A quick search and it would seem that as well as the UK and the USA you can now buy the Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff in
Eire
Germany
France
South Africa
Canada
Croatia
Australia
India
and Japan!
All in English of course - no plans for a translation yet!
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Friday, 27 August 2010
The Billy Goats Gruff in Blighty!
The Adventures of the Three Billy Goats Gruff is now available from Amazon in the UK, priced £7.60
Thanks Amazon.co.uk for including the additional information that I sent in.
Thanks Amazon.co.uk for including the additional information that I sent in.
Monday, 23 August 2010
The Gefrin Trust
Just when you thought you had seen every significant thing on the Web to do with Yeavering, up comes something remarkable. This is the first that I have heard of the Gefrin Trust, the current owner of the site of Gatburgh.
It is all down to a chance encounter between archaeologist Roger Miket and an estate agent in Wooler, the latter casually stating that a piece of land with an interesting bit of history behind it had come on the market. The upshot was that he raised the money to buy the site and has since set up the Gefrin Trust to manage the site. The Trust is a registered company and a charity.
The company logo is interesting - they have taken the head of Ceredig's staff (well, technically the head of his father's staff, but they looked very similar) and transformed the front of it into a modern graphic. A lot of logos of this sort lose the power of the original but this works very well - it just goes to show how stylised the original was!
The website has some interesting resources, including a pdf of Hope-Taylor's monograph and an interesting piece aimed at kids (pun intended) called "What the Goats Saw" This is an account of the history of the site from a goat's eye view. No Grufflings get mentioned.
The board of the Trust includes a good mix of scholars (Rosemary Cramp!) and the local area - Northumberland National Park, the County Council and the Glendale Gateway Trust.
I recall using some of Roger Miket's material as a source of very detailed information on Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and other sites which provided some background material for my dissertation on place-names in Northumberland. Roger's data included OS references and so it was very easy to georeference the locations and present them as a distribution map.
I would like to wish Roger and his associates the very best in their endeavours at Gefrin. It is good to know that such an important site is in good hands!
It is all down to a chance encounter between archaeologist Roger Miket and an estate agent in Wooler, the latter casually stating that a piece of land with an interesting bit of history behind it had come on the market. The upshot was that he raised the money to buy the site and has since set up the Gefrin Trust to manage the site. The Trust is a registered company and a charity.
The company logo is interesting - they have taken the head of Ceredig's staff (well, technically the head of his father's staff, but they looked very similar) and transformed the front of it into a modern graphic. A lot of logos of this sort lose the power of the original but this works very well - it just goes to show how stylised the original was!
The website has some interesting resources, including a pdf of Hope-Taylor's monograph and an interesting piece aimed at kids (pun intended) called "What the Goats Saw" This is an account of the history of the site from a goat's eye view. No Grufflings get mentioned.
The board of the Trust includes a good mix of scholars (Rosemary Cramp!) and the local area - Northumberland National Park, the County Council and the Glendale Gateway Trust.
I recall using some of Roger Miket's material as a source of very detailed information on Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and other sites which provided some background material for my dissertation on place-names in Northumberland. Roger's data included OS references and so it was very easy to georeference the locations and present them as a distribution map.
I would like to wish Roger and his associates the very best in their endeavours at Gefrin. It is good to know that such an important site is in good hands!
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Foxtrot, Uniform, ...
No, this is not a posting about the Bloodhound Gang song or even about swearing via the medium of the International Phonetic Alphabet. It's about my surname.
Foxtrot, Uniform, Tango, Echo, Romeo, Sierra.
It really shouldn't be a name that causes any trouble. Only six letters and when you know how it is pronounced you see that it follows English pronunciation systems (such as they are) pretty well.
Yet there are two angles of approach which lead to error. The first is reading the name.
"Hello, can I speak to Mr ... Futters?"
You see? I even had to add an extra "t" just to make you realise where the mistake lies. There is only a single "t" in my surname, so it cannot rhyme with "Mutters", "Stutters" or "Putters"
"Hello, is that Mr Footers?"
Of course it isn't; again I've had to change the spelling to show you quite clearly where the error lies. There is no double "o" nor is there an "ou" so it does not rhyme with "Booters" or "Routers"
(Apologies to anyone in the USA for that last one. In the UK we pronounce "route" like the things that a tree has and a "rout" is when all your soldiers run away.)
Let me ask you this; has your Computter ever gone on the blink? Have you ever needed to phone the Compooter Support Helpline?
Of course you haven't, because Futers rhymes with Computers.
I said there were two paths to error. The second is aural, and quite possible oral too. I admit, my enunciation is not always the clearest, and having a slight Geordie accent probably doesn't help, so when I say my surname over the telephone or in conversation, lots of people hear:
"Suters? That's an unusual name"
or
"Certainly Mr Peters, we will send you that straight away."
I recently asked someone at work (in a different department) to collect a letter that had come to my desk in error. In a very short while a young woman appeared at the door.
"Mr Peterson?" she asked. Knowing the source of the error, I waved and she approached.
"I bet no-one ever calls you Mr Peterson" she quipped.
Now I don't think of myself as a rude person, but I must say (with hindsight) that I what I said next was very rude. It was also spontaneous and I didn't have time to consider what I said. I am not proud of it and I apologise profusely for any distress caused. I said:
"No, not often, but then my name is Futers."
Since then I have been extra careful when giving my name over the phone. In order to ensure my audience gets the right spelling, I am forced to fall back on:
"My name is Kevin Futers, that's Foxtrot, Uniform, ..."
Foxtrot, Uniform, Tango, Echo, Romeo, Sierra.
It really shouldn't be a name that causes any trouble. Only six letters and when you know how it is pronounced you see that it follows English pronunciation systems (such as they are) pretty well.
Yet there are two angles of approach which lead to error. The first is reading the name.
"Hello, can I speak to Mr ... Futters?"
You see? I even had to add an extra "t" just to make you realise where the mistake lies. There is only a single "t" in my surname, so it cannot rhyme with "Mutters", "Stutters" or "Putters"
"Hello, is that Mr Footers?"
Of course it isn't; again I've had to change the spelling to show you quite clearly where the error lies. There is no double "o" nor is there an "ou" so it does not rhyme with "Booters" or "Routers"
(Apologies to anyone in the USA for that last one. In the UK we pronounce "route" like the things that a tree has and a "rout" is when all your soldiers run away.)
Let me ask you this; has your Computter ever gone on the blink? Have you ever needed to phone the Compooter Support Helpline?
Of course you haven't, because Futers rhymes with Computers.
I said there were two paths to error. The second is aural, and quite possible oral too. I admit, my enunciation is not always the clearest, and having a slight Geordie accent probably doesn't help, so when I say my surname over the telephone or in conversation, lots of people hear:
"Suters? That's an unusual name"
or
"Certainly Mr Peters, we will send you that straight away."
I recently asked someone at work (in a different department) to collect a letter that had come to my desk in error. In a very short while a young woman appeared at the door.
"Mr Peterson?" she asked. Knowing the source of the error, I waved and she approached.
"I bet no-one ever calls you Mr Peterson" she quipped.
Now I don't think of myself as a rude person, but I must say (with hindsight) that I what I said next was very rude. It was also spontaneous and I didn't have time to consider what I said. I am not proud of it and I apologise profusely for any distress caused. I said:
"No, not often, but then my name is Futers."
Since then I have been extra careful when giving my name over the phone. In order to ensure my audience gets the right spelling, I am forced to fall back on:
"My name is Kevin Futers, that's Foxtrot, Uniform, ..."
A small beginning
If you can't wait to get your hands on my book it is now possible to order copies of the Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff from the publisher, Eloquent Books. This is at the full (US) market price of $13. It should be available on Amazon and Barns & Noble soon.
Friday, 13 August 2010
I have the proof!
Just a quick word to say that I received the proof for The Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff this week. It really is a book! I'm making good progress going through it and should be ready to confirm by the end of the weekend.
Sorry to any conspiracy theory fans misdirected to this post. It's all part of some Google - led plot!
Sorry to any conspiracy theory fans misdirected to this post. It's all part of some Google - led plot!
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons
Going (slightly) off topic, I have just watched one of the best programmes I have ever seen on Anglo-Saxon art presented with passion and knowledge by Dr. Janina Ramirez on BBC4, a criminal slot for such an excellent piece. It is airing (presumably) as part of the BBC's current Norman Season (see what they did! Those rotten Normans overturning centuries of artistic development!).
I was disappointed by her simplification of the Anglo-Saxons following Rome, the rest of the country following native Christianity when it was the fact that the two had to co-exist for a time in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that brought about the decision to change. She was of course right in identifying the figure of St Cuthbert as the figure around whom the two traditions could mix and grow (even if he may have been obedient rather than enthusiastic about the change).
I was slightly intrigued by why her boots seemed to play such a star role in the programme though, as they wended their way in close up through St Paul's in Jarrow, across the turf at Lindisfarne Priory and through the halls of the British Library and the British Museum.
That aside, I learned a few new opinions, saw some objects I had never seen before and finally got to see the hall that Regia Anglorum were building in Kent back when I was a member.
I was disappointed by her simplification of the Anglo-Saxons following Rome, the rest of the country following native Christianity when it was the fact that the two had to co-exist for a time in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that brought about the decision to change. She was of course right in identifying the figure of St Cuthbert as the figure around whom the two traditions could mix and grow (even if he may have been obedient rather than enthusiastic about the change).
I was slightly intrigued by why her boots seemed to play such a star role in the programme though, as they wended their way in close up through St Paul's in Jarrow, across the turf at Lindisfarne Priory and through the halls of the British Library and the British Museum.
That aside, I learned a few new opinions, saw some objects I had never seen before and finally got to see the hall that Regia Anglorum were building in Kent back when I was a member.
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