By chance, I was the first in the queue for manuscripts on November 6th., the day the British Library closed down all services apart from its café and ordering books published before 1972. I was hoping to be first in the queue tomorrow when some level of service is set to resume, but can’t make it.

The article below is a good summary of the issues: the strangeness that so little attention has been paid to a Russian cyber attack on a major national institution, including the theft and publication of confidential information; and the tendency, as probably was inevitable in the current climate of disinformation, for the British Library itself not to have made clear at once the full gravity of the situation, somehow suggesting that it remained open, in spite of its core functions having been totally shut down.

I have some sympathy for the hard-pressed staff, but it would be interesting to know what their disaster plan recommended and it doesn’t seem particularly sensible to have kept the staff in the dark, not to mention readers.

https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/british-library-cyber-hack-rhysida-ransomware-tom-holland-b1131623.html

We went to Saltburn last night. It was packed. I’m afraid I enjoyed it very much – a cross between The Go-Between and The Draughtsman’s Contract, but much more gothic than either, more decadent, and more over-the-top. I particularly admired the way that Drayton House was used for much of the film, an appropriately ripe set of English baroque interiors, especially brilliant in the scene of Oliver’s arrival at the front door, but also in the many scenes of the garden with statuary by John Nost playing a prominent part in the background.

It’s always a treat to visit Llanfairfechan, Herbert North’s model village high above the sea half way between Bangor and Conway. He built Wern Isaf in 1900, having just got married and worked for Lutyens. He began to build houses on Park Road in 1899.

Bolnhurst was one of the first, slightly more mannered than his later style became:-

The later ones are a bit more angular, part- Voysey, but independent-minded and well preserved, a flexible language:-

Two lovely ones at the top of the hill:-

Readers of my blog will know that we’re very keen on St. Baglan’s, Llanfaglan, the church where Lord Snowdon is buried – even in spite of the fact that the gate is almost always locked except once when there was a funeral.

It is in the middle of a remote field on the coast beyond Caernarvon:-

The estuary beside it is exceptionally beautiful:-