During World War One and in the decades that followed, the Angel of Mons was widely believed to be a well attested and genuine instance of supernatural intervention in battle. During the latter half of the Twentieth Century this belief became tempered with a view that perhaps this was simply a case of collective hallucination brought on by exhaustion or even an early urban myth originated by a piece of fiction. However, there is good reason to believe that none of these theories is entirely correct and that instead the Angel of Mons is an example of something very different indeed.
On August 22nd 1914, just eighteen days after the beginning of World War One, the 2nd Corps of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) occupied defensive positions along the Mons – Conde canal in Belgium. The task facing the men of 2nd Corps was to stop or delay much larger numbers of German troops who formed the 1st German Army under General Alexander von Kluck which was then advancing through Belgium and heading for northern France.
Advancing German troops, August 1914
After successfully holding off the initial waves of German attacks, the British were forced to undertake an exhausting fighting withdrawal between 23rd and 26th August. The retreat of the BEF came as a terrible blow to a British public conditioned to regard their troops as invincible. Contemporary British and French newspaper reports were extremely gloomy. On 30th August The Times reported that the attacking German infantry was so strong that “that they could no more be stopped than the waves of the sea.” Somehow the soldiers of the BEF continued to fight as they pulled back and the German advance slowed and then was finally brought to a standstill on the River Marne in early September. Combat in Flanders then descended into the bloody inertia of static trench warfare.
Soldiers of the BEF resting in Mons before the retreat
While the retreat from Mons may have shocked and horrified the British public, this action quickly became legendary amongst the soldiers of the ever expanding British Army. A fighting retreat is one of the most difficult maneuvers for any army to undertake because there is a constant danger that retreat will turn into rout. This didn’t happen to the disciplined, determined and professional soldiers of the BEF. Exhausted and outnumbered they may have been, but their determined defence of one line after another slowed the German advance sufficiently to allow the preparation of more permanent lines on the Marne.
The arts and religion correspondent at the London Evening News during this period was a man called Arthur Machen. Machen, a Welshman, had been the author of a number of popular gothic horror novels in the 1880s and 1890s. One of his novels, The Great God Pan, had been a huge hit when it was published in 1890. Machen’s novels provided an eager Victorian audience with a titillating combination of the occult, sex, violence, religion and horror. However, by 1914 gothic novels were no longer popular and Machen had been forced to find work with London’s largest circulation newspaper, the Evening News.
The grim news from Belgium in late August 1914 persuaded Machen that what was needed was a piece of fiction that would boost morale in Britain. During September he worked on a short story in which supernatural forces come to the aid of British troops during the retreat from Mons. This was published on September 29th on the front page of the Evening News as The Bowmen. The story was a lurid tale of doughty British Tommies fighting valiantly against overwhelming numbers of dastardly Germans. Just when it looks as if the British soldiers are done for, one of them unwittingly utters an invocation to the spirit of St. George. At the last possible moment, ghostly archers appear and save the British troops from the final German onslaught;
“… he saw before him, beyond the trench, a long line of shapes, with a shining about them. They were like men who drew the bow, and with another shout their cloud of arrows flew singing and tingling through the air towards the German hosts.”
The story goes on to describe in enthusiastic detail how thousands of Germans are killed by the arrows of the ghostly archers, the attack is turned back and the British troops are saved. When it was printed in the Evening News on 29th September The Bowmen was not specifically identified as a piece of fiction. The Evening News often included fiction within its pages and, perhaps confusingly, another piece in that edition of the newspaper was titled “Our Short Story”. However, given the tone, content and approach of The Bowmen, it’s difficult to believe that anyone could have mistakenly read it as a piece of reportage as has been claimed.
The Bowmen was welcomed as a patriotic piece of fiction and was re-printed in many parish magazines in the latter part of 1914. Although largely forgotten now, in the early 1900s local parish magazines were widely read and extremely influential in Britain. However, following its publication, Machen was also contacted by the editors of two specialist publications – The Occult Review and the spiritualist magazine Light. The editors asked whether The Bowmen was based on real events? Machen assured both that the story was simply a piece of fiction with no foundation in reality.
As 1914 turned into 1915, the war which many people had confidently forecast would be “over by Christmas” was not only still being fought, it had become a bloody stalemate where casualties mounted relentlessly for no appreciable gains. The French launched the First Champagne Offensive in December 1914. The battle raged for three months and the only notable outcome was 90,000 French casualties. On 10th March, British forces opened the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. The battle achieved absolutely nothing and cost the lives of more than 10,000 British and Commonwealth troops. In August 1914 the British public had been wildly supportive of the war and many young men volunteered to join the army between August and November. Six months later, public enthusiasm for the war had abated to a notable extent and the flood of volunteers had become a trickle.
Neuve Chapelle after the battle in 1915
On 3rd April 1915 a small English provincial newspaper, the Hereford Times, carried an article called “A Troop of Angels”. This seems to have been the first time that the term “Angel of Mons” was used in print. The article was a second-hand account originating from a story told by a Miss Marrable (described as “the daughter of the well-known Canon Marrable“.) Miss Marrable had met two officers from the BEF:
“Both of whom had seen angels which had saved their left wing from the Germans when they came right upon them during our retreat from Mons.”
The 24th April (23rd April is St George’s day) 1915 edition of Light magazine ran a similar story titled: “The Invisible Allies: Strange Story from the Front.” Although not identical to the Hereford Times piece, this also claimed that supernatural forces had come to the aid of British forces at Mons. In May 1915 an article in the Occult Review stated that at Mons “those who could see said they saw ‘a row of shining beings’ between the two armies.” You’ll recall that the editors of Light and The Occult Review had contacted Machen in September 1914 to ask whether the The Bowmen was based on fact. His denial does not appear to have dampened their enthusiasm for the story – the events described in both magazines were very similar in substance to Machen’s story though they claimed to be factual reports of real events.
Also in May 1915 a reprint of the Hereford Times article appeared in the All Saints Church Parish Magazine in Bristol (the April edition of the same magazine had included a reprint of The Bowmen). Reverend Gilson, the editor of the All Saints magazine, was quickly overwhelmed due to interest in the article about the Angel of Mons;
“…to find that our modest little parish magazine has suddenly sprung into almost world-wide notoriety; every post … has brought letters from all over the country, not asking merely for single copies, but for dozens of copies, enclosing quite embarrassing numbers of stamps and postal orders, the more so since there were no more magazines to be had.”
The Reverend R. F. Horton was a popular and influential Manchester preacher whose sermons were well attended and eagerly read when printed versions were distributed. The story of the Angel of Mons had so completely gripped the British popular imagination that in June 1915 he said in a sermon:
“… when soldiers and officers, who were in the retreat from Mons say they saw a batch of angels between them and the enemy…, no thoroughly modern man is foolish enough to disbelieve the statement or to pooh-pooh the experience as hallucination.”
Several major newspapers became interested after Reverend Horton’s sermon and a number reprinted the account based on Miss Marrable’s original story from the Hereford Times. In August 1915 The Occult Review published the first of a series of articles by a British Nurse, Phyllis Campbell, who had served in field dressing stations near the front line in France and Belgium during the retreat from Mons. She claimed to have heard many stories from wounded soldiers of supernatural entities helping British troops. Some of these stories were repeated in her book Back to the Front, published in 1915. Also published in 1915 was On the Side of the Angels, a book by journalist Edward Harold Begbie which described the Angel of Mons. This book included an account by an anonymous Lance-Corporal who testified that during the retreat on 28th August 1914:
“I could see quite plainly in mid-air a strange light which seemed to be quite distinctly outlined and was not a reflection of the moon, nor were there any clouds in the neighbourhood. The light became brighter and I could see quite distinctly three shapes, one in the centre having what looked like outspread wings, the other two were not so large, but were quite plainly distinct from the centre one. They appeared to have a long loose-hanging garment of a golden cloak.”
These stories, or derivations from them, were repeated in newspapers and parish magazines and used in sermons across the UK. A small number of eyewitnesses also came forward to give first-hand testimony. One of the best known, Private Robert Cleaver of the 1st Cheshire Regiment, gave to newspapers a detailed account of Angels he had seen at Mons and swore to the truth of this under oath. The Angel of Mons was frequently cited as evidence that God was on the side of the Allies. By late summer 1915 it was said to be “unpatriotic, almost treasonable, to doubt” the story of the Angel of Mons.
The Occult Review from August 1915. Including “The Angelic Leaders – Evidence from the Wounded at the Front”, the first article by nurse Phyllis Campbell on the Angel of Mons.
Belief in some sort of supernatural intervention on behalf of British troops at Mons became well-established in Britain, France and America during the remainder of World War One. Even after the war this belief was widely held. For example, J.R.R Tolkein (author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) and Mary Norton (author of the Bedknobs and Broomsticks trilogy and The Borrowers series) were both said to have been inspired by the story. As late as 1966 respected British historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote in The First World War (An Illustrated History) that;
“Supernatural intervention was observed, more or less reliably, on the British side. Indeed the ‘angels of Mons’ were the only recognition of the war vouchsafed by the Higher Powers. “
In The 1914 Campaign, by D. David published in 1987 it was noted that at Mons;
“Some beleaguered soldiers reported being rescued by angels and ghostly bowmen.“
In the years since World War One some of the surviving British veterans of the First World War have been interviewed for newspaper and magazine articles and have appeared on television and radio giving first-hand accounts of the Angel. A number of books and articles in newspapers and magazines have presented the Angel of Mons as a documented example of divine intervention in human affairs and as proof of the existence of angels.
Three theories have been put forward to explain the Angel of Mons:
- That there was some sort of supernatural manifestation during the retreat from Mons.
- That the Angel was either a misidentification (of strange cloud formations, for example) or a hallucination experienced by exhausted troops.
- That there was no Angel of Mons: memories of The Bowmen were conflated and assimilated until they became regarded as real events.
Theory one was widely believed in Britain during World War One and in the years that followed. After all, there was both first-hand testimony from soldiers who had actually seen the Angel and second-hand testimony from nurses and others who had worked with wounded men who spoke about the Angel. However, there is a major and fatal flaw to this theory. Both British and German military units kept detailed war diaries and communication records during the period of the retreat from Mons. None of these mention anything at all about supernatural forces. If several thousand (or indeed any) German soldiers had been killed by supernatural beings, it’s reasonable to assume that this would have been worth mentioning in their communications with HQ and in unit diaries. Soldiers on both sides also regularly wrote home to their families and friends and again it would be reasonable to expect at least some discussion of this subject in their letters. However, no letters from the relevant period were found which mentioned the Angel or anything similar.
1916 postcard showing the “Angels of Mons”
In the period following World War One, the literal truth of story of the Angel was increasingly doubted, with many people coming to believe that its origin could be traced back to Arthur Machen’s fictional short story which had mistakenly been read as a piece of reportage and assumed to be real. However, supporters of the theory of a supernatural event continued to search for first-hand testimony about the angel in military records and in letters from soldiers at the front. The initial focus for most of these researchers was the four week period between the end of the retreat from Mons and the publication of The Bowmen. If any mention of the Angel could be found during this time, it would prove that sightings of the Angel were real and not influenced by Machen’s short story. Despite diligent searching, researchers were unable to find any mention of the Angel of Mons or indeed of any supernatural events in August 1914 in any military records or in even a single letter written by a soldier in the period August – September 1914. That was (and is) a major blow to those who believe that something supernatural really happened in August 1914.
What researchers did discover was that accounts of the Angel (and claims to have seen it) only began to appear in British soldiers’ letters after June 1915, when the story became widely known and publicized. To most people this suggested that, whatever its actual origins, the Angel of Mons was not a real event.
But what about witnesses who claimed either to have seen the Angel themselves or to have spoken to soldiers who had seen it? It quickly became clear that these didn’t stand up to close examination either. Many articles could be traced back to accounts given by British nurse Phyllis Campbell who had provided information for the first Occult Review article on the Angel. Ms Campbell claimed to have spoken a number of wounded officers and men who had personally seen Angel during the retreat from Mons. However, Ms Campbell had an intense and visceral hatred for all things German. In one of her interviews she noted that:
“It seemed to me that all the wickedness, all the fear and filthiness imaginable that exists can be summed up in one word: “GERMAN.”
In her book nurse Campbell also passed on stories about German soldiers crucifying civilians and cutting the hands off children. These atrocity stories proved to be completely false and were deliberately invented in the hope that they would increase general loathing for the Germans. Given that part of the thrust of the Angel of Mons story is that God is on the side of the British and opposed to the Germans, most researchers came to believe that the tales told by Nurse Campbell about wounded soldiers describing the Angel were invented by her – it’s certainly notable that no other British nurses or doctors claimed to have heard the same stories. When challenged about this, Phyllis Campbell claimed that military authorities had ordered soldiers not to talk about the Angel or to write about it letters or military diaries, though there is no evidence whatsoever to support this. Most people now believe that Phyllis Campbell’s hatred of Germany led her to invent stories of hearing about the Angel of Mons from wounded men.
Miss Marraple, who was quoted in the very first account of the Angel in the Hereford Times, was swamped with requests for more information about the soldiers she had spoken to who had told her about the Angel. She found this extremely irritating as she said that she had never claimed any such thing and that she knew nothing about the Angel or anyone who may have claimed to have seen it. Finally, in exasperation she wrote to the London Evening News:
“I shall be much obliged if you will inform the Editor of The Occult Review that I know nothing whatever of officers or men who saw the angels.“
Despite this, accounts which had originally been attributed to her continued to be included in leaflets and articles as a true account of a real event, though now with her name removed.
An enterprising journalist did some research on Private Robert Cleaver of the 1st Cheshire Regiment. Cleaver had provided sworn testimony to newspapers that he had seen the Angel at Mons but it was quickly discovered that Cleaver had not joined the Army until late August 1914 and did not arrive in France until 22nd September – four weeks after the end of the battle at which he claimed to have seen the Angel! Even the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), which might have been expected to support a supernatural explanation, concluded a report on the Angel in December 1915 by saying that the stories:
“Prove on investigation to be founded on mere rumour, and cannot be traced to any authoritative source.“
After a great deal of research, most people agreed that there simply was no source evidence to support the theory that anything supernatural happened at Mons in 1914. Every story of the Angel could be traced to the period after the publication of the story in the Hereford Times in April 1914. Nothing was found to support the idea that this had been mentioned before that date. The conclusion was that, once the story became known, a number of people claimed to have had sightings. However, none of these sightings could be confirmed and none had been mentioned at the time.
The second theory, of a misidentification of natural phenomena such as clouds or a mass hallucination by exhausted soldiers, simply isn’t viable for the very same reason – If soldiers mistakenly believed that they had experienced some strange event, whether supernatural in origin or not, this would have been mentioned in letters and elsewhere. It was not. There wasn’t an Angel at Mons or anything that was mistaken for an Angel. The whole story is a piece of folklore which seems to have arisen almost spontaneously beginning in April 1915.
Which brings us to the third theory, that the Angel of Mons was no more than an urban myth which began with The Bowmen. This theory became popular after the end of World War One. Arthur Machen certainly believed this to be the true origin of the Angel of Mons. In August 1915 he re-published The Bowmen in an anthology of patriotic short stories. This book was wildly popular and quickly sold out. In the preface Machen included a clear statement noting that The Bowmen was the basis for the Angel;
“It began to dawn on me that if I had failed in the art of letters, I had succeeded, unwittingly, in the art of deceit. This happened, I should think, sometime in April, the snowball of rumour that was then set rolling has been rolling ever since, growing bigger and bigger, till it is now swollen to a monstrous size.”
At the time, this had no effect on the general belief in the reality of the Angel, but later historians and researchers came to agree with Machen. In the 2000 book A Dictionary of English Folklore by J. Simpson and S. Roud, the Angel of Mons is described as:
“A contemporary legend which satisfied religious and patriotic needs, and became a powerful and enduring part of the mythology of the Great War.“
Most historians and folklorists now agree that the Angel of Mons was a spontaneous myth which can be traced back directly to The Bowmen. So, is that it, case closed? No Angel, no hallucination, just a folk tale originating from a short story? Well, I don’t think so. If The Bowmen really was the origin of the Angel myth, why did it take more than six months for this to happen? The Bowmen was well received as a piece of fiction when it was published in September 1914, but source evidence shows that there was no discussion of the possible reality of the Angel until April 1915. That doesn’t make sense if the myth had arisen directly from the short story. Instead, I believe that a close examination of the evidence in the Angel of Mons story suggests something more complex and contrived than the conventional explanation.
Brigadier-General John Charteris
Those who sought to prove that the Angel of Mons was real continued to search for proof in the years following World War One, but without success. Then, in 1931, everything changed. In that year a senior British staff officer during World War One, Brigadier-General John Charteris, published a book, At GHQ, covering his experiences during the war. Charteris was a prolific letter writer, sometimes writing several letters each day to his wife and friends. At GHQ was a compilation of letters written by Charteris from August 1914 to November 1918. One letter to his wife was dated 5th September 1914 and contained the following lines:
“… the story of the Angel of Mons going strong through the 2nd Corps of how the angel of the Lord on the traditional white horse, and clad all in white with flaming sword, faced the advancing Germans at Mons and forbade their further progress.”
Here at last was definitive proof that soldiers were talking about the Angel of Mons before the publication of The Bowmen (which was first published on 29th September). Which in turn supports the notion of the Angel was a real event rather than something inspired solely by Machen’s short story. Those who believed in the reality of the Angel used this as a triumphant vindication of their position. Here was a senior and respected British staff officer confirming what they had always claimed. However, things weren’t quite as they seemed.
First of all, the term “Angel of Mons” did not begin to appear in the press until around June 1915. It seems uncannily prescient that Charteris would happen to use a phrase which would later become almost universally adopted nine months before anyone else. Then in another letter in the book, this time dated February 11th 1915, Charteris again mentions the Angel in a letter to his wife:
“I have been at some trouble to trace the rumour to its source. The best I can make of it is that some religiously minded man wrote home that the Germans halted at Mons, AS IF an Angel of the Lord had appeared in front of them. In due course the letter appeared in a parish magazine, which in time was sent back to some other men at the front. From them the story went back home with the “as if” omitted, and at home it went the rounds in its expurgated form.”
This is demonstrably untrue. We know that the first mention of supernatural intervention at Mons in a parish magazine was in the May 1915 edition of the All Saints Church Parish Magazine in Bristol. So, Charteris cannot have been writing to his wife about it in February 1915. Microfilm copies of the original letters on which At GHQ was based are held by the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College, University of London. A search of the archive by social historian Dr David Clarke found that there are no letters dated 5th September 1914 or 11th February 1915 in the collection (the majority of other letters used in At GHQ are present in the collection). The originals of Charteris papers were donated to the Intelligence Corps Museum on his death, but letters for these dates are not to be found there either. It is possible of course that the originals of these particular letters have been lost. However it is also possible that they never existed and that the entries published in At GHQ have been falsified. But why on earth would Charteris want to do this?
To understand, we need to look more closely at the wartime career of Brigadier-General John Charteris. Charteris was part of the Intelligence Corps of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and travelled to France with the BEF on the outbreak of war. He became a close friend of General Douglas Haig (later Field Marshal Haig) who commanded 1 Corps of the BEF. Charteris was promoted by Haig to become Chief Intelligence Officer at GHQ (General Headquarters of the BEF), a role he kept until January 1918. Charteris was close to Haig, advising him on intelligence and wider military matters. He was not popular with fellow officers, being considered devious and manipulative and he was referred to on more than one occasion as “Haig’s evil counselor”. One of his own secretaries during the war called him “really a horror of a man” and by the end of 1917 he was known as “the U-Boat” due to his alleged propensity for launching unexpected attacks on colleagues. After the war, Charteris wrote two complimentary biographies of Haig.
The Intelligence Corps of the British Army which Charteris came to lead hadn’t even existed prior to 1912, and at the outbreak of war in August 1914 it numbered less than 50 officers and men. In the beginning, the Corps carried out the gathering of battlefield intelligence – officers and men were sent to the front to gather information about enemy forces and these reports were then collated and provided to GHQ. However, under Charteris’ leadership the Intelligence Corps also began to work with emerging theories of psychology to develop, amongst other things, effective de-briefing techniques for extracting information from German prisoners of war. The Corps was also involved in several tactical deceptions – for example planting information leading the Germans to expect an attack on a particular sector when a real attack was planned for a different area. In addition, there is good evidence that the Intelligence Corps was also involved in much larger strategic deceptions which would fall under the heading of what we’d now call propaganda and psychological warfare.
One possible example is the story of the ‘Kadaver factory’ (sometimes called the “tallow factory”). Like the Angel of Mons, this was first mentioned in early 1915. A number of newspapers and magazines around the world which were sympathetic to the Anglo-French cause carried articles which claimed that Germany had set up a “corpse utilisation plant” (Kadaververwertungsanstalt) where the bodies of dead German soldiers were taken to be boiled down and the results used in the manufacture of munitions and to produce animal feed. The story was very widely reported in 1915 and continued to feature sporadically in newspapers throughout the war. There was a significant revival of interest in 1917 when accounts from eyewitnesses who claimed to have actually seen the factory were published. The story caused repugnance and condemnation around the world and immediate, vehement and consistent German denials were largely ignored.
We now know that there never was a Kadaver factory. The story had no basis in fact and all the alleged eye-witness reports were invented. The myth was very harmful to the German cause and reinforced the view promoted by the Allies that Germans were ruthless and brutal. Journalists who initially reported the story claimed that their information came from highly-placed British military sources, but these were never named. During and after the war, many Germans believed that the Kadaver Factory was a story deliberately created by their enemies to blacken the reputation of the German war effort, though they were never able to prove this.
Cartoon in Punch Magazine, 1917 makes reference to the Kadaver Factory story.
In late 1925 Charteris, by that time Conservative Member of Parliament for Dumfries shire, made a visit to the United States. During an alcohol-fueled after-dinner speech to the National Arts Club in Manhattan, he told a number of anecdotes about his involvement in spies and spying during World War One. In one of these he admitted that the stories about the Kadaver Factory (then still widely believed to be true in America), were actually a deliberate creation of the British Intelligence Corps. According to a New York Times report of the lecture on 2nd November, he went on to describe how one day he had received two photographs. One showed dead German troops being taken for burial. The other showed dead horses being taken to a rendering plant to be made into fertilizer. Charteris simply swapped the captions, so that the picture of dead soldiers showed that they were being sent to a Kadaververwertungsanstalt. At that time Britain was concerned about the attitude of China, which seemed to be favouring Germany. Aware of Chinese reverence for the dead, Charteris sent the picture and caption to an English language Chinese newspaper in Shanghai hoping to influence Chinese popular opinion against Germany. To his surprise, from Shanghai the Kadaver Factory story spread around the world.
Charteris went on to describe how a member of the Intelligence Corps forged the diary of a German soldier which described his work in the Kadaver Factory, “and of his horror at finding that he was to assist there in boiling down his brother soldiers.” The plan was to plant the forged diary on the body of a dead German soldier and have it “discovered” by British soldiers, though this was never carried out.
Charteris revelations about the Kadaver Factory were widely reported in the UK and there was an immediate and furious reaction. The London Evening Standard demanded:
“It is vital that he deny the statement instantly. . . . Its effect is to discredit British propaganda past, present and future.“
On 2nd December British Foreign Secretary Austen Chamberlain was forced to react to German anger over Charteris comments by issuing a statement on behalf of the Government accepting that there was no truth in the Kadaver Factory story (though he carefully avoided admitting any British involvement in its creation). When he returned to Britain after his US tour, Charteris was urgently summoned to the War Office. Soon after, he denied that he or British military intelligence had any role in the Kadaver Factory story, claimed that he had been “misreported” in the US and said that quotes attributed to him were “incorrect and absurd”. This denial lacks credibility. The New York Times article was published while Charteris was still in the USA, but he made no effort to dispute it at the time. It wasn’t until he returned to Britain and became aware of the outrage that his comments had caused that he felt the need to publically deny the story. In the mid-1920s anything that could be interpreted as dishonourable or underhanded was considered harmful to British interests. Charteris revelations about the Kadaver Factory suggested the kind of ungentlemanly behavior which was considered unacceptable even in the midst of war. However, his description of how the Kadaver Factory story was created is entirely plausible and fits with how the story first appeared and then spread. It seems likely that his revelations in America were true, if indiscreet, and that his later denial was simply a politician’s response to unexpected anger at home and abroad.
If the invention of the Kadaver Factory story by Charteris is true, and there seems good reason to believe that it may be, could the Angel of Mons also be a piece of propaganda promulgated and encouraged by Charteris and the Intelligence Corps? To assess this possibility we have to consider why Britain might have seen value in promoting the story of the Angel in March/April 1915. At this time the first Zeppelin raids on the British mainland had begun, terrifying civilians. The German submarine blockade of Britain had started, raising fears of starvation. The indecisive battle of Neuve Chapelle had produced high casualties but few gains. The initial flood of volunteers to join the British army was lessening. Most of all, war weariness was taking hold as the public began to realise that this horrific and destructive war was set to last much longer than anyone had expected. If a piece of propaganda could help to lift the morale of the British people at this difficult time, could persuade them of the divine rightness of their cause and encourage enlistment, it would certainly be of interest to military intelligence.
This would help to explain the crudely falsified letters about the Angel in Charteris book. Having been roundly condemned for his revelations about the Kadaver Factory in 1925, Charteris wasn’t going to risk the same thing happening if it was thought that he was also responsible for the Angel of Mons as a piece of British propaganda. The two letters in At GHQ which mention the Angel are intended to reinforce the idea that this was a real event, but errors in timing make it certain that these were not written when claimed and it’s much more likely that they were created and inserted later. There is no reason for Charteris to do this unless he has a vested interest in supporting the idea that the Angel was a real event and therefore deflecting any suspicion that he may have been involved in its creation. There are two further circumstantial clues that support the suspicion of Charteris’ direct involvement in spreading the story of the Angel of Mons.
The Reverend C. M. Chavasse served as a chaplain with the BEF in France and Belgium. On his return to England in October 1915, he gave a sermon in which he referred to the story of the Angel of Mons. He said he had:
“… never yet got first-hand evidence on the subject, but he had been told by a general, a brigadier, who was far from superstitious, that a captain and subaltern serving under him were certain they saw something at Mons. They were men who would never dream of seeing angels, but they said they saw something, some bright pulsating light, which came between the little company of Englishmen and a troop of charging Uhlans on their horses…”
We know that Charteris was a Brigadier General with the BEF at the time that Reverend Chavasse was in France. Finally, the publication in the April 24th edition of Light magazine of one of the first articles about the Angel of Mons was prompted by a visit to their London offices by an unnamed “military officer” who gave them the story. The article noted that the officer;
“… explained that, whether Mr Machen’s story was pure invention or not, it was certainly stated in some quarters that a curious phenomenon had been witnessed by several officers and men in connection with the retreat from Mons.”
This was completely untrue – we know from letters and other records that in April 1915 there was no discussion of any “curious phenomenon” at Mons, so we may wonder what prompted this officer to make such a claim to one of the few publications who might be expected to run such a story? These two instances of a senior military officer helping to spread the story of the Angel are simply those of which we happen to know – there were almost certainly many more instances which have never been recorded. Of course, we can’t be certain that Charteris was the officer involved, but if we combine these circumstantial clues with the otherwise inexplicable falsification of letters referring to the Angel in Charteris’ book and his possible involvement in originating the Kadaver Factory story, then I think it is reasonable to surmise that he may also have been involved in originating the Angel of Mons myth in April 1915 as a piece of morale-boosting propaganda at a time when the war had become unpopular. Presumably this was done in the same way that the Kadaver Factory story was started, with unattributable stories being given “off the record” to selected journalists (in just the way that the original Angel story was given to Light magazine). The biggest mystery here is that, once the story started to grow, there seemed to be no shortage of seemingly sincere and honest “eye-witnesses” willing to step forward to attest to the truth of something that had never happened.
Field Marshal Haig with Staff officers, 1918
There is no good evidence to support the view that anything supernatural happened during the retreat from Mons. The conventional explanation is that The Bowmen had a role in the later creation of the myth of the Angel, but if it did, it seems very odd that this did not begin until more than six months after the story was published. I think it is much more likely that Machen’s story simply provided an idea that Charteris and the Intelligence Corps developed, planted in the press and then nurtured by dropping hints to selected people at appropriate moments. They were then able to stand back and watch as the story grew, spread and was embellished as it was re-told. If this is true, the Angel of Mons Mystery is worthy of note not just as a mystery and an interesting piece of social history, but also as a masterly and enduring early example of disinformation and psychological warfare.
The Bowmen and other legends of the war. The anthology published in 1915 which includes the story which is claimed by some to have started the Angel of Mons myth. Available for free download from Project Gutenberg.
The Angel of Mons: Phantom Soldiers and Ghostly Guardians, 2005 by David Clark. Book providing a detailed investigation into the Angel of Mons and other legends of World War One.
The case of the elusive Angel of Mons. Website taking a detailed look at the events of August 1914 and examining the case for and against a supernatural event.


Short documentary 'Nothing too Bad' & paper 'Autopsy of a Militarized Body'
Nothing too Bad is a short documentary I filmed in in April 2017, interviewing my father on his experiences as a UN peacekeeper in the 1980’s.
Nothing too Bad (2017) is a short documentary which presents, and fabulates, a conversation between a 'researcher'-daughter and a 'former UN peacekeeper' -father. It uncovers the shaping of memories and their attachment to the contents of a briefcase, which for decades preserved a history. On the edges of the bodies of father and daughter, in stories and photographs, a geography of war is imagined and remembered where female and non-human bodies play their parts. The documentary points to specific aspect of militarism: its stickiness as a relational glue and its making of an identity.
Article on the documentary:
Autopsy of a Militarized Body: Introducing Short Documentary 'Nothing too Bad' (Critical Military Studies, 2018)
Nothing too Bad became an 11-minute documentary about me and my father, a briefcase and militarism. It is aimless and elusive, yet directed by a curiosity about the power of emotion, and the power of bodies and other materialities. How a story makes an identity, and how an identity makes a story. This is a companion text to an unpublished video, or maybe even its replacement. As scary as it is, I want to share a personal story of how militarism transmits and ramifies between bodies; how it sticks, unnoticeably.


Saturday, Mar 8Sth from 9:30 am until 2:00pm and 4.00pm untill 9.00 pm. Family Night from 6.00 pm until 9.00pm. Kids get free dinner with paid admission.
Sunday, Mar 9th from 9:30 am until 3:00 pm.
If you haven't been to KidNetic before, check out this link for a great virtual


FOR EVERYONE STUDIES
Dust to Glory by R.C. Sproul/Facilitated by Tim Gold: Join us for a unique study as we explore the major themes, events, and people that are brought to life in the Bible. Dust to Glory provides a panorama of biblical truth and a starting point to help you understand the content of the Bible. This study can energize your personal study of the Bible and provide you with new insights, improve your ability to read and understand, and apply Scripture to your life. This is an on-going study and they will meet at 6:30 pm on Wednesday nights. Book Cost: $0.00
Crisis 101: Making Sense of Life When Life Doesn't Make Sense by Robert J. Morgan/Facilitated by Mike Caldwell: Jesus continually stepped into crisis with words of hope, peace, joy and love and we can do the same. Watch the seas part as you walk through this adventure. Join us at 6:30 pm on Wednesday nights and learn how to follow in the footsteps of Jesus through crisis. Book Cost: $15.00
The Books of 1& 2 Timothy and Titus/Facilitated by Dr. Ed Glasscock: Join Dr. Glasscock as you dive into these three New Testament books. This group will meet at 6:30 pm on Wednesday nights. Bring you Bible!
- Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shire/Facilitated by Dottie Bennett, Corrinne Stockton and Betty Galloway: Through these 7 sessions you will discover the root to clear and daily communication with God-humble obedience. Learn how surrender unlocks His many blessings intended for us, centers us in His will, and helps us discern His voice in everyday life. This group will meet on Monday afternoons at 12:30 pm. Book Cost:$13.00
- Open Your Bible by Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams/Facilitated by Joanna Darden: Wea re all longing to hear from God and aching to know who He is and know His heart and the truth is this-we can encounted the loving God today in the pages of His Word. The Bible is for you and for now. Whether you already open your Bible everyday, have never read it before or stuggle to keep up with studying the Scriptures this 7 week session is for you. Join the ladies of She Reads Truth as they take you on a wonderful and beautiful journey through the pages of the greatest love story ever written. This group will meet at 6:30 pm on Wednesday nights. Book Cost: $15.00
- Job: A Story of Unlikely Joy by Lisa Harper/ Facilitated by Kim Thweatt: Joy is the constant companion of the woman who trusts in the Lord. And while you can find it in friends, family, and circumstances, unfailing, persistent joy will only ever overflow from your relationship with Jesus. In this 7 session study, discover the redemptive facet of Job's suffering. learn to view pain as a way to strengthen your faith, point others to the gospel, and trust in the Lord. Because His providence will never take you to a place where His grace will not sustain you. This group will meet on Wednesday nights at 5 pm and 6:30 pm. Book Cost:13.00
- Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado/ Facilitated by patsy Lee: In this 5 session video based Bible study, we will explore God's remedy for anxiety that is found in Philippians 4:4-8. As we follow this prescription-celebrating God's goodness, asking for His help, leaving your concerns with Him and meditating on good things-you will experience God's peace that transcends all understanding and reframe the way you look at your fears. This group will meet on Wednesday nights at 5:30 pm. Book Cost: $10.00


A few monographs of varied facets of complicated research in different variables have seemed because the first model of this publication was once released, yet none of them makes use of the analytic innovations in keeping with the answer of the Neumann challenge because the major software.
The additions made during this 3rd, revised version position extra pressure on effects the place those equipment are fairly vital. therefore, a bit has been additional featuring Ehrenpreis' ``fundamental principle'' in complete. The neighborhood arguments during this part are heavily on the topic of the evidence of the coherence of the sheaf of germs of services vanishing on an analytic set. additionally additional is a dialogue of the theory of Siu at the Lelong numbers of plurisubharmonic features. because the L2 options are crucial within the facts and plurisubharmonic capabilities play such a massive function during this publication, it kind of feels ordinary to debate their major singularities.
Read Online or Download An Introduction to Complex Analysis in Several Variables, Volume 7, Third Edition (North-Holland Mathematical Library) PDF
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It is a graduate textual content introducing the basics of degree thought and integration thought, that is the basis of contemporary actual research. The textual content focuses first at the concrete environment of Lebesgue degree and the Lebesgue crucial (which in flip is encouraged by means of the extra classical thoughts of Jordan degree and the Riemann integral), sooner than relocating directly to summary degree and integration thought, together with the traditional convergence theorems, Fubini's theorem, and the Carathéodory extension theorem.
From the Preface (1955): the 1st a part of the current exposition is dedicated to the idea of Toeplitz varieties. the second one half offers with purposes, specifically to the calculus of chance and mathematical statistics. Neither half claims completeness in anyway. Our goal has been to clarify the primary principles of this extraordinary bankruptcy of recent research and to aid the scholar of mathematical statistics to obtain a operating wisdom of the topic.
Extra info for An Introduction to Complex Analysis in Several Variables, Volume 7, Third Edition (North-Holland Mathematical Library)


The Sunnah, that is taught at times, seems to overlook amazing instances of passion, valor, fidelity and sacrifice in the name of true love. Instances from the life of the Prophet and his companions builds a comprehensive system of devotion – a Sunnah of Love.read more 158 31.10.2011, Monday
Shayma was older than the Prophet. While living in the same house during her childhood, she spent a lot of her time at his service. She would feed him, embrace him with love and mercy, hold him by the hand and take him for walks.
One of the most highly misunderstood and misconstrued aspects of our faith is our relationship with the Prophet Muhammad. Hence, I would like to embark on a humble project to shed some light on the characteristics of the Prophet Muhammad and how he embodied them during his lifetime.read more 8 22.09.2011, Thursday
A Lastprophet.info compilation of the Qur’anic verses presenting the personal supplications of the Prophets. Prayers include those of Prophets Solomon, Jonah, Adam, Abraham, Ishmael, Zachariah and Muhammad, upon them all be peace.read more 1 25.08.2011, Thursday
Denoting ‘quality, characteristic or form’, as well as ‘decoration or ornament,’ hilya, within the Islamic context, refers to the literary genre which elaborates on the features and merits of the Prophet Muhammad. Also known with the titles ‘Portrait of Happiness’ and..read more 1 29.06.2011, Wednesday


1986: The Act
Man and microbe, from Polio to COVID19... a never more relevant forensic examination of the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act and its consequences. What happens when an ancient wisdom – a mother’s intuition - is pitted against powerful interests in a race against time?
In 2013, biologist Dr. Brian Hooker received a call from a Senior Scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who led the agency’s 2004 study on the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine and its link to autism.
Who Killed Alex Spourdalakis?
A unique insight into how ignorance, negligence, and indifference in the US healthcare machine lead to the tragic death of a severely autistic Chicago teen, and a charge of Murder One for his mother and godmother.


Report abuseBritish Literature PresentationThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner- Samuel ColderidgeA sailor on a ship kills an Albatross. Soon after a series of supernatural occurrences takes place that makes the sailor regret killing the bird.
Romantic Era (1798-1832)Valued the individual, emotion, nature, the commonplace and the imagination.
Characterizes many pieces of art, literature, architecture, and music 12 Dec 2013 - British Literature Presentation The Rime of the Ancient Mariner- Samuel Colderidge A sailor on a ship kills an Albatross. Soon after a series of supernatural occurrences takes place that makes the sailor regret killing the bird. Romantic Era (1798-1832) Nature is a source of comfort and inspiration..
Famous writers include William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, and John Keats. To Autumn- John KeatsJohn Keats describes autumn in a graceful way and sheds light on all the change that happens in autumn.
)Victorian Age (1832-1901)Embraced imperialismTime of energy and vitalityThe Darkling Thrush- Thomas HardyA man is outside in the winter. He describes the nature and he seems hopeless until he hears the singing of a bird which brings him hope.
British literature presentation by angelia patino on prezi
Ode- complex lyric poem that develops a single, dignified theme 22 Nov 2013 - English literature is the literature which is distinctly written in the English language, as opposed to differing languages. English literature includes literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England nor primarily English-speaking nations. 4. Until the early 19th century, this article deals .
Serious tone appeal to both imagination and the intellect.
John Keats is serious in this poem but he still appeals to the imagination by the descriptive words he uses to create a picture of autumn in your head. "What can people learn from nature?"John Keats shows we call all learn to appreciate every season instead of just the overrated seasons. Not only that, but nature can show us how to appreciate the small things in life.
Literary Ballad: Narrative poem written in deliberate imitation of trad How to open and close presentations? - Presentation lesson from Mark Powell - Duration: 7:37. Cambridge .
Gcse english literature paper 1
"What does your selected literature tell about the Victorian Age?""The ancient pulse of germ and birth/ Was shrunken hard and dry. This describes the seeds of spring, which is a symbol of rebirth and hope. In this context Hardy describes them as lifeless and hard. Seems to be pessimism or unease about future in this era with industrialization.
His tone goes from hopeless to hopeful with a sound of a bird, which shows how much he values nature English Literature. While there are variations between different disciplines, there are three main characteristics that are common to all academic essays. These are: presentation of arguments;. • Careful attention to the perhaps some breadth of knowledge of the course as a whole), it is likely to get a good mark..
English literature presentation - youtube
While it may seem bad to some now, it benefits the future. Macauley tries to persuade you to believe change is good and that industrialization will benefit the future.
"Is it better to escape of face reality?"-This piece by Macauley clearly shows he believes it is better to face reality Women in Literature. An introductory lesson. Equality. When we ask the question, Are women equal to men? in what ways are we using the word equal ? Discuss in Please get in touch if you want to discuss the accessibility of resources we offer to support delivery of our qualifications: [email protected]
Only because he describes while it may seem bad now, make the best of it.
English literature writing guide
Modernism (1901- Present)Followed by devastation's of WWI and WWII. Modernism tried to make sens of the new fragmented world.
LawrenceA family stretches their money to try to live a more luxurious lifestyle.
The mother in this story does not love her kids, so her son tries to win her love by giving her more money.
Where to get an english literature powerpoint presentation a4 (british
Theme- Underlying message about the life or human nature that the writer wants readers to understand 27 Dec 2017 - 20 Dec 2017 - Best website to buy comparative literature powerpoint presentation 24 hours 144 pages / 39600 words standard literature 28 pages / 7700 words a4 (british/european) formatting turabian; Write my college comparative literature powerpoint presentation standard double spaced us letter size .
In this story the theme is money cannot buy happiness.
"Can money buy happiness?"I do not think money can buy happiness. This story shows that even though you could have much more money than you need and you'd still be unhappy. Dreamers- Siegfried SassoonThis piece of literature describes soldiers who think about home in the depths of war.
Tone- expression of the writer's attitude toward the subject Welcome. Year 11 Support Evening. Strategies for exam success. 2. English. GCSE English Language GCSE English Literature. What to revise, when and how? Get hold of a basic grammar workbook – we can recommend one if you like – and work through it to improve your accuracy and versatility. English Literature: .
English literature - slideshare
"Is patriotism enough?"-I do not believe patriotism is enough. While one can fight for the country they love patriotism will not always get someone through the hardships of war.


Détail de l'auteur
Auteur Amy C. Edmondson
Documents disponibles écrits par cet auteur
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Teaming / Amy C. Edmondson (2012)
Titre : Teaming : How organizations learn, innovate, and compete in the knowledge economy Type de document : document électronique Auteurs : Amy C. Edmondson, Auteur ; Edgar H. Schein, Auteur Editeur : Hoboken [New Jersey] [United States] : John Wiley & Sons Année de publication : 2012 ISBN/ISSN/EAN : 978-1-118-21674-3 Langues : Anglais (eng) Résumé : New breakthrough thinking in organizational learning, leadership, and change
Continuous improvement, understanding complex systems, and promoting innovation are all part of the landscape of learning challenges today's companies face. Amy Edmondson shows that organizations thrive, or fail to thrive, based on how well the small groups within those organizations work. In most organizations, the work that produces value for customers is carried out by teams, and increasingly, by flexible team-like entities. The pace of change and the fluidity of most work structures means that it's not really about creating effective teams anymore, but instead about leading effective teaming.
Teaming shows that organizations learn when the flexible, fluid collaborations they encompass are able to learn. The problem is teams, and other dynamic groups, don't learn naturally. Edmondson outlines the factors that prevent them from doing so, such as interpersonal fear, irrational beliefs about failure, groupthink, problematic power dynamics, and information hoarding. With Teaming, leaders can shape these factors by encouraging reflection, creating psychological safety, and overcoming defensive interpersonal dynamics that inhibit the sharing of ideas. Further, they can use practical management strategies to help organizations realize the benefits inherent in both success and failure.
Presents a clear explanation of practical management concepts for increasing learning capability for business results
Introduces a framework that clarifies how learning processes must be altered for different kinds of work
Explains how Collaborative Learning works, and gives tips for how to do it well
Includes case-study research on Intermountain healthcare, Prudential, GM, Toyota, IDEO, the IRS, and both Cincinnati and Minneapolis Children's Hospitals, among others
Based on years of research, this book shows how leaders can make organizational learning happen by building teams that learn.
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What to drink whilst reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
February 22, 2018
A collection of short stories by one of the masters of the genre. It examines the big concepts of love alongside the minutiae of relationships.
Carver was a well-known fan of a drink as he worked. In this particular collection the characters are rather impartial to a tipple as well.
In the eponymous story, the characters drink so much gin that it is a wonder the story can even continue. I've chosen The Botanist Islay Dry Gin which is packed with 22 hand-foraged botanicals. It smells delicious even in the bottle. I think sometimes you open a gin and it smells too strong, but this one makes you want to drink it straight away.


- A Néron-Ogg-Shafarevich criterion for K3 surfaces (joint with B. Chiarellotto and C. Liedtke) arXiv pdf
- A note on effective descent for overconvergent isocrystals arXiv pdf
- A homotopy exact sequence for overconvergent isocrystals (joint with A. Pál) arXiv pdf
- Cycle classes in overconvergent rigid cohomology and a semistable Lefschetz \((1,1)\) theorem (joint with A. Pál) arXiv pdf
- Around \(\ell\)-independence (joint with B. Chiarellotto), to appear in Compos. Math. arXiv pdf
- Fundamental groups and good reduction criteria for curves over positive characteristic local fields, to appear in J. Théor. Nombres Bordeaux arXiv pdf
- Combinatorial degenerations of surfaces and Calabi-Yau threefolds (joint with B. Chiarellotto), Algebra & Number Theory (2016) 10 (10):2235-2266 article arXiv pdf
- Incarnations of Berthelot's conjecture, J. Number Theory (2016) 166: 137-157 article arXiv pdf
- Relative fundamental groups and rational points, Rend. Sem. Mat. Univ. Padova (2015) 134: 1-45 article arXiv pdf
- Rigid rational homotopy types, Proc. London Math. Soc. (2014) 109 (2): 523-551 article arXiv pdf
- Rigid Cohomology over Laurent Series Fields (joint with A. Pál), Springer (2016) vol. 21 of Algebra and Applications book
- Rational homotopy theory in arithmetic geometry, applications to rational points thesis pdfMy Ph.D. thesis, the first two chapters of which are entirely contained in "Relative fundamental groups and rational points" and "Rigid rational homotopy types" above.
- 2-Descent on the Jacobins of Hyperelliptic Curves pdfMy essay for Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge.
- Rigid cohomology over Laurent series fields (joint with A. Pál)
These are earlier versions of chapters from our book on rigid cohomology. The book itself contains far more material, and much stronger results.
- I: First definitions and basic properties arXiv pdf
- II: Finiteness and Poincaré duality for smooth curves arXiv pdf
- III: Absolute coefficients and arithmetic applications arXiv pdf
- 2-Descent on the Jacobins of Hyperelliptic Curves pdf


Entangled Publishing - Select line
Novella, Book one of the Shadow Sisters series
Four sisters, three rules to live by, one big problem.
O'Connell Family Rule #1: Don't let the Fae know you see them.
O'Connell Family Rule #2: Don't talk to the Fae.
O'Connell Family Rule #3: Never, ever follow them.
Most people only believe what they can see. Gifted with the ability to see the deep, dark fae of Shadowland, Catherine Rowan Mary O'Connell would prefer not to. When the fae abduct her friend Maya, Cate breaks the sacred O'Connell Family Rules and sets a trap for the handsome fae who haunts her every step.
Rook, High Court Advisor to the Shadow King, has been following Cate since she was sixteen. When Cate reveals herself as one of the fabled "Seers", Rook is stunned—she is one of the few that can permanently open the gates between their worlds. If he turns her over to the Shadow King, his court will rule the human realm.
Cate knows she has precious little time to find Maya. By midnight, the glamour of Mid-Summer's Eve will fade, leaving her trapped forever in the Shadowland, but Maya's abductor won't give up the woman he's mesmerized easily.
The midnight hour is almost at hand. Cate must choose: her freedom or her destiny.


Registration for this event has closed. Thanks for your interest!
Gorbachev is the definitive biography of the Soviet Union’s final leader, from the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Khrushchev. In 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev oversaw the collapse of one of the greatest superpowers in human history. This novel delves into everything that led up to that monumental moment, and paints a complicated portrait of the man at the center of it all. William Taubman explores the transformational life of a peasant boy turned world leader, how he clambered to the top of a system designed to keep people like him down, how he found common ground with president Ronald Reagan, and how he permitted the USSR to fall apart without resorting to military force to preserve them.
William Taubman is a political scientist born in 1940 in New York City. He received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1962; an M.A. from Columbia University in 1965; and a Ph.D. from Columbia in 1969. His awards include a Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle award, Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Wayne S. Vucinich Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship.


A brave and magical book, Voluspa: Seidr as Wyrd Consciousness is a deeply original commentary on the lived experience of an ancient wisdom text. Intelligent, thoughtful, well-informed, and practical, this comprehensively researched work is a necessary foundation to understanding not just Seidr, but the nature of spirit in Northern Traditionalism. Valarie Wright is a pathfinder who expertly translates and explains the lost-legacy of Voluspa – the ancient poem of Creation and creators – and how these mysterious, profound, and insightful words and practices can be lived successfully today!
Forn Threifa: Ancient Healing Touch is a masterpiece of traditional energetic folk healing. It pulls together the primary sources to detail the “healing hands” of Seidbearers, Cunningfolk, Druids, and those other pre-Christian healers of renown. You will learn: The Source of Healing within yourself, and the role of Healer in daily life; How Health is related to being Whole and Holy, and of the Healing Women and Men of Lore; the nature of -Cursing and the Healing Oath, and those Healing Wisdom Traditions commonly used throughout European (Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic tribes) that the Church tried to ban; and the Five Part Healing Method found repeatedly in Heathen Lore that assures success.
Where most bemoan that ‘there is not enough references to seidr in the lore’, scholars like H.R.E. Davidson writes: “As far as Old Norse literature is concerned there is little reason to complain of the scantiness of the field, which is bewildering by its richness rather than depressing by its barrenness”. Taking this to heart, Valarie Wright has researched and studied Seidr for forty-years, to discover the numerous mentions that have been preserved, and to assess carefully the extent of the Seidr weal at our disposal. Now, this treasure can be yours! Do you Know the The Eight Steps to Seiðr, or how to arrive at this life’s journey? Are you looking for a hands-on Seidr format? Do you feel overwhelmed by the spread-out references and dead languages? Are you ready to answer the Wild Call that seethes beneath the surface of your skin? Then it’s time to Ride the Hedge, Run with Wolves, and Galdr Aloud the Eight Whispers of Seidr Wisdom!
Heathen Anthology: Volume One. Valarie Wright has been researching Seidr in an effort to increase the stock of applicable, cultural, and historical knowledge to reassure that the skills and abilities of yore are not lost. Heathen Anthology represents decades of essays that document, discovery, and develop the methods and systems of Seidr. Volume One includes historical citations on Ymir and the Four Dwarves and how they define and explain the traditional ideas of sacred space; of how Frey and Freyja became the Lord and Lady of Witchcraft; and how the Nine Herb Galdr can heal you today. If you’re are ready to move past beginner-101 books, to delve deeper into the ancient wisdom teachings of Sacred Space, of the Divine Twins, and Healing Herbs, then Volume One awaits you!
Heathen Anthology: Volume Two. Valarie Wright has been researching Seidr in an effort to increase the stock of applicable, cultural, and historical knowledge to reassure that the skills and abilities of yore are not lost. Heathen Anthology represents decades of essays that document, discovery, and develop the methods and systems of Seidr. Volume Two includes historical citations on Hel, Halja, and the Dark Mothers of Germanic Heathenry; intimate information on Nerthus and Her annual sacrifices; and the revelation of the Dark Runes and how one can use those for personal gain. If you are ready to move past ‘safe’ books, to explore the Dark Goddesses, Gygjars and Matrons of Death, of Nerthus and human sacrifice, and the injurious practices of Dark Runes, then Volume Two awaits you!
Patreon: Valarie Wright researches, studies, and applies the cultural-historic applications of Seidr. As an antiquarian and academic, she is dedicated to the positive promotion and preservation of Old European spirito-mystic culture and heritage. Wright uses literary, historical, and archaeological evidence to explore the customs of Old Europe, to include Germanic, Celtic, and Slavic folkways. She has written six books and numerous essays and asks for your support in these endeavors.
Honestly, I have no idea what price to put on this level of dedication towards such a sacred practice with applications for all of us. Not only is it near and dear to me, but it’s important for all of us today who struggle with the shackles of a Christian upbringing. Every time I meet Heathens, I meet families, and they are struggling to reclaim their ancestral heritage. Right now, I can only assist a few of these families, and my goal is to reach more in need of this information. Would you be willing to contribute 1$ or 3$ a month to help me reach more Heathen hearths?
Facebook: Seidr, akin to Facebook, is like being in the Flow – or that feeling when one is totally and happily engrossed in a project or skill. Valarie Wright is a Seidwoman, and joyfully shares the Flow of Seidr – from its comprehensive exploration and philosophical perspective, to its deep nature and mystical meaning.
When you “like” a Seidr observation, you are connecting to Seidr; you are affirming that you ‘get it’. More than nodding your head in agreement, after reading a post, a ‘like’ confirms an ineffable affinity. It’s the most practical and immediate way to relate to and with Seidr. And when you “comment”, that is a reflection of your inner being. So to find value and definition, and/or grow and nourish your Seidr practice, respond here often and much!
Twitter: Seidr is relevant, personal, and influential. Exploring Seidr – and its underlying meanings – is a tool of self-actualization. Removed from tribes, perhaps even kindreds, Twitter helps us reconnect in crucial and ancient ways: sharing information. Twitter is open and concise, the perfect platform for Seidr’s Wyrd Consciousness sound-bites; sometimes all we need during the day is the ‘perfect’ phrase to awaken us from our stupor to expand into Ginnunga-gap.
Paypal: Or, if you simply want to support the work I do, remember, contributing to Paypal is not a business transaction but a human connection. Seidr is about meaningful connections, because it helps us make a difference in our life. To help the research and discovery continue, to memorialize the Seidwoman of yore, to be part of a Seid community, to bolster the Folkway and build spiritual morale, because its personal, to act with your heart and not your head, to impart generosity, to say “I genuinely care about the future of Seidr”, because Seidr research, study, and sharing matters.
Invitation: For those who Seid, you do not have to walk alone. For four decades I have been clearing the path. Along the way, I grew increasingly more distant from Asatru and Heathenry for denying those who seek answers from Seidr, from the Cunningway and Wortcunning, from Forn Threifa and Trolldom, from Berserkergang and Rune Art, and from mysterious and forgotten arts yet told.
Much and more have I learned from Jotun and Gygjar, only to have those who know-nothing of these Old Ways, who cower in ignorance and fear, call such deeds “dark”, “new age”, or “not-Heathen”.
Wise Home is a place that changes that. It is a shared table of research, study, and living lifeway for those weary of the outside world. If you dare, join the good folk who sit and share at that table.


HomeGeneralProphet Segun Adebayo Reveals What Will Likely Happen To Those Who Killed Mohbad
Prophet Segun Adebayo Reveals What Will Likely Happen To Those Who Killed Mohbad
September 25, 2023
In the quiet town of Ibadan, where whispers of mystery often found their home, Prophet Segun Adebayo was renowned for his uncanny ability to foresee the unseen. On a solemn evening, the town gathered beneath the canopy of the ancient baobab tree, seeking answers, solace, and perhaps even vengeance for the untimely demise of the beloved rapper, MohBad.
Prophet Adebayo, with eyes like deep pools of wisdom, addressed the hushed crowd. He spoke of visions that had visited him in the dead of night, visions that held the secrets of what would befall those responsible for MohBad’s tragic end. His words hung heavy in the air, a haunting premonition that sent shivers down the spines of those who listened.
With unwavering conviction, he declared that justice would find its way to the perpetrators, and their lives would be forever marked by the shadows of their deeds. “The hands that took MohBad from us,” he warned, “shall find themselves ensnared in a web of consequences.”
The townsfolk absorbed his words with a mix of hope and trepidation. Prophet Adebayo’s revelations offered a glimmer of solace to the grieving hearts, a flicker of light in the darkness that had descended upon them.
As the days turned into weeks, the investigation into MohBad’s death continued, and the prophecy of Prophet Segun Adebayo lingered in the minds of many. Would justice be served? Would fate take its course as foretold? Only time would reveal the true extent of the prophet’s vision and the destiny that awaited those who had brought tragedy to their town.


Oxford Historical Society
PURPOSE: The Oxford Historical Society, Inc. is dedicated to preserving and encouraging community interest in the history of Oxford, Connecticut. We seek to ensure that present and future generations can share in and understand their rich heritage.
To meet these objectives our goals include:
* Expanding interest in local history by presenting programs of interest to the public.
* Serving as a resource for local history education for both adults and children.
* Encouraging the dissemination of local history information through the news media, publications on local history, and use of the internet.
* Educating the public on the importance of the preservation and protection of buildings and sites of historic interest.
To accomplish these goals:
* We will collect and preserve documents, images, and artifacts representative of Oxford’s history.
* We will establish and maintain a museum, library and educational center to house the growing collections.
* We will present local history exhibitions and public programs.
Membership is open to the public. Regular business meetings are held at 7 p.m. at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Oxford Rd., on the second Tuesday of the month. Program meetings and work sessions are scheduled as needed.
Officers of the society are:
* Louise Burr, President
* Marilyn Serus, First Vice President
* Dorothy A. DeBisschop, 2nd VP / Preservation Chair
* Margaret Kutniewski, Recording Secretary
* Barbara Robinson, Corresponding Secretary
* Cindy Joy, Treasurer
* Marcia Wrogg, Assistant Treasurer
* Nancy Farnum, Archivist/Historian
* Edward Rowland, Board Member
* Marge Fitzgerald, Board Member
Oxford Local History Information Pages:


IST:520 Term 2
This subject introduces learning theory as a foundation for the design of learning technology interventions. Starting with a historical approach, this subject will cover behavioral, cognitive, social, and biological theories of learning, with their instructional implications. The role of this subject is to provide both a support for the process of design and as grounding for extensions to learning theory that occurs in your other classes. A brief introduction to analysis of research will be included, as well as training on using human subjects in research.
Gredler, M. E. (2009). Learning and Instruction, Theory into Practice, 6th Edition. Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall: New Jersey.
Third Update on Adult Learning Theory: New Directions for Adult and continuing Education. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco. Merriam, S.B. (Ed) (2001). [Articles available online. See link below-Access Articles Online.]
The New Update on Adult Learning Theory: New Directions for Adult and continuing Education. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco. [Articles available online. See link below--Access Articles Online.]


Building a Fairy Tale House
When it comes to building a house, there are a lot of good materials to use...but some of them attract unwanted pests, like elves, wolves, and horribly chauvinistic princes.
Lauded fairy tale expert Clayton Smith gives you a handy guide on what to expect when building your fairy tale dream home.
Check out Clayton's first full-length fairy tale adventure, Mabel Gray and the Wizard Who Swallowed the Sun, available in paperback and for Kindle!
All is not well in Brightsbane, the village of eternal night. An evil wizard—the very wizard who swallowed the sun, in fact—has stolen The Boneyard Compendium, a book of powerful spells that could bring about the destruction of the entire town. When an Elder enlists the orphans of St. Crippleback’s Home for Waifs and Strays to help track down the wizard, the ever-intrepid Mabel Gray sets out to find the three keys of bone that unlock the Compendium before the wizard gets his diabolical hands on them.
Armed with only her wit and a frightfully small bit of magic in her pocket, Mabel embarks on an adventure that brings her face-to-face with talking scarecrows, high-ranking monsters, babbling witches, ill-tempered daemons, a riddlesome owl who fancies himself a raven, and more. But the wizard isn’t a wizard for nothing, and his evil magic may prove to be more powerful than Mabel ever imagined...
In need of more fairy tale expertise? Check out these other swell videos:
In which we discuss how to deal with the terrifying prospect of animals that speak.
In which we examine the importance of prudent wish-making.
In which various construction materials are examined and, ultimately, discarded.
In which several, but not all, of the different types of color magic are defined.
In which we take a field trip to the fairy tale land of Brightsbane.
In which Clayton addresses bad children who think their lives are sooooooo hard.
In which we learn how to defeat witches of the evil variety.
In which some misconceptions about our fire-breathing friends are handily struck down.
In which we put your orphan status to the test.
In which we learn the proper way to breathe forth a fairy tale into the world.


- New Libraries/Dev Tools
- PyOhio Recap
We need your help. Craig and I have spoken our concerns about what Unity means to the future of Ubuntu. Thursday March 24th, we'll be interviewing Jason Smith of Canonical who works on the Unity team. We'd like to know what you'd ask him if you got a chance.
Let us know what you'd like us to ask. Submit your question here in the comments or email the question to firstname.lastname@example.org.
Thanks for your help!


The Anna Pavlova Biography proves to be both interesting and compelling. She led a short life but achieved so much.
She also managed to accomplish all her dreams, something most people don’t manage to do in a lifetime.
Anna Pavlova The Ballerina
Anna Pavlova was born in 1881 just outside St. Petersburg. She saw a performance of The Sleeping Beauty as a child by the Maryinsky ballet troupe as a Xmas Treat and resolved that someday she herself would be a Princess Aurora.
She had poor turnout and weak feet, along with a spindly body, which made a ballet career look impossible for her, so it took a few years before the Imperial School of the Maryinsky Ballet accepted her into their program.
She was slender and graceful. She had a small head with dark hair parted in the centre and drawn down flat over the ears to frame an oval face perched on a swan-like neck. She had long and expressive legs terminating in a pair of exquisitely arched insteps. She was endowed with intense personal magnetism and could compel the adoration of audiences worldwide. She also managed to get a slavish devotion from every member of her troupe.
Anna Pavlova took advantage of her strong points, which were extension, ballon, a pliable torso, expressiveness, a feminine delicacy, and she worked like a trojan. She also had the best teachers, including Enrico Cecchetti, Nicholas Legat, Pavel Gerdt and Christian Johansson.
She excelled in the classical repertory at the Imperial Theater, and Petipa even reworked Giselle to showcase her Romantic qualities.
But it was the choreography of Mikhail Fokine that immortalized her in 1905. The Dying Swan, originally, The Swan, was a solo depicting the last moments in the life of a swan. It was not a difficult dance technically, but Pavlova’s genius transcended the sentimental melodrama of the piece and her emotional style thrilled audiences.
This became her signature ballet. Here is a tribute to Pavlova below.
Anna Pavlova performed with Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes in Paris in 1909. She had little sympathy with Diaghilev’s aims and ideals, and these to autocratic temperaments could hardly agree on anything.
Diaghilev believed in the supremacy of art and Pavlova in that of her own art.
Anna wished to shine alone. Music for her was merely an accompaniment. If she struck a firm balance in a pose, she would finish an enchainment two bars late if need be and woe betide the poor orchestra.
Funnily this peculiarity of hers was shared by the ill-fated Olga Spessiftseva, of gazelle-like beauty, who also resembled her uncannily in physical make-up, save that Spessiftseva hardly seemed to be aware even that she was at odds with the music!
After the 1913 season, Pavlova resigned from the Maryinsky and formed her own company which she took abroad, spending the war years from 1914 to 1918 in America.
Her company was no more than adequate and she stood literally head and shoulders above any member of it. Her ballets were trite, her music and decors undistinguished when not bad, but she was always willing to appear in places where audiences had never seen a ballet.
In her ceaseless touring, she influenced and entranced millions, filling countless little girls with the idea of becoming dancers and countless prospective ‘ballet-mothers’ with the ambition of making them so.
She then toured the globe for nearly two decades and became ballet’s most influential ambassador by inspiring balletomania thousands of miles away from her native Russia. Frederick Ashton saw her in Peru and decided to devote his life to ballet.
Pavlova was famous for roles that required beautiful lines and fluid movements, like flowers, dragonflies and swans.
She was the most famous ballerina of her time and she chose not to have an operation that would save her life because it would have meant giving up dancing.
Constant touring under far from ideal conditions had undermined her constitution and in 1931, on the eve of yet another exhausting tour she caught a cold.
She was at least spared years of dissatisfaction and decline, for her powers were already on the wane.
Except for those rare moments when a spark of the old genius would momentarily ignite, for those who had known her in her glorious prime, it had become a saddening experience to watch her dance. But such was the hypnotic power she exercised over her audiences and colleagues.
Her last words before she died of pleurisy in 1931 were “prepare my swan costume.”
If you would like to read up more on the story of Anna Pavlova, here is a beautiful book you can purchase about her life story. It is one of the best ballet history books on the market today.
Like celebrities of today, she toured the world, endorsed beauty products and department stores, appeared in fashion magazines, and even made a Hollywood movie.
But her passion was always ballet, which she sought to bring to as wide an audience as possible.
Many of the works she brought with her from Russia are regarded as the foundation of today’s classical ballet repertoire. This book offers an intimate look at the legendary ballerina whose name still resonates 80 years after her death.
This richly illustrated book has now been revised to include an entirely new chapter on Pavlova’s tours.
If you have anything to add to this Anna Pavlova Biography, please feel free by commenting below.


One hundred years ago on May 7, just ten months after the start of the First World War, the British luxury liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sank in just 20 minutes. Out of nearly 2,000 passengers and crew only 764 survived. The dead included 123 Americans.
To mark this tragic anniversary, I am reading the much-acclaimed new book by Erik Larson–Dead Wake: The Lusitania’s Last Crossing. Continue reading Lusitania: How the Unthinkable Happened


144 E. Railroad St.
Sandwich, IL 60548
Phone: (815) 786-9321
Meetings are held every second and fourth Monday of the month with committee meetings held first and third Mondays. Meeting time is 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers located in the City Hall Annex, 128 East Railroad Street. Phone: (815) 786-9321.
The minutes of the meetings are available online for download, click here for more information.
Association of Merchants (SAM)
Meetings are held the second Thursday of each month at 8:30 a.m. - Meeting place rotates each month. Phone: (815) 786-2518.
Area Chamber of Commerce (SCC) - www.sandwich-il.org
Meetings are held the fourth Friday of each month except for holidays occur on that day. Call the Chamber office to verify. The meetings begin at 8:00 a.m. at the Sandwich Opera House. Phone: (815) 786-9075
Sponsored by Fox Valley Older Adults, The Open Door, Sandwich Chamber of Commerce, Sandwich Educational Organization, and Valley West Community Hospital. Call Edgebrook Country Club for dates and times. Phone: (815) 786-3058.
School District - www.sandwich430.org
Board meetings the third Tuesday of each month. Phone: (815) 786-2187.
Public Library District - www.sandwichpld.org
925 S. Main St. Sandwich, IL Phone: (815) 786-8308 Hours: M-Th 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m., Fri 10 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., Sat 10 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Community Fire Protection District -
311 E. Railroad St. Sandwich, IL 60548 Non-emergency phone: (815) 786-9241 Emergency phone: (815) 786-2121 or 911.
Police Department - police.sandwich.il.us
308 E. College St. Sandwich, IL 60548 Non-emergency phone: (815) 786-7261 Emergency phone: (815) 786-2131 or 911.
22 N. Eddy St.
Sandwich, IL 60548
Phone: (815) 786-6716
Corner of Railroad and Lafayette streets - located across from the fire station. Open Sundays during the summer from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Large collection of memorabilia from Sandwich and surrounding communities.
West Community Hospital - www.vwch.com
11 E. Pleasant St. Sandwich, IL 60548 Phone: (815) 786-8484
Valley Theatre -
is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing quality, family-oriented theater to the Fox Valley area. They meet on the second Tuesday of the month, at 7:00 p.m. at the historic Opera House of Sandwich.
Valley Television - www.fvtv.info
FVTV is a public and government access channel serving the communities of North Aurora, Oswego, Plano, Sandwich, and Yorkville, Illinois. FVTV’s locally produced programming is carried on Comcast cable channel 17. FVTV is overseen by the Southwest Fox Valley Cable and Telecommunications Consortium. With production facilities located in Waubonsee Community College, FVTV provides the opportunity for residents and students alike to learn to produce television programs to air in their own communities.
Valley Older Adults - www.fvoas.org
1406 Suydam Road Sandwich, IL 60548 Phone: (815) 786-9404 Fox Valley Older Adults Services is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing programs and services to improve and enrich the lives of senior citizens allowing them to remain in their homes and participate in community life.
Valley Community Band
Open to all area musicians. Call Carol at (815) 786-8700 for information.


711 17th Ave.North, Surfside Beach, South Carolina 29575
Crown Charter to Andrew McAdam for the title of Waterhead dated 1569.
World Wide McAdam - McAdams - MacAdams Family RecordsThe Society collects and preserves the history of the McAdam - McAdams family from its origin in Ayrshire and Galloway, Scotland. The sur-name McAdam and all other spelling versions of the name comes from the same Galloway and Ayrshire, Scotland McAdam family. DNA test have proven the tradition that Adam MacGregor changed his name to Adam McAdam.
Tests also confirmed that he was related to the Chief of the Clan.
Society Records Index PageMcAdam/MacGregor DNA Test Program - News and Help
McAdam Records of ScotlandMcAdam Origins A Family Tradition of the McAdams of Waterhead Land Barons of SE Scotland and Allied Lines
McAdam Lineage of Waterhead McAdam of Craigengillan Scotland McAdam's Estate Records
Scotland Birth & Marriage Records John Loudon McAdam
McAdam Records of IrelandRobert McAdam of Belfast McAdam in the Country of Ireland McAdam in Northern Ireland
McAdam in Other CountriesMcAdam Records in England McAdam of Australia & New Zealand McAdam Records of Canada. South Africa
McAdam/s in America RecordsScots-Irish in America
American McAdam - McAdams by States including Immigration and War Records
Additional McAdams InformationMcAdams Independent Publications see below
Virtual McAdams Family Reunion of Pittsburgh, Pa.freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~tandnmca
John and Martha Rogers McAdams Tenn. and Texasclubs.yahoo.com/clubs/searchingforjohnmcadams
Genforum McAdams Listingsgenforum.genealogy.com/mcadams/
Samuel & Eliz Brown McAdam of Ontario, Canadawww.mcadam.org
The Hiram A. McAdams Familywww.mcadams.org
McAdams Historical Society Society Information
To contact McAdams Historical Society
R. Michael McAdams, Director
E-mail: mlmcadams at verizon.net
Society Membership ListThis web site has been made possible by the members of the McAdams Historical Society Membership
Independent McAdams Publications
A History of the Thomas McCadam (McAdams) Family of South Carolina by William H. McAdams - 320 pages, hard bound cover. From arrival on the Hills borough from Ireland in 1767. Price $35.00, order from W.H. McAdam 1428 Pinnacle View Drive NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112-6616 email - wmmca at aol.com, tel:505/299-0608.
The McAdams - based on a true story by Jane McAdams Taylor from historical letters and documents from the 1700's. This family can trace their McAdams line from Andrew McAdam who came to America back to the first know McAdams of Scotland. Reports of heirlooms that were passed down for over 200 years.
The novel on CD is $39.95 order from:
McAdams, PO Box 740, Whittier, NC 28789.
The information posted here is a collection provided or jointly researched and supported by the Society's membership. It is a "best effort". The information has been taken from family records and court documents is believed to be accurate . These records have been collected by the Society for over 30 years. This site is not copyrighted and you are welcome to share any information. Your McAdam, McAdams family records or corrections are welcome to be added to our McAdam collection of family history.


PENMANSHIP PUBLISHING GROUP ANNOUNCES
RELEASE OF ALL-FEMALE ANTHOLOGY
HIS RIB Showcases Unprecedented Literary Diversity,
Gains Immediate Popularity Among Feminist Literary Circles
NEW YORK, June 26, 2007 — Penmanship Publishing Group, an independent New York-based and women-owned publishing house, today announced the release of an all-female authored anthology entitled HIS RIB: Stories, Poems & Essays by HER.
The collection, the title of which is a reference to the biblical story of Eve’s creation through Adam’s rib, boasts an impressive array of literary works by and about women from a wide range of racial, ethnic and socio-political backgrounds. Edited by writer and performance poet, Mahogany L. Browne, HIS RIB offers insights to the global feminine experience. From the fallible woman and sensitive girl-child to the fearless politically oppressed warrior, these insights are in turn piercingly honest, brutally painful, and quietly uplifting.
Said Browne of the project, “We combed several continents to find the right mix of authors to include, and it was well worth the effort. HIS RIB features women from both the literary field and the performance poetry circuit, creating a symbiotic kinship between the two art forms that is to my knowledge unprecedented.”
The genres featured in the anthology range from folk tales to poems, all written by women from as far afield as Nigeria to London and New York to Colorado. The result is a multi-cultural and cross-generational quilt of prose and essays woven with skill and told with compassion, self-respect, discipline and hunger.
“Our hope is for HIS RIB to become a reading staple for all writers, awakening the young, reclaiming the old and and empowering all women,” enthused Browne.
Promotional plans for the much anticipated and well-received anthology include international book tours beginning in the United States and in the United Kingdom, with talks of a second volume already on the horizon.
About Penmanship Publishing Group
Penmanship Publishing Group is an independent publishing company created as the answer to the publishing challenges faced by performance poets, writers and essayists. The Group’s mission is to provide publication opportunities for the many successful spoken-word poets, live-performance artists and literary men and women of the future, many of whom already enjoy huge fan bases in the constantly evolving world of performance literature. For more information visit www.penmanshipbooks.com.


Title: Thy Son Liveth
Author: Grace D. Boylan
Publication Date: 1918
Grace Duffie Boylan’s first edition of Thy Son Liveth was written anonymously for fear that she would be ridiculed by her peers. This book is very different from her other works. It is non-fiction…about her son who had just been killed in Flanders fighting in World War I. Furthermore, it is an exact transcription of their conversations via Morse code on a telegraph machine…after he died.
A few days ago I went to see the documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old” in theaters. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s WWI footage that’s essentially been remastered, colorized, and dubbed so that the 100 year old film appears and sounds much as it would today. When I came out of the theater I was dying to pick up a book about WWI, so I rummaged through everything I owned and realized pickings were slim. I had about 3 non-fiction books and 2 historical fictions to pick from. This was the smallest, so I grabbed it first.
I didn’t quite know what I was getting into with Thy Son Liveth. I thought it was fiction, a collection of letters that an author had penned and tacked together to offer some hope or comfort to the grieving mothers, wives, and children of WWI and beyond, but in fact, it claims to be an entirely true account of communication from the afterlife. Given the nature of this book and the polarizing subject matter, this’ll probably read less a review and more a discussion. Boylan was widowed and raised her son largely by herself. He was fascinated with wireless communication and became an aficionado, eventually piecing together an antenna and other necessary equipment and fixing it to the roof. So he could practice his craft, he urged his mom to learn Morse code. She did, and would often receive and send messages with him. Before long, WWI began and Bob (the son) was shipped to France where he was promptly gunned down and killed by the Germans – although, according to his communications, he wasn’t dead in the traditional way of thinking.
I only want to start this whole propaganda of comfort on the one sure thing: there is no death.
Immediately after being killed, and a month before the notice that he’s “dead” comes through the mail, Bob sends his mother a message via Morse code. Within a few messages, they realize that with some concentration Bob can talk to his mother directly through her mind and she begins using automatic writing to take down his messages. He describes the afterlife to her as best he can, but his main focus is in stressing the fact he’s as alive as ever, just on a different plane of existence. He wants his mother to spread the word to her friends and encourage them to try to communicate with their dead sons because tears and grief trouble them in the plane they’re at. Plus, it’s unnecessary since lines of communication could be opened if everyone suspended their disbelief.
We look as we did in the flesh. It seems almost as though we had only slipped out of our skins, as the snakes do.
What do you think? Fiction or non-fiction?


Allen, W. L., Baddeley, R. J., Scott-Samuel, N. E. & Cuthill, I. C. 2013. The evolution and function of pattern diversity in snakes. Behavioural Ecology, 24(5), pp. 1237-1250.
Allen, W. L., Baddeley, R. J., Cuthill, I. C. & Scott-Samuel, N. E. 2012. A quantitative test of the predicted relationship between countershading and lighting environment. The American Naturalist, 180(6), pp. 762-776.
Allen, W. L., Cuthill, I. C., Scott-Samuel, N. E. & Baddeley, R. J. 2011. Why the leopard got its spots: relating pattern development to ecology in felids. Proceedings of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences, 278(1710), pp. 1373-1380.


Gay pride parades -- California -- Los Angeles
Found in 20 Collections and/or Records:
Charlie Airwaves photographs of the Los Angeles Christopher Street West gay pride parade, 1970-1978.
The Eugene (Gene) Bricker photographs include images of Harry Hay, Jim Kepner, Stuart Timmons, Mike Reynolds, Kevin Gardner, assorted transgender women, and 1982 Los Angeles Christopher Street West (CSW) pride parade.
Agendas, minutes, clippings, correspondence, fliers, parade and permit applications, press releases, souvenir programs, photographs and slides of the Christopher Street West Association (CSW) parade and festival. The collection documents the pride parade and festivals held in Los Angeles and later West Hollywood, California, 1970-2009.
Photographs of the 1982 Los Angeles Christopher Street West pride parade photographed by Vicki "Max" Brenner and Denise Dimin.
Foto Flair photographic prints of the Los Angeles Christopher Street West gay pride prarade, June 28, 1970.
Black & white and color photographs and negatives of gay pride parades and festivals in Long Beach and Los Angeles, 1984-2001.
Christopher Street West slogan selection records, button designs, and drafts of the anthem for the 1982 Los Angeles pride parade and festival. Larry C. Kephart served as a board member and treasurer of Christopher Street West during the 1980s.


On Goodreads, I’ve set up a “stopped-halfway” bookshelf for titles that I read the beginning but lost interest somewhere in the middle. I don’t keep such a shelf because I plan to read any of the books again in the future. The shelf serves as a reminder that it’s ok to give up on certain things.
I’ve always been into reading since I was a kid. The type of books that I like has however changed a lot through the years. When I was very young, I read Chinese fiction about heroes and their beautiful girlfriends – the Chinese version of James Bond. Then, I went through a phase of reading Alexandre Dumas’ historical novels. He is still my favourite author of all times but I haven’t picked up any of his books for years.
I used to read a few favourites again and again, like the three musketeers or Wuthering Height. But I don’t relive the story of my favourite books anymore. I feel like I don’t have the time. In the last few years, I am always behind on books I should read because they are bought for me as presents or they are recommended to me as some must-read materials. Then there are so many web articles about how to improve my career, how to manage a life abroad and etc. Sometimes I feel suffocated because no way I can read through all the texts whose title either teases out my curiosity or screams at me for its significant benefits for my personal development.
I love written words so much that I am carving out a writing career right now. The joy of reading a well-written article or a page turner is far more satisfying than eating a Magnum ice cream or sipping a glass of Port. But I can’t help feeling that reading has become more an obligation than a guilty trip to a fantasy world, which really should not be the case.
So a while back, I set up the “stopped-halfway” bookshelf and today, I added “This Changes Everything” there. Naomi Klein’s book is the book about climate change and environmental movements. Pushing through all doom and gloom, I hoped to find out about different things for an individual like me to do so we can turn the tide against the very bleak of a future facing the human kind. But I just can’t muster the strength to keep reading it because pages after pages, it is just soul destroying. Maybe I’ll look for other ways to get my answer but for now, I am just gonna quit it.