An unconventional vicar moves to a remote corner of the English countryside, only to discover a community haunted by death and disappearances both past and present--and intent on keeping its dark secrets--in this explosive, unsettling thriller from acclaimed author C. J. Tudor.
REFLECTIONS ON THE QUEEN'S DEATH
Tom Leonard
BALMORAL CASTLE
The queen died on Thursday at a time yet to be announced, or maybe it was the previous night, or whenever. Since then the important news about the economy, and about protests and strikes against the new Tory regime, has been knocked off the media by a diatribe of propaganda that will immortalise 'Elizabeth the Great' into perpetuity. (even though there's lots of adverse reaction in the former colonies). The British population is being told how to think. I have been alive for the whole of her reign, and I see a truly monumental figure and a strong calming influence, together with
(A) Her failure to say anything about Austerity or to abdicate over it. I thought she'd promised to protect all her people, but maybe I was much too naïve. I was a fervent monarchist until about 2012..
(B) Her unfailing support for her armed forces as they helped our upper classes to extract the resources from our colonies and other nations, while, for example, supporting Apartheid in South Africa.
(C) Her leadership of the Church of England and heavy involvement in the Church of Scotland, that are also heavily colonialist. With the exception of some enlightened parishes, these churches are class divisive and not particularly accepting e.g. on LGBT issues.
(D) Far too many palaces, including Balmoral, Windsor, and Buckingham Palace. Far too wealthy (at least £33 billion, maybe £72.5 billion) much of which came from the colonies.
(E) Several dreadful members of her family, at least two of whom (the alleged child abusers Louis Mountbatten and Prince Andrew) were protected by her to the hilt. Prince Louis (The royal family's much revered Uncle Dickie and the Viceroy of India during the partition) had a long-time propensity for 8 to 12 year old boys in orphanages, at least one of whom later committed suicide. Prince Louis was executed by the IRA in 1979, after being involved in a pedo-ring in Ireland. He was buried, with full ceremony in Westminster Abbey. The Queen and Prince Philip, both shocked and grief-stricken, were in attendance.
(F) The way Princess Margaret's life was ruined by the queen's refusal (while under severe institutional pressure) to let Margaret marry the boyfriend she loved.
(G) The Princess Di/ Camilla tragedy. Diana would have been a truly great queen, but now we've got Camilla.
(H) Her support for racist/eugenicist governments in Canada and Australia that have repressed and physically harmed the indigenous peoples to this very day.
(I) The cover-ups during the Profumo/Christine Keeler scandal, which could well have brought down the House of Windsor (depending on which royal personages participated in the orgies in Kensington Palace with the Russian spy Yvgeny Ivanov). There was a joke circulating at the time that 'Christine Keeler had been found dead under the peer.' Everybody knew who the peer in the joke was. He was president of the Royal College of Science at ICL, which I attended as an undergraduate.
(J) The racial prejudice in the Royal family e.g. just prior to Diane's untimely death, and against the Queen's own great grandson Archie (who wasn't made a prince in accordance with a long-standing agreement and who shouldn't be blamed for his parents' follies).
(K) Her support during her reign for her uncle 'the traitor ex-King', the Duke of Windsor, who wanted to rule Britain as a puppet state for the Nazis, and for his venomous wife Wallis Simpson,
While I have a vague suspicion* that the queen was hurried along her way (like George the Fifth, Princess Di, and the Queen Mother before her) my major concern is that the media will distort the news so much over the next few weeks, that the Truss regime will be able to get away with all sorts of neo-fascist stuff and further impoverish our working classes, who've felt scared to answer back ever since neo-liberalism set in, in earnest, during the 1980s. It's almost as if the queen's death has been incorporated in some sort of plot.
*Since writing this, a friend has quite independently suggested that the queen could have suffered from a stroke and might then have been given morphine, but this is just a hypothethical construction, Today (11th August) a lady in the choir at my Church came up with a similar suggestion. It has also been suggested that during her last days the queen was suffering from a heart condition (see last picture taken of her hand)
Credit: Reuters
Last picture of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth
The Queen in Tuvalu in 1982
UPDATE ON KING CHARLES' PROJECTED HEALTH
13th September 2022
Some of my medical friends think that the King may be suffering from congestive heart failure, and that his recent more thickset features could be put down to him taking steroids. Therefore, the Prince of Wales may need to act as Regent, before he becomes King.
A number of Scottish middle aged people do not view Charles kindly because of the terrible way he treated HRH Princess Diana, his beautiful wife before God. It will never be forgotten.
To 'include' Camilla in their marriage generated huge problems for the generations thereafter, and we are all still suffering from the aftermath.
15/9/2022: The King has already 'flipped' and lost his temper about nothing twice in public. He is currently taking 'a day off to rest'. I wonder whether he will make his coronation? In the meantime he has made 100 of his staff at Clarence House redundant, so who gives a fig?
16/9/2022 King Charles has already been booed by protestors in Edinburgh and Cardiff.
Randy Andy proposes to look after the corgis
Much of the Queen's effective 'deification' has been in large part orchestrated by archbishops and bishops in the Church of England, an institution steeped in child abuse. See, for example, Archbishop Cranmer.com. Earlier this year, the child abuse protector ex-Archbishop Sentamu of York was well received by the Church of Scotland as the obscenely highly paid CEO of the 'niche project' organization Christian Aid. The Church of Scotland, which is as pro-monarchy as the Church of England, also has a history of protecting child abusers. (e.g. its disgraced former Lord High Commissioner, Lord David Steel of Aikwood, who attended the queen's COS funeral celebrations in Edinburgh, protected Cyril Smith MP.) Even now the Church of Scotland seems to be in denial of its own child abuse, and the monarchy turns a blind eye while attending their services and supporting them to the hilt.
See also
DAMAGES TO THREE ABUSED SIBLINGS
24th September 2022: I alluded to these issues this morning during a detailed conversation with a senior elder of the Church of Scotland who believes that the Bible is 'inerrant'. When I said that the Quran expresses the thoughts of Muhammad in a simpler fashion, the elder publicly insulted the Holy Prophet of Islam in the worst possible way, and in a manner already condemned by the European Court of Human Rights. The elder had previously excused rampant paedophilia and the protection of paedophiles in the Royal Family and Church of England on grounds of Christian forgiveness, since quote, "We don't know that they haven't repented." She wasn't prepared to give Muhammad any forgiveness even though he didn't transgress the law and customs of that era.
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19th September 2022, 1 pm. I have just watched the entire funeral ceremony in Westminster Abbey. I wonder what God is thinking? Putting the monarch between the people and their God creates a massive ant/sheep mentality that causes much of the harmful, soulless repression in this world.
FURTHER RELEVANT LINKS
https://www.ladbible.com/news/
Chapter 7: To the Kappa Solar System
7.1: Saviours of the Species
After taking a circuitous route around the Mu-Sun, Katrina seemed to take ages to
to travel to the Kappa solar system, and President Drew Rainbow lost count of the
days. She spent much of the time in the suite in the Palace of the Immortals
which she shared with her three spouses and the angelic Angatums Sall and Crisp
However, she, Sall, and Crisp liked taking the omni-tube to the Hanging Gardens
of Id, to visit the Angatum refugees who were camping on the upper tiers of the
Ninth Wonder of the Universes.
One Tenth-Day morning, several of the refugees invited the president and her
companions to accompany them down to the Ascension Chapel, where the talking
animals were celebrating High Mass prior to their political discussions that
afternoon in the gardens.
"Angatums are very welcome here," declared Kim Catworthy, bounding up. "Why
don't you sit with the winged unicorns near the altar?"
The congregation rose and applauded their co-president as Drew walked down
the aisle. Then the winged unicorns hugged and embraced the Angatums, and
invited them to sit down amongst them. The minister, an elderly Zebrid from the
fourth moon of Planet Athanasius, led the hymn singing and presented a homily
about the Holy Trinity, and the Saviour Josh's last supper before his Ascension to
Heaven.
Another minister, a middle-aged winged unicorn from Planet Centaur, took over
during Holy Communion, and Sall and Crisp helped to hand out the bread and
the wine. Then, during the eating of the bread, the Holy Zebrid Josh appeared
above the altar in golden and white striped manifestation, only to be joined by
the silver-skinned Holy Unicorn Joshi in full substantiation, her wings spread out
wide as if to embrace the entire universe.
"There are many ways to God," declared the middle-aged minister "but she will
herself remain forever mysterious. To attempt to subdivide her is in itself
blasphemous."
The Trinitarian minister looked startled at that, but didn't say a thing.
7.2 Crisp is Arrested
"I find it difficult to believe that Ophelia is anything more than either a deception
or a delusion," said Drew, as they were leaving, and Sall and Crisp murmured
their agreement. When the minister from Centaur gave the angelic Angatums
small gifts, their day seemed made. But they were walking down the chapel steps
when they were approached by two Eaglids wearing hooded cloaks.
"I'm sorry to disturb you, Madame President," said the Eaglid with the straight
beak, flashing his K.M.P. (Katrinian Mind Police) card, "but we're here to take
your companion Crisp Crispus to the Mind Control Centre for questioning on a
matter of interstellar importance."
"I've not done nothing!" howled Crisp. "Please don't let them. They'll jag me
with scalpatruth!"
"Spot on!" reacted the Eaglid with the deformed beak, with a grin.
Chief Superintendent Kim Catworthy came running out of the chapel. "Stop!" she
ordered, producing her Special Police ID. "You've no right to take anybody in
without a duly authorized warrant."
"Sure we have a right," drawled the one with the straight beak. "We're from the
Alert Crimson security cell, and we don't answer to anybody."
When they got Crisp to the Mind Control Centre, they secured his outstretched
wings to the much-dreaded brick wall. Then a po-faced Novogrian in a military
uniform came in with two huge syringes, both with glistening, six inch needles.
"Take that!" growled the dour Novogrian, ramming in the first needle. "You're
here because we've heard some tittle tattle among the talking beasties about you
and President Rainbow."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg!" wailed Crisp, vibrating from the shock.
"They heard from a tiny festoonette in the bed linen that you were exchanging
favour for favour with her."
"No I didn't. Take your claws away!"
"Ophelia wept! You could have snuffed our co-president."
"Take that fucking needle out!" howled Crisp. "I only gave her a little kiss."
The second needle dug so deep that it splintered Crisp's left femur.
"Poppycock!" howled the Novogrian, the blood dripping down Crisp's
thigh. "I think that you discovered her nasty secret when you returned
her favour. We'll know soon enough. The scopolamine is already dissolving
your innards. So I'm just going to sit back and listen while you tell me the whole
lurid story."
The Eaglid with the straight beak produced a needle carved from a whale's
tooth. "Two thousand grams of benzilate for good measure, General?" he
inquired.
"That should loosen his tongue." replied the terse Novogrian. "Try to take a
piece out of his ilium ischium."
"I know how to do that, General. It's used to cosh the crazies in the Dread
solar system before they suffocate them with pillows."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg!" wailed Crisp. The needle pierced the bone
and the flesh beyond, and his legs turned to jelly.
The drugs went straight to Crisp's head, and he struggled hard and long to
remain silent. But, when he went delirious, he found himself revealing the full,
shocking details of Drew's long hidden secret on a stream of verbal diarrhoea.
"Wow, I'd never have guessed that!!," exclaimed the general, looking strangely
disturbed. "The paternity of any of the co-president's children is open to doubt."
"There's oodles of time left for a totally manic Phase 2, General," advised the
Eaglid with the deformed beak. "Why don't you recover from the stress by
kicking the silly creature senseless? Then I'll throw him into the Cobbly Corridor."
The general opened his tool kit, and pulled out a spanner. "His frontal lobes could
be packed with state secrets," he replied "Let's extract his wisdom teeth first."
7.3. The Co-Presidents Beg to Differ
Drew and Sall were still feeling very anxious about Crisp when they returned to
the Palace of the Immortals.
Was it because of something I said to the talking vixens? wondered Sall. No,
they wouldn't have even dared to snitch.
Drew needed to make plans with her co-presidents Dr. Chi Kit and Admiral Nam
Nimitch concerning which planets to visit when Katrina arrived in the Kappa-Sun
system. The three co-presidents met in a reception room in the palace, and
Kyle took the minutes. Drew was bearing a Humatum baby in her womb.
Chi and Drew thought that it would be a good idea to send migrants from Katrina
to Planet Manifold, where there were several indigenous tribes of talking animals,
but which was not densely populated. They thought that Manifold would be ideal
for the Angatums, possibly for the Zebrids, and for some of the Humatum babies
who were born to Atum mothers and human fathers during the next year or so.
However, Admiral Nimitch wanted to colonize Planet Petreus and to exploit
the resident Gentoo. Chi and Drew argued that such old-fashioned colonialism
was not 'part of Katrina's designated mission'. Drew recalled that Ophelia had
told her in a dream to populate Manifold instead of Retreus. She said she was
scared that Ophelia might really be all powerful, and that Ophelia could have
caused the disintegration of Torus and the subsequent destruction of Katrina's
Seventh Corner because Drew had refused her request to seek the destruction
of the Angatums.
"Stop being so fucking neurotic! " growled Nimitz. "The Gentoo are
ripe for the picking and I intend to turn them into a slave nation whatever
religious faction might see fit to object."
"But their civilisation is over two thousand years old," retorted Chi, "and they're
all accepting towards other species. Don't forget that we're a triumvirate. You'll
need one of our votes and the approval of Parliament to get your way."
"You don't know how much I've got on you two shysters!" raged Nimitz. "I could
destroy both of you in a flick of a forefinger. Would you like me to reveal Drew's
dreadful secret to Parliament? They'd publicly shame her and then banish her to
a distant moon."
"Meeting's over!" shrieked the pregnant co-president, running out of the room.
"You're not even a real Atum," howled Nimitz, as she left.
"How dare you!" raged Kyle, throwing the minutes into the air.
"I could destroy you too!" howled Nimitz.
7.4: Into Orbit around the Kappa-Sun
Kim Catworthy located Crisp Crispus a couple of days later, stumbling aimlessly
through the rats in the Cobbly Corridor, with an injured back, his wings twisted
together, and blood pouring from his mouth. He scarcely moved his eyes while
Kim was patching him up, and when she took him back to the palace in a
wheelchair, he propelled himself into a corner without uttering a word. When
Drew took him some soup, he began to sob uncontrollably.
A compelling though intricate plot. Maybe too intricate. The ‘mystery’ about Rev Jack was very predictable early on, the details relating to dystonia were unconvincing, and several of the ghosts were unexplained, But overall, a fantastic read
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I agree. We must forgive the author a modicum of artistic license.
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Some favorite quotes from this novel:
“I remind myself that old age is not a disease but a destination.”
“Guilt is a little like grief. A cancer of the soul. They both hollow you out from the inside.”
“We all have our hiding places. Not just physical ones. Places deep inside where we put away the things we don’t want others to see.”
“Bad memories are like splinters. Sometimes painful, but you learn to live with them. The problem is, they always work their way up to the surface eventually.”
“We think of love as being unconditional, but very few of us ever want to put that to the test.”
“I think again how unprepared we are for illness and old age. How we trundle toward it unthinkingly, like lemmings toward the edge of a cliff. The tiny humans we coo over at the start of their lives, we shudder to look upon at the end.”