WOMEN IN INTELLIGENCE THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF TWO WORLD WARS - Helen Fry - My WOW review/My Book of the Year

WOMEN IN INTELLIGENCE THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF TWO WORLD WARS - Helen Fry - My WOW review/My Book of the Year

If I had not seen this on X I really wouldn't have known about it and the wars of the last Century or not something that particularly interest me as far as my reading is concerned. However, seeing the posts on X I realised, that much like the Hidden Figures of the NASA space programmes,  I knew very little about the role of women during those major conflicts.  My view, shaped by various films and television programmes over the years were I suppose, that women played very much a supporting role to the men who were doing the fighting.  Yes I knew the Soviets had women fighting, but they are the Soviets and they do things differently.  Yes I knew a little about the women who were in the resistance, but very little and mostly from the Hello, Hello comedy show!

I have been reading books for over 60 years and in this book by Dr Fry is quite simply the best History book that I have read in all of that time.  I really can not praise it highly enough, it is that good.  The writing is clear and when terms are used they are explained.  Where information remains secret, the reasons for not including it are also explained.  There are some names that I knew, most however I did not and I certainly did not know any of those from the First World War, beyond the "famous" ones which most of us will know.  The book would have been worth getting just for that.  When it came to the part on the Second World War,  I kept going WOW and wanting to share the information with my wife.  

The stories of the Women were just waiting to be told and Dr Fry has told as many as she could in such a way that I felt I knew the person she was writing about.  There are lighter moments in the book, not many but one that really stood out and was a laugh out loud moment. 

Dr Fry covers all the areas of intelligence that women played a vital part in and as you read, you really learn how vital they were and without them doing so, the wars probably would have had a different outcome to what they did.

A first for me, is that knowing these were real woman,  I came close to crying many times and had to pause my reading as a result.  

Any one who reads this book, will be left wondering, if their female relatives had a role in Intelligence for as Dr Fry notes most of the woman are still unknown and their relatives probably don't know what they did during the wars, because they kept their secrets beyond the grave.

There is no hiding from the sexism of the periods and Dr Fry makes no attempt to cover it up by including some of the writings from that time.  Yet at the same time, we also learn that in many cases the Intelligence Services also led the way for equality,  just how far that has gotten is still debatable! 

I have no hesitation in calling this MY BOOK OF THE YEAR AND I WOULD ADD MY FAVOURITE HISTORY BOOK.   I CAN NOT RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY ENOUGH AND IT IS A BOOK YOU'LL NOT REGRET GETTING - I HAVEN'T DONE SO.

18 hours and 50 years of love my son and the tears

18 hours is such a very short time, barely a blink of an eye in the greater ticking of time,  yet 18 hours is the time it took for my heart to be bursting with love and then bursting with pain that has never gone away and now this year 50 years will pass and that pain seems sharper than ever before.

I now have friends who are 50 years old who have children and grand children and I have genuine joy for them and their parents who have had the joy of their children, their grand children and now their great grand children.   However away from my joy is a deep, deep sadness in my heart that I am not one of them, for I do not have the child who married and became a father, or a grand father.  I look at the parents of my friends who are the same age as me, or just a little older who have this family born from them carrying their DNA and part of me longs, a larger part than most will ever know that I wish I had the same and yet their is an empty space that will never be filled, because of the last of those 18 hours. 

I was there at your birth, watching as the miracle of life took place, laughing with the mid-wives and trying to keep your mother calm.  I had just managed to get you a teddy bear which was waiting for you and would always wait for you.  I had so much hope and so much love to give, for. you my son would know your father,  as I had not known mine.  You my son would have known your real grand mother and she would have loved you.  You would have known your other family who took me and treated me like their son, my sisters and my brother, we would all be the complete family at long last. 

When I left to tell others of your birth and to celebrate it, this special life that had come into being and to change my clothes and to prepare for your coming home, I had no idea what was to unfold and how that day would change. 

By the time I returned you had passed and I never got to hold you and the lasting memory I have is a tear falling down the face of your mother onto you and. then onto the floor in slow motion. 

And then the awful practicalities of life took hold, registering your birth, where your name was spelt wrong and then registering you death at the same time. Two forms that should have been decades apart and one that I should never had had to do, so as far as officialdom is concerned your and death were recorded in a cold unfeeling ledger that is all that is left to know you existed and were loved.

Time quickly passed, where the years have gone I just don't know, yet each year on the day of your birth and the day of your passing time seems to slow down just at it did when I last saw you.  Others dear to me have, Marc whom you were named after,  your grandmother Maisie, your great grandmother, those who would have loved you as their own grand son and Symie who would have taken you as his brother. Great changes have taken place, history has been written by those who wish things to be true and make judgements accordingly with their untruths.  

I sit alone many times wondering what sort. of father I would have been to you, the loving encouraging protective one that I tend to be with others, or one which others have projected upon me.  In my heart I know which is true, because I really love you and would want you to be the best you could be and where ever life had taken you,  I would have blessed you.

Now I am with Aly, my beautiful wife and we speak of you often, for you are so much a part of us. As much a part of us as all of our family is and loved as much, the only difference is that we have pictures of them to remind us of their being here and of you dear son, we have none.

Some think it is just the mother who remembers and feels the pain,  that is not true for fathers do to.  I no longer have contact with your mother, yet I must think that she misses and remembers you too.  She has other children and another son now, but you were her first and I must be kind and think of her kindly and the tear that broke her heart. 

50 years ago I was still but a child with out the experience or maturity of life that I have now, nor the calmness of my soul.  Now I am old, my body is breaking down and my mind not as good as it used to be, yet my heart remains full of love, full of love for you my dearest son.  Perhaps the tears won't flow as I am afraid of letting go, so these words here are tears, my tears of sadness and of love and one day in the millions of years we will meet again and these tears will be tears of love and happiness when we meet - in the meantime I leave you in the loving arms of your grand mothers.  

Using the Apple Products 6 months on, Macbook Air M2, Magic Mouse

It is now 6 months since I purchased my Macbook Air with the M2 chip and afterwards added the magic mouse.  So I thought I would do an update on my experiences with it since then.

When I first got it I purchased a guide to it as I thought it would come in use as it would be so different to any other system and laptop that I had used before.  It is true the keyboard layout is slightly different and takes some getting used to, those differences are minor and actually make more sense than a windows laptop key board does. The touch pad is larger and I have found it easier to use because of that.

I like to use a mouse as I find it easier to do so, it is just a personal thing.  I had a wired USB.C mouse which I used at first and that wasn't very practical.  I then went and got a Blue Tooth mouse, which was for the money, about £50:00 very good, apart from a lag when doing things.  It works fine with a Windows set up but not really that good with the Apple set up.

MAGIC MOUSE

It is quite costly to get a Magic Mouse, by Apple £99:00 at the time of my writing this, I think I got mine for £97:00 when I purchased it from my official Apple supplier and some may bulk at the price.  (You can find it cheaper if you search on line, the only thing about that is, if anything goes wrong it may be harder to get help.) My personal thoughts are, that from experience I have tended to go through a few mice while keeping the same system so may have spent as much. 

I find the Magic Mouse great to use.  I didn't have to do any set up with it as it just connected and was ready to use.  I have fairly large hands and while some say that, that makes it harder to use, I haven't found it so.  Without a wheel and two parts as other mice have,  I have found it easier to scroll up and down and to right and left click.  There are many other things it does, which I don't really use, or haven't up to now.

Other

I am still discovering things that I can do, for example cleaning up the desktop using Stacks and the more I discover the better I like the system, which at the moment is Ventura 13.5.1 and I really have not want to change it at all as it works so well.  I have added a virus scanner, which I learnt was important to do and would like to see that included within the OS which at present it isn't.  

I have gone through all the major internet browsers to find an alternative to Safari which comes with Ventura and while they work well,  I have gone back to using Safari each time, because it is a very good browser and I am still finding things out about it. 

6th month conclusion

In all honesty, the only conclusion that I can give is that the Macbook Air is just great and suits me very well indeed.  I almost want to say that I am in love with it, which is probably closer to the truth. Talking to others who have Macbooks they do feel the same way and while you may use another laptop, it is just a matter of using it because you have to not because you want to do and that is the real difference for me. 

At this stage I will say this,  I may not have to buy another laptop, but if I do then it will be another Apple one and if the Macbook Air is around at the time then it will a Macbook Air.

BOOK REVIEW - THE SILENCE OF SUMMERLAND BY RUTH MCQUILLIAN-WILSON HEART BREAKING & UPLIFTING

 It is 50 years since the fire of Summerland and still the ugly scar of the building remains or what is now left of it and many people will pass it without giving it a thought, for some it is just history as history that they might not know or care about.  For others, it is a place that we'd rather not be there now so we don't have to remember those events of 50 years ago and yet for some it is not history it is their life, something that Ruth McQuillan-Wilson so eloquently reminds us of in this book.

There are those who write and are very good at it and I call them authors and there are some who put words on whatever medium they chose and they are called writers and then there are those who use words not only to tell, but words that touch the soul and every emotion, they write with their heart and I call them Bards and Ruth is one of those, that special type like no other and I am not of that type so I don't know of another way of putting it.

The Silence of Summerland, is both a personal diary of emotions and yet at the same time it is also a history and the present.  With great skill Ruth interweaves not only the story of Summerland, but the stories of other events.  I was particularly moved by Winterhill which again is part of the story of my homeland.  I found it impossible to rush through this book, because each page gave a soul voice once more to those who lived through the many events mentioned and I must admit to shedding a few tears.  We may know the names of these events, even seen the list of the names, but rarely, if at all do we think about the souls behind the names and their families and loved ones.  Rarely do we give even a second thought to how these events invaded their lives leaving a vale of tears and often psychical and emotional scars.  We have all forgotten that back then no one was offered any counselling, no one knew what it was and yet I. wonder how many would have accepted it and benefited by it.  

In many respects I had the feeling that Ruth was talking to the child that she was before the horror as I do when I write about abuse.  That she, like me, was wanting to go back to the innocent time before.  Yet as we both understand we can't and there will always be things that we can and can't do because of the events,  yet we move on and most will never be able to know or see. Ruth laid this here for us to read and I pretty certain she knew she was doing so, for hers is a loving soul reaching out to others. 

There are other personal connections that I made reading the book, particularly I understand what it feels like to not see a child grow and to be a father and perhaps now a grand father.  I have rarely seen this written as well as Ruth does. 

There can be no escaping the fact that what happened at Summerland is heartbreaking and will always remain that way, yet reading these wonderful words Ruth manages to convey the uplifting stories about those who rushed to help and were the real heroes of that time.  Those who continue the bonds of love shared through the terrible times, which only they really know and we as onlookers can only admire.

There is no anger in this book,  no attacks, no seeking of revenge, what there is, is the open question Why the Silence?  We may all have an answer to this, the real question is do we allow the Silence to continue or do we shout, that it must become as well known and as remembered as much as other infamous horrific events.

I can't remember another book that has touched my soul as much as this one has.  I have nothing more to say other than it is not a book I shall close and forget about as it gathers dust on my bookcase along with the other books.  It is one I will carry in my heart forever.  

I don't know if Ruth will read this or not,  if she does then perhaps ......

BOOK REVIEW - RAMESESSES 11 EGYPT'S ULTIMATE PHARAOH BY PETER J BRAND

I was really looking forward to this book having waited over 6 months to get as it had had a few good reviews that I had seen and I hoped it would increase my knowledge of Ramesses who is the biblical villain of the hebrews.

If the physical weight of the paper back version, that I got, is anything to go by then I really could not have held the hardback version,  because this was far too heavy and made reading hard, indeed I could only hold it for a few moments before having to put it down which meant it took me longer than I would take to read a book of this type. Half of this weight I estimate was due to copious notes at the end of each chapter, which I never read and thought that it was an exercise of the author to prove that they had done their research! 

I did find that the writer to my mind was trying too hard to prove that they knew their stuff as the saying goes and this was again another reason why it took me so long to read through it. The author often meanders into things, before returning back from the end of the cul-de-sac to the interesting bit. They did this so often that I found myself not really reading things and skipping forward to the next section or chapter. 

For all the negatives in the book, there are perhaps more positives than those and this certainly one of the best books that I have read about Ramesses. With some skill the author manages to avoid the traps that many others have fallen into in the past and has managed to get closer to Ramesses the person rather than the image. He let's Ramesses have his own voice, no matter how boastful that would seem to some by using the information both on the temples and monuments, but also in the various letters that Ramesses sent. By setting the back ground for these and then letting them speak you do gain the understanding that far from egotistical (although Ramesses could be that) Ramesses was only doing what others had done in the past and because he lived longer than most others had done there was more of it everywhere.  Another understanding you get is that no ruler of that period could show any sign of weakness to another and there was a lot of oneupmanship going on between them.  I also thought reading through these that Ramesses had a great sense of humour. 

There are many things in the book that keep you interested and some that I wasn't fully aware of and some that I wished he'd gone into more depth about. 

My over all conclusion to this book, is that it worthwhile getting and it is a welcome addition to my library.  Did I learn anything new? I am not so sure about that, then I have a lot of books including Pharaoh Triumphant, The Life and Times of Ramesses 11 by K.A. Kitchen which I love and is really a must have book. As this book is now 41 years old and our knowledge has more than doubled since then Professor Brand has done a very good job in updating things and while not quite the successor to the previous book, certainly one that sits comfortably beside it. 

Professor Brand states in his book that Ramesses 11 divides opinions and I think that this book might be the same with many who read it.  Having thought about it I would say I am more in favour than otherwise, just next time Professor don't try too hard.

Apple Macbook Air 3 months on

It is now 3 months since I purchased and started to us my Apple Macbook Air with the M2 Chip and with the Ventura Operating system which at the time of writing, 19 May 2023 is version 13.4.  So I thought I would give another update on my thoughts about it.

This is the first laptop that when it arrived did not come with any additional bloatware.  Bloatware is stuff on the desktop, that often hides most of the desktop and comes from the manufacturer (I have experienced) which frankly makes it unusable and the only real solution that I ever found fully works was to re-install Windows, for that is what it was on, with a clean install and start all over again.  Having to do the clean install, means that you spend hours setting things up which means you can't really start using it right away as you should be able to do so.  

With the above, this is also the first laptop where I have not felt the need to change anything to feel comfortable with it.  Comfort of use is important for me as I really don't have the time to make changes to make the system comfortable to use,  I really just want to get on and use it, which I have found that I have been able to use. 

With the hardware,  I have found it to been speedy and able to do all the tasks that I want it to do without any stress at all.  I am really impressed with the M2 Chip and have found that the 8gb of memory more than enough.  As it does not have a fan inside, as most, if not all other laptops seem to have, the only sound that you get from it is the sound of the keys as you type. I have not used the touch pad much, as I like to use a mouse, when I have done so it is good, but I can not honestly compare it with other touch pads as I have explained.

Connecting the printer, the one I use is an HP, one was very easy via the wireless connection and I have found that the printer responds quicker for requests for printing than it did when I have used other laptops in the past. 

I have had to learn about connecting Bluetooth devices,  like for example the mouse and my mobile telephone.  This is not something I had used regularly before which I do now and now that I have made the connection it is no longer a problem.  I did see on websites, that if you do not have another Apple made device there is a slight difficulty with compatibility because Apple wants to make sure it wont harm your device.

Visually it is great, the display I can not fault and watching TV programmes or videos very good and the built in camera is also very good.  The sound quality is the best I have had.

I did struggle with the keyboard at first, now 3 months later, I struggle when I have to go back to using another keyboard as this one seems so easy to use.  I do really like that they keyboard can be lit from under it as that helped me to find my way around as I could see each individual key.

Ventura

Ventura is the current Operation System for the Mac based computing systems and is now on version 3.4 as it was just updated.  The updating of the system is something that I think could be explained better,  as Microsoft Windows tells you what it is doing as it goes along.  It is quite a worry if like me you are a new user and not used to how things are done when the screen goes black and there isn't an explanation as to what is happening.  Having said that I have set things to automatic updating and once they are available the updates are completed in less time than I have experienced with Windows updates.

Using Ventura is very easy and I really like it.  I like the "dock" where you most used things are and you can add or remove things if you don't use them.  The only things that I have added have been my office application and security. 

I have another internet web browser installed,  I rarely use it because I really like Safari which is the pre-installed web browser.  In yet another first it is the only pre-install web browser that I have continued to use without switching to another one.

3 Month Conclusion

You could get a far cheaper laptop than this one and there are plenty of them about.  You can also get lap tops within the same price range if you really wanted to do so.  I continue to look to see if I have made the correct choice and I always come back to the conclusion that I have done so.  Okay I had to use my savings to buy this one, these I am building up again so it really wasn't that much of hardship at the time and what are savings for ?  

For me the most striking thing that I have found is that I have not wanted to change anything, not the hardware or software.  Yes I have deleted some things I do not use and will never use to clear up disk space although looking at it I really didn't need to do that as I have plenty left over unused.

Before I got this, I did ask other users about their experiences with Mac and other Apple products and each one said two things, the were expensive  and yet they were worth the money as they were very very good.  I did not hear a single negative comment and 3 months on I can not give a single negative comment either and that is my 3 month conclusion. 

Thoughts on the Coronation of King Charles & Queen Camilla 6 May 2023

 I have seen many, many thousands of words written and probably as many tweets about the Coronation of their Majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla on Saturday 6 May 2023.  These have been in the range of stupid, nasty, ill-informed, to oaky, to complete "royalist",  and those who are making political points.  None of these views expressed have as yet (as far as I have seen) made the point that we are able to make these, because we live in a democracy and if we were to live else where we would not have been able to have done so. 

Some have made the point about spending so much money on the coronation at a time of inflation and the current term emotional term "crisis".  In 1953,  for people in Britain things weren't much better and the nation was still recovering from the war which had only ended 8 years before. There was also a Conservative Government, so there is a symmetry here.  The greatest differences since then have really been in technology which means most, if not all people now have a television which is in colour and they can watch it the coronation easily which was not the case back then.  Another thing that would have been impossible back then is that this coronation could be seen by billions across the world live, when in 1953 they would have only seen it when the news reels got to them, days or even weeks later.  Technology has also made it possible for people to comment instantly one way or another.

Although I have only seen the news reports I believe there were protests against the Coronation and that the Police may have acted very harshly to those making the protests.  If, this is the case and I have no reason (at this time) to believe otherwise then this needs to be investigated fully and the Police need to explain things.  I have no other view on this other to say I that I believe that it is correct that peaceful demonstrations  should be allowed at all times in a democracy and I stress PEACEFUL  here.

I have seen comments about Penny Mordaunt who is a Conservative MP and who carried the Sword of State and then the Sword of Offering during the coronation.  She was doing this not as a member of a poltical party but in her role as Lord President of the Privy Seal and yes she looked nice and did her duties very well.  On the Isle of Man the Sword of State is carried on our national day so it was a familiar thing for us.

I have also seen comments about the Conservative Prime Minister who read, what was confusingly called a lesson and whose religion is not the same as the "Church of England".  As far as I understand the Prime Minster at the time of the coronation of the monarch has a role in it so that was not unusual either. 

Queen Camilla

From what we know,  the Queen as she is now known never believed she would be Queen and even less than 25 years ago perhaps no one would have wanted her to be.  Some people have made comments about her smiling through out,  looking at her I thought she was calm, but nervous and thought that the smile was an outer reflection of the inner nerves.  Further to this, if you look up Wikipedia you will see just how much she does for charities that goes un-noticed.  I further looked back at the last time there was a Queen to a King, that was the King's grand mother and it is very clear that they both played a supporting role, not a major role in the coronation. 

King Charles

The King came to be our King at the death of his mother our Queen Elizabeth 2, during the months since then his every move has been analysed and commented upon.  Comments have been made about his facial expression and about him seemingly being ill at ease and grumpy.  I looked and compared this with the Queen during her coronation 70 years ago, she had the same expression on her face.  I thought the King was wonderful through-out the whole thing and I really don't know how he could have done any better.  His vow to serve, not be served was something his mother did and he was carrying on that tradition. 

The Service

I was fascinated by the service and how closely it resembled the "coronations" of the rulers of Ancient Egypt, although the historical record from those times isn't that clear about any coronation,  yet the ruler made vows to The Holy Greatest Father Amun Ra to up hold maat and to serve the people.  They were given the symbols of statehood which are shown on the thousands of statues through out Egypt as it is now known and accepted their role was as being both head of state and of the theocracy as well.  

I did find the service over long and boring and thought the head priest took a greater prominence than they should have done and I thought a few times, they are making it about them not the King and Queen.  I didn't see the need for the inclusion of another service (mass?) within the coronation as this could have been done privately or at a later time.  I thought the additional asking for everyone to swear allegiance to the king unnecessary.

The Coronation

I again was struck as to how similar this was to all coronations throughout history.  I did understand the symbolism of the robes and everything during it.  To me the King acted with humility and great dignity throughout. I did have a tear in my eye when I saw the actual moment of the placing of the crown on the head of the King as this really marked the end of the Second Elizabethan age and the start of the new Carolean age.  Another emotional moment for me was when the Prince of Wales then came and swore to allegiance to the king and then kissed the King in a moment of tenderness and the thank you from the king to his son was perhaps the most wonderful part of the whole thing.

The coronation of the Queen was a far shorter and simpler moment of history as befitted her role.  I thought once more she acted with great dignity knowing at that moment her life was changed forever and her name would go down in history. 

Overall

This was the first Coronation that I have seen,  I doubt that I shall see another.  It was a moment of history, not only for the nation (Isle of Man) and for me/us on a very personal level.  It is a requirement of maat that we accept the head of state, not without question and only as long as they act with maat. I believe that the King will do so.  Apart from the very confusing religious parts which dragged on,  I was quite spell bound by what I saw.  

Having watched the inaugurations of Presidents of both the USA and France I was struck on how similar they were to the Coronation, with their pomp and everything else.  

Honestly, I never thought I would have ever found it such an emotional experience to watch and that I would only view it as history.  It was an emotional experience, which I can not fully explain and I am sure I am not the only one who felt that.  

I have just written this from a personal view point not from any other.  I am glad I watched it along side my wife as we both had a similar experience.  

YOUR MAJESTY KING CHARLES 

YOUR MAJESTY QUEEN CAMILLA

LORD AND LADY OF MAN 

With humility we acknowledge you as head of state on the Horus Throne