Albert Ball

I once saw a small statue of Ball in a portrait exhibition somewhere. It stayed with me, perhaps because I knew who he was, or perhaps because it was quite a dramatic little thing.

Now thanks to the internet I found out where I can see the little fellow again - walking distance from my office:
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw00307/Albert-Ball

Books

I finished (eventually) reading Foucault's Pendulum, and I can't really recommend it. There are any number of interesting things in it, but also a huge quantity of the most tedious padding. Or perhaps I missed something.

Anyway, some things in the book are just annoying. I could give you a spoiler alert, but that would imply that you might read it. You needn't bother.

• The village visited by one character in his childhood is referred to as *** but the next village up the hill is named. Every time I saw the three stars, I started inventing names for fictional Italian villages.
• The narrator could have tried to save his friend from death-by-pendulum by convincing people that their conspiracy theory is invented, but instead he just watches him get killed and philosophises about it. He doesn't even think of doing something but decide against it.
• The book is heavily sceptical about the occult, but there's a scene with ectoplasm that left me wondering why (after about 600 pages) we were suddenly supposed to suspend disbelief.
• We're supposed to know any amount of arcane stuff - what Cabala is (usually spelled Kabbalah - oh, that thing that made Madonna tie string round herself!), and in particular the sephirot (no, me neither) - but some other things are explained at length - the history of the Templars is much less obscure, I'd have said.

All of this (and more) nonplussed me. I was also confused by a review quote on the back cover that said it was funny. No it isn't, even slightly. I am still amused, however, by the fact that my only point of reference to an esoteric religious group is from celebrity culture. Perhaps I can find out more about Rosicrucians from ONTD...

I'm now reading Is It Just Me? by Miranda Hart, which is something of a contrast.