It must be a bit depressing to have your work derided, looked upon with scorn and considered by many to be on a par with junk, even though you may be laughing all the way to the bank, many times over. I am thinking in particular of Dan Brown and Jeffrey Archer of course. Chic-lit, celebrity biographies and Mills and Boon one has to accept for what they are. I have to admit that THE DA VINCI CODE is a real page turner but the writing is not so impressive. As far as Archer is concerned he might, unknown to me, have written something truly great as I have read only one of his books. I can’t remember which one it was but I do remember at the time being terribly impressed with the research. Otherwise I thought it very poor stuff. But who knows? if he ever gets to read a Glyn Jones book he might be of exactly the same opinion. After all the positive things that have been said about DOCTOR WHO-THE SPACE MUSEUM over the years we have just come across a review on the internet that thoroughly demolishes it. So there you are. You cannot please all the people all of the time.
Is it humiliating to find that, from standing on a pedestal, your reputation as an honest man of integrity is suddenly in tatters? In this instance I am thinking of Tony Blair who, despite his running all the way to the bank, having made an estimated £20000000 since leaving his office as prime minister, if he has any sensitivity must surely look back and wonder if his life in fact has not been a failure; that he won’t go down in history as a man of honesty and integrity but simply as a money grabbing rather oily character of not much principle.
The South African playwright, Athol Fugard has said that he believes the world has gone mad and I am afraid I agree with him. I am too old now to be unduly worried about what the future might hold, not for myself anyway, though I do worry on behalf of the young generation who have to try and make good while the world lasts. If the Jihadists have their way of course it’s going to hell in a very bloody hand basket but even without that threat it would seem lessons are never learnt and history simply repeats itself. So we get back to the world of commerce and banking. The world spun dizzily towards disaster partly because of the greed of bankers paying themselves enormous salaries, bonuses and pensions and the banks fast going down the tubes had to be rescued with government money, that is tax payers’ money, that is the money from ordinary every day people. With a couple of exceptions having more or less climbed out of the cesspit thanks to this government intervention the bankers, and high profile executives who were doing the same on top of their huge salaries, are doing exactly the same thing again as if the recent past never even happened and, what is more, they’re being allowed to get away with it. ITV’s new boss has a contract worth £18m, a PR man is reputed to be worth £146m, was Jonathon Ross really worth his contract of £18000000? Guess he was one of the reasons for the TV licence being increased, Ross and BBC executives who are all on massive salaries and expenses. As for those bankers and business men, well the less said the better I suppose. The UK like Greece is in Carey Street to the tune of trillions and taxes it is rumoured are due to rise! Who would have thought it?