or powerful ruler is reduced in honour and status to that of a beggar through some mistake on his part.

This book is written by an author who doesn't have a political axe to grind, but does show up how we have become enslaved by the social anxiety of our status. This book is both educational and entertaining, and is well worth reading whatever your social position.

©Jolyon Gumbrell 2007

Last of the Line, by Patricia Gumbrell, ISBN 1-904445-12-8, published by Whitles Publishing in 2005

In reviewing ‘Last of the Line’ Jolyon Gumbrell has got to state an interest, in that the book's author is his mother Patricia Gumbrell. However, irrespective of the book’s subject matter being about his ancestors' history as lighthouse keepers, the reviewer always tries to be impartial and approaches the book as if he had only just opened it for the first time.

‘Last of the Line’ is the history of three lighthouse keeping families: the Darlings, Halls and Knotts, who were connected by marriage of which the Darlings and Halls are the ancestors of Patricia Gumbrell nee Hall. Although the Corporation of Trinity House is still responsible for lighthouses and other navigational aids around the coasts of England, Wales and the Channel Islands; the profession of lighthouse keeper no longer exists, as all lighthouses along these coastlines are now automated. ‘Last of the Line’ is written from the perspective of the keepers and their families, who once lived and worked at these remote coastal locations.

The book begins with the story of the Hall family, who lived at Dale in Pembrokeshire towards the end of the 18th Century. During that time, Thomas Hall born around 1734 who originated from the Northeast of England was a mariner, as was his son John Hall. John Hall drowned at sea in 1810, just a few weeks before his own son also called John was born. It was John Hall (1810 to 1881) who became a lighthouse keeper and served at St. Ann's head in the 1830's and then moved to the Skerries lighthouse off Anglesey in 1841. John Hall was married to Elizabeth Jones in 1831 and two of their children married into lighthouse keeping families of Knott and Darling. Their daughter Ellen Margaret Hall married Henry Knott and their son Thomas Owen Hall married Grace Horsley Darling. Grace was the niece of the famous Grace Darling of the rescue of the survivors of the Forfarshire. Thomas Owen Hall and Grace Horsley Darling are the great grandparents of Patricia Gumbrell.

The last lighthouse keeper in the family to serve Trinity House was Patricia's father, Harold Owen Hall. ‘Last of the Line’ covers his life in some detail, which includes accounts of two occasions when his life was in danger, because bad weather had prevented supplies of food from being brought by boat to remote rock lighthouses. On the first occasion when he was a boy living with his parents at Coquet Island during the First World War, the lifeboat was needed to bring emergency provisions to the Island to prevent the keepers and their families from starving. On the second occasion, Harold was serving as a Supernumerary Assistant Keeper at the Wolf Rock off the Cornish coast in 1922. When the relief boat failed to arrive, the keepers had to survive on limited reserve rations for another two weeks. When the crew of the lighthouse were finally rescued by the relief boat, two of the light keepers had to spend time in hospital, while Harold was put on a special diet by the doctor in order to make a full recovery.

Patricia Gumbrell’s account of her own childhood also gives the reader a good idea what life must have been like for the wives and children of lighthouse keepers. It was often difficult for the children to settle in any one place, because the nature of their parents occupation meant that the families could be transferred to another part of the country at short notice. It also meant that a lighthouse keeper would have to live away from his family, when he was stationed on a rock lighthouse such as Beachy Head, while his wife and daughter would have to live in lodgings in a place like Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Probably one of the most inconvienient things about this type of life for a family was having their furniture in storage whilst looking for a new home to rent. By the time that Patricia's mother Josephine had found a house or flat then Harold might be given orders to transfer to another lighthouse, so the family would have to inform the new landlord that they could not take the house because they were being forced to move on again because of the job.

‘Last of the Line’ is interesting because it gives an historical account of the everyday lives of people who proudly followed an occupation, which in recent years has been made obsolete by modern technology. For generations their professionalism kept the mariner safe from rocks and sandbanks in our coastal waters.

Brainwashing The Science of thought control, by Kathleen Taylor, ISBN 0-19-920478-0, published by Oxford University Press in 2004.

Review by Jolyon Gumbrell 4th October 2007

Kathleen Taylor the author of ‘Brainwashing The science of thought control’, is described on the page before the frontispiece of the book as: ‘a research scientist in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford.’ The book has been published by Oxford University Press, which points to the fact that the author is a neuroscientist, who can comment from a professional perspective on a subject which is extremely complex, controversial and emotive.

Kathleen Taylor begins her book by talking about the history of brainwashing. The expression brainwashing was coined by a CIA operative called Edward Hunter in 1950, at the time of the Korean War. Hunter had investigated why American soldiers who had been taken prisoner by the Communists in North Korea, had been converted to believe in communist ideology, retaining these communist beliefs after their release and return home to the United States. However, as Kathleen Taylor points out in her book, the process of changing other peoples beliefs by force or much more subtle means, has a far older history than the Korean War.

The book analyses some of the notorious cases, where brainwashing has been used by charismatic cult leaders such as Charles Manson or the Reverend Jim Jones with fatal consequences for the cults' victims and followers. We find out how a dictator, politician, religious fanatic, or any other influence technician can use abstract or ethereal ideas to manipulate emotions to gain control over people’s minds. These ethereal ideas such as ‘freedom, a State, or God’, are often more important to a society than individuals within or outside of the group.

‘Brainwashing The science of thought control’ introduces the reader to scientific terms, used by neuroscience to describe the parts and workings of the human brain. Reading this book should help any individual to protect himself or herself against brainwashing or other influence techniques.

©Jolyon Gumbrell 2007

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