MUSE Magazine (January 2015) by MUSE Magazine

MUSE

January 2015

Magazine

Misleading Relics Kartevalian Ireland & Britain How Well Did They Play the Imitation Game? In Converation with ... Anson - the Unsung Pioneer Building Memory Brick by Brick

Revealing historic hues in black and white news

MUSE Editors Louis Mignot & Xenia Rakovshik Follow us on Twitter: @MagazineMuse Like us on Facebook:: www.facebook.com/MagazineMuse Proscrastinate wisely on our Tumblr: magazinemuse@tumblr.com

Many thanks to the contributors in thie issue (in order of appearance)... Samuel Higson, Barney Hagan, Jonathan Andrews, Artem Ivantsov, Xenia Rakovshik, Diana Gaứri and Emiljan Gega.

Contents

King’s College History Society

Introduction....................................................................................................................................................................03 Website http://kclhistory.wordpress.com/Facebook com/HistorySociety Twitter https://twitter.com/HistoryKcl

In Conversation with Lucy Kostyanovsky ..................................................................................................................04

https://www.facebook.

George Anson Circumnavigates the Globe ................................................................................................................06 Queen Eleanor’s Cross - A Misleading Relic...................................................................................................................08 Kartvelian Ireland & Britain..........................................................................................................................................10

A Call to Pens

Building Memory: Brick by Brick ................................................................................................................................15

Want to write for us? We always welcome writers, both regular and periodic, to contribute on any historic subject that takes their fancy. Forced to remove a fascinating but irrelevant argument from your essay? Never fear. Air your grievances (provided they’ve been fact-checked) between the covers of MUSE. Every perspective adds to the spectrum of values here.

Ukraine - Beyond the Conflict.......................................................................................................................................17 Lights, Camera History - The Imiatation Game..........................................................................................................18

Index

Introduction

that you perhaps most ad- when even Pope Benedict mire from history? XVI disputes Jesus’ birth date (in his book released LK: Well I have a few in 2012), it’s time to start Tudors here (looks and seeing the 25th of Decempoints towards pictures ber as a myth. of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, among several LK: Like a lot of historiothers) but I think one cal figures we don’t’ know of my heroes is Erasmus their actual birthdate. (the Dutch theologian This is just a symbolic and social critic, 1466- date. As a Russian Ortho1536). Erasmus was a dox I celebrate Christmas really great thinker and on January 7th anyway writer. He was someone because we still follow who dared to be a pacifist the older Julian calendar by writing against war in and that transition itself an age when that wasn’t tells you the dates are a trendy. He was someone bit approximate. I think who believed passion- though that these are ately in the education of not grounds on which to everyone, the education abolish Christmas! of women, again radical for the time. He was S.H: Well I think as we’re all of aware of anyway,

In Conversation with... Lucy Kostyanovsky Dr Lucy Kostyanovsky, who publishes her books as Lucy Wooding, is a senior lecturer in Early Modern History at King’s. She has a particular interest in Tudor History and the Reformation. On a chilly December morning with essay deadlines looming I met her in her office to have a conversation about King’s, Christmas and Blackadder. - Samuel Higson to me entirely pointless that we keep making these changes. What does it mean except a huge expenditure on new stationary? There’s nothing to be ashamed of in our past, in fact there’s an enormous amount to proud so let’s just stay as we are. Perhaps as a historian I would say that, but SH: During your time at there’s a certain type of King’s there’s also been academic administrator a gradual disassociation who thinks that change with the University of Lon- is good for its own sake don (In 2003 King’s was and I think that’s a waste Dr, Lucy Kostyanovsky awarded degree awarding of time, effort and money Image courtesy of King’s College London powers in its own right but personally. only started to confer their amuel Higson (SH): has an unusual friendliown degrees, as opposed SH: If you weren’t a hisSo you’ve been teaching ness, not all academic deto University of London torian, what do you think at King’s since 1995 which partments are quite this degrees, in 2007). Issues you might be or would means that as we enter genial. I think also when I regarding the way the uni- have liked to have been? 2015 you’re verging on first came here there were versity should brand itself having spent twenty years some really inspiring feand its formal status as LK: (Laughs) I think if I in the history department. male colleagues: Jinty a college in the Universi- had lived a different life I How do you look back Nelson, Anne Duggan ty of London are current would have liked to have upon your time at King’s? and Diana Webb to name a few, and the department controversies. What’s your been an actor-a Shakespearean actor-not a Lucy Kostyanovsky had a kind of gender bal- view? million miles away from (LK): Yes it is twen- ance which was unusual LK: Well even before I ar- what I do now. Also, ty years though I was a and to a certain extent rived the federation was when I was about 14 I bit semi-detached for a there’s still that problem breaking up though we thought I was going to be while; I’ve had three chil- in academia. When I ar- still had and called our- a classical musician, alas! dren so three lots of ma- rived the department selves the federal exam But no I don’t really want ternity leave and worked was very different. It was board. We met at Senate to do anything else, I very part time for a decade. much smaller and we had House in terribly grand much enjoy being a histoFirst of all I’d say I’ve re- a very old fashioned, Ox- rooms. When we started rian. ally loved working here, bridge style degree where awarding our own deit’s a fantastic department we had much more tu- grees that ceased to exist. SH: Do you have any hisand always has been. It torial based teaching. It As for branding, it seems torical ‘pin ups’ or figures was a good way to teach, though very time consuming which is why it would be near impossible to teach like that now with the numbers of students in the department. We did try to keep that aspect in the new degree however with the small groups there are in HSSA classes.

S.H: Echoing BBC Radio 4’s renowned radio programme, Desert Island Discs, if you were cast away on a desert island what book, piece of music and luxury item would you want with you? LK: Does it have to be a history book? Well I read

it misrepresented the War as a misbegotten shambles and was being used by left wing teachers to spread myths about the War. Do you agree? LK: No I don’t, like a lot of other people, I like Blackadder. I think it’s important that we can represent historical events in lots of different ways. The good thing about history is that it’s a dialogue so if you say something and someone passionately disagrees with something they can always respond to it. If you’re in a position of authority like he was however I think you need to be a bit more careful with what you say. What I do

“I like Blackadder. I think it’s important that we can represent historical events in lots of different ways.” also someone who wrote with a sense of humour and who as far as possible tried to stay aloof from Reformation fighting. He was a very critical catholic who was never quite persuaded to become a protestant but he didn’t’ like seeing himself in these terms; he just wanted religion to make the world a better place if at all possible.

Kings

with your family or community, not just about spending money on new electrical gadgets. But yes, the timing of the period is built upon pagan roots where there always used to be a midwinter celebration and as you say, it’s a very good idea when it’s cold, dark and dreary to have something to lift the spirits.

SH: As we edge closer to the 25th of December how much do you think it matters that this was likely not Jesus’ actual birthdate. The suggestion that Jesus was not born on the 25th of December has been heavily debated but I think that 04

Christmas has to a large extent become commercialised and is for large proportions of the British population a secular tradition. I also think Christmas gives something for people to look forward to. Perhaps this is a cynical outlook but as soon as the hot and lengthy summer days have turned to cold and dark autumn days people start looking forward to Christmas; and at a point a few months after Christmas people start looking forward to the summer again.

a lot so I’d need a large one. I think I’d take the collective works of Shakespeare. As for music? Elgar’s Cello Concerto. SH: Very Sophisticated. LK: Well it happens to be one of my favourite bits of music (laughs). Luxury Item? Can I take my laptop and a…solar charger? Either that or a lot of notebooks and something to write with!

SHw: The former Education Secretary Michael Gove notably criticised Blackadder for being LK: It would be nice to shown to school children think Christmas is also when teaching the First a celebration of love, to- World War. He said that getherness and being Kings

find really reprehensible is Sainsbury’s using the First World War in their Christmas advert. It’s quite a good advert but I must admit it does annoy me with how the commercial and exploitative agenda behind it is used to get people to buy a bloody chocolate bar! If Michael Gove wanted to condemn that I wouldn’t mind so much…but yes, I think he should probably lay of Blackadder! Thank you Dr Lucy Kostyanovsky for taking the time to talk to MUSE and providing such interesting insights. • 05

the skeleton crew that had been left on board having stolidly steered it back to Tinian. What the marooned sailors, who now had to leave the palm trees and golden sands of Tinian for the grey skies and Augustan poets of England, thought of the actions of their mates is sadly unrecorded.

George Anson Circumnavigates the Globe - Barney Hagan

The history of England

is in many ways defined by her “moat defensive”, yet few naval commanders are well remembered in Britain today. One of these forgotten sailors is George Anson, Admiral of the Fleet, who in the War of the Austrian Succession performed one of the most spectacular feats in naval history, and in the Seven Years War helped mastermind the strategy that saw Britain emerge pre-eminent as a world power. Yet there ‘Vice Admiral Sir George Anson’s Victory off Cape Finisterre’ by Samuel Scott (1749) is no column to George Image courtesy of Yale Center for British Art. Anson; so he will have to famous man in England, bered only 335 men – less America at this time, but make do with an under- and quite possibly the than was needed to prop- also the Philippines as graduate article instead. richest; but, like that oth- erly man the Centurion. well. George Anson preer, more famous odyssey, pared to circumnavigate Like most successful it seemed as though at Orders, however, are still the globe. people in the eighteenth times the very elements orders, and Anson set century, George Anson were conspiring to kill about raiding the South Things got off to an exwas lucky in his relatives: American coast. This cellent start when the him. his uncle, Thomas Parkproved, however, less Gloucester burst into er, served as both Lord Firstly he had to round profitable than expected, flames and sunk, though Chief Justice and Lord Cape Horn, which few and, with his men steadi- most of the hands were Chancellor. This eased ships manage nowa- ly dying and far from saved. Anson pressed Anson’s entry into the days. It took Anson, in friendly waters, Anson doggedly on. In August Royal Navy and ensured his flagship HMS Cen- eventually decided to re- 1742 he came to the isa smooth progression of turion, three months to turn home. But he had no land of Tinian, in the promotions so that, by manage it, in the worst intention of rounding the Marianas, where he was 1740, he was a captain. weather possible around Cape again; instead he able to take on fresh In this year the War of the Cape; and when the would cross the Pacific. fruit and vegetables, rethe Austrian Succession – squadron reassembled off Anson was now reduced pair his ship and restore which somehow or other the Juan Fernandez Is- to just two ships, the the health of his men. involved Austria, Prussia, lands (where the real-life Centurion and Glouces- All, however, seemed for Russia, France, Spain and Robinson Crusoe, Alex- ter, neither of which had nought when Anson and Britain – began and An- ander Selkirk, had been even half of their required his crew awoke, ashore, son was despatched with shipwrecked some years crews, with the sailors on 21st September – to an eight-ship squadron before), the squadron had themselves riddled with find the Centurion gone. to South America to raid been reduced from eight scurvy and dysentery. The tide, like a sibling Spanish colonies. It was ships to four. Thanks to He would also be sailing jealous of a new toy, had the start of an odyssey various diseases and the through what was effec- taken it away during the that would, for a time, weather, the combined tively a Spanish lake – for night. Some days later, make Anson the most ships’ companies num- they held not only South however, it reappeared, Historical Investigation

Anson, however, was as determined as ever, as indeed a man would have to be to lose seven out of eight ships, over three-quarters of the crew and with no one to look to but himself for guidance, and not despair. In the winter of 1742-3 he made it to Macao, on the Chinese coast, at the time a Portuguese trading port. Here, somehow, Anson had the ship repaired and, with most of his crew dead, hired a new one. One does not wish to blemish anyone who chooses to hang around in Macao, but Anson’s new crew must have been a strange ensemble of Portuguese, Chinese and refugees from past lives all over the world. And now Anson changed his mind: he would not return to England, at least not yet; first he would capture the Manila galleon, the ship the Spaniards sent homeward every year, laden with all the gold, silver and sundry precious jewels their slaves had mined in the Philippines. He came across the galleon, the Nuestra Senora de 06

Covadonga, on 20th June 1743, and after a brief but bitter fight captured the ship and all its contents. Returning to Macao, Anson sold the Nuestra Senora, refitted the Centurion, and headed home. He arrived in England in June 1744, with but 145 of the original 1,300 members of his expedition. He had been gone some four years.

much-needed boost both to public morale and to the public finances. With his money, Anson constructed a country estate – Shugborough Hall – and bought himself a seat in parliament. In 1747 he was back in action, when his fleet encountered the French navy off Cape Finisterre. In the ensuing battle, Anson captured sixteen of the eighteen French warships – only two escaped. For this he was raised to the peerage as Baron Anson. Later on, he served as First Lord of the Admiralty – the political head of the Royal Navy, with a seat in cabinet – from 1751 to 1756, and again from 1757 until his death in 1762. He was thus First Lord for the vast majority of the Seven Years War, and in this position he masterminded the naval war against France, which resulted in the British gaining permanent control over Canada and India. France, meanwhile, was bankrupted so badly that Anson’s blockade led indirectly to the Revolution of 1789.

Now, safely back in England, Anson turned over the treasure of the Manila galleon and awaited his share. The treasure, in total, was some 1,313,843 pieces of eight and 35,682 ounces of silver, the equivalent at the time of £500,000. Anson’s personal share of this amounted to £91,000. Even the lowliest sailor received some £300. To put this into perspective, £500,000 in 1744 is roughly equivalent to £74 million today, of which Anson received some £13 million at the modern value. The £300 the common sailor received was the equivalent of twenty years’ wages. Anson’s circumnavigation had proved extraordinarily profitable, provided you The barony died with Anson: he had married survived. late, in 1758, and his wife The War of the Austri- had died early, just two an Succession was not years later. He had no going well for England; children. His life reads indeed, it was to be in- like an astonishing fanvaded by some abso- tasy: the triumph, both lutist Highlanders the military and pecuniary, following year. Anson’s of his circumnavigation spectacular voyage, and of the globe; the chase of his even more spectacu- the French fleet off Cape lar treasure, provided a Finisterre, resulting in a Historical Investigation

gruelling day-long battle after which the French ships lay, not smouldering in the water, but captives of the British, who promptly used them in the Royal Navy; and finally the wily Admiral of the Fleet, old and gouty, devastated by the death of his young wife, calmly strangling French commerce and overseas reinforcements until her colonies fell easily to British arms. In the process Anson did more than any other sailor, perhaps even more than Nelson himself, so revered, to make Britain the leading power in the world. Anson, of course, had the unfortunate ill-luck not to die in battle. Yet the scale of his achievements should not be dimmed simply by virtue of the fact that he outlived them. In his final years, Anson wrote a short memoir of his circumnavigation, which the Victorian historian Thomas Carlyle described as “a real poem in its kind, or romance all fact.” There is perhaps no phrase which more vividly and accurately sums up George Anson, one of the greatest naval officers Britain has ever produced, and whose circumnavigation of the globe can still excite wonder and admiration even now – when anybody founds out about it, that is. •

days, and government was effectively halted. Wages went unpaid; Edward refused even to seal or sign writs, so no court could pasws judgements or administers justice, however trivial.4 England had fallen into anarchy. We do not know how many starved or were evicted from their lodgings, unable to pay their rent due to unpaid wages. We do not know how many criminals escaped justice, or how many civilians they terrorised afterwards. Doubtless there were many, yet the cross does not allude to them in any way. These occurrences are an embarrassment, an inconvenient truth of the destructive, selfish nature of Edward’s grief, and thus are not spoken of. Instead, the cross is decorated with self-affirming coats of arms. Firstly, Edward’s three lions, symbolising England or rather, a particular narrative of England. His kingdom was a patriotic, loyal realm, which represented only by inanimate, illiterate animals, cannot speak back. Secondly, Eleanor’s personal, Castilian arms appear as well, idolising the one person Edward’s grief did not harm – his wife – and so are allowed to speak through the concrete, singing Edward’s praises.

monarch here is Eleanor. The plaque does not refer to the Eleanor Cross. It refers to ‘Queen Eleanor’s Cross’ – emphasizing her supreme rank and ownership. Now lost to the mists of time, the cross is hers because she owns its narrative. Likewise, the replica is also ‘Eleanor’s’; she owns this too, through its engravings. None shall be associated “On the site now occu- with it but her except, ocpied by the statue of King casionally, her Edward. Charles was erected the original Queen Eleanor’s Even today, the cross Cross, a replica of which perpetuates a fallacy and stands in front of Charing represents class warfare, erasing the memory of Cross station.” Charing’s past inhabiRead superficially, it tants in order to exagmerely states that a cross gerate its royal love story, once stood here and and thus, Eleanor’s imdirects tourists to its portance to its formation. replica. There are sub- The name ‘Charing Cross’ tler powers at play. The derives from the Hamoriginal cross’s destruc- let of Charing, now long tion goes unmentioned; gone, but situated during it was ‘erected’, but nev- the middle ages where er destroyed. Within the cross was erected; the plaque’s narrative, it and Charing’s etymolostill exists, exerting its gy was the Old English supremacy over both word ‘cierring’, meaning Charles’s statue and its ‘turning’ and referring corporeal replacement. to the nearby bend in The disembodied cross the Thames.55 Yet folk etis twice emphasised as ymology, spurred on by the ‘original’; separate chivalric tales of Eleanor from its ‘replica’, men- and Edward’s love, takes tioned only once. And it ‘Charing’ to be a coris a replica of this cross ruption of ‘Chère Reine’, – a copy lacking indepen- meaning ‘Dear Queen’ dent identity. Further- and Edward’s supposed more, Charles’s statue is nickname for Eleanor.66 described in terms befit- This erroneous belief has ting a usurper. Charles shifted into public condoes not “rule” or “reign”, sciousness, becoming an The cross, which re- terms befitting a king 5 ‘The Eleanor Crosses’, Museum of London, sides in front of Charing which connote legitimate http://archive.museumoflondon.org.uk/ medieval/People/147014/ [accessed 23rd 4 Marc Morris, A Great and Terrible King: February 2014. rule – instead, he merely Edward I and the Forging of Britain (London: Hutchinson, 2008) p. 365. ‘occupies’, an illegitimate 6 E. Cobham Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, (Edinburgh: Champers Harrap, placeholder. The true 2009), p. 42

Queen Eleanor’s Cross - a Misleading Relic - Jonathan Andrews

Queen Eleanor’s Cross at Charing Cross Station Image courtesy of Ham@londondailyphoto.com

The

death of Margaret ‘Queen of Scots’ in 1290. Having left behind no heir, her death created a power vacuum in Scotland known as ‘Great Cause’. Without a clear successor and twelve potential claimants, Edward was obliged to journey there as adjudicator, as was the King of England’s ancient duty as overlord of Scotland.2 Eleanor followed soon after; the journey exacerbated her double quartan fever, resulting in her death en route to Lincoln. It is impossible There was another trage- to conclusively state that, dy far more instrumental had Margaret lived, Eleato the cross’s creation – the 2 Michael Prestwich, ‘Edward I and the Eleanor Cross’s history of the Eleanor Cross is drenched in more blood than you’d think at first glance. According to the official narrative, Edward I ordered the construction of the cross in mourning of Queen Eleanor alongside eleven other crosses, marking her funeral route.1 This is true; but it is only part of the story. Such a narrative focuses entirely upon Eleanor’s role in its creation, to the exclusion of all others.

1 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, ‘Charing Cross’, Encyclopaedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/ topic/106476/Charing-Cross [accessed 23rd February 2014]

Maid of Norway’, The Scottish Historical Review, 68.188, ‘Part 2: Studies Commemorative of the Anniversary of the Death of the Maid of Norway ‘(Oct., 1990), pp. 157-174.

nor would not have died; but quartan fever is fatal only when exacerbated by other infections, and the journey certainly heightened her vulnerability.3 Had there been no need to travel, she would likely have survived; thus, no cross would have been constructed. Even had she died, it would not have been near Lincoln; the funeral procession would have taken a different route, the cross constructed elsewhere. The cross’s very existence is therefore traced properly not to Eleanor, but to Margaret; yet she appears nowhere upon it. This negligence does not 3 ‘The parasite of Quatran Ague’, Science, Vol. 18, No. 442 (Jul. 24, 1891), pp. 52-53.

Tangible History

appear to be from lack of space, eight effigies of Queen’s line its upper tier. Yet all are identical, representing the same woman – Eleanor. She appears almost too many times – the lack of any other historical figure is exacerbated by the number of effigies of her. This is no accident. It is vital that the cross represent Eleanor, and nobody else, for its history and identity is hers to rule, and hers alone. Moreover, while signalling Edward’s grief, the cross ignores that grief ’s disastrous impact upon the populace. Distraught, Edward refused to govern England for three 08

Cross Station is merely a replica; the original was destroyed 350 years ago. Yet this physical destruction has curiously not destroyed its theoretical existence. Post-restoration, the cross was replaced with a statue of Charles I on horseback; there lies a plaque at its feet, accessible to any Anglophone tourist, stating:

Tangible History

oft-believed falsehood; and as far as the average tourist is aware, through this the cross has named the area, not vice versa. Few now even know Charing existed, and as such are wholly unaware of the lives of its citizens – even that they had lives. The hamlet’s existence has been wholly subsumed into that ‘Dear Queen’ Eleanor’s identity just as the cross’s diverse history has. Yet Eleanor gets a cross with eight effigies all standing high. I always found those effigies odd; she holds an orb and sceptre, denoting a sovereign monarch. Yet she was a consort; following convention, should be holding two sceptres instead.77 But on closer consideration, the all-encompassing orb fits best: Eleanor is sovereign of Charing Cross’s history. She has usurped King Charles on horseback; subjugated Charing’s populace; erased their memories; inserted herself in their place. And now she stands tall, looking down every day, in every direction, from her eight effigies’ sixteen eyes, upon cabby and commuter both, confident in the knowledge that they, too, will be forgotten long before she is. •

7 G. Kearsley, An Account of the ceremonies observed in the coronations of the kings and queens of England (Michigan: University Microfilms, 1967), p. 07.

you should draw a core out of indubitable and uncriticizeable stuff which is to shut your spitefullest foes up, and then you would fling more and more less obvious facts onto your mosaic, making it work as a system where elements, possibly doubtful if alone, support each other making the overall canvas shine in full.

KARTVELIAN IRELAND & BRITAIN A chapter from ‘Between Two Iberias’ project - Artem Ivantsov

Any researcher finds himself in

For example, the famous academineed to take into account a certain cian Dmitry Likhachov deviated set of linguistic axioms soon upon to total ignorance exactly because having started his research in the of the upsilon-problem. When field of historical linguistics. Usu- translating the Primary Chronicle ally these axioms, quite simple and from Ancient Russian into Modern obvious, are disregarded before a Russian he didn’t believe his own researcher actually stumbles upon eyes having transformed the clear a problem that reveals his sudden ‘любь’ [lub’] into incredible ‘ливь’ [liv’]. The reason lies in long-esbut fundamental ignorance. tablished false toponym of ‘LivoHow about the Latin Y-letter hav- nia’, so customary for Likhachov’s ing to be interpreted as [u] sound ear that he didn’t dare to preserve rather than [i]? Why? Because it’s the initial ю-letter of the original. a borrowing of the Greek upsilon letter. Do you remember the way So, the axiom number one is ‘treat upsilon is spelled in Greek? Do y-letter as [u]-sound in ancient you remember that its uppercase names’. Actually, you need to asis spelled as ‘Y’ while the lowercase sume i-letter as [u]-sound in 50% is spelled as ‘u’? So, the Latins bor- of words too, since in many words rowed the upsilon twice, making ‘y’ was replaced with ‘i’ by the Lattwo Latin letters out of one Greek ins who couldn’t stand using two one: Yy and Uu. Then how are the different letters for obviously ‘the ancient Greek names interpreted same’ sound. by the Latins (and the rest of heirs of Latin alphabet)? Yes, they are The second axiom is valid for Cyinterpreted hugely wrongly. The rillic part of the planet, where the Greek upsilon that used to rep- academic world, believe it or not, resent the [u]-sound in Ancient has been demonstrating inability Greek words and names, suddenly to tell horizontal line in theta-letter started to represent the [i]-sound from vertical one in phi-letter, once the word had been re-written having confused the two letwith Latin letters, and the upsilon ters in all possible Greek names. had been replaced with ‘y Graeca’, Thus, Russian historical books are that was supposed to be identical speckled with скифы (Scythians), Афины (Athens), Фивы (Thebes), to upsilon. But it wasn’t. Коринф (Corinth), Марафон How grave was the problem? (Marathon), фракийцы (ThraEnough to make etymologists cians), etc. How reliable would look for i-containing roots in- such a book look? Horizontal line stead of u-containing ones. Nike or is one that goes in nuke? Mile or mule? Pike or puke? parallel with horizon. That’s why [Skithian] or [Skuthian]? [Mikene] it’s named that way. Vertical line or [Mukene]? How far are you goes in parallel with… ehhhh… likely to deviate having taken the something placed vertically, hence wrong vowel as the reference point? the name. How big a brain is needed not to confuse the two? So, the Linguistic Lines

axiom is ‘always check if the name is spelled with theta or phi in Greek’. There are more axioms like interchangeability of B and V, U and V, C and K, S and T, etc. They all have their reasons and they all expand your etymological space to operate in.

One of the popular evil comments is an accusation of ‘simply finding similar correspondences’. If a word represents an impeccable Kartvelian toponymic structure with one, two, sometimes three Kartvelian morphemes accompanied by a Kartvelian root the lexical meaning of which quite explains why the toponym got its name, it is no ‘finding similar correspondences’. It’s a fully scientific discovery in the field of historical linguistics. You cannot do anything about it but admit.

Since you are trying to look at things from Kartvelian perspective, you can’t afford lack of Kartvelian toponymic constructions knowledge. In brief, these constructions are (1) Sa+<root>+e/o/I; and (2) <root>+et (or <root>+at, Laz version). So, what does it mean for this article to be a chapter of a bigger ‘Between Two Iberias’ project? It means that all the pre-Greek ancient world from Portugal to North India and from Estonia to Congo used to speak Kartvelian language(s). That’s what Marr called the mythical Yaphetic language family, while in fact it turned out to be his native Kartvelian family. The Kartvelian (just to remind you, the Kartvelian family consists of actually Kartvelian language, Megrelian language, Svan language and Laz language) roots and morphemes are found everywhere, and Britain is not an exception.

So, what about the core indubitable evidences of Kartvelian language(s)’ presence in Ireland and Britain? I suggest starting with the Corieltauvi tribe that used to live near Leicester in ancient times. The dictionary gives us an alternative spelling ‘Corieltavi’ which we have reasons to accept as the true one. Can you explain the name from English point of view? Celtic? German? Greek? Cockney? You can’t. Now spell it with Georgian letters - and show it to the closest Georgian and enjoy his reaction. The word exactly translates as ‘hawk-head’ for ‘coriel’ ( ) being an adjective formed out of ‘cori’ ( ) noun meaning ‘hawk’ (there is even a Georgian surname Corieli meaning ‘hawky’. The final ‘i’ means nothing for it’s the obligatory nominative case ending in Georgian), meanwhile

If you are concerned of criticism, here is a hint how you should prepare your presentation. Sure, the collection of your findings and discoveries is not equipollent. So, first

‘tavi’ (

) means ‘head’.

How relevant may hawk-headedness be to the ancient British tribe? A couple of links will shed light on it: •

•

The hawk was considered by Celtic Druids as the most ancient animal: http : / / w w w.

fatheroak.com/Did_Druids_Worship_Animals.html

The sacred place of worship Grove of Corieltauvi mentions ‘Hawk of the North’ as some: ceremony: http://corieltauvigrove.

wordpress.com/2014/03/21/alban-eilir-2014/

Hawks are widely present in Britain: http://www.rspb.org.uk/

wildlife/birdguide/name/g/goshawk/ index.aspx

Don’t forget that Ptolemy also placed this tribe on his map under the name of Coritani. This is one of the above announced impeccable Kartvelian toponymic constructions – COR+ET+AN-I – which consists of four Kartvelian morphemes (a root, a suffix of place, an adjective suffix, and the nominative case ending) and translates as ‘relating to the place of hawk’. Or, less literally, ‘inhabitant of land of hawk’. Now the most stunning part to sum it up. Do you know the names of Corieltavian kings? One of them was called... Cartivelios, which doesn’t need any comments. The other two are called Dumnocoveros and Dumnovellaunus. ‘Dumna’ in Kartvelian means ‘silent’. A clear Kartvelian toponym was located in center of Britain in ancient times. How could it get there? Did it get there alone? Or did it get there as a part of a broad Kartvelian system? I insist on the latter. We’ll see why.

Linguistic Lines

So, the core of the core has been drawn. Now let’s face the map of Ptolemy once again. You will see that the whole territory of Ireland is crossed with IVERNI name. Yes, that’s exactly the root in ‘Hibernian’ adjective. Our task is to show the impeccability of this toponym from Kartvelian point of view. There is no need to speak much about the B<-->V confusion. The Greek alphabet never had a letter for the [b]-sound, so, the beta was used to render both [v] and [b]. The confusion found its new life in Spanish, where the B-V interchangeability is a well-known phenomenon. Thus, IVERNI should be split as follows: IVER+N+I, where ‘iver’ is the same root as in Iberia, ‘-n-‘ is the Old Kartvelian plural suffix, and ‘-i’ is the nominative case ending. The whole word perfectly interprets as ‘Ibers’, the name of a tribe known both in Georgia and Spain. The next stop is green Welsh pastures with lots of sheep on them. The biggest challenge for kartvelologists is to find the traces of Georgian numbers. Some of them show up in Etruscan language, some in Russian, but some can be found in Britain. The Georgian ‘eight’ – ‘rva’ – is known for its reverse spelling in ‘eighteen’ – ‘tvrameti’ – leaving us ‘VR’ as the root. The only place it can be found outside Georgia is the old British system of counting sheep where ‘overo’ stands exactly for ‘eight’. In Laz language ‘eight’ would be ‘ovro’ too. Maybe yes, maybe no, if taken into consideration outside of the Welsh context. But do we have to get outside of the Welsh context?

1. The upsilon-problem has been addressed in details: ‘Y’ is [u], not [i].

that ‘-ur’ is a typical adjective in Kartvelian? Do you know that ‘siluri’ is a perfect derivation from Kartvelian ‘sili’ – ‘cough’ and literally translates as ‘coughing’? Would a tribe that moved to drizzling Wales from warmer and drier Ukraine be coughing? Yes, they would.

So, if we want a TRUE Britain’s etymology, we should look for PRUTroot within Kartvelian vocabularies. It is not only perfectly present in Margalitadze’s dictionary. It exists there in the following meaning: [pruti] - ‘misty drizzling’ (archaic word).

A separate story should be dedicated to LUB-roots spreading around Old World. That’s a Kartvelian-speaking nation totally reconstructed from oblivion, which seems to be responsible more than anyone else for thousands of kartvelisms around three continents. The British soil is not lacking this root’s presence. Ptolemy’s tribe of Lobuni, Liverpool (anciently spelled as Lyvpul and neighbouring a village of Culcheth, astonishingly corresponding to Georgian Colchethi), Scottish Liberton and even the whole Scotland once known as Alba which may be interpreted as A+L(U)BA similarly to Albania.

Image courtesy of Ptolemy’s Atlas.

How are you going to explain, for example, that ‘time’ is ‘tro’ in Welsh

A number of English words with possible Kartvelian roots will complete the story. I know you can carp at each of these, but first you’ll have to refute the ‘Corieltavi’ above… •

And the final loud chord would be the name of Britain tried to be explained from Kartvelian point of view as well. Let’s follow step by step…

Ptolemy’s Map of Britain

The Welsh are self-known as Cymru, which may be more than a mere resemblance with poor Cimmerians, expelled according to Herodotus to the Western end of Earth. Note that Cimmerians used to live in Ukraine, an extremely Kartvelian-speaking land, overwhelmed with Kartvelian toponyms, morphemes and even traces of ergative construction. Will we fish anything interesting out of the Welsh dictionary? Oh yes, we will. Not much, but so essential.

So, when Pytheas told about PRITANI, in fact he meant PRYTANI, which is an adjective derived from Kartvelian PRUTI. Thus, Britain was depicted by Pytheas (or those, who told him the name) as ‘misty and drizzling’. Could there be any better definition of Britain?

•

and ‘dro’ in Kartvelian? How would your explain that the ‘from’-preposition is identical in both languag- 1. ‘Britain’s past is totally vague. es, being not pre- but Most agree it’s not Indoeuroa postposition -gan? How would pean. you comment that not only the 2. But we know for sure it was not infinitives of the verb ‘to have’ coIndoeuropean for Siluri, Culincide in both languages (kola vs. cheth, Lyvpool, overo, Cymru cael), but also the first person presand Coent time singular forms of the same rieltavi. Note that the key Kartverb velian place in Britain seems to (mkovs vs. caf)? be Wales. 3. Wales’ ancient name was Wales roughly coincides with the Brytenlond: http://www.etyhabitat of a mysterious Siluri tribe. monline.com/index.php?terMysterious for their m=Britain appearance which implied darker 4. Britain’ is thought to originate skin and curlier hair. Do you know from ‘Prydain’: http://en.wikiLinguistic Lines

• • •

• •

•

If you wonder how come that the root of the word ‘tavi’ ( ) meaning ‘head’ is not reflected in any Indoeuropean languages, here is the case: ‘taw’ in English means ‘marble ball’. In English ‘tag’ means ‘dangling end of sth’ and may associate with mouse’s tail. In Kartvelian ‘tagvi’ ( ) means ‘mouse’ with ‘tag’ being the root. ‘Temi’ ( ) means ‘community’, ‘commune’, ‘gathering’, ‘assembly’. Very close to what ‘team’ is. The word ‘lami’ ( ) means ‘loam’. No comments needed. The Kartvelian verb ‘leva’ ( ) among other things means ‘bringing/ coming to an end’. The English verb ‘to leave’ among other things means ‘bringing to some state’, ‘ending’. The word ‘mazalo’ - ‘beautiful’ - must bear the same root as the English word ‘amazing’. This one is a pure astonishment. If you ever wondered about the etymology of the English word ‘worse’, you should know that in Kartvelian it is ‘warasi’ ( ). The meaning is the same. No comments needed. Also ‘qandi’ ( ) mysteriously

means ‘candy’. The possibility of the word being borrowed into Kartvelian from, say, English stumbles upon the very specific ‘ ’ letter. If it had been English-->Kartvelian direction, the word would definitely have been spelled ‘ ’. • Compare ‘lullaby’ (former ‘lulley’) and ‘luli’ ( ) meaning ‘slumber’. • In English ‘tinkle’ means ‘pissing’, while in Pshav dialect ‘tinkela’ ( ) means ‘urinary bladder’. • English ‘groove’ and Kartvelian [gruvi] both mean ‘cavity’. • Actually, ‘to park’ means ‘to put in a certain place’, from where we derive ‘a park’ as ‘a place to put something into’. The word [parki] exists in Kartvelian language exactly in this meaning: sack, bag, cocoon, emptiness. • In Kartvelian language [man] is he (in ergative case), which directly leads to the English man. • [avala] - free space. Incredible! That’s the English ‘avail’, no doubts about that. • [avi] - bad. Isn’t it the root in ‘awe’? • [aleba] - permission. Did you mean ‘allowance’? • [ameri], amereli - † an eastern (east of Likhi pass) Georgian. Are you sure you know the true etymology of ‘America’? • [antsi] - naughty, restless, frisky. That’s the brightest one! In English language there is exactly the same word ‘antsy’ with exactly the same meaning of ‘naughty’, ‘restless’... • [are] - area, place, environment. No comments. • [bumbli] - a down, (breast) feathers. This one kills! Ever heard why some bees are called ‘bumble-bees’? It’s because they have downy or feathery breasts! • [gelini] - daughter-in-law, new bride. Has the ‘girl’-root ever been regarded through Kartvelian prism? It hasn’t? Ok... • [greshi] - grey. Similar? You bet! • [drami] - instant, moment, second. This one is cool too, since it corresponds to English ‘dram’ - ‘a small amount’ • [me], I/me • [suli], soul • [pimpili (Megr.), beard • [kila] (Megr.), clue • [haza] (Megr.), house • [bru], dizziness

Linguistic Lines

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

[bruzhi], hop [klva], to kill , [frena, frinva] to free [veli], field - valley? [tirili], to weep - tear? / [vor/ver] (Svan.), land world? [erthi], one - earth? [neshtral] (Svan.), nostril [buchki], bush [ham] (Svan.), pig [bigva] (Megr.), big [ori], two - or (the English conjunction that implies a choice between two) [agre], yes - to agree? [grivi], burden - to grieve? [likl] (Svan.), to lack [tebid] (Svan.), warm - tepid? [akveta], to quit

Don’t forget to throw in the genitive case s-ending and the third person singular verb form s-ending, which coincide in Kartvelian and English. w Artem Invantsom is the project author of ‘Between Two Iberias’ and is based in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. The findings have been posted here: http://kahilarece.blogspot.com and includes his documentary ‘Kartvelian Spain’ which can be watched here: h t t p s : / / w w w. y o u t u b e . c o m / watch?v=ZqpNv3nFSrE&list=UUJERov4z8oiu49El-HxrRXQ It’s a part of a documentary series which is to include also ‘Kartvelian Ireland & Britain’ episode. •

Brick Lane, namely its status as a place of cultural coalescence. In the 19th and 20th centuries a population of Irish and Ashkenazi Jews began to flourish amongst those of the French, joined by Bangladeshi immigrants from ‘Sylhet Region’ towards the latter end of the period.2 The church on 59 Brick Lane reflects the demographic shifts in the population in those three hundred years. In 1809, the Huguenot Chapel was co-opted by missionaries as ‘The Jews’ Chapel’, a place to promote Christianity and convert the burgeoning Jewish assembly. Ten years later Methodists adapted it, then eighty years later consecrated it as the Machzikei HaDath, or Spitalfields Great Synagogue before finally reincarnating into its final form, the London Jamme Masjid in 1976.3 Tracing the profound shifts in the ideological leaning of this particular place of worship, the number of religious differences reveals a shared preference for community. One is reminded of a question posed by Hue-Tam Ho Tai in his reflections on cultural identities and the work of Pierre Nora – ‘Are regional identities and loyalties, then, signs of diversity, or do they contain an element of resistance to the national

Building Memory: Brick by Brick - Xenia Rakovshik

Line drawing of Brick Lane

Image courtesy of Brick Drawing

Continuity and change…

change and continuity – history lies whispering in the sediment that glues together Brick Lane. Deconstructing its history appears paradoxically simple. It takes some time. Three centuries to be exact. Now, trudging down the windy alleys of East-Central London on a Wednesday evening, one encounters a milieu of shifting temperaments and the swirling hues of autumnal sunsets (though that me be the curry). As the last streaks of sunshine trace their fingers across the cobblestone and urban city sounds, the history of the multitude of lanes fades into a past that, although apparently distant, is remarkably modern. Coalescing to form an era of

fragmented yet nebulous identities, the area has, and continues to, play host to wave upon wave of immigrants. What remains is a tantalizing mix of spices, exotic tongues and orchestrated narratives. Separating the minerals that constitute the bricks of such an eclectic past is no humble feat. From the French Huguenots of the 19th century to the Bangladeshi community of the twentieth century, this site of memory continues to weave a history for itself that defies commercial media tropes. Regardless of the sands of time that erode the silica of its foundation, centuries of human experience fill in the cracks of a story smashed into individual pieces.

Starting on the corner of where Brick Lane meets Fournier Street sits the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid Mosque – an elegant 18th century building, adorned with a remarkable sundial. Yet, despite its exquisite engraving, the elegant Arabic etchings, details and craftsmanship, it may take the onlooker the whole of five minutes to locate the historic landmark. Amidst the cacophony of bright, near-neon tainted lights and trashy signs, the juxtaposition of these two facets of history is difficult to fit together. Such is the post-modern understanding of East-London landscapes. Brick Lane has become one of London’s iconic streets. According to Adam Sutcliffe the area in

Streets of London

question ‘serves as an encapsulation of the layered migration history of [the] street and this area.’1 The mosque is only one of the many landmarks that serves as testament to this truth. Built in 1743, it was originally christened as ‘La Neuve Église’ by the Huguenot French protestant community, numbering by then in the tens of thousands. Their emigration from France starting in the 1680’s was spurred by the repression of Protestantism by Louis XIV, settling in what would become the refuge of countless generations of outcasts for centuries to come. Even at this early stage, a pattern develops that continues throughout the development of

2 http://www.british history.ac.uk/report. aspx?compid=50163, accessed 20th October, 2014. 3 http://www.hidden-histories.org.uk/ wordpress/?page_id=178, accessed 20th October, 2014.

1 Adam Sutcliffe in KCL: Brick Lane, Arthur Burns, (c) History Department, King’s College London 2009.

idea?’4 Despite the ethnic diversity of the area the common factor – religion acts as both a shared facet of culture and as a means of isolating communities from one another. Pressure from all sides of society may form the concrete building blocks that structure national consciousness in retrospect, however the disputes over the process of how such a memory is built inevitably paints itself in blood. Altab Ali Park, now a peculiarly situated open space nestled in between greying apartment buildings and the main road leading from Aldgate East station, serves as a melancholy monument to the violence that colours the area’s history. A large tomb sits in the centre in honour of the death of Altab Ali, a young Bengali textile worker who was stabbed on his way past White Chapel Church in a racist attack back in 1978. Now it serves as a reminder of both the challenges of reconciling individual opinions and affirmation of culture. ‘The problem of racism continued and is still an issue in the East End and yet that moment marked the beginning of a more assertive response to that issue’.5 The arch to the entrance of the park by David Peterson illustrates the acceptance 4 Hue-Tam Ho Tai, ‘Remembered Realms: Pierre Nora and French National Memory’ in The American Historical Review, Vol. 106, No.3 (Jun., 2001), 914. 5 Adam Sutcliffe in KCL: Brick Lane, Arthur Burns, (c) History Department, King’s College London 2009.

of merging cultures by melding Bengali-style patterns into an otherwise austere framework. Before it became a sace of commemoration, a chapel, the ‘White Chapel’ of what is now White Chapel Station had stood where now only slabs of peculiarly shaped concrete sits. However, not much earlier the area had been the location of numerous bombings during World War II, the emptiness of the park also representing the dearth of a structure that had occupied it’s space. It’s memory is still marked by faint outlines of the foundation of the church, leaving another pertinent reminder of the structures that had risen and fallen over such a short span of time. Yet the tourists milling between the arches are not dutifully respecting the harsh reality of this peaceful scene. Most of them point their camera lenses across the road, where a sign reads, in ghoulish font ‘Jack the Ripper Tour’. One can’t overlook the irony. A space designated to honour the life of a man victim to violence, used as a meeting place for an industry that revels in the horror of glorified gore. ‘Memory is viewed here as a subjective experience of a social group that essentially sustains a relationship of power. Simply state, it is who want whom to remember what and why.’ 6

6 Alon Confino, ‘Collective Memory and Cultural History: Problems of Method’ in The American Historical Review, Vol. 102,

Streets of London

Despite the different cultural strands that have strewn themselves across the existence of Brick Lane, peculiar parallels reveal a design amidst the fray. Home to an ethnically diverse community and thriving commercial businesses, Brick Lane continues to provide as space for people to orient themselves. Trades brought to triumph by the Huguenots back in the day dominate neighbouring parts of London. Petticoat Lane market, as well as a number of sporadically assorted stores in the area, host thousands of textile samples. Now adorned in the resplendent colours of Delhi and loud Kitenge patterns of Kenyan residents, the Huguenots initiated the tradition of the cloth. To tools with which individuals build their lives becomes the means by which people communally aggregate a shared experience. Though so much has changed, the landscape is the same. The palimpsest of clothes, bought and sold, of spices cooked and consumed… is that not the experience passers-by can appreciate now? Here, the brick that structure Brick Lane remind us that what they’ve seen is not necessarily in the past and that history is far more fluid than our memory allows. •

No. 5. (Dec., 1997),1393.

Ukraine - Beyond the Conflict

Lights, Camera, History! The Imitation Game

- Diana Gaứri

Maidan

will not vanish only to be a memory read in the lines of history books. Reminders of the recent events are constantly present on the streets of Kiev. References to current events are everywhere and overwhelmingly in favour of a new, ‘Europeanised’ Ukraine. Photos and flowers mourning the lost are spread out across Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the central square of Kiev. An AK47-armed poet Taras Shevchenko can be made out among scrawls of graffiti on a main road, you can even buy rolls of toilet paper printed with portraits of Vladimir Putin, and almost every single thing in Kiev seems to have turned blue and yellow. The economy is failing. Unemployment is up. The government can’t afford to provide electricity or heating to a large portion of the country in the face of a particularly cold winter. Many products have grown pricier as food supplies have been stretched and stores have closed. More and more refugees are fleeing Eastern Ukraine trying to find shelter in the capital. According to recent United Nations figures, the conflict has now killed more than 4, 300 people, both fighters and civilians, and displaced nearly a million. Kids now draw

tanks and planes when earlier they drew flowers and trees.

- Emiljan Gega

Haymarket

Cineworld is a great venue for cheap films and date nights. “The Imitation Game” celebrates a seldom-sung hero of World War II, the English mathematician Alan Turin whose weapons were his mind and the revolutionary computer he created with it. I first came across him during a special exhibition at the Tate a few years ago with an ex of mine. I can definitely trace parallels between my ‘romantic life’ and Turing’s social difficulties. Thought to have fallen somewhere along the autistic spectrum, Turing is as socially awkward as he is intellectually agile. He can perceive patterns invisible to others but also finds himself stranded in the desert of the literal. Jokes fly over his head, sarcasm does not register, and when one of his colleagues says, “We’re going to get some lunch,” Turing hears a trivial statement of fact rather than a friendly invitation. Benedict Cumberbatch thrives in roles depicting the socially awkward.

Yet despite all this sadness and grief, there is wonder and splendour, too. When you’re following a conflict on TV, you only see the death and chaos. But when you’re actually there, you see the beauty of everyday life going on alongside. Daily life in the Ukraine. Walking the streets of this Eastern European capital I’ve passed historical markers, reminders of millions of deaths, recent and old. I’ve bargained for a 200 gram baggie of pecans with a nut-seller from Samarkand. I’ve gotten lost in the middle of the night surrounded by old soviet buildings that all look exactly the same inside and out, trying to figure out which one could possibly be mine. I still see plenty of shiny cars threading their way around the rattling cars of the soviet era. I’ve made my way down St. Andrew’s Descent past old churches and tiny cafe’s where 100 years ago the novelist Mikhail Bulgakov (“Master and Margarita”) lived and worked in a little house clinging to the slope. I have watched with astonishment and admiration as Ukrainian women march along the sidewalk in the middle of a snowstorm in fur coats, short dresses and

Image courtesy of Diana Gaứri

glittering high heels. I’ve felt the sting of the winter wind on top of the hills of Park Vechnoy Slavi, and have watched dawn envelop golden-domed churches. I’ve encountered a strange amount of abandoned wells for a 21 century city, met a taxi-driver poet, discovered a booming coffee culture the likes of which I have never seen before, and been given life advice by some babushka in an elevator.

living.” War requires us to grow up, and do so without question. It threatens our mortality, and more importantly, wounds our complacency.

There will always be a war, a conflict, and a problem that needs solving, and we cant let our media shaped perception of these things, paint our idea of life and people in the region and lose touch with the humanity of the To find much of this world. charm, you must look (Note: My personal opinaround, or at least underion concerning politics stand that people here, in or military warfare is ira city that has stood for relevant because no one 14 centuries, have a profaction or coalition ever found understanding of represents the whole of misfortune. Rather than “the people.” And all too pick up a Kalashnikov, often have an individual’s most people still do their words have been taken as best to live normally in inthe voice of an entire nacreasingly abnormal contion. Like many armed ditions. In the words of a conflicts, the situation is refugee from the Donetsk complicated and not so area “If you get wrapped black and white) up in thinking about the war, then it’s not worth •

Voices

life of Alan Turing. Turing’s wartime achievements – kept under wraps for years – counted for nothing when his homosexuality fell afoul of the law in the early 1950s, sending an already fragile personality into a dizzying spiral. You won’t need anything like Turing’s powers of detection to understand what the energetic, respectable ‘The Imitation Game’ has to offer. Its various riffs on codes, whether moral, sexual, societal or German, are plain to see rather than enigmatic or enlightening. The writing suffers from an uneasy combination of simplification and overreaching. We live in a computer age; audiences might have been flattered by a bit of info about the design and function of the Turing machine. Instead, it’s just there, churning away with electromechanical fervour, a towering array of rotating cylinders, jittering cams and clattering cogs.

I want to focus on the historical accuracy of gender roles in the depiction. Snappy and not too sol- The film ends with some emn, but perhaps not as “facts” presented through much of a psychological omnipotent statements puzzle as it could have because the film “knows” been, the film gives us what we do not. It limits key episodes in the tragic the possibility for inter17

Benedict Cumberbatch as computer genius Alan Turing Image courtesy of The Daily Telegraph.

pretation and hijacks our ability to question. This is a script that muddles some of its source material to the point of betraying it. I’m a big fan of Keira Knightley. In an ideal world I would be romantically involved with her. Yet she deprives us of the candour and finesse she usually brings to the silver screen by being relegated to a mere ancillary role. The script does not explain Joan Clarke’s contribution to the code-cracking effort. Her function on the team seems to centre on the role still played by so many women in movies, providing help and support for the main men. The real Joan was actually a deputy head of Hut 8 in 1944. Hugh Alexander, head of the Hut 8, describes her as one of

Culture

the best crypto-analysts at Bletchley Park. Yet this is never mentioned in the film because it muddles the narrative created for her. She is made out to be the help that Alan would cycle down to when he needs a hand. She is portrayed as a source of infatuation for many men on the team. We determine nothing of her MBE later in the film, but we are bombarded with facts about her husband and family life. I think the writers, in their haste to depict contemporary gender and sex relations, forget that the same message can be conveyed without having to subvert the significance of a historical character. Maybe they thought we couldn’t handle nuance. • 18

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