Occasional turnings back of tide and a general thought
Wallace Collection library and archive no longer at risk of closure: The library and archive of the Wallace Collection are to remain open to the public following an internal consultation. The west London museum had proposed closing both facilities to the public to cope with the financial impact of the Covid pandemic. The closure would have resulted in the loss of two members of staff. A petition set up by archive professionals to prevent the “very poorly thought out” closure attracted almost 30,000 signatures. In a statement, Wallace Collection director Xavier Bray said he was “very pleased to confirm today that the library and archive will remain open as before to any researcher, academic, art historian or member of the public who wishes to access information held at the collection”.
Risk not the wrath of archive professionals!
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Also gratifying: Uber drivers entitled to workers' rights, UK supreme court rules: Decision means drivers should receive minimum wage and paid holidays, say lawyers: Six justices handed down a unanimous decision backing the October 2016 employment tribunal ruling that could land Uber with a big compensation pay out and lead to better terms for millions of workers in the gig economy. Uber, like many delivery and courier companies, has argued that its drivers are independent self-employed “partners” not entitled to basic rights enjoyed by workers, which include the legally enforceable minimum hourly wage and a workplace pension. But the supreme court said any attempt by organisations to draft artificial contracts intended to side-step basic employment protections were void and unenforceable.
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This piece made me wonder what constitutes a 'writeaboutable' common disaster? Writer's blockdown: after a year inside, novelists are struggling to write (and of course, we do wonder a little if this is the lockdown version of 'my mates in the wine-bar' i.e. 'my writer pals with whom I have a weekly Zoom moanathon' and similarly constitutes anecdata). Or maybe it is about who is writing what and under what conditions.
Brought to you by somebody who seems, over the course of misspent several life-stages, to have read quite a number of works which perhaps do not count (at least, yet? - o, I think Black Lamb and Grey Falcon at least may count) as Ye Canonickal Workz of Grayte Literachur but are nonetheless still worth reading, that were written c. 1938-1942 under looming fears of invasion and the actual rigours of Blitz, blackout, rationing, fire-watching, people being moved about the country, direction of labour, etc etc. Conditions that one would not think particularly conducive to literary output (particularly when one's domestic assistance had gone into the ATS or an aircraft factory and one was, perhaps, not exactly up to speed in domesticity).
Just possibly they weren't thinking about writing The Great Novel of The Phoney War/The Blitz/etc...
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