A cello sings in Daventry
That is all that matters now to me
A snippet from last week’s newsletter, which in turn came from the previous week’s Book Club with Gordon Corera, got me thinking about the control of culture, the arts and media, as well as the freedoms required for real journalism. The idea that whoever controls, or in that particular example stifled, the cultural landscape in turn controls the message and therefore the people. In one of those serendipitous moments whilst thinking these things, up on the playlist comes a track from Public Service Broadcasting – ‘A Cello Sings in Daventry’. As with much of this band’s music, it is interspersed with a public service message, and in this case about the establishment of a new BBC transmitter at Daventry in 1925 – a time when the BBC was becoming a bastion of freedoms of speech, an impartial carrier of information and entertainment without political or religious influence – all for the betterment of the nation’s people. That transmitter broadcasting those messages from Daventry would have been 100 years old this weekend. Those original principals of the BBC would serve us well today, if they can be rediscovered.
‘A Cello Sings in Daventry’ by Public Service Broadcasting, with Seth Lakeman
Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to Lord Reith: “The opening of the wireless broadcasting station at Daventry, the highest power (radio) station at present in the world, will give no fewer than 20 million people the opportunity to receive both education and entertainment by means of cheap and simple apparatus. And I look upon Daventry as another milestone on the road to the social betterment of our people.”
A cello sings in Daventry
That is all that matters now to me
O, greater than all fancied wonderlands
This wonder that I hold in mine own hands
A cello sings in Daventry
A stranger plays my heart to rest
And sets me free
A cello sings from out beyond the sea
Radio’s mystery
Radio’s mystery
Whether your summer reading involves a spritz of humour or some darker twists, there’s a huge array of fiction to keep you entertained this week: from a disastrous wedding in Alison Espach’s moving novel to a very spooky halloween in The Babysitter Lives. In non-fiction, step into the magical world of Studio Ghibli in their 40th year of extraordinary film-making; celebrate England making it to the final of the Women’s Euros with the tale of the team that started it all; and journey to the seaside in style with Andrew Martin’s glorious history of the railway. For children, there are adventures on a sunny island, and lots of Very Hungry Caterpillars to find!
As always, if there’s anything you need, just pop by or reply to this email!
From Sophie
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The full newsletter with links to books – including this week’s Signed Editions – can be found HERE
