November Snow

After a week of unseasonably very cold weather, snow arrived overnight. It has not melted at all during the day as it did not get above freezing. But that meant my walk this afternoon in Wendover Woods was very pretty.

My Shakespeare Highlights

I have to start with Hamlet. Until 1988 I had never seen the play, nor knew any detail of the plot. So I watched the story unfold in my seat in the Phoenix Theatre instead of reading the play at school. And I have to say it was an amazing experience, being such a wonderful thriller as well as great writing. And we had Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet. The director was Derek Jacobi.

In 1993, Branagh again played Hamlet, this time directed by Adrian Noble for the RSC at The Barbican. It was probably a better performance, but I guess nothing could surpass the first time you see this play.

When I heard that the RSC in Stratford were to perform all the history plays in sequence during 2000, I joined as member so I would get priority booking. It was fortunate that I did as the first in the sequence, Richard II, was staged at their tiny studio The Other Place. Just a hundred or so of us watched in the January an amazing cast as such close quarters, especially if like me you were in the second row so the actors were in touching distance. So onto the summer and Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, a terrific modern staging of Henry V at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

But the highlight was yet to come with Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3 all in a day. That was the 30th December 2000 at the Swan Theatre in Stratford, a day to remember. How the cast managed to perform all three plays in a day is beyond me. But the time just flew by. I was unable to get tickets for the limited run in Stratford for Richard III, but I managed to get a ticket for their run at The Young Vic in London. And it was nice to see yet another different theatre.

In 2003, Michael came with me to see The Tempest with Derek Jacobi as Prospero at The Old Vic. He was wonderful in the part, but the real highlight came at the end.


The final words of the play are when Prospero addresses the audience. This soliloquy must be the finest Shakespeare wrote, and Derek Jacobi said the words with such clarity and emotion. It was the best thing I have heard on the stage, and it is the actor who made it so.

131 Songs - Numbers 66, 67 and 68

These songs are taken from what are probably my three favourite soundtrack albums.

Number 66 - El Matador by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs


I had enjoyed the movie Grosse Pointe Blank so much (it is in my favourite top ten movies of all time) but I was still not prepared for the music over the closing credits. The first blast from El Matador pinned me to my seat. I had not heard the song before, never mind the hardly known Argentine rock band. And I had never experienced before or since such an heart pounding finale to a movie. Fabuloso.

Number 67 - Hotel California by The Gypsy Kings


This song actually makes it's second appearance on my list, The Eagles version is Number 29. Wiki says of the French assemble's version "this is an excellent example of fast flamenco guitar leads and rythmic strumming". I think it is just brilliant. In the movie it introduces us to Jesus Quintana, played by the wonderful John Turturro, at the bowling alley. A stunning sequence.

Number 67 - The Ballad of Lucy Jordan by Marianne Faithful


Another great soundtrack, but the standout song for me is the best recording ever made by Marianne Faithful. Written by Shel Silverstein, it not only fits the fatalistic theme of the movie so well, but it gives me goosebumps whenever I listen to the lyrics. It would have made my list even if it had not been in a movie.

Newfield Hall

Newfield Hall was the last residence of my great great grandfather John Shearwood Roberts. He must have moved there sometime after the 1901 Census where he was living on Glossop Road. John was living at Newfield Hall at the 1911 Census and died there in 1915. The hall was left in his will to his son Charles Augustus Roberts.

The hall no longer exists, but I am indebted to Steve at the sheffieldhistory forum for these images. The one below shows where the hall once stood.

There is little that remains of the old hall, the wall shown below may have been the main entrance.

The following map indicates where the hall was located.

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Gobe Theatre production of The Merry Wives of Windsor is the funniest of any Shakespeare play I have seen. This is in no small way due to the brilliant direction of Christopher Luscombe. This production was first performed at The Gobe in 2008, being revived this year before touring the UK (fortunately for us it visited Milton Keynes) and the USA before becoming a regular part of the Globe repertoire. It is the timing of the actors that brings out the comedy, many of the best lines are delivered straight to the audience.

The programme notes refer to how the play has much in common with modern TV sit-com. Andrew Havill who plays Frank Ford is a double for Basil Fawlty. The lighting is supreme, the costumes look great, the moving scenery perfect and the choreography spot on. I just cannot fault a single aspect. The ensemble acting was top drawer and it is hard to pick out any individual. But I will say that the two wives, Serena Evans as Meg Page and Sarah Woodward as Alice Ford are wonderful. A lot is due to the direction of their comic dual act, but they deliver their lines with clarity and panache.

I have also to mention the musicians, perched on top of the rotating set, they bring a sense of well being to their contribution. The musical number at the end brings the audience's applause to a rhythmic clapping as the company takes a bow to the final tune, whilst the two wives are left to say a last goodbye with a reprise of their gay pat-a-cake. Ingenious and a great end to a memorable evening.

P.S. That only leaves Coriolanus, Alls Well That Ends Well, Henry VIII and Two Gentleman of Verona left on my list of 34 Shakespeare plays to see. There are another six but they are so rarely performed, that I am not optimistic of seeing them.

John Shearwood Roberts

John Shearwood Roberts was born on the 6th March 1833, the eldest son of Sidney and Sarah Roberts. His second Christian name is taken from his mother's maiden name. His father Sidney was a silversmith and silver plater. There is a reference in Frederick Bradbury's A History of Old Sheffield Plate of Sidney going into partnership in 1826 (when Sidney was 22) with Samuel Roberts, Evan Smith and William Sissons in a firm called Roberts, Smith & Co. Sidney, Evan and William had all trained in silver plate at the Eyre Street business of Samuel Roberts who was by this time 63 years old.

Sidney's father Jacob was the the third in three generations of cutlers (my blog posting of 28th August 2008) and was running his Uncle Samuel's Union Street business until he died at the age of 56 in 1820. Jacob had married Mary Ann Morton, the daughter of the prosperous silversmith Richard Morton, in 1793. I have copies of letters from Mary to her husband from 1814 and 1816.

So when John Shearwood Roberts was born in 1833, his father was in the 1826 ten year partnership. John never knew his grandfather Jacob, but his grandmother Mary lived a comfortable life until she died at the age of 79 in 1849. She and her husband Jacob are buried in the family tomb in Ecclesall Churchyard (see posting 22nd June 2009).

The next we know about John and his parents is the 1841 Census when they are living in Hanover Street in Ecclesall. They have one servant living with them, a twenty year old housemaid. John is 8 years old and his father is 36. His occupation is stated as living off independent means. It seems that the partnership had run it's course and Sidney had retired from the proceeds. He is also stated as a retired silver plater in the 1851 Census.

John did well enough at school to be able to go to St Andrew's University in Edinburgh where he graduated as a doctor. He became a Member of The Royal College of Surgeons and a Licentiate of The Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh and London). He married Ellen Littlewood in 1855 (his father Sidney again stated as a "Gentleman"). In the 1851 census, John is living with his wife and already four children and two servants in Owlerton. At this time he is practicing as a surgeon, probably as surgeon accoucher at Sheffield Public Hospital, later Sheffield Royal Hospital.

At some point he set up practice at 356 Glossop Road and the family lived there for some considerable time. John also became interested in property and eventually amassed a considerable amount of property, including numerous houses, pubs and farms in Sheffield and other districts. The indenture to his will that splits the properties between his six children runs to 37 pages. The Fifth Schedule of properties assured to my Great Grandfather Vincent alone numbers 24 Freehold Hereditaments and 2 Leaseholds. Item 1 of these comprises four dwellinghouses in Pond Street and another four at the rear. Items 4 and 5 are large houses where Vincent lived, 30 Psalter Lane in Ecclesall and Chippingham House in Attercliffe Road where Vincent practised as a doctor. Items 9 and 11 are farms near Bradfield. Like any landowner or property magnet, John was not always a popular man.

In later years he owned and moved to Newfield Hall in Ecclesall, which was left to his son Charles Augustus Roberts. It was there that the father of my distant cousin and correspondent Nigel Buchanan ( to whom I am indebted for so much of this information) used to go to copy out and update registers of deeds for JSR. John's wife Ellen left him in later years to live near her son John Shearwood Roberts junior. At the 1911 Census she is living with a housekeeper at Rosebury Gardens, Crouch End. She died aged 79 in 1914 and was buried in Highgate Cemetary. John died a year later aged 82 and is buried in the Roberts tomb in Ecclesall churchyard.

The Social Network, Let Me In and Skyline

I was so looking forward to seeing The Social Network, perhaps a little too much. Yes, it was an engrossing and interesting movie, and very well crafted, given the director was David Fincher and the writer Aaron Sorkin. But in the end, these two heavyweights could not disguise for me what was two hours in the company of some pretty obnoxious people. This made it a rather uncomfortable to watch. And because the final resolution in court was obviously kept confidential, there is no satisfactory ending. What would have been better was if they could have constructed an invention of something like Facebook and gone for a story that was entirely fictional. Now that would be a great movie.

The Swedish movie Let The Right One In was one of my favourites of last year. So it was only Claudia Winkleman, the new presenter of Film 2010 who persuaded me that the American remake, Let Me In, was worth seeing. And she was right. If anything it does surpass the original which is really surprising. Much of the remake is identical to the original, but I found the dialogue to be really good, the young actors outstanding and Richard Jenkins terrific as the father. Matt Reeves did a fantastic job, sympathetic to the original, but with lighter touch combined with some sudden dramatic shocks. One of this year's favourite films.

Humans in peril from alien invasion. Nothing new here and nothing new in the scifi cgi movie Skyline. A film based around the special effects woven by the the brothers Colin and Greg Strause has little in common with Cloverfield and District 9 in that it has a rubbish script, poor acting and only one location. That is if you ignore the extremely silly ending. You have been warned.

The Tenderness of Wolves, Call for the Dead and Music and Silence

I had reservations about reading a novel set in the early settlements of 1867 Canada, but Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves won the 2006 Costa Book of the Year, so I decided to give it a try. It is quite long for a part thriller, part family drama, but once I started I was never going to give up. It is well written but just a little repetitive and slightly tedious as the search for the main protagonists goes deeper into the hard landscape. For me it is the writing that kept me going. It is a good story, and exciting in parts, it just could have done with being condensed, and then it would have been great.

I am catching up on the early novels of my favourite author, John Le Carre. Call for the Dead is a short book written in 1961 and introduces the now famous George Smiley. I was surprised how good it was for his very first novel. It definitely contains his trademark thrills wrapped up in a sense of mystery, but at the same time beautifully written. I'm looking forward to his second book, A Murder of Quality.

Ever since I joined the book club, I am on the look out for something I would not normally read. A long historical novel about a young English lutenist who joins the orchestra of the King of Denmark in 1629 is very different to my normal reading. I'm just not that keen on historical novels. But I so wanted to read another book by Rose Tremain after her brilliant The Road Home and Sacred Country. Her earlier novel Music and Silence had won the 1999 Whitbread Book of the Year, so that was that. Did I enjoy it? Well. sort of. I have to admit I nearly gave up a couple of times early on, but something kept me wanting to know what happened. The writing is a little strange as it tries to reflect the language of the time, whilst still trying to be modern. You have to get used to it. It is a little sprawling in it's shifts of character and place, and as such it would have done no harm to condense some of the passages. But it is very atmospheric and the different threads are brought together quite masterfully. I can see why it won the award as it is beautifully written. Not quite my cup of tea, but very glad that I persevered. Oh, and it does have one of the most interesting characters in modern fiction. Kirsten Munk, married to King Christian IV of Denmark, and almost Queen. I'm glad I never have to meet her.

Manchester City v Birmingham City

We had not been to see City play for years, so for Alison's 50th birthday, I managed to buy three tickets for their home game against Birmingham as we had never been to the new stadium. And it was a Saturday afternoon kick-off. We always used to go with Chas, our brother-in-law, and he also came with us to Eastlands this time. I cannot remember the last time we went to Maine Road, but it was a long time ago.

We had been to the occasional away game when City were playing in the south, but again not for a long time. Many of these were when City made regular visits to lower leagues and I still have the programmes for the games at Watford (March 89) Oxford United (April 89) and Luton (November 91). But the last time we watched City play were the games in the Premier League at QPR (February 93) and Arsenal (August) and Tottenham in 1994.

So here we were sixteen years later, making our way by train from Marple to Manchester Piccadilly and walking in beautiful sunshine from there to Eastlands. The City of Manchester Stadium and the surrounds are very open and smart, a far cry from the claustrophobia of Maine Road.

We arrived early and we were able to have a good look round. Inside, the stadium is even more impressive. The only seats available were high up in the Colin Bell Stand, but we still had amazing views. and we were close to the halfway line. The seats in the opposite stand were facing the blinding sun, so again we were very lucky.

The match itself was a disappointment, Birmingham set out for a goalless draw and that is what we got. City did not have the guile up front to break down a stubborn defence. And all that money paid for strikers. But it did not spoil what was a brilliant and memorable day.

Tring Book Club - The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

We had a bit of a problem on Tuesday evening. Book Club was arranged for 7.30pm at The Duck Inn, but when I arrived the car park was deserted except for a couple of large vans and Hilary stepping out of her car. The pub was actually closed for refurbishment, but there was no sign of the others. Hilary and I waited for ten minutes and decided that for whatever reason, the rest had either arrived at 7pm (our usual start time) and had moved on or gone home, or not arrived at all.

We guessed that if they had moved on, the most likely venue would have been The Crows Nest just up the road. And whatever happened, we would have our own meeting. There was nobody there, so Hilary and I grabbed a drink and settled down in a quiet corner and talked about The Other Hand.

I thought that the beginning was excellent. We are introduced to Little Bee, a 16 year old refugee from Nigeria waiting to be turned out of a detention centre. The description of the girls in the queue for the telephone was very entertaining, Then we move to Chapter 2 and a funeral for the husband of other main character, Sarah. This section is one of the most poignant and moving pieces that I have read for a long time. "Death of course is a refuge. It's where you go when a new name, (a reference to Little Bee) or a mask and cape, (Sarah's small boy is never out of his Batman costume, not even for the funeral) can no longer hide you from yourself. It's where you run to when none of the principalities of your conscience will grant you asylum."

Unfortunately, the book loses it's way towards the end. There is a requirement to partly suspend belief in the characters in any event, (but not detrimental to my enjoyment) but some later events are so contrived that the ending is a little spoilt. However, on the whole I did like the book. There are some decent bits of writing that I liked. "There are countries of the world, (a reference to a disastrous trip to Nigeria) and regions of one's own mind, where it is unwise to travel.") When two world collide, the consequences in this story keeps the reader interested to the last page.

131 Songs - Numbers 63, 64 and 65

Songs from Films

Coming up to halfway through my choice of 131 songs, it's time to list those that, for me, have played such a big part in making a scene in a movie so memorable. There are quite a few. Here are the first three.

Number 63 - I've Waited So Long by Anthony Newley

One of the films I saw in my teenage years was the 1959 movie Idol On Parade. This was basically a vehicle for the twin acting and singing talents of Anthony Newley. He started out as a child actor, graduating to more mature roles when he became an adult. The song has not stood the test of time, it seems very hammy these days. But it did reach number 3 in the charts, due mainly to it's exposure in the film. And it does stay in my memory after all this time.

Number 64 - I Should have Known Better by The Beatles

Everything I want to say was described in my posting of the 8th September 2009: The London Pavilion cinema, the soundtrack of A Hard Day's Night, the guards'van. And I went to see the film twice in a week.

Number 65 - You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry
The world famous Jack Rabbit Slims Twist Contest is, for me, the highlight of Pulp Fiction. John Travolta and Una Thurman dance to victory to one of Chuck's greatest songs. It provided a never to be forgotten moment in movie history.

Mark Gatiss and The History of Horror

The three part The History of Horror presented by Mark Gatiss was an excellent series. The second episode (Home Counties Horror) was particularly interesting as it concentrated on British horror films of the 1950's and 60's of which I was particularly keen. Although by today's standards, they now seem pretty tame.

It all started for me (and for Mark) with The Quatermass Experiment. This was a BBC TV drama shown in 1953. I can remember that at eight years old I was packed off to bed well before the six half hour episodes started. It was actually a regular sci fi thriller, but one deemed too scary in those days. Now it would be as horrifying as Doctor Who. Two years later, I was still banned from watching Quatermass II. The third and final serial Quatermass and The Pit was shown in 1958/9. I cannot quite remember if this was allowed or not. But I do remember the fuss it caused at the time.

So it was probably my fascination with science fiction that led me to horror films of the 1960's, particularly the British made Hammer films that Mark Gatiss described in his programme. He also surprised me with the fact that Robert Wise made The Haunting in the UK in 1963, in between West Side Story and The Sound of Music. I know which movie I preferred. And to come full circle, Hammer Films are the producers of Let Me In, a remake of the wonderful Swedish movie Let The Right One In, a vampire movie for those who don't like vampire movies.

Roger Rees

We were knocked out by the performance of Roger Rees in two episodes of the first series of The West Wing as the eccentric British Ambassador Lord John Marbury. I was very glad to see that he appears in future series. The West Wing has now become a regular feature of our Saturday Night viewing, being over half way through the first series.

The last episode also had two stand out guest performances. It was brilliant to see Karl Malden as Father Thomas Cavanaugh. Marlee Matlin is an actress I don't know, but what a great job she did as Joey Lucas. Looking forward to seeing her in later series.

Boddington Hill Iron Age Fort

I have walked the circular route at the top of Boddington Hill on countless occasions, being an easy 3/4 mile flat route after the hills of Wendover Woods. Boddington Hill rises in a horseshoe shape above Wendover so it is no wonder it was the site of a Hill Fort. Apparently it was in use between 600 and 400BC.

The two photographs show the remains of the excavations that formed the protective bank and ditch of the fort that run all around the top of the hill. This year the Chiltern Society Conservation Group have been clearing the bank where it has overgrown in order to better show off it's features.

Aylesbury Rugby Club v Swindon

Although Aylesbury Rugby Club play in Weston Turville, I have only been down to the ground on the odd occasion. But on Saturday they were playing Swindon, the leaders of the Southern Counties North league. Aylesbury had gone unbeaten in their last four games which had taken them up to second, so a top of the table clash seemed inviting. I cycled down to the ground and met my next door neighbour and this two sons who play for Aylesbury junior teams.

I have to say that the standard was far higher than I had imagined. It was a mild day, with perfect playing conditions and lots of tries. Aylesbury scored six of them, four in the first half, and went away winners by 36 points to 19. This meant that they took over as league leaders, (the first time they head the table in eight years) much to the delight of the dozens of supporters. Swindon were already struggling when their number eight was sent off, fifteen minutes into the second half, and never got out of their own half after that.

Apparently Aylesbury have rarely played better, possibly due to the presence of their local born part time coach James Buckland, the ex England A international who now plays for London Irish having previously played for Leicester, Northampton and Wasps. A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.