Monthly Archives: June 2024

History Extra The Bloomsbury Group: everything you wanted to know. Good heavens, this was released in January! The Bloomsbury Group started as an ‘at home’ at 46 Gordon Square Bloomsbury, amongst people who wanted to live differently. Vanessa (Bell) and Virginia (Woolf) Stephen were at the heart of it. They then moved to Kensington, and young men from Cambridge would come for cocoa after 10.00 p.m. The group included Lytton Strachey, Toby Stephen, Duncan Grant (with the beautiful voice, who nearly everyone was in love with at some stage), J. Maynard Keynes, Clive Bell, Saxon Sydney-Turner, Roger Fry. Leonard Woolf differed from the rest in that he did not come from a privileged background. The group moved from the sitting room into public debate, although they did not share a unified political position. There were all sorts of triangles, especially revolving around the homosexual Duncan Grant, who nonetheless had a child with Vanessa Bell. The group, most definitely an elite, nonetheless moved into the centre of English life in the fields of economics, literature and art.

You’re Dead to Me (BBC) Simón Bolívar I’ve been interested in Simón Bolívar for some time, and so I was interested in this rather irreverent podcast featuring Dr Francisco Eissa-Barroso and comedian Katie Green, who really knew more about Latin American history than she let on. Simón Bolívar, or ‘The Liberator’ as he was known, was responsible for the overthrowing of Spanish colonialism in six countries, but he himself distrusted democracy. He was born in Venezuela to a very rich plantation-owning family. In 1799 he joined the militia, went to Madrid and married a woman who died of yellow fever soon after they returned to Venezuela. He visited post-Revolutionary Paris where he was both impressed and repelled by Napoleon, and he committed himself to independence from Spain. His first attempt was when Caracas declared itself independent from Spain in an attempt to avoid being taken over by Napoleonic France. Along with Miranda, who he had met in exile in London, he headed a rebellion, but an ill-timed earthquake seemed to be God’s punishment and the rebellion collapsed, Miranda fled and Bolívar was captured. His second attempt was a three month campaign, marked by atrocities on both sides, but after making himself dictator (in the Roman sense of a dictator for emergency times), he was overthrown in a counter-revolution. He was almost killed by an assassin, but the assassin killed the wrong man. and Bolívar then decided on a third attempt, planning to attack New Granada instead and invade Caracas from there. He was successful, and Peru and Bolivia became independent nations too. He drafted the Bolivian Constitution, which had some liberal elements but some pretty illiberal ones too- like being able to name his successor. He met Manuela, whom he loved but did not marry because he had sworn not to remarry after the death of his first wife. Manuela saved him from a second assassination attempt. But by 1830 everything was falling apart, the various nations seceded and went their own way, and he died. Nonetheless, he has been used as a unifying political myth, especially by Chavez.

The Rest is History Luther: The Man Who Changed the World (Part I) is the first of a five part series. Obviously Tom and Dominic are becoming fans of the long-form podcast over several episodes. But let’s face it: Luther did shake things up. But would there have been a Reformation even if there were no Martin Luther? Luther himself was born in an outpost of religious thought, the son of a pugilistic, upwardly-mobile ex-miner from a smelting plant. Martin was the pious, educated eldest son growing up in apocalyptic times, with Islam on the march. He was a brilliant student, but there was nothing to suggest the influence he would have later on. The First Reformation had occurred in the 11th century when the medieval church divided the world into two realms: the early and the Church. The clergy became professional Christians, Latin was introduced into the mass, and the scheme of indulgences was established. Huss, a precursor to Luther, had proclaimed that the Bible was the ultimate source of authority, and ended up arrested and burned in 1414.

Usually on the second Saturday of every month, I go to the cinema with my Unitarian Universalist fellowship. But this month, there weren’t any movies that seemed appealing showing at the right time, so I decided to go to a concert where one of my Unitarian friends and her husband were singing. The group is called ‘All of Us’, conducted by Stephen Sharpe and they were excellent.

The program ‘Homegrown’ reflected the fact that all of the pieces that they performed were written either by locals, choir members or friends. People are just so talented: I’m in awe of them. There were two beautiful, and complementary songs about war. In the first, ‘One of Us’ conductor Stephen Sharpe took Paul Keating and Don Watson’s words at the funeral service for the Unknown Soldier . The second, with words and music by Bruce Watson, was called ‘The War Without a Name’ and it marked the loss of life in the Frontier Wars that it has taken us so long to recognize as a war, instead of anodyne phrases like ‘dispersal’ and ‘clearing the area’. There was a song that paid tribute to the joy of owning 72 Derwent pencils as a child (I only ever had 36), and another that captured so well the ‘Ennui’ of lockdown. Bruce Watson’s other song ‘Love is’ took the words of Corinthians 13, and it was beautifully rendered by the choristers each taking a stanza in turn. The concert was beautifully accompanied by cello, violin, guitar and piano.

The concert was held at Montsalvat, the artists’ colony out at Eltham, and it felt very special to have all the composers either up there performing on the stage, or else in the audience. It was really good- and even better knowing that it was so local. What riches our community holds!