A Sad Anniversary

I just didn't feel right this morning. My kibun was bent all out of shape and I couldn't figure out why. Then I saw the date and realised today would have been my brother David's 70th Birthday. He died on 8th January 1984 in Seoul, Korea aged just 43. The Koreans cremated his body the next morning and David's Death Certificate just read: Cause of Death: "Illness"

By the time the police knocked on my parents' door, poor David was already ashes. I was in Tokyo on business in 1987 and decided to go incognito to Korea and see if I could find out anything more about David's end.  I presented my passport at the immigration window at Kimpo Airport in Seoul and watched with increasing concern as the Immigration Officer firstly scrutiniised me again after looking at a list on her computer and then pressed a buzzer that must have rung somewhere in a security office. I was arrested and held incommunicado overnight in  an airport cell before being deported on a flight to Hong Kong early the next morning.

We never were able to establish how David died. A burst ulcer was the closest we got.  David Nicholas Elliott Squires would have turned seventy today.  I would swap everything I've ever done to be able to buy him a drink today. God Bless you, David, wherever you are today.

G20 And The Countdown to Global Disaster

As the world leaders gather in Toronto this weekend for the G20 the prospect of global economic meltdown is an extra participant none of them wants to discuss openly. The main reason this unwelcome guest has shown up again is that the United States of America Government together with  Chuck and Chardonnay Consumer cannot face the reality of their need to cut back spending and start again living within their means.

Rather than face reality,  the Americans prefer to keep borrowing from emerging nations in Asia so that Chuck and Chardonnay can continue buying imports. Americans will thus continue to spend more than they produce. This is La La land and will lead eventually to a global disaster with unforeseable consequences.

The Europeans meanwhile led by the gloomy Germans with France and the UK in tow and prompted by the Greek mess have decided to face up to the problem and get  spending back in balance by government cutbacks and increased indirect taxation. This will result in low or no growth in Europe.

The US Govt is not happy about this because, firstly it will lead to less consumer spending in Europe which could spark another economic crisis and secondly it complicates the US Govt plans.

These are all symptoms of the decline of the USA and Europe and the rise of the East plus Brics which is irreversible. The world will be lucky to get through this change without a major war.

Will the real Nick Clegg please stand up......

There is something about Nick Clegg that I'm not sure I like. I am more or less certain he has Lib Dem interests at heart, but sometimes it crosses your mind that it might just be Nick Clegg's interests which come first.
He has taken to the role of  Deputy Prime Minister like a duck to water. But he shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the 2010 election results hardly point to his being a wildly successful leader. We lost five seats, down from 62 to 57. Our share of the vote was 23% up just one percent from 22% in the 2005 Election. In that 2005 election when Kennedy was the leader, Lib Dem seats rose from 52 to 62 and our share of the vote rose from 18.2% to 22%
Charlie Kennedy may have had his flaws with the ciggies, booze et al. but he was a warm, transparent human guy. Nick seems to be covered with a clear plastic coating like a new piece of furniture.  I find myself often wondering what he really thinks, but there will be no open mike in Nick's new ministerial car....he is too clever by half a coalition for that.

The Long March Part #3

I reached the eastern end of the North Norfolk Coastal Path at Cromer on New Years Eve 2009 and decided to have a month's break in January before setting off down the Weavers Way to Great Yarmouth. By the end of January it was snowing regularly in the north east corner of Norfolk and I didn't fancy driving 85 miles from Cambridge just to get stuck in snow on the way home, which had already happened to me driving back from Holt over Christmas.

Then, in the middle of February I wrenched my knee badly getting out of Vic the Veteran Volvo and Dr Bones forbade me from hiking anywhere for six weeks. Before you knew it Cherry Blossom and May arrived and I hadn't walked further than a corkscrew for four months. A quick glance at my burgeoning girth confirmed this in spades. Mix your own metaphores, please

So it was only a couple of weeks ago that I parked up on the front at Cromer and dodging the early Sunday trippers trudged off stiffly up the hill  away from Cromer at the beginning of the 56 mile long Weavers Way.

Barely a mile inland, I came across a large, grey, rather sinister looking Gothic style  manor house set back from the road across a paddock. Turns out to be Cromer Hall, now home to the Cabbell Manners family and with some fascinating stories to tell.

Evelyn Baring, founder of the banking family, who later became the first Earl of Cromer was born at the Hall in 1841. Incidentally it was his third son who married a daughter of the Greys of Falloden and became Lord Howick of Howick Hall near Craster.

The best connection is, however, literary. In 1901 Arthur Conan Doyle returned from South Africa suffering from enteric fever and to recuperate he decided to take a golfing holiday in North Norfolk. He was accompanied by his friend the journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson and stayed at the now demolished Royal Links Hotel in Cromer.

During their visit to Cromer, Conan Doyle and Betram Fletcher Robinson had dinner with Benjamin Bond Cabbell at Cromer Hall. During dinner Cabbell told them about his ancestor, Richard Cabbell - Lord of Brook Manor and Buckfastleigh - who had been killed by a devilish dog. The story went that Richard Cabbell's wife had been unfaithful and that, after beating her, she had fled out onto Dartmoor. Cabbell pursued her and stabbed her - but while committing the murder his wife's faithful dog attacked him and tore out his throat. The ghost of the dog was said to haunt Dartmoor and to reappear to each generation of the Cabbell family. Richard Cabbell became the model for the evil Hugo Baskerville in Conan Doyle's classic tale.

There is also another fascinating connection - the coachman who drove Conan Doyle to Cromer Hall was  called Baskerville. Conan Doyle often drew his character's names from real life.

Conan Doyle was made aware too of the Norfolk legend of Black Shuck - the terrible Hound which terrorised parts of the county. The legend went that anyone looking into the eyes of the hound only had a year to live. Black Shuck is said to haunt Beeston Bump - which is not far from Cromer. Black Shuck is also said to have appeared to the townsfolk of Bungay in 1577 inside St. Mary's Church. The dog is commemorated in the town sign and in a weather vane on top of the market place. Conan Doyle's description of Baskerville Hall bears an uncanny likeness to Cromer Hall:

'The avenue opened into a broad expanse of turf, and the house lay before us. In the fading light I could see that the centre was a heavy block of building from which a porch projected. The whole front was draped in ivy, with a patch clipped bare here and there where a window or a coat-of-arms broke through the dark veil. From this central block rose the twin towers, ancient, crenellated, and pierced with many loopholes. To right and left of the turrets were more modern wings of black granite. A dull light shone through heavy mullioned windows, and from the high chimneys which rose from the steep, high-angled roof there sprang a single black column of smoke.'

 Until the great gale of 1987, Cromer Hall had a yew alley - which plays a major part in the book.Conan Doyle's imagination brought together a number of ideas, characters and locations to create one of Sherlock Holmes' most dramatic adventures. Obviously, he moved the setting from Norfolk to Dartmoor - but the original inspiration lay in Cromer.

If the rest of the Weavers Way proves as interesting, it'll be splendid.