Archive for the 'Uncategorized' category
Voices from an Evil God
12:31 am
I’ve just had a late night phone call from a film director thanking me for my assistance with his forthcoming production, entitled the Peter Film, which deals with Peter Sutcliffe, better known as the Yorkshire Ripper. Very briefly, I was in my early teens when Sutcliffe began what we know of his rampage in the mid 1970s, although subsequent investigations point towards an earlier date for the beginning of these slayings.
As most people are surely aware, a large part of the North of England was effectively under siege before Sutcliffe was apprehended, so these appalling events were featured prominently in the news for years. I was interested in them at the time, as was most of the rest of the population of Britain, and I’ve maintained my interest in the case ever since, I suppose. Colin Wilson was the official Daily Mail correspondent on the crimes at the time, while there were other aspects such as the decades-long hunt for Wearside Jack.
Be all that as it may, this production has occupied some of my midnight hours in recent months, so I hope that regular readers of Eternal Idol will understand my seeming absence from these pages over the period in question.
More Stonehenge-related material to follow as soon as possible, and I’ve certainly not forgotten my planned follow-up to the post on the aurochs.
Save Me
11:29 pm
Those of you who read Eternal Idol from outside Britain may not be aware of this, but a General Election is due to be held in a few weeks time. My view on British politics could pretty much be summed up by the following question “Which pack of useless, light-fingered liars is slightly less useless, light-fingered and mendacious than the others?”
As I wrote in a previous post, my time’s currently occupied by working on two major projects that have come up, so it seems a happy coincidence that an election’s been called and an even happier one that an issue’s been raised in which I have a genuine interest.
The rock star Brian May has launched an organisation called “Save Me“, which is based on the simple premise that a great many people here in Britain are against fox-hunting, as demonstrated by endless polls over the years. My view on this vile practise is that if a fox is stealing your poultry or otherwise terrorising your pets or livestock, then by all means shoot it. There is an argument that it’s humane to hunt foxes, or apex predators, with packs of dogs specially bred for stamina instead of speed, and there are also arguments that the cunning old fox actually enjoys this pastime, logic that will doubtless win me over on the day my I.Q sinks to the level of a goldfish.
I rarely look at the statistics for this site, but I’m aware that it gets an enormous amount of traffic and that many of you visit it repeatedly and spend a lot of time here. I could long ago have taken advantage of this by putting up adverts, but I haven’t done so and I have no intention of doing so. My principal interests are Stonehenge, Silbury Hill and the ‘missing years’ of Jesus, and there’s a huge amount of posts, links and informed comments on these subjects here, all of which are free to anyone who wishes to read them. I gather that other sites archive their material and charge for access, but not Eternal Idol.
So, if any one of you reading this has ever spent a pleasurable 15 minutes or so on this site, then I’m very pleased. I can’t twist anyone’s arm and I wouldn’t try to, but if you feel like spending a few seconds signing up to Brian’s “Save Me” site and registering your vote to keep England’s green and pleasant land free of what’s euphemistically termed a “blood sport”, then I’ll be happier still.
My time should be my own again soon and there’s backlog of posts to publish, while two announcements are imminent as well and those of you who visit this site should be the first to hear about them.
Victoria Beckham with foxtail accessory; pure class, makes you proud to be British….
In my book “The Missing Years of Jesus”, I noted that when Jesus appeared in Nazareth at the start of his famous ministry, he was unrecognisable to those who should have known him best. I reasoned that, had he left his home village just a decade or so before, then it was doubtful that his appearance would have changed a great deal in the intervening years.
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The Darkness Drops Again
7:33 pm
My apologies to everyone who has tried to log in to Eternal Idol recently, only to draw a blank. I was away in London for three days, then upon my return, I discovered that ‘dark forces’ had been at work. Now, happily, normal service seems to have resumed, so I would like to thank everyone for all the emails, which I’ll try to respond to as soon as I can, while I was particularly interested to read those sent by the representatives of an otherwise ‘silent readership’ of this site.
I was lucky enough to go to a singularly lively party last night, so when my hangover’s dissipated, I’ll begin work on another far more detailed post.
Post Scriptum: I had other plans for the next post, but I’ve just learned of this review of my book by the awe-inspiring, impartial intellect that is David V Barrett of the Catholic Herald. If anyone would like to have a good laugh at my expense, then please read it – in the meantime, I’ll be composing a suitably humble response ‘propter meas maximas culpas.
I would like to draw everyone’s attention to a new website that’s been put together by Edwin Hopper, the brother of someone I had the pleasure of working with during my time with Wessex Archaeology.
As you’ll see, Edwin’s site contains a great deal of material with more to come, while I suspect that readers of Eternal Idol may be particularly interested by “The Matter of Britain“, which is a collection of original source documents for early British history.
My time is less and less my own these days, but I shall certainly be visiting these pages regularly; I suspect that there are some gems hidden away there and I’m sure many of you will enjoy perusing this fantastic collection of documents.
I’ve never met Edwin, but I’d like to thank him for what is obviously a labour of love. while Eternal Idol’s run on pretty much the same basis, of course. It’s heartening to know that there are others ‘out there’ with a fascination for early British history and I’m sure we’ll all be the richer for the work that Edwin’s put in.
Invictus
6:14 pmLucy
11:21 pm
My beautiful, beautiful niece Lucy, someone whom I loved and admired very much. Lucy was an archaeologist, she was kind to animals, she had a great sense of humour, she was wonderful with children…and now she’s gone, taken away from all those who loved her by the scourge of cancer.
For far longer than I care to think of, Lucy displayed a degree of bravery that I find hard to grasp, and I will miss her terribly.
May 5th, 1979 – November 23rd 2009.
Remembrance
1:52 am
I’ve always revered the ancestors who built Stonehenge, but today is a day when we remember the dead of far more recent times, regardless of our views on the nature of the conflicts they died in.
I’m not frightened of many things, but I was absolutely astonished when I read of Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, who had defused 64 explosive devices on one five-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.
I simply cannot conceive of that level of bravery, so it is little wonder that his widow proudly Christina said of her husband “There is no other man above him” and I for one wouldn’t argue with her.
Like many other people, I watched last week’s Question Time on the BBC and I didn’t find it an edifying spectacle. I’m relying on my memory, but the one quote that stuck in my mind was Baroness Warsi observing that not all people who voted for the British National Party hold racist views, a statement that took some insight and bravery to make.
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