As the OG Gaddafi moves on to his Macbethian curtain call and fateful third Act, in the spirit of Oscar, I’m moved to review the world of the (il)literati.

Amiguinho do Blair

Despot or just desperate ?

Whilst one despot bombs his own people with our branded musketlature, we bask in the reflected Oscarlature of another, aka the King’s Speech; a seemingly inconsequential vignette that satiates our fetish for Royalty, melodrama, and moral self righteousness (aka celebrity/ rectitude): the King ‘s Speech didn’t win the Second World War & Colin’ Firth’s acting acumen lies in the same topographic ambiguity as Hugh Grant: Get over it!

Faulky thinking

Faulks recent history of Anglo Saxon writing lays bare the stultifying paucity of the Anglo Saxon canon; Dickens’s Great Expectations at least retains the edifying fig leaf of social commentary/ investigative journalism (Sheiky fake or notwithstanding). Small wonder the Shakespearean pall continues to cast its palsied shadow over our contemporary literary thespians?
The Dickensian King Speech at least focuses on a contemporary issue of Speech impairment. Suitably ashamed to admit my closet Open all hours fandom, a far more poignant focus was Don’t call me stupid , Kara Tointon ‘s (East Ender’s/Strictly’s : ) eye watering insight into how we continue to support an Education System seemingly hell bent on creating winners & losers, whatever the cost.

Education Acts

The original 1874 Education Act shows that legislation is a particularly blunt instrument as Victorian educational attitudes and practices are as ingrained as Shakespeare, by the Anglo-Saxon golden age time capsule/psyche. The destination of the Kara’s journey was the Yellow Brick World where she could actually cope with her disability, given specific tools. Education or the mechanics of reading and writing are such staples, defacto, they define system failure or success; The fact is nationally & in Northamptonshire half of our children fail to achieve the critical Maths & English GCSE pass rate on a perennial basis, notwithstanding that Northamptonshire County Council annually spends c. 30% of its budget (£ 1.6B) on Schools. The irony  of the atmosphere of  Big Society  cost cutting, and the Channel 4’s funding of Jamie Oliver’s most recent flight of fancy ( Jamie’s Dream) must be driving most educationalists to the bottle.

Fugee

This same Educational system consistently produces a lamentably one dimensional tranche of writing: BME writers constitute exotic literary throwbacks in a world where they are barely tolerated, let alone acknowledged particularly at a curriculum level. (V.S. Naipaul, CLR James, James Baldwin, Derek Walcott, Andrea Levy, Hanif Kureishi), This not only condemns us to endlessly producing tosh like the King’s Speech, but also to the joyless milieu where libraries become refuges of the eccentric, & books are considered Ashley ( bring your gun to work week)  Cole kryptonite.

• Northampton Forum Cinema: The Kings Speech : Mar.4-7 -Fri-Weds
• Northampton Central Library : The 48 hour book thang : Sat 5th : 3.30-4.15 ,5.45-6.30
  : Sun 6th : 11am-4pm
• Helen Fraser’s Fellowship  (Penguin Books)  BME Editorial internship .