Crazed Consumerism -The Webs of Illusion... Foule Sentimentale

Sickened by every aspect of the business world - experienced, studied or observed - I went for a bike ride and came across these beautiful webs – some of which were simply huge! I was just in total admiration of the craftsmanship involved and that incited me to want to crochet something that would resemble… a spider’s web! The toadstools emerged magically overnight too, looking like the props of a fairy tale. However, I think that was the only enchantment I encountered this week…

For some time now, I’ve been wondering when and why it was that we embraced this weird culture that is producing a rich crop of superficiality and boundless tawdry tatt. As part of my work, I’ve had to do research into various aspects of corporate social responsibility and have been trying to dispel the impression that such legal/ethical/ecological and moral intricacies are primarily concerns of corporate sphere alone. Endless cases of greenwashing amid all those dense-yet-empty CSR reports that are supposed to highlight the credentials and credo of companies have resulted in a certain fatigue and a marked disinterest on the part of some students. “We’ve already done this before” seems to go hand-in-hand with “We want to study something more in line with current affairs”. I’ve been puzzling over these remarks and have been asking myself why CSR is not considered to be central to ‘real life’. Surely it can’t be treated as a subject to be ticked off the syllabus - with the been-there-done-that-got-the-teeshirt certitude. Or can it?

How can we have been misled or actually have deluded ourselves enough to believe that the practices and production of the seemingly remote world of industry wouldn’t have a direct and ongoing impact on every aspect of our lives? The basics of economics with supply and demand, themselves grounded in our needs and wants, are the keys for survival in society and assure our social welfare and individual well-being. The society we live in reflects and forms these requirements with all their fluctuations, led by output which caters to demands, yet molds them in the process. Society and les sociétés that provide the goods and services that are essential to our existence are not separate entities, but are fundamentally interlocked on every level. Market forces drive spending habits, linked to our purchasing power, and the manufacturing processes that actually supplied these products in the first place have a profound impact on all of us, end-user or not. Ultimately, we are all stakeholders of every business, whether we consume their products or not. Externalities – positive and negative – spread across the board.

The squandering of ever-scarcer resources, excessive energy consumption , unbridled waste production, ill treatment of the work force, dire safety measures in the work place, non-respect of consumer protection norms and wilful flouting of environmental protection laws have become ‘standard’, to a greater or lesser degree in many supply chains. This is especially apparent in the aftermath of 2008’s Credit Crunch when corporate survival indeed meant that the end justified those very means to squeeze prices while maintaining fat profit for privileged links in the chain. Downsizing and restructuring have led to closure and dismissal, but the repercussions of our consumer economy will catch us all up, sooner rather than later, and not merely on the work front. Perhaps if we concerned ourselves a little more with the supply process and all the links and loops therein, we would have a greater understanding of the power of demand, and vice versa. Above all, we might see that the GDP of a country cannot be the sole measure of the well-being of its people. The condition of our community – local and global – and the state of the environment have to be factored into the calculation of wealth, both domestic and international. The bottom line of a financial statement surely cannot be the figurative bottom line in Life itself, can it?. In many ways, many of us have indeed, “never had it so good” (Harold Macmillan 1957), with a certain material prosperity, but in others we are in a growing state of unprecedented impoverishment. The acquiring of things is not the best thing in life; we just haven’t realized this yet.

Economists may believe in the “invisible hand” (Adam Smith) that balances the market, but whilst we turn a blind eye to the uncomfortable truths of 21st century production and consumption surely there will be no real grip on market forces. You cannot have infinite supply to cater to unfettered demand when resources are themselves limited, and yet we trash the planet in our quest to do so. The only thing that can ‘give’ in this equation, is demand itself, but with our current consumer pattern, that seems unlikely. US Retail Analyst Victor Lebow had stated in 1955 “…we make consumption our way of life… we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption”; to a large degree this has been realised. However, even if 20th century ‘affluenza’ affects the majority of us, the means to satisfy this contagious addiction for the acquisition of consumer goods and services is dwindling for many of us. The images of wealth abound, but seem to underline the inequalities and inadequacies in an age (not unlike Lebow’s) wherein “The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns”.

The desire to display one’s material assets, aspirations, power and prestige is nothing new, of course, as Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) had already coined the term ‘Conspicuous Consumption’ in the late 19th century. What does seem to be new, however, is this avid drive for binge-consumption, a craving to consume, regardless of the quality, or intrinsic value of the consumable. Sustainability and durability play little or no part in this consumer game; consumption alone is largely sufficient. Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” ("Je pense, donc je suis") in his Discours de la méthode (1637) could now be expressed at “I don’t want or need to think, therefore I buy” as the existential crisis is created by and reflected in the frustrated wants of today’s jaded consumer. To comfort a confused sense of identity and self-worth, and calm the nervous tensions that arise from unbridled desires that cannot be met, the consumer binges on worthless junk. However, a cycle of drive and disatisfaction is just one of the consequences of cheap, cheerless consumption.

I think that the multi-billion-dollar apparel business highlights this phenomenon of crazed consumerism in every aspect, yet takes it to a whole new level. The manufacture and sale of items of clothing, accessories and footwear generates trade and revenue on a global scale. People seek a spending ‘high’ as they purchase articles that will showcase appearance and physical attributes in a world where image is all, and indeed proves to be very profitable. Whilst the wealthy few may display their financial assets in the procurement of the very priceliest of items, others have to settle for a more modest approach. Within the industry itself, the far extremes share common ground. The retail goods of the lowest quality/cheapest prices and the high-quality/premium-priced articles of the big-brand labels both source their merchandise in developing countries. In so doing, production costs are slashed, labour is plentiful and manufacturing deadlines are respected with minimal interference from troublesome technicalities such as codes of practice, environmental issues etc. This would appear to be a win-win situation for all involved, but in fact the price we pay has a far greater cost and goes way beyond mere corporate profit. Milton Friedman (2002) said the responsible corporation would “use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game”. All well and good, or at least good economic sense in the Free Market world. However, we have now signed up for a whole new ball game, one whose rules have become fuzzy and blurred; ripe for exploitation. Ultimately this is an exercise in which no one will score anything lasting, even those who are currently reaping the benefits.

To keep a competitive edge over the rivals, retailers will offer tantalising prices with which to tempt customers. Yet behind a juicy bargain price, lies another facet to the supply chain story which is far less palatable. To remain one step ahead of the competition, stores will cut prices, yet still apply a healthy mark-up for themselves as they squeeze the figures further down the supply chain. This triggers a downward spiral as prices tumble, but just how low can we realistically go?

Although the world of apparel has always been fast-moving, following or setting trends and tastes, a new phenomenon has swept through the trade at treacherous speed; Fast Fashion. In their insatiable desire to increase their rate of consumption, consumers find fleeting satisfaction in the purchase of cheap items that may be worn just once before being discarded in favour of another article, of similar price and destined to the same life cycle. When items are dirt-cheap, who bothers if these are not valued for anything other than being good value for money? Quality is a minor consideration as low-cost apparel is not made to be kept or cared about; it is simply there to be consumed, discarded and replaced as fast as possible in the ultimate consumer game.

The fact that so many of these tatty, throw-away garments are trimmed and lined with real animal fur that was certainly procured in the most inhumane, unregulated manner possible is hard to bear. However with such low price tags, this clothing is easy to wear and does not weigh on our conscience for more than a fleeting instant. We shed off these concerns just as quickly as the clothes themselves. Too bad if some dumb animal had the fur ripped from its skin, if it enables us to be smart consumers, ever able to get our hands on the latest bargain. Fast consumerism seems to cost the shoppers little. The ultimate fashion victims here are not the ‘slaves’ who are hooked to the latest trend, but the people who manufacture these articles in the worst possible conditions, not dissimilar to those of the animals bred on the factory farms. Great brands and retail stores earn big bucks, but the actual workers in the sewing sweatshops get paid a pittance. Many suffer physical and mental hardship, some are maimed whilst simply trying to escape a basic life of subsistence and all live in fear of another Rana Plaza tragedy. Yet the collapse of such death-trap buildings reflects the cracks in the whole structure of our flawed consumer society. Our greedy way of living and unsustainable economic system will soon come crashing down. Life itself is already under threat; land grabs, over-extraction and pollution have depleted our natural resources in the land, sea and air, but all the alarm bells are shrugged off as extremist, Leftist or just eco fear-mongering and ultimately are simply ‘bad for business’. All these concerns are peripheral; after all, business is business.

In our culture of shiny surfaces and swift spending we do not see the ugly belly behind the bright wrappings of the goods and services that we consume. Production is often far-away and the conditions are far-removed from what we encounter in our own professional and personal lives. If we do suddenly get a glimpse of an unfortunate incident in some remote country, our brain seems programmed to switch off from such troublesome issues which are well out of our scope. We are then ready to channel our thoughts back, as always, to a new consumer experience which will no doubt be high in feel-good factor, albeit low in any intrinsic value. Like comfort eating, shopping will be of limited gain to the mind and body, but offers a synthetic ‘hit’ to comfort the soul. Who needs to think about nutrition when you can binge on junk, again and again, and take selfies in the process?

I don’t have a solution to anything of the above, but I do believe that we should have faith in our power to make changes, even if relying on the 'Butterfly Effect' to bring that about. Opening our eyes wider to the realities of other people’s worlds – past and present - enables us to appreciate the world about us to a greater degree. Once you lose sight of the realities of life and overlook the rights of all living things to life itself, you lose humanity. We need to keep in contact with nature and the natural, whenever and wherever possible in order to keep our fingers on the living pulse. Taking time to think and reflect, rather than leaping towards constant stimulation would bring lasting benefits that would be far more enriching than cheap-thrill instant gratification. That really would be quality time. But I wonder if we haven’t already lost part of that ability.

I was very shocked to hear last week that Archaeology and History of Art have been ditched as ‘A’ level subjects in the UK. How can that be? Can we truly understand our current trajectory if we haven’t got a clue of the paths we have trodden in the past? Why not get rid of the study of Classics too, while we’re at it? And sweep out all that dusty, out-dated literature too? These are all well past their sell-by date and are obsolete on every level. Musty old material has never generated a fraction of the revenue of the present-day blockbusters, many of which are thoughtfully adapted to the consumer expectations of our current chuck-away culture. Just as I was thinking that things couldn’t get a whole lot worse, I saw that teaching hours at my place of work are to be honed-down to suit requirements. All of this will be in the quest for relevant quality, of course. Oh, and profit… No one takes the time to figure out what will be lost during this sexing-up and dead-heading of the profession. It doesn’t matter if students cannot actually write professional English, just as long as they can communicate sufficiently to make themselves understood using the spoken language. I came to the cynical conclusion of why even bother using words; a selfie speaks volumes today.

Here is Alain Souchon's take on consumerism - Foule Sentimentale.

Oh la la la vie en rose                                                
Oh la la! Life through rose-tinted glasses                                                            
Le rose qu'on nous propose
In the shade of pink that they propose
D'avoir les quantités d'choses
And that means having loads of stuff
Qui donnent envie d'autre chose
That makes us crave for more
Aïe, on nous fait croire
Ouch! They make us believe
Que le bonheur c'est d'avoir
That true happiness is having
De l'avoir plein nos armoires
And to have our wardrobes full of it
Dérisions de nous, dérisoires car...
Mocking us, but we can mock that because...

Foule sentimentale,
We are a sentimental crowd,
On a soif d'idéal
Thirsty for ideals,
Attirée par les étoiles, les voiles
Drawn to the stars, the sails, the veils,
Que des choses pas commerciales
Just the non-commercial things

Foule sentimentale
A sentimental crowd
Il faut voir comme on nous parle
You should just see the way they speak to us
Comme on nous parle
How they speak to us...

Il se dégage
There emerges
De ces cartons d'emballage
From all that packaging
Des gens lavés, hors d'usage
Washed-out people, unfit for use

Et tristes et sans aucun avantage
And sad and without any benefit
On nous inflige
They inflict on us
Des désirs qui nous affligent
Desires that afflict us
On nous prend, faut pas déconner, dès qu'on est né
From the moment we're born, they take us, don't fool around,
Pour des cons alors qu'on est des...
For dumb idiots, whereas in reality we are...

Foules sentimentales
Sentimental crowds
Avec soif d'idéal
Thirsty for ideals,
Que des choses pas commerciales
Just the non-commercial things
Il faut voir comme on nous parle
You should just see the way they talk to us...

On nous Claudia Schieffer
They give us Claudia Schieffer
On nous Paul-Loup Sulitzer
They give us Paul-Loup Sulitzer
Oh le mal qu'on peut nous faire
Oh, the damage they can do to us
Et qui ravagea la moukère
Just as they ravaged the housewife

Du ciel dévale
From the skies descends
Un désir qui nous emballe
A desire that carries us away
Pour demain nos enfants pâles
For tomorrow, for our faded children
Un mieux, un rêve, un cheval
Something better, a dream, a horse...

Foule sentimentale
Sentimental crowd
On a soif d'idéal
Thirsty for ideals,
Attirée par les étoiles, les voiles
Drawn to the stars, the sails, the veils,

Comme on nous parle...
How they speak to us...

Gerbera Daisies - Petals Galore....

As I haven't been out to the countryside for a while, I thought I would get a flower 'fix' via the local garden centre.

A large part of the premises was closed off, in preparation for the Christmas display, meanwhile another area was being set aside for a tsunami of customary potted Chrysanthemums for the Toussaint. Nevertheless, there was a great array of Gerbera daisies.

From a distance these were very pretty as a mass of jaunty colour, and up close their intricate details were also quite fascinating.

The flower disk at the centre is composed of the pollen-bearing anthers which are on the top of the stamen stalks. These looked rather like birthday-cake candles...

This flower originated in South Africa, and some of the more vibrant colours add a real brightness to these muted autumn days.

As with the Chrysanthemum, the petals of the Gerbera resemble delicate, waxy feathers and you just want to touch them!

In fact, some of the colours were just so intense that my camera had difficulty reproducing them! The golden pollen powdered on the petals seemed all the more striking when set against some of these. I'm looking forward to returning to admire the Chrysanthemums in a few weeks' time...

The Regal Hand or a Bloodied Fist? The Tudors...

Henry VIII - Hans Holbein the Younger - 1540-50

Last year I went along to see the exhibition on the Tudors at the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris. This was largely out of frustration because I hadn't been able to watch all the episodes of Wolf Hall and wanted to get a little more insight into this period of history.

The exhibition was interesting, but in hindsight, I wish that I had known then as much as I do now. Since the visit, I've been having a bit of a Tudor-fest!

Henry VIII - as above...

I also regretted not knowing how to use my camera correctly; most photos were spoilt by milky light reflections blotting out expanses of the image. As a result, I decided to concentrate on details of the paintings exhibited... This turned out to be quite revealing, I thought.

Predictably, Henry VIII is presented with sizeable regal paws, gripping onto all and any of the glorious trappings to which he believed he had a divine right as God's representative as King of England. Of grand stature, Henry struck an imposing figure and would use all the means at hand to strike anything or anyone who stood in his way. His regard is unflinching as head of the Tudor dynasty, having succeeded from his father, Henry VII. Sure of his position and power, he stares out at us, some 500 years on, with a certain air of defiance and belligerence. The same could not be said of Henry VII...

Henry VII - 1505

Having 'picked up' the crown in the Battle of Bosworth (1485), from his predecessor Richard III, Henry Tudor became monarch. In so doing, he ended the War of the Roses between the Houses of York and Lancaster. However, Henry knew that his legitimacy would be questioned and his reign threatened by pretendants. Here, his tenuous grip on the English throne seems to be reflected in his very hands, which nervously 'worry' at the inscription below his portrait as he holds the Tudor rose - with the red of the Lancasters and the white of the Yorks. By the time his son, Henry VIII, came to power, the Tudor stronghold was manifest everywhere. When Edward succeeded Henry VIII in 1547, his youth is apparent in his pale, boyish hands -  after all, he was only 9 years old when crowned! However, he has already adopted the swagger and self-assurance of his father.

Edward VI - Master John - 1547

The Tudor reign saw five successive monarchs at the head of the country over 100 years, ending with the demise of Elizabeth 1, in 1603, without a legitimate heir. The Tudor years not only marked a sea change in England's religious, political, economic and social structures and systems, they also heralded a new era in culture.

Anne Boleyn 

Under Henry VII, the first signs of the influence of the Renaissance began to show. Gradually, the Gothic forms of the Middle Ages gave way to Classical elements. Portraiture developed as new social classes became wealthy and wished to reflect their status, prestige and power in pictoral form. Over the Tudor years, the portrait lost its identity as being the preserve of royalty and nobility. Until this 'democratisation' of the medium, the portrait miniature largely played an important role in marking and maintaining dipomatic relations in Europe. Acting as a form of business card, the portrait generally offered a rather idealized form of the sitter. Physical likeness was deemed less important and perhaps less advantageous to the cause than the opulent display of wealth and authority. Typical early Tudor portraiture offered a means to mask the imperfections of a graceless face, but not without its own perils...

Robert Dudley -  Elizabeth's  faithful friend and supposed suitor - cerca 1564

Above is a detail of a portrait of Queen Elizabeth's life-long friend - Robert Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester. The adoring dog by his side is surely a symbol of its owner's devotion to the Queen, and you can ony wonder what object or message Dudley is trying to conceal in the black purse... This is in contrast to the striking portrait of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's much-maligned mother, executed under Henry's orders. Here, the gaze is fixed and direct, but the message is difficult to read and conveys little.

Anne of Cleves - Hans Holbein - 

Sometimes, the flattering aesthetic of a portrait could lead to disastrous consequences; the beauty painted sometimes bore little or no ressemblance to reality. Such was the case with the image of Henry VIII's unfortunate fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, by Hans Holbein the Younger. When confronted with his flesh-and-blood bride, Henry balked and sought to annul the marriage immediately. And yet, on the portrait, her hands seem to portray the person; honest, modest and unassuming.

Anne of Cleves - Hans Holbein the Younger - 1539

Fortunately, the artist was not punished for the misrepresentation of the Queen Consort, unlike Thomas Cromwell, the chief royal minister, who paid heavily for having orchestrated the mismatch. It was, after all, Hans Holbein who did so much to trigger the transformation in English portraiture in the 16th century. Leaving his home town of Basel, Holbein became King's Painter in 1536 where the exactitude of the linework and economy of detail led to work of curious intricacy and depth. Furthermore, the interpretation of the individual went beyond being a mere presentation of physical appearance; the character shines through, across the centuries, in a strangely familiar manner. This curious, enigmatic proximity is nowhere more apparent than in Holbein's drawings. One of his most famous paintings The Ambassadors (1533) shows Holbein's reliance on cryptic objects to convey a message.

The Ambassadors - 1533

The two men both stare out with an oblique regard, their overall stance seems nonchalant. Between them is a meticulously painted still life, composed of an array of symbols for the celestial, the terrestial and death itself with an anamorph skull in the foreground. The richly-dressed French ambassador rests his arm with self-assurance, his left hand is limp and relaxed, whilst the other loosely holds a spyglass. The meaning is not clear, but the growing importance attached to observation, inquiry and calculation over the Renaissance years is reflected.

Wife number six: Catherine Parr - 1545

Henry's sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr, does not seem to radiate assurance and ease in the full-length painting by Master John (1545). The symbolic objects acting as memento mori ("Remember that you have to die") have been stripped away, but Catherine's spider-like hands seem to be the nervous focus of the work - framed by the brocade and fur that you almost want to touch. Perhaps she knew that her position as Queen was tenuous, and her grasp on life itself was threatened by Henry's growing suspicions that Catherine's interest in Evangelical Protestantism smelt of heresy. She certainly had full knowledge of the fate reserved to anyone who seemed to question the king's ideas, test the extent of his power or mock his manhood. His frivolous, flighty fifth wife, Catherine Howard, had been sent to the Tower of London for treason and was beheaded for her presumed adulterous acts. Catherine Parrs theological interests seemed to flout Henry's position as Supreme Head of the Church of England and it required her clever mind to outwit Henry's paranoid one and to enable her to keep her head when interrogated - quite literally!

Henry had instigated the tumultous break with the Roman Catholic Church in order to override papal authority and thus enforce the supremacy of the English Crown; himself. All of this was a means to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon that had borne no male heir to the throne and to free him to marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn. In order to get his 'hands on the girl' in holy matrimony, Henry had created the Ecclesia Anglicana - The Church of England - and in so doing had set in motion a set of events that would have wide-spread and long-lasting repercussions, and not just for England. In the wake of this turmoil came the supposedly legitimate dissolution of the monasteries and the seizure of their assets, entailing extensive land-grabs under the jurisdiction of the Crown, and the mass destruction of ecclesiastic art and architecture of great beauty. Henry's hands shaped England on every level, and were certainly dirty and bloodied. His increasingly irascible, tyrannical nature led to the death and torture of many of those nearest to him, along with anyone guilty of treason or heresy, interchangeble crimes of lèse-majesté. Suspicion, secrecy, fear and furtiveness were rife and the attendant blood-letting found little respite over the Tudor years as each successive monarch left their mark, and sought to impose their interpretation of English faith. Bloody Mary duly merited her name, yet even the subsequent decades after her demise seemed to be seeped in blood, in spite of the finery and flamboyance of the Golden Age.

 Coronation of Elizabeth I -  Copy of lost original cerca 1559

When Henry's second daughter, Elizabeth I, ascended to the throne, England was already entering an era of unparalleled power and began to occupy a unique position in Europe. Just as the newly-founded Protestant country turned away from the Catholic Continent, it also shunned the broad Classical lines of the Renaissance in favour of its own ecclectic English take on the movement. Leading Renaissance minds, such as Holbein had come across from Europe, leaving their influence on a portrait style that had developed from the illuminated manuscript tradition. Whilst striking realism would be used to portray certain aspects of the painting, the overall effect meant that the viewer would read the abstract image like a book rather than a realistic view of the sitter. Whereas the representation of the individual's face could appear rather vague or flat, this was in stark contrast to the sumptious clothing, jewellery and material props that were all lavishly painted in rich detail. The English Renaissance portraitist par excellence was Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619), a goldsmith and limner who painted many portraits of Elizabeth, in a style that appeared conservative compared to European norms, but fully catered to the Tudor taste for concealment and the symbolic.

Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, was betrothed to her country alone, mother to her subjects, and as holy matriarch led England into new, unchartered, virgin terrirory. The regal image reflects this, with symbols of virginal purity and power - gold, pearls and moons.

Rubies and pearls...

Yet Elizabeth was also to be Empress of the Seas, head of a growing empire that believed its reach was as boundless as the horizon. Exploration of the New World and the defeat of the Spanish Armada ensured that Elizabeth would be remembered as Gloriana. It is hardly surprising that images abound of Empire. crowns, globes, swords and the like.

Elizabeth's orb and ermine...

Nicholas Hilliard painted some of the most famous portraits of Elizabeth and his Phoenix Portrait shows his unique style with its symbols and rich detail contrasting that strange mask-like face, accentuated by its pallor that comes from the deterioration of pigment.

The Phoenix Portrait - Nicholas Hilliard - 1575

The colouration of Elizabeth's face may have faded over the years, but she herself seems ageless. Already in her forties, she is shown by Hilliard as majestic and flawless, even if rather haughty. The queen wears a pendant of a phoenix, emblematic figure of Christ, and symbol of resurrection. Like the creature rising out of the ashes, royalty never dies and the rose which Elizabeth gently holds between her elegantly tapered fingers refers back to her lineage. Unbeknownst to Elizabeth, of course, was the fact that her death in 1603, would mark the end of the Tudor dynasty; neither would be eternal.

Phoenix pendant....

The Darnley Portrait (1575), thought to have been painted by the Italian Federico Zuccari, presents Elizabeth in a similar, age-defying manner. Unlike the Hilliard work, however, a certain investment in depth and perspective is apparent. In the background, the symbols of sovereignty are visible with the crown and scepter, but our attention is drawn to the sovereign herself.

The Darnley Portrait - 1575 - Zuccari 

The Queen stares directly at us, with her dark eyes and steely gaze set in a rather more rounded face, framed by frizzy hair that appears more life-like than Hilliard's 'fleece'. Despite the greater realism of flesh and bodily form, Zuccari's portrayal of the royal hands let the show down - these puppet hands half-heartedly hold onto the beautiful feathered fan! There was nothing half-hearted in Elizabeth's reign over England but had she acknowledged her powerlessness over her human mortality, and been less time-defiant she might have been more willing to chose a successor in her final years.

With Elizabeth, died an era punctuated by plots, political intrigue, personality cults, paranoia, persecution, adultery, blind allegiance, illicit alliances, lust, liaisons dangereuses, marital disarray, murder, megalomania, mass destruction, treason, tyranny, treachery, cheating and torture - most of which arose around one man's supposed religious convictions and his need to have the upper hand.

Armada Portrait - George Gower - 1588

I just wish that Henry VIII had not marked his territory and time like some rabid, mad dog, destroying so much art in his rage. Perhaps the dramatic jousting accidents of his younger years had indeed resulted in some form of lasting damage to the frontal cortex of his brain. His whole personality and behaviour were affected, and his state of mind and general health were worsened by the sores and ulcers that plagued him to the very end of his life. His mood swings and unpredictable acts grew in size and frequency, just as his stature and girth took on gargantuan proportions. Henry's friend, the humanist Thomas More, remarked that living in proximity with the king was "like having fun with tamed lions. Often he roars for no reason, and suddenly the fun becomes fatal". How true those words proved to be - Henry had More executed in 1535.

Ditchley Portrait - Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger - 1592

Nevertheless, the Tudor era was far more than that. For the first time, women actively came to the fore in sovereignty, and whilst Catherine Parr carefully admitted to Henry that "Women by their first creation were made subject to men", she knew this state of submission would not last. It was the Henry's own daughters who would prove this, and no one more than Elizabeth I.

Robert Devereux (?) and my not-very-regal hands!

Storks!

A while ago, I had the chance to visit the Stork Conservation Centre of NaturOparc at Hunawihr, in the Alsace region. Prior to this trip, I had already come across these incredible birds in various locations, but as their typical roosting spots are generally well above eye-level, I had never been able to get up-close-and-personal, so to speak.

At the centre, adults, fledgings and young chicks are visible, as are a range of other natural inhabitants of water courses and marsh land - otters, coypus and the endangered golden hamster of Alsace, no less. The centre actively works on programmes of reproduction and reintroduction of the various species, and in so doing educates and entertains the general public.

My first sighting of wild storks was around an old palace in Marrakech, Morocco. This was a wonderful image – the terracotta-red of the ancient buildings, streaked white from droppings from the vast stick-and-frond nests perched precariously along walls and rooftops. And then, of course, the storks themselves, like creatures from another age, their huge wing span, the gangly yet strangely elegant legs and that curious clacking noise as they clatter their impressive bills as a means of communication.

Then, closer to home, I saw the storks that inhabit the north-east area of France. Although I had been aware that storks took up residence in the towns and villages, I hadn’t realized to what extent. I was so excited to notice the first specimen, looking down from one the chocolate-box-pretty buildings that are so typical of Alsace, that I didn’t notice that there were many others, peering down or just indifferent to us humans far below. It really was a Hitchcock kind of moment -  we were encircled by large birds from way above! 

When I last returned to this part of France, I was rather more prepared for the sight, yet not to the point of becoming blasé. The sheer size of these birds strikes you during their bold flight, legs and neck outstretched, or as they preen and pose, perched on their dramatic nests, silhouetted against the sky line. These storks are as much part of the fabric of landscape in Alsace, as they are key to the folklore of the region. It is said that the Alsatians revere the cigogne as much as the Egyptians did the ibis, however this has not necessarily always been the case over the last decades; hence the need for conservation centres to build up declining stork populations. 

Indeed, changing agricultural practices, the wide-spread use of herbicides and pesticides, electrocution from criss-crossing powerlines and the canalisation of the Rhine has meant that stork numbers diminished considerably from the Second World War. Efficient land management and industrialisation resulted in the loss of traditional habitats as marshy terrain was drained, grassy meadows converted to new crop use, or was overrun by taller vegetation incompatible with stork foraging patterns. Pollution rendered land toxic to these birds and also harboured other hazards. The final outcome served as a wake-up call, not just to the people of Alsace, but also to those of the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland and Sweden who were at risk of losing their emblematic bird. 

Acting as symbol of fidelity, fertility and good fortune, this migratory creature is integral to cultural heritage around Europe and Africa. Commonly associated with life, rebirth and regeneration, the popular image of the stork is that of Nature's purveyor of bundled offspring. Birthmarks on the head of a newborn were referred to as the stork ‘bites’, the sign of a novice carrier bird!

Committed to the family, it was said that no self-respecting stork would nest on a house marked by marital breakdown. In the north-east of France, the image of the stork was tied to the very land itself, following the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by the Germans, after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1871.

Known by its Latin form in the majority of the Romance languages (eg cigogne in French), the English word 'stork' finds its origins in old German. Although renowned as a creature of habit and instinct, the stork has proved itself able to adapt to circumstances, reinventing itself with surprisingly modern means. For centuries, it has always lived in relatively close proximity to Man, largely protected from the latter’s hunting instinct by its reputation as a beast of good omen. 

Spired churches and chimneys have always been nesting grounds of predilection for storks, often improved by special structures, such as old cartwheels, to help the building withstand the added load of such weighty nests and to help the bird gain stability. Despite this benevolent human intervention, the stork has chosen to lead its own independent, slightly aloof existence in these shared spaces. 

However, over the last decades, the stork, rather like the cool, crafty urban fox, has become more dependant on Man’s activities for its own mode of existence, thus changing ingrained patterns of behaviour that had, until quite recently, formed the basis of its life. 

With its powerful wings, tipped with black-fingered feathers, its distinctive flapping and soaring movement when in flight, the stork is perfectly equipped to carry out the migratory marathon from Europe to Africa, for which it is renowned. Leaving the northern territories as the temperatures drop, the stork sets off on a southward journey to wintering locations in the warmer climates, following inherited routes, migration corridors and stopover sites. It uses air thermals to soar and glide, thus economizing wing movement and hence body fat reserves for energy. In fact, the stork avoids crossing over the Mediterranean itself, since the required currents do not form over water... Since the 1980s, however, this migratory movement has been modified, and the stork now appears able to avoid such forms of long-haul travel.

During the programmes to breed storks in captivity in order to boost populations, migratation was suppressed. However, the gradual alteration or complete suppression of migratory movement witnessed over recent years has more diverse causes. The loss or impoverishment of traditional habitat and food sources due to agriculture and/or urbanisation has led the stork to seek other areas in which to forage.

By nature a carnivorous bird, the stork consumes a range of small creatures living around wet zones ;  fish, amphibians, reptiles, insects, birds and mammals. Whilst areas offering such prey are diminishing, vast expanding landfill sites are proposing a wider menu to our feathered friends. Indeed, the stork appears to have developed a taste for junk food that stems from our own and mirrors our appetite in an uncanny manner.

Just as many sun-deprived Brits opt for the sunny climes of Spain and Portugal to overwinter, growing numbers of storks are following suit, and are therefore ditching Africa in favour of closer destinations. These indeed offer a reliable fast-food supply and could even become permanent places of residence to the savvier stork. It should be supposed that there will be a price to pay for this low-cost lifestyle choice ; health issues will surely arise, perhaps even an avian form of obesity. Whilst mortality rates from the arduous trek to the African continent will be less dramatic, over-population and the trickle-down impact on many levels of the eco-system is likely to bring other consequences. The imminent closure of landfills, as requested by EU directives, will suddenly mean that binge-eating storks will be left with nowhere to go. In addition, they will have limited means to fly off to new horizons as their flight ability may well have been weakened by their unhealthy living model. As a gregarious creature, living in colonies, large numbers of storks will have to be relocated, away from these garbage communities.

When seeing the cigognes of Hunawihr, I was blissfully unaware of this particular set of man-made problems that has stuck itself onto this animal species. You can only be thankful that such conservation programmes exist today. So, the visitor gets to see the birds going about their business, as they always have, yet from a better vantage point. In this way, you can observe the adults feeding their young by the typical regurgitation process (think ‘fishy Exorcist’), roosting birds preening themselves and grooming fellow nest-dwellers (‘allopreening’), birds communicating by bill clattering and head nodding. 

The family unit is fairly close. The breeding adults are monagamous, but do not not necessarily stay paired for life; whilst together they share the parenting tasks. Both adults make the nest, incubate the typical clutch of four eggs for around a month, feed the young hatchlings until they reach fledging stage and leave the nest, approximately two months after emerging from their eggs. The male will return to the same nest for several years, rather like that other great migrant bird, the swallow. Here at the centre, visitors have the privilege of seeing the young birds, and noting their progress in terms of size and plumage development. Adult birds have the white body and ruff feathers, black wing coverts and those striking red legs and bills, whose colour largely derives from their diet, like the flamingo.

And the very young birds are truly very cute – all fluffy, with those unbelievably big feet!