The Angel Mountain Blog

Grahamstown, South Africa.  James Hoole was one of the founding fathers. My mother was born in South Africa in 1906.  This is how it all started......... BOUNCING BACK The extraordinary true story of James and Jane Hoole James Hoole was born in 1798 into a wealthy family living in the Chester area. But when he was 5 years old, in the year 1803, his family was struck by tragedy. A nursemaid took him and his little sister (who was 3 years old) out for a walk in the countryside near their home. She realized that she had forgotten something in the house, and so she ran back to fetch it, telling the children to wait in the lane until she got back to them. When she returned, she found James weeping bitterly, and the little sister gone. All James would say was that a lady in a shawl had taken her away. There was a frantic search, but several days had passed when they at last found the little girl, quite naked and battered and bruised, under a hedge. Afterwards it was concluded t...

An update! After months of hard work, with advice from many people with inside knowledge of the industry (in Hollywood and all points east of there) we have refined the narrative and the project as a whole so that it conforms very closely with what producers and viewers want. All the comments we have received have been positive and creative, and we thank all those who have been so generous with their time! So Steve has started a campaign via LinkedIn designed to draw in potential partners who might wish to help us to bring the project to fruition. Here is his post: We're working hard to get Brian John's Angel Mountain series of books made into a TV series. Just requires one of the big production companies to show some chutzpah and take on an entirely unique and adventurous costume drama. Log Line: A young widow with psychic powers makes a “solemn compact” with a mysterious wizard that she will save a sacred mountain, in exchange for which she has to trust that her traumatised ...

  This great photo of a halo over Carningli was posted on Facebook by Rachel.  Well worth sharing!

This is a fascinating description from Jane Tranter (who is now at Bad Wolf) on the process of creating "Bleak House" -- in the 2005 adaptation by Andrew Davies. It's a brilliant series, written by a professional screenwriter at the top of his game.  By the way, the show is still available on BBC iPlayer............  http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/bleakhouse/behindthescenes/production_diary_paginated_feature.shtml It's also available for streaming online -- all 15 episodes. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074s1f

Here is a famous Rowlandson cartoon of Regency dancers having fun.  I love it - it's so full of movement and good cheer!  

Here is the Hen Galan video made by Annemarie Terblanche, duly embedded.  Enjoy!

It was great to see the three-part drama called "The Pembrokeshire Murders" on ITV over the past three evenings.  And good to see that it had a very positive response from viewers, in spite of press reviews that were somewhat mixed.  It was a difficult thing to pull off -- a police procedural series rather than a crime drama.  We knew the killer from the beginning, and there were few opportunities for action sequences or even for moments of high drama -- so the pace was deliberately somewhat ponderous and the tension did lapse now and then.  But it was a pleasure to see a full cast of Welsh actors -- all filling their roles brilliantly.  Keith Allen -- as the murderer John Cooper -- stole the show with a bravado display of terrifying intensity, but Luke Evans was a revelation too, playing the lead role in such an understated way that one longed for him just to lose his rag every now and then, just to show that he was human. The storyline was a bit too formulaic ...

  This is a little video made by Annemarie Terblanche during a visit to Cwm Gwaun in January 2020.  I was happy to do the voice-over for her....... https://fb.watch/2-LDKy7xHB /

    This is a very pretty little tor not far from Bedd Morris

Here is my little compendium of crags and tors on Carningli and Dinas Mountain.  Enjoy!!  https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-tors-of-carningli-and-mynydd-dinas.html

One has to share this fabulous photo which Emma Joanne Lee placed on Facebook the other day -- the full moon surrounded by a rainbow halo.  I saw it too, but my photo was pathetic -- Emma must have a good camera on which she can do long exposures on a zoom shot.  She assures us that she has not manipulated the photo in any way, and having seen it myself, I believe her. This is a very rare phenomenon, and as far as I can gather it needs cold weather, ice crystals in the clouds, thin cloud cover and bright light from the moon........ Anyway, in the bad old days something like this would have been seen as an omen of things to come.  Bad things or good things?  We must just wait and see........