William Cobbett Podcast Update

I haven't done much on this podcast since I started the project back in June. This is perhaps an exageration. I haven't done anything. Some things just never get off the bottom of the to-do list. One of my problems is that I haven't got to grips with the technology for producing podcasts yet. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cryptic1/408092078/

William Cobbet Rural Rides Podcast

William Cobbet was in many ways the first blogger. He was the son of a farmer but he made his own way in the world first as a soldier then as a radical journalist. He is most famous for his Rural Rides. He would set out on horseback from Kensington. He would record his observations of the state of the countryside. These would be written up and published by Cobbet himself shortly afterwards. It may be because of the immediacy with which they were published. The rides retain a sense of urgency and vigour even after all this time. They are interesting on several levels. There is the picture of an England long vanished but which has echoes of our own time. The language and the names are all familiar. Like today London exerts a huge influence over the south east of England. Like today economic turmoil in the city spills out to have effects elsewhere. But it is also very different. Before the car or even the railway, Cobbett is travelling among the people who live in the country and he talks about the people he meets. A modern day traveller could cover the same ground and not talk to a soul. There is also the politics. Cobbet was a radical reformer with very strong ideas about what was wrong with the world. His prescriptions for what should be done aren't quite as clear. I think we all no someone like that! But the biggest draw is Cobbet's character itself which comes out of every piece of his writing. He is by turns compassionate and emotional about the plight of farm labourers and scathing about the ruling classes. He is full of energy and usually generous. He is pompous and opinionated. He is often just plain wrong. He devotes much energy for instance in proving his theory that the population of England is declining in his time. We know that he was living in one of the periods where the population was growing at its fastest. His contempt for some other reformers smacks of jealousy. But ultimately the rides are about a fellow human being, albeit living in very different times to our own. We get to know him. Sometimes we like him. Sometimes he is infuriating. But he is always compelling and you find yourself returning to his writing time and time again. If only he could have ridden with a Blackberry and uploaded his text directly to blogger.com. That would have been the blog to follow!