Saturday, 19 October 2013

Another tattoo

Some say I'm mad while others think I'm addicted to pain. I got the kestrel tattoo because while the editor didn't take that one it inspired him to take my next.

All this time and I wished for my own column. It's finally happening, in a writing mag..so another kestrel;

Friday, 18 October 2013

There are arguments, though most now agree, that both the bard by Bengamin Gray (closeup) and the bard of John Martin (mountains) are pictured about to martyr themselves. I'm no expert and if the experts say that then I can't really argue. The only thing is their stances are very solid and they don't look like they are going to jump?

Thursday, 17 October 2013

Letter to the editor

Hello all. My apologies for the delay in entries, my legd have been really painful. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Artist magazine to make a few points and ask one or two things. I thought I'd share it with you:

The Artists' Publishing Company Ltd.
Caxton House
63-65 High Street
Tenterden
Kent TN30 6BD
United Kingdom

Monday 14^th October

Dear Dr Bulgin

It seems that very few subjects (excepting religion and politics) is as divisive, socially dangerous and confusing in its beliefs. I am personally a traditionalist with a love of fine art, rather than modern or interpretive. I was recently in an art group on facebook , an idea that I thought was a wonderful method for exchanging views and ideas. We even had subject days, such as ‘words, ‘ colours’ etc. It did the job wonderfully for about three weeks and then exploded. I made a remark on my not being a fan of modern art and was immediately attacked as being arrogant and in making generalisations. First of all it is true, I am not a fan, but I know of no prescriptive authority that I must like it. A generalisation? Perhaps, but as I have seen nothing I like, it is a truth. On the other hand I can spend ages looking at a painting in a gallery, by the likes of John Martin. So that party was brought to an end when I was asked to leave or stop being aggressive (For aggressive please read; I failed to agree or be bullied by them).

Students are not being trained to paint or draw but to express themselves. I think employers are interested in results rather than the angst of the artist....

I read your magazine regularly and am bemused by a current ongoing dispute over ‘non-professionals’ being the only ones allowed to sell their work. I’m a freelance journalist, though I did not study journalism. Selling your story depends on individual talent, timing, finding the right place and a reasonable smattering of luck, but there is no black market. Surely professional s still means carrying out work for money. So if someone sells a piece they are, at least temporarily professional. What do the professionals have to fear? If they are so much better then they are more likely to sell their material anyway? The system to me (as a novice) comes over to me as a draconian form of trade unionism.

Yours sincerely

Anthony Joisce

Sunday, 13 October 2013

Cheesey Thief

A Story of a Mousey Villain

Bert Holliday was born in London’s East End in 1891. His upbringing seems to have been unremarkable. He was just an ordinary child of the time, from a lowly background. This was to change as he aged however. He eventually became known as the “Gentleman Cracksman”, and “Johnny the Gent”. Where the name “Johnny” came from is not clear. His nicknames did reflect his character however. From his humble beginnings, Holliday was to become one of the most successful jewel thieves in the country.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, detective and mystery fiction was dominated by Mr Sherlock Holmes. One author (E.W. Hornung), who happened to be related to Conan Doyle through marriage, took the famous detective and turned him firmly on his head. The resulting character was one A.J. Raffles, the gentleman thief; eternal houseguest and rubber of high-class shoulders. He mixed effortlessly with the upper echelons, and could banter with the best of them. The first of Raffles’ adventures, "The Ides of March", appeared in the June 1898 edition of Cassell’s Magazine, and went on to be not quite as popular as Holmes, but did come in an admirable second place.

One can't help but wonder if Holliday modelled himself upon the fictional gentleman thief. With his success, came all the trappings of an upper-class lifestyle. He lived in a house named “Jour de Fete”, on the river Thames. Obviously an educated man, with an eye for humour and wit, or some may say pretentions and vanity; Bert had named his house after himself. “Jour de Fete” translates from French as “holiday”. He also liked to mix in high-class company, and would frequently ride with the hunt. His other passion in life was fishing; a pastime that he indulged in as frequently as his busy schedule would allow. It gave him some time to himself, in peaceful surroundings, and a break from the adrenaline rush of his larceny.

He did occasionally use an accomplice in his escapades. “Poofy” Len Oades would accompany Holliday on some of his forays. Generally, though he preferred to work alone, and was not afraid to prepare himself for violence. It is rumoured that he carried a gun with him at all times.

Bert Holliday was such a successful and notorious, not to mention widely travelled, thief, that he was sort after be five police forces from five different counties. They were very keen to prosecute Holliday, but he successfully evaded them for several years. His undoing was to be somewhat absurd and an anticlimax to the high-living, gentleman thief.

It was the theft of a cheese from The Dumbell Inn in Taplow, Buckinghamshire in 1949, that was to prove his undoing. Why he stole a cheese, when he could so easily have bought one, has gone to the grave with him. Perhaps it was because he was so used to taking whatever he wanted, without paying, or could it have been his keen eye for wit and humour? To “cheese it” was slang, in the world of thieves, for “scarpering”, or “making oneself scarce”. Unfortunately for Bert, on this occasion he did not “scarper” quickly enough, and was captured by the police.

They had caught up with him at last, and were not about to let him go easily. His bail was set at the huge sum of £2000. It is a testament to his prior successes and his wealth, that Holliday was able to afford the payment of his bail. When he was released, he promptly disappeared, and his whereabouts were to be unknown for four years. He eventually headed for Virginia Water, a large man-made lake in Surrey, which occupies the south-eastern corner of Windsor Great Park. In a hotel by the lake in 1953, Bert Holliday used a gun, disguised as a walking stick to shoot himself. The farewell note was short and un-dramatic; merely bemoaning the fact that he would be unable to go fishing that day.

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Windcuffer

The kestrel is a very important bird to me. I wrote an article on it and sent
it to a local magazine from which I got the reply that they had enough bird material, but they may be interested in the hedgehog article, so I sent it in, I have now been writing for ages. See the dedication below:

I've also included that article, and you'll find out what windcuffer means,,,

“Windhover” – A Natural Treasure

By Anthony Joisce

The “windhover” (European Kestrel) is the most frequently seen bird of prey in Britain. Whether on a Sunday afternoon stroll or perhaps more likely, from the comfort of your car on the A1, the kestrel is impossible to miss. Hovering, head into the wind, with rapid wing-beats and a twitch of tail feathers, the bird maintains its position with consummate grace and expertise. The sight of a kestrel can add a moment’s wonder to an otherwise uneventful journey.

If you are lucky enough to get a close look you will find a surprisingly colourful bird with a beautiful tawny orange back, spotted with black. The male differs from the female in that he is smaller and has a grey-blue head and tail. The female is usually a more dull chestnut orange, though sometimes she may also have a blue-grey cast to the head that makes her difficult to differentiate from the male. Juvenile birds are coloured the same as the female, regardless of sex, until the end of the first year when a male will develop the blue tail. It will be another year before he gains the blue-grey head. Standing 33cm to 36cm tall and having a wingspan of between 70cm and 80cm makes them small when compared to other raptors. The wings are noticeably pointed at the tips allowing fast, manoeuvrable flight and rapid stoops, a characteristic which tells us that it is a member of the falcon family, hence the scientific name: Falco Tinnunculus. This method of naming species using two words, derived from Latin or Greek, was developed by Carl Linnaeus, to allow identification across international language barriers.

Falco is most likely derived from Latin falcatus, meaning “sickle-shaped”. This refers to the shape of the wings; curving to a point at the tip. The word tinnunculus was first used by Pliny the Elder (a first century Roman scholar) to describe a small bird of prey; probably the kestrel.

Pliny probably used tinnunculus as a description connected with the verb tinnio: to have a sharp or shrill voice, to cry, scream or sing. Also the adjective tinnulus: ringing, tinkling, shrill sounding. These clearly refer to the common call of the kestrel which is a harsh staccato “kee-kee-kee”. You are most likely to hear them chattering over the Northumbrian countryside during the mating season: April to May

The name kestrel is a variation of castrell, recorded in the seventeenth century. This was borrowed from Middle French cresselle, meaning rattle. Even today the Roman Catholic Church uses a small wooden rattle called a cresselle, in place of a bell.

Given the shrill nature of the kestrel’s call, this seems a little odd, as rattles tend not to be high pitched. The texture of the sound though, with its staccato rhythm could, with a little imagination be compared with a rattle.

The call is not the most identifiable characteristic of the bird. It is the hovering silhouette that catches your attention first; usually over roadside verges. This is because a lot of time is spent on the road, so we are more likely to be there to see them. The verges, with their long grass, relatively wild mixture of plants and discarded food items create a fine ecosystem for small mammals. The favourite food of the kestrel is the field vole. These small creatures are unlikely to be seen by people, unless the family cat presents one to the household. As they scurry about they leave a trail of urine which is visible to the kestrel in the ultra-violet spectrum; so the bird can follow a trail to the unfortunate mammal. Hovering above, unlike other falcons, the kestrel will not commit itself to one high speed stoop, but rather stoops to a lower altitude, before stooping again and possibly even a third time, before falling on its prey.

This habit of hovering is illustrated by the colloquial names that have been given to the kestrel over the years, such as that of “windhover”. However, there are many other colourful names such as “hover hawk”; “stand hawk”; “wind cuffer”; “wind bivver”; “wind bibber” and “wind sucker” that may be found throughout the country. There is an old and more unexpected name that alludes to this same behaviour. The work of William Lockwood unearthed that in the sixteenth century it was known as the “wind f***er” and that until the nineteenth century, in northern England, the name “f***wind” survived. The modern translation of these names is “wind beater”, but it is unlikely that there will be a resurgence of these old names (particularly in family discussions).

Although hovering is the most commonly seen hunting behaviour, the kestrel spends relatively little time in the air, preferring the “perch and pounce” technique. Sitting on a post or tree branch, waiting for a likely target, it will then stoop down to capture it. While the vole is the favourite prey, worms, insects, mice, and even small birds (particularly in urban environments) also form part of the diet.

Kestrels have adapted to live very well with humans and can take advantage of a number of surroundings. The preference is for open land such as meadow and farmland (trees, hedges and fences being beneficial), they may also be found in heaths, marshes, cliffs and coastal areas; all habitats with which Northumberland is blessed.

This ability to adapt has undoubtedly been a major factor in the survival of the kestrel. As other birds of prey, they have suffered great challenges from the activities of people; including persecution, and the use of pesticide, particularly the now well known DDT, both having taken their toll on numbers. However following the ban on DDT and the education of land-owners, numbers began to increase and were estimated at 70,000 pairs in the 1990s. But continued intensive farming methods and a crash in the numbers of voles has reduced this number to about 40,000; placing the kestrel on the amber list for conservation. Hopefully the fall in small mammal numbers is a short term part of the cycle of the animal population and will recover itself, and the increase in more environmentally friendly farming will give the kestrel a better chance.

The adaptability to hunting grounds also extends to nesting choices. Kestrels are not nest builders – they take an opportunity where they find it. This may be an old crow’s nest, a hole in a tree, a crevice in a wall or cliff, or even on building ledges in town centres. The three to six eggs are laid in April or May, with incubation taking about a month. The chicks need constant brooding for the first ten to fourteen days and usually fledge when they are about a month old. They are year-round inhabitants, but will change location depending on food supplies.

Some chicks are illegally taken from the wild each year by unscrupulous would-be falconers. They may try to fly them, but more often the birds are abandoned and left to die. Kestrels have not been traditionally valued as falconry birds; possibly because of their diminutive stature and the size of prey they take. This is illustrated by the following passage from the “The Boke of St Albans” (1486):

“An Eagle for an Emperor, a Gyrfalcon for a King, a Peregrine for a Prince, a Saker for a Knight, a Merlin for a Lady, a Goshawk for a Yeoman, a Sparrowhawk for a Priest, a Musket for a Holy water Clerk, a Kestrel for a Knave.”

This passage provided the title for the novel by Barry Hines: “A Kestrel for a Knave” (1968), which was later to be adapted to the film “Kes”, directed by Ken Loach (1969). Unfortunately the attitude that a kestrel is a lowly bird seems to have led to the belief that it is a good choice for a novice falconer and an easy bird to keep. Nothing could be further from the truth: take for example the maintenance of body weight. If a bird is allowed to get too heavy it will refuse to fly, if too light it will die. Smaller birds have more critical allowances than their larger counterparts. A kestrel with an established flying weight of five ounces only has to lose half an ounce and it will die. Equally, if allowed to gain half an ounce it will not fly.

A kestrel may have been considered a lowly bird, but its abilities cannot help but evoke wonder in the spectator. It is perfectly suited and adapted to its chosen niche and it has survived through the challenges it has faced. As a high level predator it is the first to suffer when an ecosystem fails, so the sight of the “windhover” is a sign that the local ecosystem is in fine form. Northumberland has such a diverse range of habitats that it is an ideal county to be the home of this natural treasure, and the regular sightings at places such as those illustrated in the photographs is a credit to the environment of the county.