So, having read A Boy in Winter, I moved onto my next library book, a 500+page door stop by Robert Harris called Precipice. I admire Harris’ books and so didn’t bother to read the blurb before borrowing the book from the library. Turns out it’s set in the years just preceding and at the beginning of the First World War. More parallels. Then tonight I thought I’d catch up on the latest series of A House Through Time presented by the ever wonderful David Olusoga. This time it follows the occupants of two blocks of flats in the 1930s and 40s. That’s right. I’m back in the Second World War. one block of flats is in Marylebone, London, the other in Berlin. I’ve watched two episodes now and tears have been shed. More parallels, more senseless persecution, more senseless death. But yes, I shall watch the next episodes.
They say those who don’t learn from history ware doomed to repeat it. Yup. The lessons are so stark, so clear. Surely only those who actively choose to ignore them can be seduced by Trump, Farage et al? Or not. Ugh. Trump. One year. Emily Maitlis on tonight’s News Agents podcast opined it’s not diplomats we need talking to Donnie but psychotherapists. Donnie is a man who has seriously lost it. He is as much Stalin as Hitler. Can you imagine the fate of anyone suggesting he might need to spend time in a quiet room, turn off his social media, find a still, calm centre (I can’t say his still, calm centre as I don’t believe he has one), learn to mediate, help out in, for example, a homeless shelter? If you don’t know about Stalin, aka Uncle Joe, which makes him sound like a gentle old codger, check him out. He was not good news. Maybe try the film. It’s very good.
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