Dear Anglophiles: I discovered a songwriter within our midst!  George Peter Block, Jr. has written two songs that I'm thoroughly keen on, and I must share them with you.  He has roots from Kent and Glasgow, and his dedication to his ancestral homeland shines through in his music.  The first song, "Great Britain," is very witty, in a Monty Python kind of way.  The second, "Medieval Song," is a lovely ballad.  I've included the lyrics for those who are inclined to sing along.  Let's give George a big round of applause, I say!

GREAT BRITAIN
Lyrics and music by George Peter Block, Jr.
Performed by William Sherry, Jr. and Sandi Kight

“Great Britain” © George Peter Block, Jr. 2016     
   
We are Great Britain,
Our empire started splittin’,
About two hundred years ago (thanks America),
We are Great Britain,
 Civilization we’ve been pitchin’,
To a world so full of woe (how bout India?),
We live in a world of irony,
Stop during a war to have a cup of tea,
Our soccer fans go on a deadly spree,
While we sing God Save The Queen,
We are Great Britain,
With Churchill the whole world’s smitten,
Gilbert and Sullivan put on a great show (HMS Pinafore),
We are Great Britain,
Our Spitfires sure were spittin’,
Hot lead at our Nazi Luftwaffe foes (Royal Air Force Planes),
Notorious for our absurdities,
Never too many sincere apologies,
Love to say “bloody,” “awful,” “rubbish” constantly,
Robin Hood hid in Sherwood Forest trees,
We are Great Britain,
 All the plays that Shakespeare’s written,
Stonehenge’s rocks all lined up in a row (Ancient calendar),
We are Great Britain,
And it’s only fittin’,
That we tell of King Arthur’s stories of old (Tales of Camelot),
British Invasion music ruled the 60s and 70s,
Scotland, Ireland, and Wales always want to break free,
The empire sure isn’t what it used to be,
The sun sets upon it quickly,
We are Great Britain,
The prime minister’s always quittin’,
Our politics are something to behold (Still wear powdered wigs),
We are Great Britain,
Our teeth we will be grittin’,
If we get bronze and the French get the gold (so many wars we fought),
Prudish in our sensibilities,
Queen Victoria still has her constituency,
Jane Austin has a lot of devotees,
Fish and chips with vinegar, if you please,
We are Great Britain.

Medieval Song
Lyrics by George Peter Block, Jr.
Performed by William Sherry, Jr. and Sandi Kight

“Medieval Song” © George Peter Block, Jr. 2016       Capo 5
 
If I had a kingdom,
Would you be my lady?
If I had a castle,
Would you sit upon my throne?
If I had an army,
Would you lead them into Hades?
If I died in battle,
Would you make my house your own?
Make with me a fable,
That stands the test off time,
Gather at my table,
A chalice filled with wine,
Dance if you are able,
In my court of pantomime,
In long robes made of sable,
And linen oh so fine,
If I were a knight,
Would you be my lady?
If I had a court,
Would you set my sword in stone?
If my reign was long,
Can you serve until we’re eighty?
Will you go to war with me,
As the bagpipes drone?
Our fortress will have gables,
And ramparts with thick vines,
A drawbridge with strong cables,
A sanctuary divine,
Chant the ancient playbills,
Sonnets that do rhyme,
Boats for all things Naval,
Cast off the mooring lines,      
If I had a kingdom,
Would you be my lady?

SONGWRITER'S BIO

George Peter Block, Jr. is a (self-described) neurotic American songwriter who has wallowed away in anonymity and obscurity his entire life.

An enthusiastic Anglophile, his maternal grandfather, Bertrand Goodwin, was from Kent, England, and served in the English army in World War War I. His maternal grandmother, Lillian Russell, hailed from Glasgow, Scotland. Both of his maternal grandparents immigrated to Canada and then to Detroit.

Block says he is not as passionate about his paternal German ancestry.

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Dear Zella,

My last novel MRS QUEEN TAKES THE TRAIN was a surprise (to me) bestseller. The Weinstein Company optioned it for a movie.  As my background has been in academic history and biography, I never really imagined I could write a novel.  I'm used to spending years in the archives and writing a footnote to back up every fact.  How could I possibly make things up and publish a fiction?  Historians have had their heads cut off for less.

I suppose the lesson is: Just give it a try.

To be honest, too, there was a lot of background research in MRS QUEEN that I acquired without even trying to.  When I'd written books on Queen Victoria's courtiers, I'd spent time at Windsor Castle in the archives.  I'd caught distant glimpses of how the current Queen lives.  I knew someone who lived on a far corner of the Balmoral estate.  I'd met people who worked for her.  It wasn't so hard to imagine what the lives of those courtiers would be like beyond their 9 to 5 routines.

My new book has similar origins.  I've never met Prince Harry, but I do know some people who were at school with him.  I've never been to Afghanistan, but I had students who were deployed to Iraq and I've known others who served near Kabul.  I once went to a Buckingham Palace Christmas party, courtesy of one of the archivists at Windsor.  Harry's mother was there.  She had on a long red dress and red satin shoes with block heels.  She wasn't only beautiful.  She shimmered.  I was a Diana skeptic up to that point.  That night, however, I began to see how her charm consisted of a naturalness and an accessibility that many others of the royal family didn't have.  Part of the beginning of PRINCE HARRY BOY TO MAN was wondering what it would be like to have someone like that in your life and then to lose her.

I was also interested in Harry's first real deployment to Afghanistan in 2007.  He was sent home after a few weeks when some of the media blew his cover.  That much is true.  But then for this novel, I threw in his former nanny secretly stowing herself away on his plane to Kabul and a brother officer named Mustafa sitting beside him on the plane.  I imagined a reporter prowling around his camp looking for a scoop.  I wrote in a commanding officer who's no fan of the monarchy.  That's how the fiction began this time around.

The story is a lighthearted account of a young man's coming of age, but there are darker things underneath, including the Taliban's destruction of treasured Afghan art, and Harry's having to cope with buried trauma from his childhood.  Our hero does manage to survive all this, and the promise of the book is to suggest ways in which we all open new horizons for ourselves by engaging with things in our past that we'd rather not remember.

The book will be published, both as ebook and paperback, on June 22nd.  I very much hope that your Anglophile readers will take a look.

With all best wishes,

Bill

AUTHOR BIO

,William Kuhn is a novelist, biographer, historian, scribbler, and dabbler.  Before Mrs Queen Takes the Train he wrote a biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis called Reading Jackie.  It tells the story of her life through the pages of the hundred books she edited at Viking and Doubleday.  He has also written on the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in The Politics of Pleasure.  His book on a funny couple who lived in Windsor Castle, Henry & Mary Ponsonby:  Life at the Court of Queen Victoria, was a BBC Radio Four Book of the Week.  He wears antique military jackets around the house when no one is watching.  He lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and whenever he can, in London too.  For more, including audio files, stories, and pictures, please go to http://www.williamkuhn.com or follow him on Twitter @kuhnwilliam.

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