Tall Chimneys: A British Family Saga Spanning 100 Years
Page 42
Deng Zichao, author of People Like Us
Game Show
It is November 1992 and in the suburbs of a Bosnian town a small family cowers in the basement of their shattered home. Over the next 48 hours Gustav, a 10 year old Bosnian Muslim boy, will watch his neighbours herded like animals through the streets, witness a brutal attack on his sister and be caught up in a bloody massacre perpetrated by soldiers who act with absolute impunity; their actions will have no come-back. The only way he can rationalize events is as ‘a game without rules. No-one was in control.’
Meanwhile in a nondescript British town preparations are being made for a cutting-edge TV game show. It promises contestants dangerous excitement and radical self-discovery in a closed environment where action and consequence bear no relation to each other; the game has no rules, no structure and no-one is in control. ‘Game Show’ explores issues of personal identity, choices and individual accountability against a backdrop of a war that becomes a game and a game that becomes a war.
Readers’ Reviews of Game Show
‘A powerful, disturbing book.’
‘…Gripping.’ ‘Compelling.’ ‘A real page-turner!’
‘Love this idea and the way the author handles it.’
‘The tension builds up beautifully.’
‘All the strands are pulled tighter and tighter together then tied into a very satisfying knot, complete with bow, at the end.’
* * *
[1] The Indian Statutory Commission was a group of seven British Members of Parliament of United Kingdom that had been dispatched to India in 1928 to study constitutional reform in Britain's most important colonial dependency. It was commonly referred to as the Simon Commission after its chairman, Sir John Simon. One of its members was Clement Attlee, who subsequently became the British Prime Minister and eventually oversaw the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947. Some people in India were outraged and insulted that the Simon Commission, which was to determine the future of India, did not include a single Indian member. The outcome of the Simon Commission was the Government of India Act 1935.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Commission
[2] Ivy Williams was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1922
[3] Ethel Snowden became the first woman governor of the BBC in 1927
[4]The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–32 were a series of conferences organized by the British Government to discuss constitutional reforms in India. They were conducted as per the recommendation by the report submitted by the Simon Commission in May 1930. Demands for swaraj, or self-rule, in India had been growing increasingly strong. By the 1930s, many British politicians believed that India needed to move towards dominion status.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_Table_Conferences_(India)
[5] A heavy smoker, in 1925 George V was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A few years later, he fell seriously ill with an inflammatory disease. He never fully recovered, and in his final year he was often administered oxygen. On the evening of January 15, 1936, it was apparent he was gravely ill, and the doctor was summoned. The king slipped in and out of consciousness for five days. After receiving an injection of morphine and cocaine by the royal physician, he died on January 20, 1936.
Source: http://www.biography.com/people/george-v-9308922#vast-changes-within-the-empire
[6] Kraft durch Freude (German for Strength through Joy, abbreviated KdF) was a large state-operated leisure organization in Nazi Germany.[1] It was a part of the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF), the national German labour organization at that time. Set up as a tool to promote the advantages of National Socialism to the people.
[7] There is no historical basis whatsoever that any meeting or informal conference such as the one I describe here ever took place. I am simply creating a link between Mr Chamberlain’s efforts to pacify German aggression later in the decade and the Fascist movement led by Oswald Mosley which took Hitler’s successes in Germany as its model.
[8] It is well known that Edward VIII admired Hitler’s economic, cultural and social reforms in Germany and it is suspected that he had Nazi leanings. Therefore it seemed likely to me that the imaginary conference I describe as taking place at Tall Chimneys would have included him as an invitee.
[9] This news was not in fact made public until 1938, on the birth of their first child.
[10] The involvement of the then Archbishop of Canterbury in manoeuvring Edward VIII into abdicating has only recently been brought to light.
Source: Cosmo Lang. Archbishop in War and Crisis
by Robert Beaken London, I B Tauris, 2012, ISBN: 9781780763552
[11] As far as possible I have tried to reflect the actual weather conditions which prevailed at the time by consulting historical weather reports.
[12] Parachute Infantry Regiment.
[13] Diana and Oswald Mosley were both interred during the war. Unity Mitford is reputed to have vied with Eva Braun for the love of Adolf Hitler. She attempted suicide in Munich after war was declared and was allowed to return to Britain. She died in 1948.
[14] This is a true account of the heroic engagement of the 2nd Battalion 503rd PIR in Algeria.
[15] Clement Atlee was the leader of the Labour Government which had come to power in 1945.
[16] A system which means that estates pass only through the males of a family.
[17] The National Assistance Act 1948 came about as a result of the Beveridge Report 1942. It replaced the Poor Laws and covered those cases like Evelyn’s (single mothers) who had not paid National Insurance and were not entitled to assistance from other Welfare Acts. She might have expected to receive something like 40 shillings (£2) per week.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Assistance_Act_1948.
[18] Since Butler’s Education Act 1944, most Grammar Schools had become state-funded and so there would have been no fees payable. However uniform, sports equipment and fees for peripatetic tuition (such as music) were costly. Some Grammar schools offered bursaries or scholarships for pupils from poorer families.
[19] Bletchley Park was requisitioned and used by a team of top secret code-breakers - both men and women including Alan Turing, who managed to break the Enigma Code and turned the tide of intelligence in the war. Like Giles, he was arrested for ‘indecent acts’ and subjected to chemical castration. He sadly took his own life as a result.
[20] The northerly boundary of Texas, which is shaped (roughly) like the handle of a saucepan.
[21] Throughout this book I have been inspired by the work of John Piper, a contemporary of the imaginary John Cressing. Piper’s varied and evocative paintings have informed my descriptions of Cressing’s work, and they can be seen at the Portland Gallery, London.
[22] A poem by Jenny Joseph.