There is a permanent page for this post here . Update: I recently attempted an analysis of what the cow hides actually list, which you can view at your own risk on the permanent page.
In 2009 I paid for the National Archives to copy these Lay Subsidy Rolls (tax payments collected on cow hides), because nobody has previously requested this be done, so they were not available. These rolls (rots) may also be relevant to other genealogists, so I am sharing high resolution images of them here. I still have a record of the receipts.
Key
Amounts are usually given in Pounds, Shillings and Pennies
The ‘j’ indicates the last penny of each amount
My all-time favourite film, set during wartime, is 633 Squadron (1964), starring Academy Award Winner Cliff Robertson. You may know him better as Peter Parker’s uncle in Spider Man.
633 Squadron is also one of my favourite movies of all time. The editing is tight and the action is the edge-of-your-seat stuff of legend. Here’s some trivia for you: did you know 633 Squadron was George Lucas’s inspiration for the Death Star attack in Star Wars IV – A New Hope? A great deal of the credit for the film’s taught style and human depth can be attributed to Cliff Robertson, who had enough influence in Hollywood at this time to ask for rewrites of film scripts. Cliff was at the very pinnacle of Hollywood’s acting elite and is still, to my knowledge the only actor to win a Grammy each for film, theatre and advertising. His Oscar for Charly was well-deserved and if you haven’t seen that, PT 109 (where Cliff played John F Kennedy) or 633 Squadron, see them.
Cliff was one of my childhood heroes and I was lucky enough to correspond with with Cliff at the end of his life. Along with many other fans, I always wondered what happened to his character, Roy Grant, at the end of the film. He is badly wounded but we can’t be sure whether he survives or not. After a heated discussion on youtube, I decided to try and contact Cliff to find out. With the help of Stephen Thompson, Cliff’s Press Agent, I was able to write a letter with a set of questions and get these to Cliff. Continue reading “Cliff Robertson Honorary Documentary”→
I had a very short correspondence with Cliff at the end of his life, because I was a huge fan of his since I was a child, and I wanted to ask him some questions about my favourite film, 633 Squadron. He was mad about aircraft himself. I found Cliff to be incredibly warm and friendly, and he tried to answer most of my questions. He even asked me over to do a ‘mano a mano’ interview. I would have loved to have gone, but I couldn’t really find the time. I regret this now, because I didn’t know how ill he was. Please help raise some money, so we can honour this outstanding and inspirational man. Click on the link below and find out more:
Each week I am going to be posting updates on my current projects. I am also going to try to post a sneak preview of one of the projects here. Copyright and IPR these days is complex so I will only be posting very short sections and I may have to delete them when the work is published. I make no mistake for any errors or typos: these are going to be first drafts. Below you will find the first sneak preview – from Iron III, provisionally entitled Worlds Like Dust.
Don’t forget the Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate puzzle competition in the post below.
Sneak Preview of Iron III: Worlds Like Dust
If you have read Iron II: Unknown Place, Unknown Universe, you will know the character of A-schian’bakî as the Captain of the Ischian space-battleship Lu-kshîa.
Commander of the Fleet and Commander of Earth, A-schian’bakî was not in a good mood. She left the bridge and as she stepped out of the lift onto the 53rd deck, she kicked a lowly corporal in the hind-legs, sending him sprawling across the biomium floor. This was one of the privileges of rank that she had rarely exercised, but now she found the sadistic pleasure somewhat made up for the loss in battle of her favourite sexual toy. Continue reading “Weekly Updates – Sneak Preview of Iron III”→
I am publishing a short story as I write it – The Jesus Monster exlusively on twitter over the next few days. Tune in and read it here: https://twitter.com/LazloFerran. It won’t be published anywhere else for at least 6 months.
If you’ve watched the popular war movie, you’ve probably asked one of two questions:
Did Cliff Robertson die in 633 Squadron? Did Roy Grant die in 633 Squadron?
Cliff Robertson in 633 Squadron
Well, I asked Cliff Robertson while he was alive, and the answer is in this post!
This post has been copied from the original post on my old blog (now deleted – see Reference Note at end of page). It would be a shame to lose it. Cliff, who played Roy Grant in 633 Squadron, was nice enough to reply by letter to a questionnaire I sent him about 633 Squadron. Below is my original letter. (Please note, Cliff did not answer all questions and here I have left the response blank.)
Note:Cliff Robertson died in 2011, but I have left the post in its original form.
Click ‘Continue reading’ below if you want to skip this section to his answers.
Dear Mr Robertson,
633 Squadron is the film in which I first saw you and made me a fan of yours. Ever since then I have sought out any film with you in it and recently, at last, I managed to see Charly (which I have never seen scheduled in England on TV).
633 Squadron has always been a very popular movie in England: filmed at Bovingdon airfield, it was regularly shown on TV during my childhood and is my favourite film. Today I think the film has entered the national psyche and is even the subject of contemporary adverts. The theme music is one of the best-loved pieces of music here and for myself, I never tire of watching your performance as the laconic Roy Grant. I think, more than any other film (certainly on flying or war), it has come to represent the best, something fundamental, about the British character. Many fans would love to know more about the film and about your part: you only have to look at the posts on youtube alongside excerpts (illegal I am sure) of the movie to see how popular it is, and yet you have been almost silent on it. Please Cliff, would you be so kind as to try and find time to answer the following questions for your fans in England (I cannot speak for Wales, Ireland and Scotland but I am sure they feel the same).
A movie and aviation buff. Continue reading “Questions I asked Cliff Robertson about 633 Squadron in 2010”→
As you may have seen from the comments on my original post, it looks like there is a more direct route to asking Cliff these questions that emailing the webmaster on his site. Steve Thompson contacted me and said he would pass the questions on to Cliff. So after some consultation among us, here are our final questions and the intro that I will send in a pdf letter to Cliff. Continue reading “Questionnaire for Cliff Robertson – final”→
Having watched a long interview with Cliff Robertson – one of my favourite actors, on youtube, I find I still have a lot of questions which it would be nice to hear him answer. He has a huge interest in aircraft and blogs regularly on the subject so I have decided to email him a list of questions. Of course there is only the very slimmest chance he will ever get them as I have to email the webmaster of the site but I think it’s worth a try. If anybody wants to add a question of change one slightly let me know before next Wednesday (20 October). This is what I intend to send in an email. Continue reading “Questionnaire for Cliff Robertson”→
Occult, Sci-fi & Military 