Kit Williams fascinates me and he is so hard to find out about, which adds to his enigma, having withdrawn from the spotlight after the success and media attention of Masquerade (and who could blame him for that). Doing some searching today I discovered some interesting pages and information, so I thought I’d put them together here for anyone else who is interested and wishes to learn more about this magical and supremely talented man.

To begin with I was unaware there had been a BBC4 documentary in 2009 called “The Man Behind the Masquerade”. Thank goodness for YouTube which has the complete programme split into 6 parts here. If you are unable to follow the link, you’ll find it under “Kit Williams doc” posted by mobias7.

For insight into the Masquerade book, information about Kit’s other book – Untitled (The Bee Book), or about treasure hunts in general, take a look at Dan’s excellent website which has a page by page guide to Masquerade and lots of other information.

It is difficult to locate information about Kit William’s other paintings but I did find some beauties at the Museum Syndicate website – click each to view at larger size.

The other books I know of, either by or about Kit Williams, are Bamber Gascoigne’s “Quest for the Golden Hare” which tells about how the hunt for the hare gripped the nation and holds the answers – by the only other person to know the secret at the time.  “Engines of Ingenuity” by Kit Williams featuring beautiful objects made by him and “Out Of One Eye: The Art of Kit Williams” by Kit Williams, which features paintings done prior to Masquerade and photographs of some of his intricate mechanisms made from wood and jewels.

He also designed some stunning animated public clocks which I’ve yet to see. One is the centrepiece of the Regent Arcade, Cheltenham, designed in 1985, called the “Wishing Fish Clock”. Midsummer Place, Central Milton Keynes and Telford shopping centres, feature versions of “The Time Machine”, “Frog Clock” or “Bubble Clock” which has a frog blowing bubbles into the air every 30 minutes – hard to describe what happens, you have to see it! Just do a search on Flickr or YouTube to find out more about this pieces. The Lady and Tiger Illusion Clock used to stand in Beechwood Shopping Centre in Cheltenham and in trying to find out about that I discovered this article – which just seems to illustrate how Kit Williams work continues to lay dormant waiting to be unearthed again and truly appreciated!!!

It seems astounding to me that his other work is not better known and celebrated, but he is an unassuming and private man intent on his creations, I can totally understand his wish to remain out of the public eye. I’ve also read that many of his works depend on the interactive elements, which makes them difficult to put on public display. Surely even if they could not be fully interacted with in a gallery, the paintings would be stunning to view? In the 2009 documentary it says he has painted over 300 pictures which have never been put on public display. Please let this be put right sometime soon!!

“I once sold this painting to a man in America. We had to go to America for some other reason. I went to visit him and the picture was so badly positioned and so badly lit that I said “I’m sorry about this” – I gave him his money back and bought the painting back to England.” – Kit Williams speaking in the BBC4 documentary “The Man Behind the Masquerade”

Favourite early childhood book
A Dog So Small by Phillipa Pearce (1962). I remember having to write my first book review at junior school and choosing this book after being completely captivated by the imaginative story.

Adolescent read
The Razor’s Edge by W Somerset Maugham (1944). Mum enjoyed his novels and her matinee idol Tyrone Power was in the original film adaptation so that was why I picked it up! At 15 I wouldn’t have got far through it unless the story had pulled me in though. I’ve realised this is first book set in the 1920′s I read, since then I’ve become increasingly drawn to that era in both choice of books and loving the Art Deco style. A central theme is Larry’s spiritual journey which impressed upon me deeply.

Modern work of fiction
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (1874). I studied this book twice at school and it has stayed with me. Reminds me of a long hot summer holiday when I first read it, probably 1983. The language is beautiful and the story the most tragic I’d come across at the time – I was most upset about the sheep back then! But it is also an enduring love story and one where you really care about the characters.

Guilty pleasure
Tender: Volume 1, A cook and his vegetable patch by Nigel Slater (2009). It’s got to be cookery books, I can’t get enough of them – I don’t even cook that much although always intend to! I love his enthusiasm and he writes so eloquently that I don’t know whether I’m more inspired to write about food, or to cook it. Another guilty pleasure is time travel books, the best I’ve read so far being Replay by Ken Grimwood (1987) and an incredibly touching children’s story Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (1969).

Books that have influenced your career
I’d rather title this “Books that have influenced your life” seeing as I don’t have a career! Some of my favourite books are those about women who either are, or learn to be, strong and single minded. Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler (1995) impressed me so much I then read nearly all her other books and another favourite author is Anita Shreve.

What do my choices say about me…  Probably that I like escapism and the search for meaning in life away from material things.

What is on your list?

The full programme can be seen on You Tube in 5 parts, the first is here and I do highly recommend a look.

If you haven’t time to watch the videos or want a handy summary, here it is:

1. DON’T SKIP MEALS.  If you do, your stomach shrinks with becoming empty and triggers the hormone ghrelin. This hormone travels to the brain and activates an area which will then make you crave high calorie foods to compensate!
2. DECREASE YOUR PLATE SIZE.  If you change your plate size from 12″ to 10″ then you will eat an average of 22% less food without even noticing it.  Very often we just eat what is there.  It takes time to register you are full up so it’s also beneficial to slow down your eating speed too.
3. COUNT YOUR CALORIES.  We all know this, it does work.  Often though we do not accurately monitor calorie intake, it’s so easy to forget that smoothie (which could be nearly 300 calories!) or believe a fruit salad has far less calories in.
4. DON’T BLAME YOUR METABOLISM.  Most people’s metabolism is normal and this will not be affecting your ability to lose weight.
5. PROTEIN STAVES OFF HUNGER PANGS.  Proteins such as lean meat, eggs, beans and fish switch off the urge to eat by firing another hormone, called Peptide YY, into the brain so we get the “full” message.
6. SOUP KEEPS YOU FULLER FOR LONGER.  The programme had a fascinating study where they fed two groups of people the same meal – the first group had the meal on the plate as normal along with a glass of water and the second group had this same meal blended along with the glass of water into a thick soupy consistency.  Those who ate the soup took far longer to feel hungry again and scientifically this was shown by scanning their stomachs at regular intervals – there was food in the second groups stomach long after the first lot were feeling hungry again because theirs were empty!
7. THE WIDER THE CHOICE, THE MORE WE EAT.  This is hard-wired into our brains.  Being faced with a buffet table is a bad idea!
8. LOW FAT DAIRY FOODS HELP YOU GET RID OF MORE FAT.  Another interesting one.  Low fat cheese, crème fraiche, yoghurt, cottage cheese and skimmed milk will help you lose weight because the calcium somehow binds to fat when it’s excreted so takes some fat with it.
9. EXERCISE GOES ON BURNING FAT, EVEN WHILE YOU SLEEP.  You may only initially lose what seems like a few calories from walking but in actual fact there is an “after-burn” so you’ll continue to benefit by losing more calories for hours after.
10. SMALL CHANGES TOWARDS BEING MORE ACTIVE WILL WORK.  I’m a great believer in making small changes because they are the ones easier to stick to and therefore guarantee a result, just over a slightly longer period.  If you do make the effort to be more active, you will notice the difference (as long as you don’t eat more too!).

I hope sharing this information will be helpful to you.  I use some great scales which chart your weight (obviously!), BMI and fat/lean mass ratio which I find a great motivator – if you want more motivation then you can share these results on Facebook or Twitter!  Don’t forget to give yourself a little treat for reaching a target and remember taking a longer term view really helps.  Good luck.

Make of this what you will, I found this film completely fascinating. I missed it on TV but all the parts are here on You Tube. I feel it is incredibly sad to see the history and architecture of this area not being preserved, but poetic that the land is naturally being reclaimed by the prairie and farming is returning to the city.

I found it referenced on the Retro to Go website and the words are taken from their article. This is a new film by Julien Temple and it’s called “Requiem for Detroit”.

Detroit was once America’s fourth largest city. Built by the car for the car, with its ground-breaking suburbs, freeways and shopping centres, it was the embodiment of the American dream. But its intense race riots brought the army into the city. With violent union struggles against the fierce resistance of Henry Ford and the Big Three, it was also the scene of American nightmares.

Now it is truly a dystopic post-industrial city, in which 40 per cent of the land in the centre is returning to prairie. Greenery grows up through abandoned office blocks, houses and collapsing car plants, and swallows up street lights. Police stations and post offices have been left with papers on the desks like the Marie Celeste. There is no more rush hour on what were the first freeways in America. Crime, vandalism, arson and dog fighting are the main activities in once the largest building in North America. But it’s also a source of hope. Streets are being turned to art. Farming is coming back to the centre of the city. Young people are flocking to help. The burgeoning urban agricultural movement is the fastest growing movement in the US. Detroit leads the way again but in a very different direction.

Of course start doing some research on Google and there are fascinating blogs about different aspects of Detroit and amazing photographs of the abandoned buildings on Flickr. This blog, Sweet Juniper, is written by somebody who knows Detroit well and there are stunning photos of houses returning to nature in the area.

Hemel Hempstead in 1961
Old Town Face Lift (aka Hemel Hempstead New Town)

I headed to the top floor to look at CDs and music DVDs.  These are now all in plastic (eco-friendly – I doubt it?) boxes which suit their new system and admittedly make a lot less clatter as you browse.  Having armed myself with 4 CDs and 2 DVDs I went and put them on the usual desk, not realising I have to check these out myself now too.  A guy working at a computer behind the desk pointed me to the machine and said all I needed was my library card and PIN number.  Well I didn’t have a PIN so he looked that up for me…. another 4 digit number to remember, argghh.  Is it really necessary to have a PIN for this service?  The machine was quite self explanatory – first you scan in your library card, then type in your PIN and then put one item at a time in the tray area. It only made one error where I had to put the CD back underneath for it to read again.  When checking an item out it tells you if there is a fee and then you tap “YES” to accept it.  The little padlock beside the item then turns from red to green and shows as unlocked.

With my little stash of music I owed £5.80 and there is apparently no facility to accept notes or credit cards in the machine, only coins.  Here I became confused, I don’t regularly carry that much in coin but had notes, so how to pay?  I cleared the screen and went back to the chap at the computer.  He first remarked disapprovingly that I’d already cleared the screen, on this occasion he’d do the payment for me at the till then… but he also said that no, the computer doesn’t accept notes?  I was left in the dark as to how avoid the same problem in future or whether it was possible to pay on bringing items back as he wasn’t interested in explaining anything!  He also seemed unsure whether my payment at the till had been registered and told me to keep the receipt!!

I went down in the lift, paying cursory glance to the gadget beside the lift with a sign behind saying items must be unlocked here if not already done so before leaving the library – in my head the fact the lock on the machine screen changed to green-unlocked meant I’d done this and also the fact this was by the lift seemed like a last minute  “if you haven’t already, you need to do here” thing.  Luckily I got out a CD and studied the case, sure enough the red lock was showing (are elderly people really going to get all this or is it me who’s dense!).  I had to go back and swipe each item quite firmly through this contraption to physically unlock the case.   Nothing is now stamped of course, so how easy it would be to forget which day to take them all back by unless you write in yourself… and the people who take the trouble to do that (if there is even a place in the case to do so) are the people less likely to forget anyway!  I could end up owing more money and still being none the wiser how to pay.

I came out of the library really annoyed that all the personal service has gone from there too.  Yes there was an enquiries desk right over the other side of the main part of the library but there was nobody there are the time.  I mostly now know what I’m doing, can (hopefully!) remember my PIN, am fit and able to type, juggle items, understand computer screens and swipe CDs etc, but I think it is a lot to ask of the elderly, less able members of our community who seem to be increasingly forgotten in this “everyone for themselves”, do-it-yourself society.  Is it just me?  They could have self inking stamps so you can stamp items yourself and know when they are due back (one for 1 week music loans, 1 for 3 week book loans).  At the very least there should be a help buzzer beside the machines, or one member of staff keeping an eye out for people needing help.  I note they pride themselves on wheelchair access, lifts and low library counters but these machines go completely against that ethic – you could not use from a wheelchair.

Apparently the wonderful Arctic Roll went out of fashion in the ’90′s, although I’m sure it’s a lot longer ago that I last tasted one. For those who don’t remember, it has a vanilla ice cream centre wrapped in a layer of sponge cake, with some raspberry jam holding it all together. You take it out of the freezer a short time before eating – the height of 70′s convenience.

The new version has a lovely 70s-style box and there is even a new flavour added which has chocolate ice cream, sponge and sauce. It is out this month in all good supermarket freezers, priced around £1.99. I’m going to have to buy one for a touch of nostalgia!

I’m buzzing from seeing him though, one of my favourite birds but only caught sight of once before in the New Forest. I was walking back from the village over the Bourne Stream when my eye was caught by a brilliant turquoise “something” on the edge of the river where there is a small waterfall. I was able to get quite close and watched him for about 10 minutes, a couple of times he flew further upstream to perch on a tree. Amazing vivid colours in otherwise very un-colourful surroundings today.

Added to this sight, I looked out our window yesterday and was stunned to see a Kestrel sitting on a high branch of the Cedar tree next to our house. He took a bit of identifying as I’m not very good at Birds of Prey but matches the characteristics and photo on the RSPB page, definitely a young bird with very light colouring. Again he didn’t stay there long.

In recent days we have also seen a Little Egret flying around here, a big flash of white which is hard to miss flying through the trees. I didn’t know Bournemouth was such a haven for birds at this time of the year. I really should stop staring out the window and get on with some work though!

I was particularly pleased to see that one of the pilots is Nigel Lamb, a familiar name from days visiting air displays with Mum and Dad. This photo was taken at Chivenor in the early 90′s when he was flying as part of an aerobatic team. Nigel is doing well in his gorgeous Breitling plane, currently in 9th position, but it would be great if he finished higher this year. Another Brit, Paul Bonhomme, is in the lead and proving tough to beat with his skilful flying. I shall be cheering them both on and hope to see the London leg live which has to be even more spectacular.