On Monday January 17th I commenced the 1000 MySpace and Google writing since the Spring of 2007 and the 2000 piece of immediately published writing since 2005, after the 1000 piece on the now defunct AOL site. The intention is to re read the Alexandrian Quartet by Lawrence Durrell: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea, first introduced to me by a female friend who gifted me Balthazar and encouraged me to take up the offer of a place at Ruskin College, Oxford, in preference to a paid organiser position with the London Region Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at a time in my life when I was ill equipped to undertake either. The year was 1961, fifty years ago.
I do not regret the decision made to go to Ruskin as it led to much wonder and sense of achievement in my life but the understanding of academic thoroughness, factual accuracy and search for human understanding which developed as a consequence contributed to stopping in its tracks my previous desire to become a writer of fiction and drama. I had completed a play which was sent to the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, then at the forefront of producing contemporary drama. In rejecting the play for immediate production the covering letter said that the readers had been interested in the writing and wanted to see what else I had written. I had not and it was two decades before commencing a work of fiction and three decades before a work was completed and sent for appraisal.
I say contributed to stopping the full time creative endeavours because the main reason why I stopped trying to write fiction was the quality of the writing of Durrell, and so many other writers experienced over the half a century of life that has followed, compared to my own. That remains my predicament, a great deal I want to say and still lacking the vocabulary and depth of emotional creative expression to produce at level others have attained. It is a wise man who knows his limitations and fool who continues regardless.
What I intend to do now is to commence to write once more my story, leaving open the question of attempting publication during my remaining self conscious awareness years until the work is completed to my satisfaction. Doing so will require greater self discipline than of recent months. I will continue rising to swim 750 meters before breakfast. Over the past two days it has been a struggle and today I am tempted to remain and complete this writing such is sense of occasion that I feel.
On Sunday nights I stayed up last night to watch the third episode of Zen which ended at 10.30. I was in bed and asleep soon after. I remember waking for a second time about 2.30 am and then not able to sleep checking the time about 3am and deciding that I would remaining in bed, then sleeping and waking once more at 6.23 between 1.45 and 45 minutes later than usual. I got up, washed and dressed intent on remaining and completing the writing 1999 before settling to reread Justine and write this.
I chastised myself and hastily changed for the swim, motoring the seven miles to be in the pool before seven. There were two of the 6am club already in the Jacuzzi and I was able to complete the swim without having to take account of the speed and direction of anyone else. I briefly looked at the headlines in the Times and Daily Telegraph, reading the obituary for that beautiful creature and splendid actress Susannah York. She was born two months before me in 1939, although I cannot see her in mind as old or wracked with cancer. I saw all her early films over 20 but lost touch with her subsequent work. She epitomised the free spirit of the sixties, unsurprising for someone one who as an adolescent was expelled from school for undertaking a naked midnight swim.
She was someone who I believe would fit well into the Alexandrian Quartet. This is my fancy
On return I was not content with a breakfast of cereal and coffee, adding a bacon roll and then completed the writing of 1999 which I then published. I watched the Golden Globes award show using the fast forward button to see if Colin Firth won the Best Actor and he did and then had lunch with the salad prepared yesterday and a mushroom soup. After watching the end of the Antiques show, I saw the extended highlights of the Sunderland and Newcastle game noting that Sunderland had performed better than the radio commentary suggested.
The day was mild and having left the car in a side road in order to place in the back lane the two wheelie bin, I decided to clear the hanging baskets and table, floor and window cill containers of the deaf flowers, noting that the bulbs were shooting up as I did so. I returned the bins to their usual places and then the car. It was time work but I could not resist watching an HD recording of the Metropolitan Opera production of La Boheme. I did see in theatre relay two productions in the past two years, the other from the Royal Opera House, London.
Midway during the viewing I enjoyed four crackers with apricot and walnut chutney and commenced to write feeling the sense of occasion. Darkness has enveloped. It is 5 pm. I put the BBC Four sessions recording with Bruce Springsteen. It was then that I commenced to read and quickly put the books down again when coming across the following passage “For us artists there waits the joyous compromise through art with all that is wounded or defeated us in daily life; in this way, not to evade destiny, as ordinary people we try and do, but to fulfil it in its true potential-the imagination.”
As with all such passages without the addition of the authors intent and precise meaning, it is open to different interpretation and can be consider a piece of artwork in itself for it has an emotional as well as an intellectual resonance with me.
I admit that not everything that I now do I find joyous or healing of all the wounds and defeats experience in my 71 and more years, but for me expresses the drive which I felt was always my destiny, to create something, to be something that greater that the beginning to the end of my self awareness and which would have a continuing impact, albeit on the individual if not the mass. That was so for the greater part of my being, but now as I am likely to be in the final chapter of my self conscious experience, all I seek is to satisfy me over what I do over each and every 24 hours of possible experience, hoping but without expectation that I will be able to continue until completing the work, if not as originally envisaged, then reaching a point when I can declare that I am satisfied.
It is now Tuesday 18th January at 3.25 I have am yet to take up the first volume of the quartet again. This is because of the arrival of the Spirit Undaunted, The Political Role of George VI by Robert Rhodes James, a modern historian and political writer as well as onetime Conservative Member of Parliament, published in 1998 a year before the author’s death, I fount out about the book, as a consequence of watching the film, The Kings Speech I logged on to Amazon for a copy of the book written by the grandson of speech therapist who had effectively saved the British monarchy by giving the King the confidence to overcome his disability.
On Monday morning I read a piece in a morning newspaper that someone was campaigning among the academy of the Oscars against recognising the film because of the allegation that the King had not supported the creation of the state of Israel. There was a full article in the Telegraph this morning as well as commenting on the reaction to the disgraceful comments of the unfunny Ricky Gervais at the Globe ceremony. Because of this I wanted to establish if my view of the father of the present Monarch was altered. Rather than search the index or try and find text which might deal with issue, I decided to read from the beginning and was soon engrossed, finding it difficult to return to the novel.
Over the period of my lifetime the role of the Monarch has moved from being an Emperor to head of a loose Federation of former colonial territories called the Commonwealth thus indicating the hopes for maintaining good trading relationships and behind the scenes influence of matters of mutual interest. However if what is said in present day media is a gauge on reality the Commonwealth has no meaningful value in today’s world of the United Nations and European Economic Community, and international businesses Federations and International Banking as well as various International cultural and humanitarian government and independent bodies.
But is therefore the Monarch no more than Ceremonial: Representing the UK on one or two Head of State/ visits a year to another nation and well as entertaining one or two visits here for official discussions in private, a joint press conference or communiqué and social visits such as a great dinner at the Buckingham Palace?
There is the annual State opening of Parliament in which the Monarch reads for the government its broad policy ambitions and legislative programme for the coming session of Parliament and the annual address to the nation at Christmas after Top of the Pops and when most families have eaten their festive meal. The Monarch is usually a welcome guest at Sporting and Cultural events, the opening of new buildings, roadways and such like and anniversaries. There are annual fixtures such as Horse racing at Ascot and laying a wreath at the cenotaph. The present head of State spends the working week at Buckingham Palace, the weekends at Windsor, Christmas at Sandringham and three months every year at Balmoral in Northern Scotland. I presume there are permanent or seasonal staff for each established as well as an entourage which travels between establishments.
The Prime Minister visits the Monarch to report and advise on the business of government and the offices of State will keep the Palace informed of all matters of importance. The Monarch not only appoints the Prime Minister and Government Ministers and may have direct contact with them on individual matters but has a grand advisory Council, the Privy Council, comprising of Cabinet Members and Opposition Party Leaders, Church leaders and others who remain standing in her presence. The Monarch is required to put her seal of authority on every new Act of Parliament, official treaties and other documents sent officially by the UK to other Nations.
The Monarch is also head of the armed services who swears allegiance to protect the Monarch and her peoples and head of the Church of England which technically involves the appointment of the Bishops and the Archbishop. She is also responsible for a range of honours in terms appointments as Life peers and minor aristocracy, as Knights and various orders for good and long public and voluntary service, to arts and culture is made twice a year on the birthday of the monarch and to mark the new year. She well send messages of good will to other heads of state at times of celebration and of commiseration and support at times of disaster. She sends a greetings card to everyone in the Commonwealth who reaches the age of 100 years or who celebrates long marriages. More than enough to keep any individual and their partner occupied.
But does that mean that the Monarch has no influence on the Government at home or those abroad on matters of politics, including economics?
The traditional and semi official position because there is no written constitution, was set out just before the Political Reform Acts of the 1830’s by one Waller Bagehot who wrote that the function of the inherited head of state is to advise, to encourage and to warn and then gave his views on the behaviour of recent Monarchs to his time. I have a copy of his writing acquired when I was studying British Constitution at Advanced lever General Certificate of Education which I obtained.
James argues that Walter Bagehot was stating what he thought the situation should be and prefers to use as a frontispiece a quotation of Benjamin Disraeli, “The principles of the English constitution do not contemplate the absence of personal influence on the part of the sovereign, and if they did, the principles of human nature would prevent the fulfilment of such a theory.” The inclusion of this statement confirmed my belief that this would be a book on the reality of what happened rather than the presentation of what the Royal Household and Parliament would like the rest of us to believe was the situation.
I enjoyed my swim on Tuesday morning having the pool to myself for the second day in succession. It had been a very cold night which may explain why I was unable to immediately settle when I woke in the early hours. There was heavy frost on vehicles parked at the roadside overnight and I had to use the hot air system before being able to set off as well as wiping the outside of the windows and windscreen clear. I was hungry on return and in addition to eating the second of 3 for £5 sausage and mash bought before the weekend i enjoyed a bowl of mixed fruit and nut cereal and two cups of coffee, with a lunch of a three egg omelette with chopped salami and a dirt coke on the rocks. Later I also enjoyed a soup and, prawn salad, far more calories overall than is healthy.
On Monday I recorded on the Sky box a 2009 relay of the Tales of Hoffman from the Metropolitan Opera House and watched the first half hour before going to bed. On Tuesday morning I played the recording as background glancing at the screen from time to time to understand the word of what was being sung. I will give the work my undivided attention although it is not a recording I will keep.
Over lunch I thought I would take a peek at the film The Book of Eli which I had debated seeing in cinema when it was released. I am not a fan of post apocalyptic wasteland films, especially those showing the survivors living in primitive anarchy. In this instance there appears to have been a scorching sun burst so that only those well below ground with sufficient food and water were able to survive.
The film appears set in California and is about a super fighting man (Denzil Washington) on a mission, driven to take what he believes is the only copy left of the St James Bible to where it will be appreciated, somewhere in the West. He encounters a young women apparently on her own seeking help, but he literally smells a trap and used a sword knife to slay the five or six men when they come from hiding to demand what he is carrying in backpack.
He stops at a small makeshift town intended to resemble the embryonic towns of the Western where the local warlord (Gary Oldman) thugs to go out in search of a Bible, because he believes this will give him power to create more than one town. The thugs cannot read and only those who are elders have the ability to read from time before the global catastrophe.
Washington has two missions. The first is to recharge his i Pod and the second to find fresh water which he is advised can be made available at a price from the nearby saloon brothel. While the water container is being prepared he encounters one of Oldman’s book search raiding parties who he witnessed killing a male traveller and raping his female companion. They produce books and magazines for Oldman, suggesting that the written text has become a form currency. One then takes offence because Washington shoos away an aggressive cat and within moments there are between half and a dozen dead bodies on the saloon floor. Washington is captured at gunpoint and is asked to join the warlord because of his fighting powers, when he refuses he is given 24 hours, locked in a room but given food and unlimited water. He also offered the daughter of the female concubine of the warlord. She begs to stay in the room although he rejects her offer, because not to do so will result in her mother being hurt.
She then discovers the book which he refuses to show her its contents but recites the 23rd Psalm and before eating hold hands and says a from of grace. The following morning she repeats the grace to her mother within earshot of the warlord who forces the girl to reveal that the book has a cross on its leather cover. He and his men storm into the room where Washington is held to find that he is not there. The guard is shot as a consequence. Washington sets off meantime having retrieved his i pod. He is followed by the girl who wants to join him and she offers to show him where the water is, a cavern Spring on the basis that he will taker her. Admitting that he had not said he agreed to take her he locks her out of the entrance to the roadway so she has to take a different route to follow him.
The warlord sets out in a four vehicle fleet of armoured vehicles and his best men, but returns to the town deciding to set off after sleep. The girl encounters the same trap as Washington but he manages to arrive before she is raped by the surviving two members of the gang. The two then encounter an elderly couple played by English actors Frances Le Tour and Michael Gambon. They accept a cup of tea but sensing the couple have survived through cannibalism make to depart only to see the approach of the Warlord. He says he will let him go if Washington yields the book, and also the girl who is wanted by the second in command. The quartet make a fight with three surviving a rocket attack and then two a machine gun. Washington and the girl are captured and although he gives up the book to save the life of the girl, he is shot and appears to die or is left to die. On the journey back to town the girl escapes killing two henchmen and making off with the vehicle back to where Washington was abandoned. Oldham having acquired the book sets off back to town with the remaining gangman.
The girl finds that although wounded Washington is again on the road going West, they now have a vehicle to continue the travel, getting as far as the middle of Gold Gate bridge festooned with abandoned vehicles, until encountering an impassable gap for a vehicle. They make their way to the shore and take a rowboat to the island of Alcatraz which appears to show signs of a normal environment. There he finds a group led by a curator Malcolm McDowell who has a store of recovered treasures and a printing press. Washington commences to recite the full bible from memory. Back in town the Warlord has difficulty opening he locking clasp but when as assistant does so for him the book is discovered to be in braille. He demands his concubine reads to him but she refuses, laughs at him because he had used his force to get the book and now the saloon is being overrun by the rest of the own.
Back on Altratraz the task of reciting is completed and Washington dies and is buried. The printed book is placed between the Text of Judaism, the Muslim and other faiths. The girl is invited to stay but taking the sword and the i pod she sets off back home, appearing to have become the spirit of Eli.
I do not regret the decision made to go to Ruskin as it led to much wonder and sense of achievement in my life but the understanding of academic thoroughness, factual accuracy and search for human understanding which developed as a consequence contributed to stopping in its tracks my previous desire to become a writer of fiction and drama. I had completed a play which was sent to the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, then at the forefront of producing contemporary drama. In rejecting the play for immediate production the covering letter said that the readers had been interested in the writing and wanted to see what else I had written. I had not and it was two decades before commencing a work of fiction and three decades before a work was completed and sent for appraisal.
I say contributed to stopping the full time creative endeavours because the main reason why I stopped trying to write fiction was the quality of the writing of Durrell, and so many other writers experienced over the half a century of life that has followed, compared to my own. That remains my predicament, a great deal I want to say and still lacking the vocabulary and depth of emotional creative expression to produce at level others have attained. It is a wise man who knows his limitations and fool who continues regardless.
What I intend to do now is to commence to write once more my story, leaving open the question of attempting publication during my remaining self conscious awareness years until the work is completed to my satisfaction. Doing so will require greater self discipline than of recent months. I will continue rising to swim 750 meters before breakfast. Over the past two days it has been a struggle and today I am tempted to remain and complete this writing such is sense of occasion that I feel.
On Sunday nights I stayed up last night to watch the third episode of Zen which ended at 10.30. I was in bed and asleep soon after. I remember waking for a second time about 2.30 am and then not able to sleep checking the time about 3am and deciding that I would remaining in bed, then sleeping and waking once more at 6.23 between 1.45 and 45 minutes later than usual. I got up, washed and dressed intent on remaining and completing the writing 1999 before settling to reread Justine and write this.
I chastised myself and hastily changed for the swim, motoring the seven miles to be in the pool before seven. There were two of the 6am club already in the Jacuzzi and I was able to complete the swim without having to take account of the speed and direction of anyone else. I briefly looked at the headlines in the Times and Daily Telegraph, reading the obituary for that beautiful creature and splendid actress Susannah York. She was born two months before me in 1939, although I cannot see her in mind as old or wracked with cancer. I saw all her early films over 20 but lost touch with her subsequent work. She epitomised the free spirit of the sixties, unsurprising for someone one who as an adolescent was expelled from school for undertaking a naked midnight swim.
She was someone who I believe would fit well into the Alexandrian Quartet. This is my fancy
On return I was not content with a breakfast of cereal and coffee, adding a bacon roll and then completed the writing of 1999 which I then published. I watched the Golden Globes award show using the fast forward button to see if Colin Firth won the Best Actor and he did and then had lunch with the salad prepared yesterday and a mushroom soup. After watching the end of the Antiques show, I saw the extended highlights of the Sunderland and Newcastle game noting that Sunderland had performed better than the radio commentary suggested.
The day was mild and having left the car in a side road in order to place in the back lane the two wheelie bin, I decided to clear the hanging baskets and table, floor and window cill containers of the deaf flowers, noting that the bulbs were shooting up as I did so. I returned the bins to their usual places and then the car. It was time work but I could not resist watching an HD recording of the Metropolitan Opera production of La Boheme. I did see in theatre relay two productions in the past two years, the other from the Royal Opera House, London.
Midway during the viewing I enjoyed four crackers with apricot and walnut chutney and commenced to write feeling the sense of occasion. Darkness has enveloped. It is 5 pm. I put the BBC Four sessions recording with Bruce Springsteen. It was then that I commenced to read and quickly put the books down again when coming across the following passage “For us artists there waits the joyous compromise through art with all that is wounded or defeated us in daily life; in this way, not to evade destiny, as ordinary people we try and do, but to fulfil it in its true potential-the imagination.”
As with all such passages without the addition of the authors intent and precise meaning, it is open to different interpretation and can be consider a piece of artwork in itself for it has an emotional as well as an intellectual resonance with me.
I admit that not everything that I now do I find joyous or healing of all the wounds and defeats experience in my 71 and more years, but for me expresses the drive which I felt was always my destiny, to create something, to be something that greater that the beginning to the end of my self awareness and which would have a continuing impact, albeit on the individual if not the mass. That was so for the greater part of my being, but now as I am likely to be in the final chapter of my self conscious experience, all I seek is to satisfy me over what I do over each and every 24 hours of possible experience, hoping but without expectation that I will be able to continue until completing the work, if not as originally envisaged, then reaching a point when I can declare that I am satisfied.
It is now Tuesday 18th January at 3.25 I have am yet to take up the first volume of the quartet again. This is because of the arrival of the Spirit Undaunted, The Political Role of George VI by Robert Rhodes James, a modern historian and political writer as well as onetime Conservative Member of Parliament, published in 1998 a year before the author’s death, I fount out about the book, as a consequence of watching the film, The Kings Speech I logged on to Amazon for a copy of the book written by the grandson of speech therapist who had effectively saved the British monarchy by giving the King the confidence to overcome his disability.
On Monday morning I read a piece in a morning newspaper that someone was campaigning among the academy of the Oscars against recognising the film because of the allegation that the King had not supported the creation of the state of Israel. There was a full article in the Telegraph this morning as well as commenting on the reaction to the disgraceful comments of the unfunny Ricky Gervais at the Globe ceremony. Because of this I wanted to establish if my view of the father of the present Monarch was altered. Rather than search the index or try and find text which might deal with issue, I decided to read from the beginning and was soon engrossed, finding it difficult to return to the novel.
Over the period of my lifetime the role of the Monarch has moved from being an Emperor to head of a loose Federation of former colonial territories called the Commonwealth thus indicating the hopes for maintaining good trading relationships and behind the scenes influence of matters of mutual interest. However if what is said in present day media is a gauge on reality the Commonwealth has no meaningful value in today’s world of the United Nations and European Economic Community, and international businesses Federations and International Banking as well as various International cultural and humanitarian government and independent bodies.
But is therefore the Monarch no more than Ceremonial: Representing the UK on one or two Head of State/ visits a year to another nation and well as entertaining one or two visits here for official discussions in private, a joint press conference or communiqué and social visits such as a great dinner at the Buckingham Palace?
There is the annual State opening of Parliament in which the Monarch reads for the government its broad policy ambitions and legislative programme for the coming session of Parliament and the annual address to the nation at Christmas after Top of the Pops and when most families have eaten their festive meal. The Monarch is usually a welcome guest at Sporting and Cultural events, the opening of new buildings, roadways and such like and anniversaries. There are annual fixtures such as Horse racing at Ascot and laying a wreath at the cenotaph. The present head of State spends the working week at Buckingham Palace, the weekends at Windsor, Christmas at Sandringham and three months every year at Balmoral in Northern Scotland. I presume there are permanent or seasonal staff for each established as well as an entourage which travels between establishments.
The Prime Minister visits the Monarch to report and advise on the business of government and the offices of State will keep the Palace informed of all matters of importance. The Monarch not only appoints the Prime Minister and Government Ministers and may have direct contact with them on individual matters but has a grand advisory Council, the Privy Council, comprising of Cabinet Members and Opposition Party Leaders, Church leaders and others who remain standing in her presence. The Monarch is required to put her seal of authority on every new Act of Parliament, official treaties and other documents sent officially by the UK to other Nations.
The Monarch is also head of the armed services who swears allegiance to protect the Monarch and her peoples and head of the Church of England which technically involves the appointment of the Bishops and the Archbishop. She is also responsible for a range of honours in terms appointments as Life peers and minor aristocracy, as Knights and various orders for good and long public and voluntary service, to arts and culture is made twice a year on the birthday of the monarch and to mark the new year. She well send messages of good will to other heads of state at times of celebration and of commiseration and support at times of disaster. She sends a greetings card to everyone in the Commonwealth who reaches the age of 100 years or who celebrates long marriages. More than enough to keep any individual and their partner occupied.
But does that mean that the Monarch has no influence on the Government at home or those abroad on matters of politics, including economics?
The traditional and semi official position because there is no written constitution, was set out just before the Political Reform Acts of the 1830’s by one Waller Bagehot who wrote that the function of the inherited head of state is to advise, to encourage and to warn and then gave his views on the behaviour of recent Monarchs to his time. I have a copy of his writing acquired when I was studying British Constitution at Advanced lever General Certificate of Education which I obtained.
James argues that Walter Bagehot was stating what he thought the situation should be and prefers to use as a frontispiece a quotation of Benjamin Disraeli, “The principles of the English constitution do not contemplate the absence of personal influence on the part of the sovereign, and if they did, the principles of human nature would prevent the fulfilment of such a theory.” The inclusion of this statement confirmed my belief that this would be a book on the reality of what happened rather than the presentation of what the Royal Household and Parliament would like the rest of us to believe was the situation.
I enjoyed my swim on Tuesday morning having the pool to myself for the second day in succession. It had been a very cold night which may explain why I was unable to immediately settle when I woke in the early hours. There was heavy frost on vehicles parked at the roadside overnight and I had to use the hot air system before being able to set off as well as wiping the outside of the windows and windscreen clear. I was hungry on return and in addition to eating the second of 3 for £5 sausage and mash bought before the weekend i enjoyed a bowl of mixed fruit and nut cereal and two cups of coffee, with a lunch of a three egg omelette with chopped salami and a dirt coke on the rocks. Later I also enjoyed a soup and, prawn salad, far more calories overall than is healthy.
On Monday I recorded on the Sky box a 2009 relay of the Tales of Hoffman from the Metropolitan Opera House and watched the first half hour before going to bed. On Tuesday morning I played the recording as background glancing at the screen from time to time to understand the word of what was being sung. I will give the work my undivided attention although it is not a recording I will keep.
Over lunch I thought I would take a peek at the film The Book of Eli which I had debated seeing in cinema when it was released. I am not a fan of post apocalyptic wasteland films, especially those showing the survivors living in primitive anarchy. In this instance there appears to have been a scorching sun burst so that only those well below ground with sufficient food and water were able to survive.
The film appears set in California and is about a super fighting man (Denzil Washington) on a mission, driven to take what he believes is the only copy left of the St James Bible to where it will be appreciated, somewhere in the West. He encounters a young women apparently on her own seeking help, but he literally smells a trap and used a sword knife to slay the five or six men when they come from hiding to demand what he is carrying in backpack.
He stops at a small makeshift town intended to resemble the embryonic towns of the Western where the local warlord (Gary Oldman) thugs to go out in search of a Bible, because he believes this will give him power to create more than one town. The thugs cannot read and only those who are elders have the ability to read from time before the global catastrophe.
Washington has two missions. The first is to recharge his i Pod and the second to find fresh water which he is advised can be made available at a price from the nearby saloon brothel. While the water container is being prepared he encounters one of Oldman’s book search raiding parties who he witnessed killing a male traveller and raping his female companion. They produce books and magazines for Oldman, suggesting that the written text has become a form currency. One then takes offence because Washington shoos away an aggressive cat and within moments there are between half and a dozen dead bodies on the saloon floor. Washington is captured at gunpoint and is asked to join the warlord because of his fighting powers, when he refuses he is given 24 hours, locked in a room but given food and unlimited water. He also offered the daughter of the female concubine of the warlord. She begs to stay in the room although he rejects her offer, because not to do so will result in her mother being hurt.
She then discovers the book which he refuses to show her its contents but recites the 23rd Psalm and before eating hold hands and says a from of grace. The following morning she repeats the grace to her mother within earshot of the warlord who forces the girl to reveal that the book has a cross on its leather cover. He and his men storm into the room where Washington is held to find that he is not there. The guard is shot as a consequence. Washington sets off meantime having retrieved his i pod. He is followed by the girl who wants to join him and she offers to show him where the water is, a cavern Spring on the basis that he will taker her. Admitting that he had not said he agreed to take her he locks her out of the entrance to the roadway so she has to take a different route to follow him.
The warlord sets out in a four vehicle fleet of armoured vehicles and his best men, but returns to the town deciding to set off after sleep. The girl encounters the same trap as Washington but he manages to arrive before she is raped by the surviving two members of the gang. The two then encounter an elderly couple played by English actors Frances Le Tour and Michael Gambon. They accept a cup of tea but sensing the couple have survived through cannibalism make to depart only to see the approach of the Warlord. He says he will let him go if Washington yields the book, and also the girl who is wanted by the second in command. The quartet make a fight with three surviving a rocket attack and then two a machine gun. Washington and the girl are captured and although he gives up the book to save the life of the girl, he is shot and appears to die or is left to die. On the journey back to town the girl escapes killing two henchmen and making off with the vehicle back to where Washington was abandoned. Oldham having acquired the book sets off back to town with the remaining gangman.
The girl finds that although wounded Washington is again on the road going West, they now have a vehicle to continue the travel, getting as far as the middle of Gold Gate bridge festooned with abandoned vehicles, until encountering an impassable gap for a vehicle. They make their way to the shore and take a rowboat to the island of Alcatraz which appears to show signs of a normal environment. There he finds a group led by a curator Malcolm McDowell who has a store of recovered treasures and a printing press. Washington commences to recite the full bible from memory. Back in town the Warlord has difficulty opening he locking clasp but when as assistant does so for him the book is discovered to be in braille. He demands his concubine reads to him but she refuses, laughs at him because he had used his force to get the book and now the saloon is being overrun by the rest of the own.
Back on Altratraz the task of reciting is completed and Washington dies and is buried. The printed book is placed between the Text of Judaism, the Muslim and other faiths. The girl is invited to stay but taking the sword and the i pod she sets off back home, appearing to have become the spirit of Eli.
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