Testament of Youth

"Violets from Plug Street Wood,
Sweet, I send you oversea.
(It is strange they should be blue,
Blue, when his soaked blood was red,
For they grew around his head:
It is strange they should be blue.)

Think what they have meant to me - 
Life and hope and Love and You
(and you did not see them grow
Where his mangled body lay
Hiding horrors from the day;
Sweetest, it was better so.)

Violets from oversea,
To your dear, far, forgetting land
These I send in memory
Knowing you will understand"

Roland Leighton, Villanelle

La Pace del Silenzio è un lusso che la Guerra non può permettersi: poco importa se il Fronte è lontano quanto basta per sentirsi al sicuro e se la primavera e l'estate soffiano insistenti sulle campagne come se nulla sia cambiato; il vuoto lasciato da chi se ne è andato è un fracasso di rumori assordanti che non vogliono saperne di smettere, un tarlo martellante nella testa e nel cuore che lascia gli occhi rossi di pianto e la voce troppo straziata per gridare, il mare che scroscia sulla riva senza lavare via nulla e il tintinnio degli addobbi natalizi, rimasti ad aspettare la celebrazione di una festa che non sarebbe mai arrivata, lo squillo del telefono che annuncia la catastrofe e il ticchettio dell'orologio, il tempo di una vita che si è fermato senza chiedergli il permesso; il primo fotogramma di Testament of Youth è ancora a nero quando i cannoni annunciano la notizia dell'Armistizio del 1918 ad una folla esultante, poco prima che il lamento della giovane Vera Brittain si consumi in uno sguardo raggelante, arrabbiato e fiero, che punta dritto in camera e a noi tutti.

A scandal in Baftavia

Good British people, 

I love your country so much and I will love it forever, but please help me understand because I don't. I really don't.

I was so thrilled for the BAFTAS last night, but now I'm extremely disappointed: Celebrity Juice? ARE YOU SERIOUS? How could you possibly vote a QUIZ SHOW and not the wonderful Sherlock? You are so lucky, there's so much quality on your TV and you don't have to bear horrible italian fictions all the time! The result of the You Tube Audience Award was ABSURD and UNFAIR, just like some of the BAFTA winners of course: I didn't watch Appropriate adult and I'm sure Mr West gave a great performance, but for me he's just another Jean Dujardin, very good perhaps, but not terrific. 

Benedict was terrific in Sherlock and deserved so much to win, he deserved it since Hawking(2004!) and now it's his 4th nomination: I know he doesn't need an award to prove his talent, but It's enough don't you think? He's always so modest and humble, perhaps one of the best actors and the most human being I've ever seen in a long time(like John would say) and I know I praise him a lot, but he deserves every single praise. I watched the Show just to see him triumph and then I had to look at his sad face, the LEONARDO DI CAPRIO's face(If you watched Golden Globes you know what I mean) and I screamed so high my NOOOOO that everybody woke up at home! Unacceptable. 

We can save at least the supporting Actor Award to Andrew Scott(I thought Watson did a better job, but Andrew is great anyway) and the Special Award for creative writing on television to the "Master", The Magnificent and brilliant Moff, presented by Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith: the ideal crossover, Sherlock and the Doctor together on stage, the best moment of the Ceremony, THE MOMENT.