 1. Some of my favourite CDs. They are a disparate bunch, and if any of them are new to you, give them a try. SWEET DREAMS are made of this - The Eurythmics: RCA RCD 25447 One of my all-time favourites. The best track for me is "Love is a stranger in an open car". iso - ismaël lo: Polygram 522 362 2
This is from my African period. We played the track "Samayaye" at the funeral of a gay friend, and it has to be my favourite. A free translation of the words (the original being in the Senegalese language) is as follows:
When I was a child Lost Boys - The Flying Pickets: 10 Records Ltd DIX CD4 Listen to acapella singing as it ought to be. Favourite track? Well, I suppose it has to be "When you're young and in love" (sigh!). Vaughan Williams selection played by the Academy of St Martin's in the Fields, conducted by Neville Mariner: argo 414 595-2 Quintessentially English. My favourite is "The Lark Ascending", which is quite simply superb. ORIANA by the Kiev Chamber Choir You will have trouble getting this unless you have a friend in the Ukraine. It was a private recording released in Kiev by the MASHEL Company, which is reported to have a fax number 380 (44) 488 6120. It seems that the Choir was helped in producing the recording by the Norwegian Ambassador to the Ukraine. His efforts were well worthwhile: the result is superb. It would be invidious to pick any particular track as being the best. Vier Letzte Lieder by Richard Strauss, sung by Jessye Norman: Philips 411 052-2 What can one say about the Four Last Songs? There are differing opinions about their composer, but to me they sum up what life is all about. My favourite has to be the last, "Im Abendrot" ("At Sunset"). There are also six Orchestral Songs on this CD.
2. Some of my favourite writers. John Shelby Spong Mr Spong is the Episcopal Bishop of Newark. He has written a number of books about aspects of the Christian life in a style which is easy, accessible, questioning and fluent. The one I most recommend is Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism. This is a "must read" for all Christians, and indeed for all those (whether or not they consider themselves to be Christian) who get as furious as I do with the hateful outpourings of the Fundamentalists. The book explains the context and background of the key parts of the Bible and illuminates what they are really about. As teaching it is superb, for it opens the way to understanding. Do read it. Jerome K Jerome Jerome K Jerome wrote "Three Men in a Boat", which for me is the funniest book in the English language. It tells the story of three friends - and a dog called Montmerency who is the most sensible of the bunch - who decide to embark on a camping trip up the River Thames. I particularly like the description of trying to open a tin of canned fruit when they discover that the tin-opener has been left at home: it will strike a chord with anyone who, like me, is an incompetent camper. Douglas Adams Satirical writing is difficult, but Douglas Adams succeeds splendidly in his "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". A very creditable TV version was made by the BBC a number of years ago. The sequel to "Hitchhikers Guide" is called "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", and is not quite so good. Christopher Isherwood I have been a fan of Christopher Isherwood since I was a teenager. His best-known books are about the impression made on a reasonably innocent young (gay) Englishman by Berlin in the 1930s. Read "Mr Norris Changes Trains" and "Goodbye to Berlin", and his autobiography covering the 1929-39 period "Christopher and his Kind". He wrote many other things as well, and I particularly commend a poem called "On His Queerness" from a collection called Exhumation published in 1966. The poem was also included in The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse. C P Cavafy Constantine Cavafy lived and died in Alexandria at the beginning of the twentieth century. By all accounts he was a very ordinary man, but a most extraordinary poet. Many of his poems have a gay theme, often with wonderful melancholy. Of all his work my favourite is "Ithaka", which sums up what life is about. His poems have been published in many editions and compilations, but a particularly good one is "Poems by C P Cavafy translated by John Mavrogordato" (Chatto & Windus, ISBN No.0 7011 1679 X) because it contains very useful footnotes. William McGonagall
From the sublime to the ridiculous. William McGonagall was a Victorian Scottish poet who wrote poems of such awful silliness and banality that they constitute an art form in themselves. He took himself very seriously, and it was not until relatively recently that anyone else did; the Times Literary Supplement commented:
Mary Renault
You have probably read at least one Mary Renault book, but if not you must! When she died in 1983 in her obituary The Daily Telegraph said about the Alexandrian trilogy:
William Shakespeare
Most of us, at least those educated in the UK, have had the work of William Shakespeare rammed into us with a mallet at school. The consequence is that we don't stop and think: what is this man saying, and is it meaningful to me? In fact he had a depth of understanding of the human condition and the problems and questions which beset us all that I believe is quite unsurpassed. If you find Elizabethan English a bit difficult don't let that put you off. Persevere and think. For anyone who is a thoughtful gay person "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" must be required reading. The more romantic should also turn to his Sonnets (some allegedly addressing young men). For example, all of us at some time feel that everything is going wrong and we are pretty woebegone characters (if you haven't experienced this yet, you will - trust me!). Of just such a moment Shakespeare wrote his Sonnet No.29:
3. A favourite photograph. There is something about this photograph which appeals to me deeply. It was taken in Aberdeen at the beginning of the twentieth century, before the First World War. The two subjects are dressed in the usual rig of fishermen.
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