Melvyn Bragg’s The Written World

Starting on Monday, 2 January, BBC Radio 4 will broadcast In Our Time: The Written World, presented by Melvyn Bragg and featuring many of the British Library’s greatest treasures.

This five-part series airs daily at 9.00-9.45, repeated each evening at 21.30-22.15. All the episodes will be available after broadcast on the BBC iPlayer.

The St Cuthbert Gospel, Northumbria, late 7th century

Episode one investigates the technology of writing, and future instalments are devoted to the origins of the book (3 January), the spread of religion (4 January), the rise of literature (5 January), and the scientific revolution (6 January). Among the British Library’s collection items explored by Melvyn Bragg are the St Cuthbert Gospel, Codex Sinaiticus, the Beowulf-manuscript and the Gutenberg Bible. Other artefacts to be featured in the series are Chinese oracle bones, and the papers of Sir Isaac Newton (d. 1727), held by our colleagues at Cambridge University Library.

The Beowulf-manuscript, England, early 11th century

You can read more here about the British Library’s involvement in The Written World.

Melvyn Bragg’s The Written World – Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts

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New Year Honours

The London Gazette today carries the announcements of those to be honoured as we start 2011. Two new Knights Bachelor at the head of the list caught my eye: Professor Geoffrey Hill, poet and critic and Professor of Poetry at Oxford, honoured for services to literature, and Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, (Professor of the History of the Church at the same university) for services to Scholarship. Professor Hill is married to a priest in our diocese and a distinguished member of our Cambridgeshire community as well as being possibly our greatest living poet, while Professor Hill’s blockbusting book and TV programme on the History of Christianity has made a major contribution to public understanding of the subject

I also noticed the Mr Charles Rawlinson, a member of the Council of the Order of St Etheldreda at our Cathedral, has received an MBE for his charitable services to young people and music. He has been involved in the running of what was the National Association of Boys’ Clubs, now Clubs for Young People, for nearly 30 years, and also was the joint founder of leading orchestra Britten Sinfonia, which is based in Cambridge.

Mr Howard Crabb, who lives in Ely and is a governor of our school at Teversham, has also been honoured with an MBE  for services to the Defence Industry after 37 years with Marshall Aerospace.

Congratulations to these and to many other local heroes and distinguished contributors to our common good who are honoured today.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Queens-New-Years-Honours-list-revealed-30122011.htm

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Christmas Quiz Day 7: Who was the Quizmaster?

Here are three classic river-crossing puzzles. I hopre you have fun working out the answers: but the real question is – who was their original composer? Clue: remember the subjects I’ve studied!

1. A traveller comes to a riverbank with a wolf, a goat, and a head of cabbage. To his delight he sees there a boat that he can use for crossing over to the other bank, but to his dismay, he notices that it can carry no more than two-the traveller himself, of course, and just one of the two animals or the cabbage. As the traveller knows, if left alone together, the goat will eat the cabbage and the wolf will eat the goat. The wolf does not eat cabbage. How does the traveller transport his animals and his cabbage to the other side intact in a minimum number of back-and-forth trips?
2. Three men, each one accompanied by his unmarried sister, come to a riverbank. The small boat that will take them across can hold only two people. To avoid any compromising situations, the crossings are to be so arranged that no sister shall be left alone with a man-on the boat or on either side-unless her brother is present. How many crossings are required, if any man or woman can be the rower?
3. A man and a woman who weigh the same, together with two children, each one half the weight of an adult, come to the same riverbank and the same boat. The boat can carry two people, but it can only hold, as a maximum, the weight of one adult, otherwise it would sink. How do they get across?

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Regeneration Countdown

 

Regeneration: Fifty Days and counting. Follow @elyyouthcouncil.

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Christmas Quiz Day 6: Charlotte’s Car

This was one of those magic moments, as new grand-daughter Charlotte unwrapped the toy car her Mum and Dad had carefully chosen for us to give her (sensible Mum and Dad!). It was a great hit and she and I are having long conversations about it and many other important matters. Unfortunately (she says) I muddle up my words so she doesn’t understand. Can you unscramble them? The first letter to the solution will be what you need later (and it’s the same as the last one). Remember to Play Fair in cracking the code – and I’ve kept the keyword easy to guess too.

AMTT ADHA RLCD TTOA LIBE BNEE NUGT KQHA AKPB ILPY TICX TABA CQTX HRHK KGBP FNQO VHRL QRAB RCXH RYXT CHDF TABA IEPY DAAZ

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Christmas Quiz Day 5: So Many Toys!

Not too hard today! Charlotte has arrived and is playing with her toys. How many changes between when she started (top) and when she finished (bottom)?

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Regeneration: the YouTube Commercial

Hear our Youth Council (and Bishop Stephen) set the scene for our Ely Regeneration Conference on Feb 18th at Bede School, Cambridge. Visit the Youth Council on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=104898158217.

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Christmas Quiz 4: The Great Parade

When I was growing up in Sheffield Whit Walks were a highlight of the year. They started as part of the Sunday School Movement and were big in the Lancashire and Yorkshire cities. The Boys’ and Girls’ Brigades were out in force but also other uniformed organisations, sometimes choirs, lots of banners, and of course marvellously decorated floats with the Rose Queen, Lilac Queen and all the rest. The processions in our area came together at Firth Park, where I was used to play as a boy. The sun always shone (well, that’s how I remember it) but part of the tradition was that this was the day when we were allowed to put on our new summer clothes for the first time (aertex shirts, khaki shorts, sandals and socks) so that was alright, though some of the marchers got too hot and had to be propped up against the railings, legs up, to help them recover.

An old puzzle re-worked comes to mind. One year the whole company formed up for a final march-off in a single parade. According to custom, arranged themselves ten abreast, with Jimmy “the lad with the limp” in the back row as he found it hard to keep time. One year Jimmy couldn’t make it, so off the parade set with only nine at the back.

This caused such an uproar from the bystanders – “where’s our Jimmy?”  – that the parade tried reorganising into lines of nine (they knew eleven never worked, with or without the little lad).

It was no good: there was still one gap at the back. Down to rows of eight: still a gap. Seven : still a gap. And so on : whatever row length they tried there was always a gap.

The superstitious began to get worried. Was the ghost of Jimmy holding his ground? In desperation they moved to single file and ended up stretching half across Sheffield – only to discover Jimmy tagging along at the back, his shirt stained with ice cream …

How many were in the parade, when Jimmy was found?

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Christmas Quiz Day 3: Spot the Bears

Berliner Bär joined our household on Christmas Day (keyring size!) just in time to greet Charlotte when she comes tomorrow. He seems to have brought a few friends with him though. How many bears in total?

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Christmas Quiz Day 2: have a drink on me

In what fine city will you find this tavern? That’s the easy bit. For bonus points can you say what it’s connection is with

1. Lewis Carroll
2. The Elephant Man
3. The writer of this blog.

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