Dinner Party
I like to imagine having a fantasy dinner party with people I admire and respect.
This would be my perfect dinner party:
Ernest Shackleton
(Polar Explorer)
A great leader and inspiration, someone who refused to give up despite impossible odds. Stubborn as hell.
Lawrence Durrell
(Author and Poet)
The greatest writer I've ever read, had a greater perspective on life than a thousand other men combined.
James Lloyd Carr
(Author, Teacher, Publisher and Englishman)
The world his books encompassed is the most complete literary accomplishment ever, someone who saw things for what they were.
Donald Pleasance
(Actor)
One of the finest actors England has ever produced, for all Steve McQueen's antics in The Great Escape, it is Pleasance's performance, along with James Garner's able support that leaves you heartbroken and gives the film its poignancy.
Bette Davis
(Actress)
Watching her perform is like watching the sun rising. As beautiful and unstoppable, it makes us question life itself and worship it should we never see it again. The greatest actress ever to grace the world. Period.
Olivier Messiaen
(Composer)
While interned in a prison camp during WW2 wrote the Quartet For The End Of Time. Brought hope in a time of darkness.
Bruce Chatwin
(Writer, Traveller)
A man who needed to travel, who made the journey and showed the way.
RS Thomas
(Vicar and Poet)
Arguably greater than Dylan Thomas, the complete collection of his poems might as well be called The Decline And Fall Of Wales, charted the country more completely than anyone before or since.
Caractacus
(Warrior)
English by birth, Welsh by adoption, he waged a guerilla war against the Romans for over a decade before being betrayed by an English tribe he sought assistance from. Even in custody in front of the Emperor Claudius he outsmarted him and was given the freedom of the city of Rome rather than the execution that awaited most enemies of the Empire.
G.K. Chesterton
(Writer, Christian)
The funniest and yet most poingant of all English writers, he could twist an unambiguous gut wrenching laugh into a wistful and insightful remark on any part of the human condition, and back again within three lines. A giant of a man in every sense.
Derek Jarman
(Artist, Gardener, Writer, Campaigner)
I saw his one of his early films at Tate Modern and it made me cry. A crying out for rememberance and innocence. An artist in and above all things.
Fynn and Anna
(Lost Souls)
Fynn found Anna wandering the streets of London, she had run away from home. Fynn and his family adopted her and they had lots of adventures. Anna died falling out of a tree onto spiked iron railings, years later Fynn wrote a book about his extraordinary little girl who saw and understood more than any adult.
Jim Jarmusch
(Director)
Understands that the journey is more important than the destination and therefore produces greater art than any other film director.
Sir Henry Morton Stanley
(Welshman, Stowaway, Soldier, Journalist, Explorer, MP, Knight)
Packed more into his life than virtually anyone else in history. Stowed away to America from work house. Fought on both sides of the American Civil War. Journalist for the New York Post. Made trouble, sent to Africa. Managed to find Dr Livingstone in the middle of the largest continent, almost completely uncharted at the time, and then charted most of it, discovered the source of the Congo and covered more African ground than just about anyone else in history. Returned home and got elected. Knighted. Earned bragging rights.
Lieutenant John Chard V.C and Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead V.C
(Soldiers)
With a complement of 139 men, many of whom were recovering at the missionary hospital, held off an army of 4000 Zulu in the battle of Rorke's Drift, the battle lasted for two days and included fierce hand to hand fighting as the Zulu's attacked on all sides. When the Zulu's finally retreated and casualties counted, the Zulu's had lost some 300 men, with a further 300 dying from their wounds on the long march home. The Welsh regiment, incredibly, counted only 17 casualties.
Edward Hopper
(Painter)
Created works of intense beauty, they contain scenes of loneliness yet make one yearn to be alone, simple representations of simple moments yet from within them Hopper reaches out to entwine himself in our own souls. Understood what it is that makes us human and that makes the Earth part of us, and managed to paint the unpaintable.
This would be my perfect dinner party:
Ernest Shackleton
(Polar Explorer)
A great leader and inspiration, someone who refused to give up despite impossible odds. Stubborn as hell.
Lawrence Durrell
(Author and Poet)
The greatest writer I've ever read, had a greater perspective on life than a thousand other men combined.
James Lloyd Carr
(Author, Teacher, Publisher and Englishman)
The world his books encompassed is the most complete literary accomplishment ever, someone who saw things for what they were.
Donald Pleasance
(Actor)
One of the finest actors England has ever produced, for all Steve McQueen's antics in The Great Escape, it is Pleasance's performance, along with James Garner's able support that leaves you heartbroken and gives the film its poignancy.
Bette Davis
(Actress)
Watching her perform is like watching the sun rising. As beautiful and unstoppable, it makes us question life itself and worship it should we never see it again. The greatest actress ever to grace the world. Period.
Olivier Messiaen
(Composer)
While interned in a prison camp during WW2 wrote the Quartet For The End Of Time. Brought hope in a time of darkness.
Bruce Chatwin
(Writer, Traveller)
A man who needed to travel, who made the journey and showed the way.
RS Thomas
(Vicar and Poet)
Arguably greater than Dylan Thomas, the complete collection of his poems might as well be called The Decline And Fall Of Wales, charted the country more completely than anyone before or since.
Caractacus
(Warrior)
English by birth, Welsh by adoption, he waged a guerilla war against the Romans for over a decade before being betrayed by an English tribe he sought assistance from. Even in custody in front of the Emperor Claudius he outsmarted him and was given the freedom of the city of Rome rather than the execution that awaited most enemies of the Empire.
G.K. Chesterton
(Writer, Christian)
The funniest and yet most poingant of all English writers, he could twist an unambiguous gut wrenching laugh into a wistful and insightful remark on any part of the human condition, and back again within three lines. A giant of a man in every sense.
Derek Jarman
(Artist, Gardener, Writer, Campaigner)
I saw his one of his early films at Tate Modern and it made me cry. A crying out for rememberance and innocence. An artist in and above all things.
Fynn and Anna
(Lost Souls)
Fynn found Anna wandering the streets of London, she had run away from home. Fynn and his family adopted her and they had lots of adventures. Anna died falling out of a tree onto spiked iron railings, years later Fynn wrote a book about his extraordinary little girl who saw and understood more than any adult.
Jim Jarmusch
(Director)
Understands that the journey is more important than the destination and therefore produces greater art than any other film director.
Sir Henry Morton Stanley
(Welshman, Stowaway, Soldier, Journalist, Explorer, MP, Knight)
Packed more into his life than virtually anyone else in history. Stowed away to America from work house. Fought on both sides of the American Civil War. Journalist for the New York Post. Made trouble, sent to Africa. Managed to find Dr Livingstone in the middle of the largest continent, almost completely uncharted at the time, and then charted most of it, discovered the source of the Congo and covered more African ground than just about anyone else in history. Returned home and got elected. Knighted. Earned bragging rights.
Lieutenant John Chard V.C and Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead V.C
(Soldiers)
With a complement of 139 men, many of whom were recovering at the missionary hospital, held off an army of 4000 Zulu in the battle of Rorke's Drift, the battle lasted for two days and included fierce hand to hand fighting as the Zulu's attacked on all sides. When the Zulu's finally retreated and casualties counted, the Zulu's had lost some 300 men, with a further 300 dying from their wounds on the long march home. The Welsh regiment, incredibly, counted only 17 casualties.
Edward Hopper
(Painter)
Created works of intense beauty, they contain scenes of loneliness yet make one yearn to be alone, simple representations of simple moments yet from within them Hopper reaches out to entwine himself in our own souls. Understood what it is that makes us human and that makes the Earth part of us, and managed to paint the unpaintable.
posted by Caractacus at 16:14
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