MALGORZATA MIRGA-TAS - A POLISH-ROMA ARTIST OF DISTINCTION - HER TATE ST IVES EXHIBITION IN 2024/5

We visited the exhibitions at Tate St Ives celebrating the work of  Outi Pieski and Beatriz Milhazes earlier this year - see my earlier blogposts: 

Rob Donovan - Author: EXPLORING NEW WORLDS - OUTI PIESKI AT TATE ST IVES - AND REDEFINING BOUNDARIES

Rob Donovan - Author: BEATRIZ MILHAZES AT TATE ST IVES - A PORTUGUESE CELBRATION OF LIFE

Our friend, Stephen Vranch, took us round the latest show at Tate St Ives which is celebrating the art of Malgorzata Mirga-Tas on the morning of 1 November. It was a birthday gift for Louise. Stephen took the photographs that appear in the second part of this blog-post - they tell their own story. 

Malgorzata Mirga-Tas

In the first part below, I am indebted to the Guardian newspaper for the following insight into the artist and her Roma identity, as told by the Guardian's Charlotte Higgins:   

"Her dazzling textile works caused a sensation at Europe’s two most important art events. Mirga-Tas talks about defying centuries of anti-Roma prejudice – and turning her mother’s old dresses into art.

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas is the sort of person who hugs a visitor even before she says hello. She welcomes me into her home in the village of Czarna Góra, at the foot of the Tatra mountains in southern Poland, with a high-wattage smile. The artist’s house is right next to her aunt’s and her mother’s. The modern buildings huddle together, facing each other protectively round a flower garden. Mirga-Tas loves being close to so

MARK WAISTELL, QUAKER SINGER/SONGWRITER FROM DEVON - A CREATIVE VOICE

 A couple of weeks ago, I attended a concert given by Mark Waistell, a Devon Quaker, at the Penzance YMCA which is where the Penzance Quaker Meeting is held. There were around 30 Quakers in the audience. My new hearing aids found it difficult to cope with the acoustics of the room and the sound system seemed too loud but heh that sounds a grumble and what Mark was able to communicate through his playing and voice was poetic and thought-provoking. He took as his theme the wisdom to be found in the Quaker Advices and Queries, linking these with his own songs. I was inspired enough to buy a couple of his CDs at the interval and the all-important collection of his lyrics: Without Music (2020).  

Mark Waistell - the image from the CD cover of 'Latecomer'.

I am a writer and I was already realizing that Mark has the feeling and skill to shine as a word magician. Here's a taste of what we experienced - this song is called 'My England of Long Ago' and Tom Carroll

MARIE DE HENNEZEL - POUR LIRE LA VIEILLESSE - HOW BEST TO UNDERSTAND AGEING - AND THE INSIGHTS OF CARL JUNG

Stephen, a Quaker friend, recommended I read Marie de Hennezel's book, published in France in 2008 and then translated into English and published in the UK as The Warmth of the Heart Prevents Your Body from Rusting in 2011. The book was read on BBC Radio 4 and became a best seller; another Quaker friend recalls reading it when it was first published. The subtitle reads: Ageing without growing old. 

The Mail on Sunday heralded the work as 'Timely and admirable ... her essential idea is that old age should be a stage of life as full of potential as any other'. The Glasgow Herald said it was 'An exceedingly tender, wise book'. Some online reviewers were less flattering: 'I work in a Hospice, so I know all about death and dying, not only in old age. This book uses far too many quotations and passages gleaned from other writers works on the subject of old age and approaching old age. There is no epiphany, no true inspiration. It was depressing and dire...'.

Marie de Hennezel - French advocate for fresh thinking on ageing 

The subject of ageing and death does stir the emotions and in differing ways it seems. I did find the book worth reading; the subject matter is - to make an obvious point - of existential importance. De Hennezel's concern to highlight the transforming possibilities in growing older and understanding how best to approach death is admirable. Yet the way the book is written - its style - grates at times. Too often the pages become a scrapbook collection of sayings - usually wise - about ageing and dying, cut and pasted from books in French written in the first decade of this century. All interesting and usually admirable but it is not always easy to follow the path that has taken de Hennezel, the experienced clinical psychologist, to her present viewpoint.

Marie de Hennezel is two years older than me so she was born in 1946 and is now 78, making her 62 when this book of hers was first published in 2008. She graduated in English and then returned to higher

CATCHING UP WITH THE LABOUR AUTUMN BUDGET 2024

 I have been steering clear of political blogposts since the electorate in the UK showed the door to the Tory Party in the July election this year. There was no surprise that at last the British voters realized that there was something rotten in the Party that had been misgoverning us. In my less analytical moments, I have been known to mutter that Donald Duck could have won that election if he had been standing as the leader of the Opposition Party. Instead it was Sir Keir Starmer who became the prime minister, the man who lied his way into winning the leadership election within the Labour Party by claiming he was a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn's ten principles. In your dreams! One savage and toxic brand of neoliberal politicians who believe in prioritizing the market and the pursuit of profit has been replaced by another type of politician, less nasty but still in tow to capitalists who look down on those they exploit. The water companies are still safe in their privatized industry as they pump our sewerage into our rivers, knowing that this new government has refused to renationalize the water industry. Remember, this so-called Labour government has also declined to end the two-child benefit cap introduced by the Tories that means over a million children living in poverty - and they have actually ended the universal winter fuel allowance which will lead to some impoverished pensioners dying as they juggle choices between food and heat.  

Donald Duck - the inevitable PM?

I am a member of Transform, a new political party formed a year or two ago to challenge the Tory maladministration. This blogpost was triggered by the mailing I received today from them. Here it is:

Hi Rob,   Welcome to issue 14 of the Transform newsletter. This newsletter was written before the results from the American election started to come in. Like millions around the world, we await

MY 'MINE TO DIE' (2024) - REVIEWED IN THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER: 'THE ST IVES TIMES AND ECHO' BY ITS EDITOR, TONI CARVER

 I think most authors must be interested in the journey of their books after publication. I remember how calm I was when, a couple of years ago, I took the 600 surplus copies of my first book: The Road to Corbyn (2016) to the local recycling centre at St Erth for disposal in the skip. In my enthusiasm, I had ordered a print run of 1,000 copies. A big mistake. I have learnt the lesson. Actually that trip to the St Erth dump gifted me an encounter which was priceless. The guy employed to oversee the skip into which I was casting my books asked me what the book was about. He was in his late-thirties or early-forties, weather-beaten, a hard, tough physique. Not a man to cross. I explained. He paused. "Did you write this?" "Yes", I replied. He paused again. "Can I have a copy?" "Yes!" "Will you sign it?" "Yes!" - and then he explained that he was part of a Traveller community which was based in the Camborne area and on the three occasions that Jeremy Corbyn had come to Heartlands to speak in political rallies between 2016 and 2019, he and his family had been there to hear and applaud him - just as I had. We got on like a house on fire.

Published in May 2024

My latest book: Mine to Die had an initial print run of 200 copies. I have learned to be careful, although there may well be another print run of 100 ordered soon - see this recent blogpost here: Rob Donovan - Author: MINE TO DIE GETS CLOSE TO ANOTHER PRINT RUN  The latest event in the book's journey since publication in May adds further encouragement and increases the likelihood of making that

WHAT BRITAIN NEEDS

 I am on the mailing list of a number of worthwhile voices of sanity in our distressed and muddled polity. Before I left Facebook, I would have shared on that platform - now I can copy a mailing that strikes me as being particularly insightful and paste it as a blogpost. I hope this gets read widely:

Dear Rob,   Leading economists wrote to the Chancellor this week demanding a change of direction. Concerned that the government won’t invest enough in public services and infrastructure, the group of economists – including top civil servants and academics – wrote an open letter to Rachel Reeves in the Financial Times. They argue the government is prioritising reducing government borrowing – and

FRUITS OF THE MARAZION QUAKER LIBRARY (11) - PART TWO: HUGH MCGREGOR ROSS 'THIRTY ESSAYS ON THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS'

 Hugh McGregor Ross has an American counter-part, Professor Stevan Davies; these two scholars have studied the Gospel of Thomas and each, in similar ways, has opened the eyes of readers to the spiritual wisdom of the sayings of Jesus as recorded by Thomas. Stevan Davies writes in 'The Gospel of Thomas Annotated & Explained' (2002): 'The Gospel of Thomas presents a vision of all human beings as potential children of God within whom already, unbeknownst to them, the divine light is shining.' How wonderful it is that our founder, George Fox, arrived at the same conclusion through his mystical experiences leading to his truth-finding in1647: we are all children of the light. 

1647, in England and 1945, in Egypt, when the only surviving copy of the Gospel of Thomas emerged from the ground in an earthenware jar, are key years and places when humanity was blessed. 

The Light and the Truth - in the Sayings of Jesus recorded by Thomas these are to be found within us.

In the first part of this blogpost, I summarized some of the knowledge and ideas of Hugh McGregor Ross recorded in his 'Thirty Essays on the Gospel of Thomas' (1990). In this post, I share the rest of his wisdom.

• The Gospel of Thomas was branded as heretical by Hippolytus, bishop of Rome, in the early third century. Ross notes that the original meaning of the word 'heresy' was neither abusive nor complimentary - it means literally a choice, for example of principles. But Christians such as Paul in the first century and then Ignatius in the second century began to apply it to views they regarded as erroneous - not representing a proper understanding of Christian belief. They were intent on creating a church for everyone with a defined dogma of belief. Other religions offer a pathway to a deeper personal spirituality: the Jewish faith has Hasidism; Islam has Sufism; Hindus have the