(Colchester, the oldest known settlement in England)
In 1980, I finished my Master’s degree in Linguistics, specializing in the “Theory and Practice of Literary Translation”. My wonderful supervisor at the University of Essex was Professor Terry and my dissertation was a translation of Jaroslav Hašek’s “Commandant of the Town of Bugulma” - with notes on the translation and discussion of the particular difficulties presented by Hašek’s strangely idiosyncratic language.
[As an aside, I cannot recommend reading Hašek’s “Good Soldier Švejk” highly enough. It’s a Czech classic: something between “Catch-22” and “Don Quixote”]
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University of Essex is situated in the town of Colchester, which I was told was the oldest settlement in England. I can attest that I saw no Vikings or much of the town itself but I was well acquainted with its railway station where I ate many a stale scone and drank many a cup of lukewarm dish water a.k.a. “train station tea” The Master’s program required only two days a week of attendance; the rest of the time was spent on research and independent study. Unlike North American institutes of higher learning (I found out later), British universities at the time actually treated students like adults. They figured (correctly) that anyone willing and able to pay the large tuition fee will be motivated enough to do the work.
I lived in Muswell Hill in North London. On lecture days, I’d be out of the house at 7 and walk to the underground (subway) station. I took the Northern Line (packed, smelly and highly claustrophobic) down to King’s Cross, then transfer to the Circle Line which took me to Liverpool Street station. From there it was an hour’s train ride to Colchester, then wait in freezing drizzle for a bus to the campus. About 2.5 hours. Then the same trek back plus the stale scones, of course. And I LOVED THE WHOLE THING. I loved living in London, I loved the tube, I loved the buses, the trains, the red phone booths, the street fashion of the late 70’s, the music. I saw The Police in a medium-size club before “Message in a Bottle” made them an international sensation…they mingled with the crowd and sipped beer during the intermission, then climbed on stage and played “Roxanne” and the room went wild!
Aside from completing my Master’s, I was also enrolled as a part-time student of classical guitar at the Guildhall School of music in London, a stone’s throw from St. Paul’s cathedral. My favorite pastime at Guildhall was getting together with Dominic Miller in the student lounge and jam. We played a lot of Stevie Wonder tunes, I remember. He taught me all the right chords to “Golden Lady” and I think I taught him “All In Love Is Fair”. Dominic later became - and still is - Sting’s lead guitar player. Pretty cool!
I drifted on to Toronto, where I spent years raising my daughters and deciding what I wanted to do when I grew up. I did a bunch of translating but ultimately knew I had to devote myself to music. I’ll tell you all about it in my next Substack piece. Now it’s almost midnight. Time for a decaf tea and a cookie
Love the flashbacks!
I love the Brits and their fascinating history. Winston Churchill wrote a book, "The History Of England" extensively researching English history from William the Conqueror to post WW2. I personally want to visit England their museums, historical sights, and beautiful gardens. Your article on London was everything I would expect from a young, intelligent, and musically talented college student. Life is not wasted on the youth in my humble opinion