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STOP THE WORLD
STOP THE WORLDto get off!In 1961 Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse launched a West End musical entitled Stop the World, I Want to Get Off. They got the title from a piece of graffiti on an East London...
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A MESSAGE TO MR. HUNT
A MESSAGE to MR. HUNTStand aside from my NHSYou’re not a guard, a sentryYou see treatment as a source of wealthNot free at point of entry.Stand aside from my hospitalWith your greedy, lying grinRun...
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THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN
Saints vs SuperstitionTake a good look up there, Donald - that's not where you'll be going ...It may not seem overtly superstitious but the way in which religion branches out in all manner of bizarre...
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That's Not All Right, Mama
That’s Not All Right, Mama.The sad story of Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup‘“Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now and I said if I ever got to the place...
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Hands off Robin Hood!
HANDS OFF ROBIN HOODEvery now and then the controversy of Robin Hood’s home county is re-kindled like a forest fire between Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. At the time of writing, it’s crackling away...
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The Man Who Feeds The Swans PART 1
The Man Who Feeds the Swans This is a long novel which I have been working on some years. I doubt whether anyone would publish this, yet I'd like to share the work with anyone interested enough to...
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Swans chapter 1
The Man Who Feeds the Swans Chapter 1:Munich, 1978 The Cog‘Life can only be understood backwards;But it must be lived forwards.’Sὄren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)Stadelheim Prison, MunichIn Germany they...
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Swans Chapter 2
THE MAN WHO FEEDS THE SWANS is an on-line novel project whereby a chapter of the work is downloaded every 2 days. To start at the beginning with the prologue, scroll down to July 3.Chapter...
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Swans Chapter 3
Chapter 3Munich: September 1929No doubt the artist is the child of his time; but woe to him if he is also its disciple, or even its favourite.Friedrich SchillerThe scruffy woman in her shabby coat...
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The Man who Feeds The Swans is a novel, a chapter loaded onto this blog every 2 days.Chapter 4Munich: September 1929 “They hurry toward their destiny as though it would not wait. They push the rolling...
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Swans Chapter 5
The Man Who Feeds the Swans Chapter 5Markenburg: October 1929.For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel.Martin LutherAs yet another golden summer melted into a sepia...
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Swans Chapter 6
For new readers: THE MAN WHO FEEDS THE SWANS is a novel placed on line one chapter every 2 days. To start at the beginning, you need to go back in the posts to Part 1 dated July 3. I had thought of...
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Chapter 7Markenburg: November 1929He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future. Adolf HitlerAlbert went back to Munich. It had been nice in some ways having him around, but the way his personality...
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When, Why, WHo?
WHEN, WHY, WHO.Whatever happened to reality?Who opened this creaking door,Who pushed us into a chamber of insanity?What happened to the truth?Who decided that lies trump veracity,Why has black become...
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AS FOREIGN AS THEY COME
AS FOREIGN AS THEY COMEWho thought it a necessityTo make this buffoon Foreign Secretary?This facile, floundering FauntleroyBoorish privileged Bullingdon Boy,Playing with a nation’s futureA rich...
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Chapter 8 Markenburg: November 1929There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternally new now that builds and creates itself out of the best as the past...
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Swans Chapter 9
Chapter 9Berlin: 1933It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority say it is so.Friedrich SchillerIn Markenburg, Gunther had suffered the pangs of love for Ruth, yet had only met her on a...
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Swans Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Markenburg, March 1933.‘We shall have to pass through many a valley, many a narrow defile.Many will grow tired on the way.Of course they will mostly be those who have no reason to do so.’...
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Swans Chapter 11
Chapter 11:Paris: July 1933It is true that liberty is precious –so precious that it must be rationed.V. I. Lenin (1870-1924)Where else could one enjoy café life better than Paris? Sitting outside a...
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Swans Chapter 12
Note to new readers: to read this novel from the beginning, scroll back to Part 1.Chapter 12NuremburgSeptember 3rd 1933‘Patriotism is as fierce as a fever,pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone,and...
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Chapter 13:Markenburg: Christmas 1933Conscience is the inner voice that warns usthat someone may be looking.H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)Albert had hoped for a satisfying conclusion to the exhilaration of...
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FAKE NEWS: THE PSYCHOLOGY
Why don't liberals watch Fox News?Toby Dillon, Short fiction, my specialty. Quora, my current publisher.Updated Jul 18You know those phishing scams, where you get an email that claims to be from Bank...
View ArticleSwans Chapters 15-16
Chapter 15:Berlin – MunichJune 1934: KolibriThe best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassinationVoltaire (1694-1778)Adolf Hitler sometimes felt particularly benevolent on...
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Chapter 17Berlin:February 11th 1935‘Death is merely moving from one home to another. The wise man will spend his main efforts in trying to make his future home the more beautiful one.’Rabbi Menachem...
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Chapter 19MarkenburgSeptember 1936“The drive to propagate our race has also propagated a lot of other things” Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)It had been a good summer, and the wine festival...
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