tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19151341.post4223534505096022007..comments2024-03-16T16:12:13.296+00:00Comments on some LANDSCAPES: Gone – the narrow copsePliniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06529481330530614513noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19151341.post-72895095603761340012008-01-13T18:55:00.000+00:002008-01-13T18:55:00.000+00:00I believe Balham is now gentrified and trendy - no...I believe Balham is now gentrified and trendy - not sure if this makes it even more post pastoral... It's always interesting to read about the suburbs, which as we know from J G Ballard, are where the future lies! Just to take one example that occurs to me for some reason, I was intrigued by John Berger's descriptions of his childhood in a a house backing onto the Ching (in 'Here is Where We Meet'). The Ching sounds like a river out of a Li Po poem, but is actually named after Chingford, on the edge of London.Pliniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06529481330530614513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19151341.post-14708996188410800002008-01-13T12:35:00.000+00:002008-01-13T12:35:00.000+00:00Your recent blogs that mention Edward Thomas have ...Your recent blogs that mention Edward Thomas have resonances for me. Last summer, my wife and I made a pilgrimage to Steep and stood on Shoulder of Mutton Hill, admiring the “sixty miles of South Downs.”<BR/><BR/>But there is another side to Thomas. He did not always live in still-treasured beautiful countryside. He was brought up in South London. In his semi-autobiographical novel, The Happy-Go-Lucky Morgans (1913), he describes an almost bucolic Balham. When my son lived there, it seemed so uninspiring and suburban. It was difficult to envisage the country pastimes that Thomas was able to indulge in during his boyhood.snarlersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13117760284163716428noreply@blogger.com