‘A Place of Greater Safety’ by Hilary Mantel (who we know for Wolf Hall & Bring up the Bodies). This is an extraordinary book, probably of importance. Mantell follows the truncated lives of the three most important revolutionaries of the French Revolution (1789+). Danton – a bull of a man, great orator, womaniser, organiser, knows how to get things done. Robespierre – the incorruptible, unswerving, immovable (who loses his way). Camille Desmoulins (a man) – flighty, contrarian, gift with words – knew how to direct public opinion. All three began their careers as lawyers. Camille, single handedly sparked the attack on the Bastille on 14th July 1789 and therefore was the spark for all the revolutions that followed. Mantel tells their story with exactness and sympathy. These were three extraordinary men in extraordinary times.
It is the ‘extraordinary times’ that is the fourth character in the story. Times that began with unrest because of taxation and famine; led to the beheading go Louis XVI and his Queen; the ousting of the old regime and its replacement by ‘government by committee’. Mantel does not give us detailed pictures of any of this – certainly never the bloody bits, we get glimpses. The complexity of the story is revealed and woven by intersection of the three main human characters and the backdrop of history.
Things appear to be going fairly well until the Terror. The Terror saw about 2,600 ‘conspirators’ beheaded by gillotine in just a few months – a lot of blood – the logistics of beheading 12-20 people a day overwhelmed the ability of the executioners. These ‘conspirators’ were being fed to the gillotine by the ‘Committee of Public Safety’ and the ‘Police Committee’. The Terror was a deliberate political move by a few men. Once it was begun, there was no stopping it – everyone who objected or criticised was obviously another ‘conspirator’ to be killed. Terrified people informed on each other to save their own lives – spouses on each other, children on parents, parents on children, siblings on each other. (Inform early, get a few credit points.) Fueled by the bloodlust, powerlust of a few men (eg Saint Just). In an attempt to stop the Terror and knowing where it might lead, Camille writes five pamphlets/newspapers that criticise the main Committee and what is doing.
The important part is Mantel’s description of what happens when the system falls apart – especially when separation of power fails. Danton and Camille are condemned when a few politicians (ie, Saint Just) fabricate evidence and subvert/instruct/direct/bully/overpower the court to ensure a guilty verdict; forbid defence, defence witnesses or cross examination; ensure that rumour is treated as fact.
Danton, Camille and 24 others are taken directly from courtroom to guillotine (that is normal – no appeal). (The novel ends here.) Within days, Camille’s wife is also killed. They did not like her either. Then, within a month or so it all ends – Robespierre and Saint Just are guillotined and that is the end of the Terror. The counter-revolutionaries take over.
The irony in Mantel’s title (A Place of Greater Safety) smiles or shouts from every page. The revolution was building a Place of Greater Saftey by having the Public Saftey Committee kill whoever it took a dislike to. The strong message: separate powers: lawmakers; judiciary; executive.
A Place Of Greater Safety is a docudrama – a novel written using well documented history as the back drop and putting words into to mouths of the main characters. Mantel argues that most of the words she has the characters speak in private are the same words they used in public or in print. A very well crafted novel. Recommended.
This is a very good read and should be a compulsory read in order to understand our times. Michael Pembroke…
Shield Shrimp
When it rains across Australia’s vast inland region, temporary pools crop up all over the arid ground, giving life to a strange desert crustacean known as the shield shrimp (Triops australiensis).
Named after the formidable carapace that shields its head and upper body, T. australiensis can grow up to 7.6 cm long, and it uses its long, segmented tail and mass of 60 or so legs to propel itself through shallow water.
It also breathes through these legs – its sub-class Branchiopoda means ‘gill-legged’ – and in the females these legs bear ovisacs for carrying their tiny eggs.
Several pix in the Photo Gallery and a movie.
Acacia peuce
A rare and endangered plant. The tree grows up to 15 to 18 metres (49 to 59 ft) high, with short horizontal branches and pendulous branchlets covered in needle-like phyllodes adapted for the arid dry climate. It has a distinctive habit more similar to a sheoak or a conifer.
Although speculated to have been widespread across central Australia during wetter climates 400,000 years ago, the population is now mostly restricted to three sites, separated by the encroaching Simpson Desert. In the Northern Territory, the species is restricted to the Mac Clark (Acacia peuce) Conservation Reserve which is surrounded by a pastoral lease, Andado Station. The other two sites are near Boulia and Birdsville in Queensland. The tree is found in open arid plains that usually receive less than 150 millimetres (5.9 in) of rain per annum. They grow on shallow sand aprons overlaying gibber or clay slopes and plains and between longitudinal dunes or on alluvial flats between ephemeral watercourses.
Owen Springs Reserve on Hugh River
Owen Springs was a station on the Hugh River. The Hugh River flows into the Finke (when it actually flows). Both cut through the Western MacDonnell Ranges. The image above shows Owen Springs Reserve as a dot at lower right. The river it is next to is the Hugh. Hermannsburg, our next town, is near middle left edge. Hermannsburg is almost on the Finke River. You can see both Hugh and Finke Rivers cutting through sections of MacDonnell Ranges.
Palm Valley
Palm Valley is within the Finke Gorge National Park southwest of Alice Springs. Palm Valley has a smallish population of Red Cabbage Palms (Livistona mariae). The nearest related species is 850 kilometres away in Katherine NT. The average rainfall for Palm Valley is just 200 mm per year. Small pockets of semi-permanent spring-fed pools allow the unique flora and fauna (desert fish, shield shrimps tadpoles and frogs) to survive.
It had been assumed that the cabbage palms were remnants of a prehistoric time when the climate supported tropical rainforest in what is now the arid inland of Australia. Genetic analysis published in 2012 determined that Livistona mariae at Palm Valley is actually the same species as Livistona rigida from samples collected near Katherine and Mount Isa, both around 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away. It is now thought that aboriginal people brought the palms to here from Mataranka.
Mound Springs
Mound Springs occur around the Western edge of the Great Artesian Basin and represent a natural discharge of Artesian water that was captured many hundreds of kilometers away from rain falling along the Great Dividing Range and New Guinea. This article provides details. Dalhousie is an excellent example of a mound spring.
