LETS HOPE THE WEEK ENDS ON A BETTER NOTE than it began, I seem to have been out of sorts the whole time, have rowed with my elderly mother (her fault not mine), horribly hurt and offended a dear friend (my fault not hers), and have generally made a mess of things. TGIF.

READING:

I have been sifting through my bedroom bookshelves, which mostly have paperbacks, and have become horribly clogged up and muddled -originally I had the books in alphabetic order by author. Anyway, I have come across some old favourites and have started reading them again. One of these was a book I was bowled over by when I first read it.
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban is a truly extraordinary and brilliant book. Not an easy read, because of the way Hoban has modified the English language, (it helps to read it aloud). When I first read the book in my early twenties, I had no knowledge of the legend of St Eustace, nor of the Green Man mythology, both of which feature in this book. You don't have to know about them to make sense of the story, but it helps.

It is set somewhere in southern England far into the future, when modern life as we would recognise it has vanished following what was presumably some nuclear apocalypse which had occured long before the book even begins. The narrator is Riddley Walker, a twelve year old boy describes life in what is a peasant society living a medeiaval existance. All previous knowledge has been lost, even the events which changed the world have become a faint folk memory.

At the start of the book three important th.ings happen to Riddley. On his naming day (the day he turns twelve) he kills a wild boar, he sees the leader in a pack of dogs is watching him - ever since the nuclear holocaust, dogs have been the sworn enemies of man,- and three days later his father is killed in an accident, leaving Riddley to inherit his father's role in the community.

The book is haunting, unsettling and terrible, but there are instances of humour and the natural spirit of mankind bubbles up all the time.

Re-reading the book I was struck by the fact that it was written in 1980 - many years before text-messaging (SMS) had been invented, yet much of the language Russel Hoban has invented is incredibly like txt talk. I think this might make the book more accessible to young people today who are used to communicating using this type of language.

RANTING:

That is what HMQ said in her speech opening the 2006/07 parliamentary session three days ago. Of course, she didn't write the speech herself, it was written for her by government apparatchiks with input from all the Departments of State. One of the biggest of these departments -if not THE biggest - is the Home Office, the department which is responsible for our police, our prisons, and our justice system.

So they want victims to be at the centre of the criminal justice system do they? Oh yeah? Well in that case, why, in the very same week, did the Home Office decide not to defend the case being brought by a group of drug addicted criminals? A group who were forced to go "cold turkey" when they were imprisoned, and who alleged that their human rights were violated as they did not give consent, and that their negligent treatment amounted to assault.

Withdrawal from using drugs, especially 'hard' ones like 'crack' or heroin, is frequently believed to be more difficult than it actually can be. Whilst quick withdrawal from certain drugs (alcohol, barbiturates and tranquillisers) can be dangerous, withdrawal from heroin may be comparable to a nasty bout of flu. Undesirable, but hardly life threatening. (The real difficulty for most addicts, is not coming off the drugs, it is staying off them). It seems extraordinary that this group was thought to have substantial grounds for making their claim.
The Home Office were supine in failing to defend the case with the utmost vigour, and deciding to make an out-of-court settlement. An out-of-court settlement which will give 197 prisoners a payment of £3500+ each. An out-of-court settlement which comes straight out of the taxpayers' pockets.
These people are in prison because they were found guilty of having committed crimes, what settlement are the victims of their crimes getting?

This whole business is an outrageous nonsense, it beggars belief.
I will have to go and have a lie-down, my blood is boiling.

RECIPE:

The nearest I've ever got to Sweden is IKEA in Wembley, but there is a dish from Sweden that I like very much. It goes by the unlikely name of Jansson's Temptation. I first tasted it at a restaurant called Anna's Place in north London many years ago, and eventually I tried making it myself. Basically it is a potato, onion and anchovy gratin, bathed in cream and baked until meltingly soft and unctuous. The name comes from a Swedish opera singer, at the end of the 19th century who liked cooking up a little something for supper after the opera, something with which he could tempt ladies of the chorus, and this was his signature dish. He was called Pelle Janzon, but eventually changed his name to Jansson as he became more successful (I'm not too sure whether his success was as a singer, or as a lothario). It seems to be a dish that the whole of Sweden eats at Christmas time, but I think it is great on a cold winter evening when you want to eat comfort food, but something a little different.

JANSSON’S TEMPTATION

Serves 4

6 medium sized potatoes
2 medium onions
3 tablespoons butter
15 anchovy fillets (approx 2 tins)
75ml single cream
75ml double cream
2-3 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs

Pre-heat oven to 200°C

Butter a gratin dish generously, using half the butter.

Peel the onions, cut in half and then slice very, very thinly. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a frying pan and gently sauté the onion slices for a few minutes.
Drain the anchovy fillets, rinse and pat dry, then cut each one in half length-wise.
Mix the two creams together in a saucepan over gentle heat, do not let it boil.
Peel and grate the potatoes. You should work quickly now as the potato will discolour quite rapidly.

Put a layer of grated potato in the gratin dish, cover with a layer of the sliced onion, then place a lattice of anchovy over the onion; repeat the layers of potatoes, onion and anchovy, ending with a layer of potatoes. Smooth the top layer, and press down firmly with the palm of your hand.

Pour the warm cream over the potatoes. Sprinkle the dry breadcrumbs over the top and dot with the remaining butter.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour.

Serve with a green salad and a cold beer.

WHAT is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?— No time to stand beneath the boughs, And stare as long as sheep and cows: No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass: No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night: No time to turn at Beauty's glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance: No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began? A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. W.H. Davies

READING:
How do we know what we know? It’s an interesting thought. My family often accuse me of having a head stuffed with useless information, but what if it wasn’t useless, what if it enabled me to win Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

That is really the premise of this very entertaining book Q and A by Vickas Swarup

Ram Mohammed Thomas is an 18 year old who has managed to reach the finals of an Indian TV quiz show to win one billion rupees. He has to answer all twelve questions correctly. Of course the producers of the show are confident that they will not be paying out the money as how could this young man from the streets possibly know the answers to the questions they are setting. However he does know all the answers and so he wins. In the ensuing furore, the producers have him arrested and slung in jail, convinced he must have cheated in some way.

The story is told in flash-back and covers twelve incidents in Ram’s life, how a priest found him in a dustbin as a baby, how he acquired his three names, how he managed to fool a professional hit man, how he fell in love and then had his heart broken, each of the twelve incidents gave him one of the crucial answers, and let him know that his answer was correct. Ram is a very warm and endearing young hero, and the reader cannot help but take him to their heart right from the beginning. A real feel-good book, and in addition I learnt more about modern India, with all its contrasts of rich and poor, misery and happiness from reading this book than I would have from reading a score of serious articles about the country.

RANT:
I sincerely hope I will feel better about Life, the Universe and Everything once I have got this off my chest.(weak and feeble smile).

In this country, and for the last century at least, a crime is considered to be an offence against society (as well as being an offence against any victim) and therefore the State takes on the responsibility of investigating, prosecuting and sentencing those who commit crimes. This is obviously a sensible and civilised thing as otherwise we would revert to the dark ages and have a situation where everyone took the law into their own hands, and that would lead to all manner of injustice, vigilantism, feuding and so forth.

The courts are places where society has decided anyone accused of a crime should be tried, and in this country, a defendant (that is an accused person) is innocent until they are proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt.

I am extremely concerned, that this government is quietly whittling away at the whole concept which is the bedrock of our criminal jurisprudence. Continual snippets of comment from Blair, Reid, Blunkett and other Home Secretaries (recently the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken McDonald QC made a speech stating he too has swallowed the zeitgeist ), show that there seems to be some kind of woolly thinking going on about what the criminal law is actually for. It is suggested that individual victims should have the right to air their views in court and that would somehow “balance” the system.

Do they really think that turning the courts into a platform for a victim’s grievances would be appropriate? Whilst I hope we would always want to take the effect that a crime has had on a victim into consideration, how can it be helpful to have them stand in court and tearfully recount their feelings (unless of course they are witnesses in the case). It might make them feel better, but will it do anything to improve the trial and sentencing process?

The suggestion that victims should have some part to play in deciding a sentence fills me with anxiety. There are so many factors to weigh up when sentencing someone who has been found guilty of a crime, and a range of penal options are open to use.

Were there aggravating or mitigating aspects to the crime? What was the intent of the accused to bring about harmful consequences? Will the sentence meet four main aims, punishment, protection of the public, rehabilitation and deterrence?

Vengeance is not, and should not, be part of the process

RECIPE:

My dear husband loves beetroot, not a vegetable of which I am fond, but this recipe makes them really delicious. Lucky for him our dear friend J came round with a bag of beets from her allotment, so he'll be in the pink at dinner tonight!

BALSAMIC ROAST BEETROOT WITH GARLIC & THYME

750g raw beetroot, peeled

4 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

4 sprigs fresh thyme

25g butter, cut into small cubes

Pre-heat oven to 220°C

Cut beetroots in half, quarter them if they are large.

Place them in a single layer in a roasting pan, tuck the sprigs of thyme around them.

Mix the oil, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and seasoning together in a small bowl.

Pour the mixture over the beetroots, turning each one gently to ensure they are all well coated with the dressing. Dot the cubed butter all over the dressed beets.

Tightly cover the roasting pan with tin foil.

Roast in the oven for about 45 minutes. Then check the beets with a small knife or skewer, they should be tender but still firm in the centre.

Serve the beetroot on a plate with the dressing from the roasting tin spooned over them, and garnish with fresh sprigs of thyme.