Bücher von Ken Evans

Some cats have special abilities and insights which allow them to observe humans, and communicate their observations. This is a story of one such cat, who has enjoyed the company of writers and university professors, and using his remarkable powers of critical judgement, he has commented on the lives of animals and the human condition, in high and low places.

These Notes are a record, of my day-to-day spontaneous thoughts, about some personal experiences of urban-life in Reading Berkshire. Intentionally sociologically and phenomenologically informed, recorded as it were, on the hoof, hence, this is a mixture of raw verbatim responses of a small sample of the town's people, of their experiences of the hustle and bustle of this multi-ethnic population of a particular urban town, with questions on community and integration, with future hopes and expectations, on its way to citydom', and my sociological reflections on the social, political and economic environment.

'Becoming and Unbecoming Bond' is a life-long journey. Involving, learning from real-life experiences, challenging the world (as it is), especially the wise-guys; also taking risks, as well as staying alive. If you can't manage that, then you can't become Bond, or anything! That doesn't mean, I have spent my life looking for trouble, there's enough of that without looking for more. But it does mean, that if it comes looking for you, you have to do a 'Hamlet', "e;To take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them."e;

To be Enchanted, at one time, meant to be 'carried away,' from one's hum-drum existence, to something or somewhere magical, perhaps even spiritual, at least, always more than merely physically pleasant! Of course, this depended on one's beliefs in human souls. Take that away, and enchantment would be as mundane as everything else in modern daily life. No Soul means no possibility of Enchantment.Ken Evans.

'Humble Anecdote of the Invisible' is the final part of my condensed 'Lebenswelt Studies', necessarily autobiographical, and centred mostly on what amounted to a 'mesocosm' -an intermediary spiritual -world, between the macrocosm and microcosm, by artists, thinkers, poets and dancers who founded an experimental community, the 'Hill of Truth' in Ascona, during the early onset of Modernism, and later at Eronos, the intellectual and aesthetic hub founded by Olga Frobe in Ascona in 1933, to discuss the most pressing issues of the times: the nature of body and soul, social norms, religious belief, relationships, value of life, the human spirit, art and creativity; and their eventual making of an alternative spiritual and intellectual history of the twentieth century.

This Book, this Essay began as a response to Peter Berger et al's , 'The Homeless Mind', and their concerns for the influence of Modernism on Societies. My interests and focus is both broader and wider; taking in the intellectual roots of western sociology and the earliest historical roots of the European Home; drawing on; Sociological Biography, Phenomenology, Multiple Realities, DIY techniques, Philosophy, Poetry, Consciousness and Spirituality, also with brief references to my cat! Usually each one of these would stand alone, perhaps as a conventional essay. But to combine them into a single entity, and to maintain a 'flow' between ideas with varied resonances, required something more integrative; in this case derived from the spirit of Husserl's phenomenology, the Epoque, freely applied throughout, not only to signify the tentativeness of personal opinion, but also as an example of multiple realities, and as tributaries of thought and beliefs feeding the great river of civilisation. The "Homely Mind', of the title of this essay is one, more of a certain hope than achievement, as it might possibly be in most cases of all times and all places. So in the meantime, the best we can do is to endeavour to 'keep the home fires burning' as that sign of the 'sacred flame of life'.

I share this account of an apparently simple family event; the sharing of a breakfast meal, celebrating Mothering Sunday; as a way of thinking about how shared experiences, especially of shared meals, which are always more meaningful than they first seem. That Sunday morning, even whilst enjoying the friendly atmosphere and the delicious food, I somehow knew that there was a story to tell; this is but one version. Although my thinking is sociological and methodological, I have tried to tell it as a story, through which I might be able to capture something of the essence of the extraordinary in the ordinariness of a simple shared meal!

The title, 'A Game of Sailors' was taken from a favourite phrase used on the Flight Deck, whilst in action in 1956, perhaps more as a rebellious than amusing statement; but to me it summed up the jaunty spirit of the men who flew the planes and those who kept them flying. But this story is also about 'growing up', and how even the smallest and strangest experiences can leave their mark, and even shape a tiny bit of history! Suez was the last real engagement by a Royal Navy Fleet, and Concorde project was the realization of an Aviators dream; and all the other bits and pieces of Service life during the 1950s and 60s, added together, seems now to have been the most exciting time to be living. Certainly the times were a-changing, they changed us, and they changed the world.