In His Own Words

Photo by Marlon Hazlewood

Robert Winslow, Artistic Director

November 19th, 2010

Just a short blog today, folks, as I am gearing up for a big week of research and meetings in London. I should have lots more to say next Friday.

However, I did manage to visit the London Metropolitan Archives this week as well as a repeat visit to the Imperial War Museum - I think I've been there four or five times already and could easily spend a month there reading diaries and testimonies of World War I soldiers, nurses, medical officers. On Tuesday I was reading the papers of J. R. Skirth a British soldier who fought in many battles from 1914 to 1918. He told a harrowing story of getting lost in no-man's land after his comrades were killed and desperately trying to find his way back to friendly lines. Also, he was concussed in a shell blast that left him with only partial memory for four month in 1917. He'll remember snippets of days but most is a blank for him even fifty years later as he writes his memoirs. He says it's like a film that is very vivid for a few minutes, then a blank screen for several - more blanks than bits in his life of those months.

At the London Metropolitan Museum I looked at case notes of psychiatric patients in London's Colney Hatch asylum circa 1915 and 1916. It was supposed that most soldiers suffering from psychological trauma (shell shock) due to their war experience ended up in specialist military hospitals for treatment. Well, that wasn't always the case, particularly in the early part of the war when shell shock was so little understood. Many were simply certified insane and sent directly to asylums in the UK, placed in general wards with all the other insane. Some spent the rest of their lives there. There are so many untold stories of war that keep coming out.

On a lighter side, I celebrated my 58th birthday this week by going to Oxford. I wandered through Balliol College, Trinity College, Radcliffe Camera and All Souls College. All Souls particularly interested me as it is for fellows - those who have completed a lot of research, academic accomplishments, etc. It is not for the young students but for those in the middle of their careers. I wish we had an All Souls in Millbrook. I would definitely try to sign up.

Oxford is a beautfiul city that can't be seen properly in just a day. Although, I also managed to see a new film there - Another Year by Mike Leigh. I highly recommend this slice of contemporary English life which focuses on the fun topic of getting older and all that that entails. Yippee!

Yesterday I went to Stonehenge with my wife Janette. She recently came over here to spend a couple of weeks with me before my return. We went on an impulse it being a sunny day and it was an amazing place. Sunny days come at a premium over here and oughtn't to be squandered.

I understand the weather back home hasn't been exactly tropical.

At Farnham Maltings this weekend there is a national pottery show which is very interesting. I am going now to take it in and try to get warm. Central heating is not an English custom in case you didn't know.

I hope everyone back home is having a wonderful fall. My brain is teeming with research, ideas and sketches for the new play I am working on and I am even meeting an artistic director in London on Tuesday to talk about how to maybe bring a show from Canada to the Uk in the next few years. Oh well, onwards and upwards! Cheers.

Rob