h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have just checked your personal page and notice that you seem to have been prodigious in producing entries, although none appear to be what is known as "approved entries". Is that what you meant by not having your work published ... the work in your entries list not being approved and "published" in the H2G2 guide? I had imagined you had written books and tried to get them published externally (Elsevier, Wiley & Smith, Penguin etc). It seems to me that there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to get your entries approved and published in the H2G2 ... I haven't had a look at your entries ... but there is no doubting your expertise on such matters.

Have you submitted any of your entries to the guide? Checking a few of your early entries I see no evidence that any have been submitted for inclusion in the guide & discussed accordingly.

Hi Stone Aart,

Thanks for your interest..

I obviously started with conventional publishers.. the stock responses have been that my work looks very interesting ( even an "impressive achievement) but that there is no market for ideas, or my work does not fit their portfolio, or they could not find anyone in their editorial team who felt competent enough to handle writing of such universality- that in any case would not fit into any of the existing "book categories"...

One frustration is that I see on French TV people being regularly interviewed, who have just published this kind of work: but then, as Bermard Henri Levy explained, for a century and more up to the 1990s "intellectuals" had played a key role in French life- and at the end of his own treatment of "The Paths of Liberty" he bemoaned the decline in their role and status.as "Socialism" and "Communism" seemed to be failed concepts. Recent crises in Capitalism, however, have re-opened debates- and of course brought the Socialists back into power, dedicated to forward thinking and reasoned idealism even utopianism.

I did an submit an early piece on h2g2 to Peer Review. But was told that it was not really suitable for consideration as a Guide Entry, but perhaps should be submitted to the h2g2 University as a doctoral thesis.. I did make such a submission, but nothing happened.

And possibly the next time I thought I might try Peer Review my style of writing was condemned as being too academic for this site, where it seems that one requisite is that contributors should express themselves "normally". As far as I am concerned this is my normal form of expression when I am trying to express myself clearly in prose.

But the whole point of my thinking, research and self-expression is to be thought provoking, original and 'dialectic', since I believe that we have to shift from our present positions in order to be able to see "The Way Ahead". And from what I have seen of selected Guide Entries on h2g2 the spirit is something like a throwback to those Victorian attempts to publish "useful knowledge"- solid facts that can be used to construct in that brick-building style that was so typical of the Victorian era.. Brick-building being perhaps something of a dumbed down and mass-production way of building, at least to someone like me who was born and grew up in Oxford. After a few years of living in Lambeth I became aware of a great subliminal sense of hungering after contact with solid stone.

Cass

I have bookmarked an article which seems to be the first one that you proffered to peer review which I'll look at later. At some stage you have to accept that you have to adapt to the "house" or "journal" format if you want to get published (unless you go for self publication). These formats are usually well justified and arise from knowledge & experience of the editor of their readership and what gets read and what doesn't get read.

Once you start publishing & building up a publishing reputation then you can throw in opinion pieces etc. Opinion pieces is what you find in Sunday newspapers etc. Your writing prodigiousness should make it easy for you for example to writing short self contained articles every week to a Sunday newspaper.

Hi Cass, I was wondering - how would you describe your writing style?

... and was it something you developed at University & stuck to ... or were you writing & developing your writing style during your teaching years ... or was it something developed afterwards (post-teaching).

On a separate matter would you be prepared to change your writing style ... or do you have a number of writing styles that you could employ - cut the coat (written work) according to the cloth (publication guidelines) so to speak.

On a another separate matter: would it interest you writing on the subject of Teaching Methodology in the Classroom & its Effectiveness.

Hi Stone Aart

Continued thanks for your interest..

I think that an important part of "my problem" is that- as you have inferred- I have never really been prepared to work hard at getting published because in many ways what interests me most is the "thought adventure" that I set out upon sixty years ago- in a sense of reaction and alienation from the world as it is, and to some extent 37 years of schoolteaching allowed me to share, explore and develop my ideas and understanding through working with young minds the most interesting of which were only too inclined to look at this world and think that they would like it to be different when they grew up and had adult responsibilities and powers. So this has not really been a lonely quest and for my working life I was not actually a "Hermit" like Jeremy Bentham but actually embedded within the most happening place in the world- London- where I found that I did not have to go around the world because the world came to me. But I did hear recently (on BBC Radio 4 while in France) that people have now realized that only about one third of the writing of Jeremy Bentham has ever been published: and the term "thought-adventure" is one that I have borrowed from D.H.Lawrence with whom I have always felt some general sense affinity- as someone with working class roots who has climbed the educational and intellectual ladder, and married an alien, (even both teaching in Croydon at one time)- and Lawrence faced the banning of his books and his works of art, until "his time came" over 30 years after his death.

You may also have heard that J.D. Salinger , whose novels came to be appreciated around the same time, before he himself became a hermit- fed up with the whole business of fame, celebrity and life as a 'great author'- continued writing during the next 50 years and has left permission to the executors of his Will to publish five new novels. Of course Franz Kafka did not publish during his life and left orders that all of his manuscripts should be destroyed after his death.

But I did mention my "prose writing" because in many ways I was born to make music- and my songwriting uses a more poetic artistic- and generally accessible langauge. However, this intellectual challenge to try to explain the state of the world as it is, and to find a better way ahead, in many ways pushed my music aside.

Hence Mark Knopler of Dire Straits did not really understand when we knew each other back in "South London" when he called me a "Sultan" and eventually asked me whether he could put me in a song as "Harry" -- In terms of both my prose writing and my song-writing it has been a case of "Harry does not mind if he does not make the fancy scene. He's got a daytime job and he's doing alright". I got offers to join bands etc, but was not prepared to just give the audience what they wanted to hear: and I was very much aware that my music too was 'work in progress'... Moreover I have never been prepared to make the sacrifices of my family and professional life demanded by "the system"- the prime duty of adults to truly care for children.

But I have been encouraged by the fact that many young people have got beyond Glam Rock and Punk and Protest and have a keen interest in our Sixties music that reflected our young dreams of making a better world. The time may be right before too long.

Cass

Hi Stone Aart,

I think that my writing style might be called "old-fashioned". But another thing I heard a couple of years ago on Radio 4 in France was the crisis in the EU over the lack of translators that are so essential to the business of the assemblies. And that lack applies to English speakers who try to translate foreign tongues into English..

In "The Origins of English Society" Harold Perkin explains how a "standard English" developed by the emerging Middle Class was forced upon the ruling elites of Britain because it was so much more functional and powerful as a form of global communication. I once saw an interview in France with Vladimir Nabokov, who was trilingual, and was asked why he wrote in English and not in Russian nor French, and he said that it was because standard English was so much more flexible, less constrained by silly customs and formulae that were relics of the feudal "Old Regimes" ( and of course in modernizing Russia of the Nineteenth Century "the toffs" all conversed in French, only using Russian in order to keep the peasants in their places).. Chief Luthuli in "Let My People Go" (1961) as a teacher and lecturer in education, as well as the leader of the ANC- opposed the Bantu Education Acts which forced black people to be educated in their own languages and not English.. English he argued gave access to the wealth of the global Civilization, and empowered.

But no longer. We no longer really believe in the story of Human Civilization. Mathematics has become the elite and ruling language of the world, and English has become essentially a leisure language and a way to manipulate the masses and keep them if not happy, at least content to allow the mathematicians and scientists to "rule the world".

So- to get back to the EU- what they now find is that English graduates know the language of leisure not the language that conveys the power to change the world, that is the main language being used in political circles. I believe in personal empowerment- and when it is a question of changing the world or people's perception of it- I believe in using the kind of language that was used to forge the world that we live in..

But, as you may note from my personal statement, on a previous BBC website - I was told that reading my posts was like being run over by a Juggernaut: And it is true that- not unlike Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler- and the Sixties music scene generally- I have had a long struggle with the seductions of loudness and just letting my emotions blast out.

Cass

Hi Stone Aart

Just caught up with the Teaching Metholology question.. In fact my only published writing was a couple of articles in the ILEA Contact magazine over 30 years ago. The first one entitled "Partners" provided a theoterical and practical basis to address the practical problems of my current school- and the need for a really new philosophy of partnership between teachers, parents and pupils all working in common cause. Predated Tony Blair and the New Labour idea of all being "stakeholders". The second was more radical/revolutionary "Should Educated Be Useless"- but it was a reflection on the current trend towards a "one curriculum fits all" approach that really put a primacy on book-learning and developing a purely cerebral attitude to knowledge, which really just "paid off" for the top 50% at most, who were then recruited to better paid jobs.. But this was at the neglect of the kind of practical, applied and "In the hands" knowledge of people like my father- part of a long line of hands-on largely self-taught "working class" inventors of the kind that were so crucial to the industrial revolution- as has now been realized with a return to old-fashioned things like apprenticeships.

As I wrote to David Cameron many years ago what we need from the experience of the Second World War is a return to the spirit of "make do and mend", which harnessed that tradition of popular invention and re-cyling in an age when wasting resources through "The squander bug" was seen as almost criminal and treasonable. I thought that it was unfortunate that - though I had been involved in some correspondence with his office for some time- he chose rather to call for "An Age of Austerity"- the spirit of top-down- ( and Nanny) State of the post-war period. As I wrote in reaction to that, I felt that his friends and associates had allowed him back into politics too early after the tragic death of his son- it must have been an austere and grim age for those close to him, but it did tend to bring forward a grim and depressing image, which has really hampered the message that should have been a Churchillian one of summoning up a collective willingness to shed blood, sweat and tears in order to overcome the challenge of the hour.

Cass

Were the articles you had published in Contact different in writing style to those in your "entries" section here in h2g2? Those ILEA articles you mentioned seem more specific & applied: ... one on forming partnerships (teachers, staff, students - the stakeholder concept) & the other considering & critiquing the philosophy behind a curriculum focusing on books & theory rather than practice (note that it's cheaper to focus on theory than to develop practical skills). It seems these were ignored by the policy makers but found to be justified in time ... I think it is now recognised the importance of re-introducing practical & vocational skills back into curricula (although jobs in manufacturing have mainly gone overseas). I wonder have you considered trying to get involved in so called think tanks ... or maybe getting involved in politics ...

I'm going to be away for a few days from tomorrow afternoon & incommunicado.

Hi Stone Aart,

Well they were aimed at a specific sector.. Actually some of my first h2g2 entries were about a longer standing writing obsession- English Rugby. In the late Seventies (perhaps when i was writing those articles) I decided to put down on paper some of my thoughts about the English Rugby team.. To my surprise I got a personal reply from the Chairman of Selectors, who said that he had passed my letter around the whole committee, who thought that I had summed up and analysed the matter as well as anyone could have done. It was the beginning of a long correspondence over the years, that culminated in regular exchanges with Mike Weston when he was Chairman- and, in fact, when I went to watch an England trial match, it seemed almost impolite, given the fact that we were exchanging letters quite regularly, not to actually go and say "Hi".. So I more or less gate-crashed the RFU Committee Rooms, tracked him down, and at a suitable moment introduced myself. He was somewhat surprised that I really was who I claimed to be- not a journalist writing under a pseudonym. And he turned to Dick Greenwood the English Coach to introduce me as the man who was writing him letters once the England team had been announced, analysing in advance just what the strengths and weaknesses of that selection would be- and that with Hindsight I was usually right.. The someone else came along, and I discretely disappeared.. By that time I had previously got into the habit over the summer holidays of writing a summing up of the previous international season and suggesting the team selections for the next one- as for example the Beaumont Grand Slam winning team. And it always interested me that, though the first Chair eventually wrote to me (as he was about to retire) to find out just who I was and how I was connected to the game, I suppose I have always been too independent and disconnected for anyone to ever wonder just how to make use of my particular foresight expertise.

But around the time of the Dick Greenwood encounter, or soon afterwards when Professional Coach-Selectors came in (notably Geoff Cooke who wrote me a most appreviative reply to my habitual analysis, expressing a great deal of agreement- but making it clear that it was now his "business", and that input was not really called for) - I did retire briefly from teaching and wonder whether I might try writing about Rugby. The Press, however, wrote back that they had their contracted and famous experts. John Inverdale at the BBC wrote back a number of appreciative comments- one especially after one of my normal annual surveys letting me know that (if I did not mind) he was going to use much of what I had written in his introduction to the new season.. In fact when Radio Five Live started I was approached by someone from BBC Sport asking whether I would be interested in participating in Phone Ins. I was off-putting.

Of course this is really a catalogue of just why I have myself largely to blame for my anonymity and my failure to get Media exposure.

But -as I have also referred to my correspondence with David Cameron, as well as this English Rugby correspondence- it may be obvious that I have been able to write with specific purpose- as for example about 6 years ago when I wrote to several places with an interest in the weather/climate with an explanation of just why Global Warming would not produce desertification but heavier and more violent bursts of rainfall associated with drastic cooling- as has been a feature of today/this year. In the Alps this summer we were struck by the fact that we have never seen so much snow on the peaks in over 20 years of regular visits.

Cass

Hi Cass, thanks for your posts. I was just considering whether there were differences in style between those articles of yours that were published & those to be found in your h2g2 articles listed in the entries section (of course, books and monographs would have a separate style to an article). Your brief mention of your climate / regional weather predictions has piqued my curiosity ... such predictions are not easy to make & there is an awful lot of money being spent in that area ... so I would be interested in finding out a little more in how you were able to make such predictions.

Anyway I'm off now for a few days, and I will look out for hedgehogs (although I am heading towards a heavily built up area in North London) & will report back on my findings if any.

SA

Hi Stone Aart

I have just posted an old letter about climate change and drought as a Guide Entry- as you expressed and interest.. Good luck in North London.. I spent 18 months teaching up there. Very different "north of the river'.

Cass

SA, see you soon then , look forward to any reports of hedgehogs, hope your finger is healing

Stone Aart

Further to "Climate Change and Drought"- my next step was to deduce that the enlarged water-cycle as described in that letter would take heat energy into the upper atmosphere where it would either be turned into dynamism (eg much more powerful Jet Stream) or get radiated into Space- from whence it came via the Sun.

Hence there would be a Global Cooling effect long-term, with the warming within the Atmosphere producing a tendency to expand the Earth's atmosphere and increase the actual surface area between the Earth system and Space - thus allowing for more heat to escape from Earth- The reverse of the Greenhouse Effect.

And in the short term the kind of rain that I described will more frequently come down as hail, or short of hail, very cold water that will bring a rapid cooling effect- such as we have seen this week- and fairly frequently over the last few years.

But Climatologists it seems can think of nothing that is not shown to them by computer simulations- and computers are limited by the Human Imputs into them.

Cass

Morning Cass

How are you and things in general?

I don't have a huge amount of exciting news this week as I have been plodding through paperwork, keeping up with chores and a few appointments.

So two bits of good news, Hiccup has started her new college, while it is still sometimes a bit daunting and confusing overall is going good with the settling in process.

Also the feral cat that visited us regularly for over 2 years suddenly disappeared for months and then last night to my surprise there was a familiar mew and she is back. Looking well. We were very pleased to see her.

I haven't been keeping up with you and SA, just picking up on the last line of your last post, I think that is a bit harsh on the climatatologists. From what I know generally they do appear to be very aware of the limitations of modelling as it stands.

It has ben a long and painfully slow process to get climate change, the causes of climate change, possible effects on the political agenda. Science and politics is never an easy mix

However the science itself has come along way in understanding the complexity of interactions, feedback mechanisms and technology

Mind you, Spiller still teases me about my OU interactive dvd, didn't quite work, no matter how hard I tried to frazzle the earth it would come up with one outcome Snowball Earth Then I got an equation spectacularly wrong and my rise in sea levels had the world population perched on top of Everest in a decade , at least I noticed though

Peanut

Morning Peanut

A bit murderous/suicidal here- not helped perhaps by reading Anouilh's "Romeo and Jeannette" which ends with a double suicide.. Reminds me of my love for Anouilh back when I met Mrs. Cass- and my hopes of being able to save both her and me in our escapes from Hell.. But Sirens were beautiful 'women' marooned on the rocks, who called sailors to come and save them, but to save them by joining them marooned on the rocks- a Hell for "men of the open sea" and "masters of the waves".

Whole Dr. Faustus thing. "Do not look back at the Inferno and make contact with just what you are escaping from. It will just allow the Inferno to travel with you!"

But (before I write again my lost post about our summer break- no time now. Vacuum cleaning and the weekly shopping to do) I just thought that your last piece about my weather remark as much as anything made my case rather than yours.

And in fact this goes to the heart of things I have been writing about to Stone Aart- and my feelings of isolation and rejection over my continued use of 'power language'.. It is now at least 50 years since people realised that the language of words (the humankind has used to develop our ideas and understanding for thousands of years, has been replaced by the language of numbers.. And given the fact that over the last 50 years computers have developed a capacity for 'number crunching' that way-surpasses the capacity of the human brain- we are increasing reliant upon the computer to do our thinking for us.. Even to some extent "super-brains" like our Actuary daughter with her Masters Degree in Physics from Oxford. I recall that she was somewhat dismayed when she got to Oxford to discover the extent to which modern Physics has nothing to do with the physical world as we experience it- But at least once she was fully qualified she did spend several years working to mark scripts for the Mathematics papers that trainee actuaries have to pass, which probably does give her some intuitive/imaginative insight into whether or not the answers that her computer programs come up with actually look "about right".

Get back to you later..

Cass

Good day Peanut

A bit calmer today.. though still more or less marooned inside because of the rain and the generally soaked nature of all outside.. Yesterday we thought that we could at least go out for a bit of a walk, while there was still some light- then we realized it was pelting down again. So I came up with the fact that as Mrs Cass wanted to buy a few things that we only find in Sainsbury's, she could walk there (in the rain)- it takes c35 minutes. Then I would drive the car to the shop. We could do the shopping, and she would drive home, while I walked.. On the walk back I got soaked and bedraggled, and wondered whether it was not a silly mistake.. But then I saw a car stopped near the cul-de-sac by our woods, and I asked the driver whether he was lost. He said "no". But he was looking for number 50 (in fact 52). In these days of sat-nav I don't get so much of this. We live in number 46 on the other side of the woods in another almost cul de sac.. By the time I had walked round he was parked outside 52- and I felt glad that I had been of use.

This weather is in stark contrast with the lovely weather that we had for much of our time in France- though, in fact, we put off going camping for a few days because we could see that the weather in the Alps was dodgy. So we had a 'working week' at home, trying to get on top of the garden. Then we hitched the caravan and drove off to a place that was a family regular for many years, and it felt very emotional for those associations plus the fact that last year, I just did not have the morale. But there were moments of tears from the nice associations (some years ago I wrote a song "The Ghosts of Yesterday" when visiting another one of our children's childhood campsites- the first time our son went his own way)

But we found one couple of 'old faithfuls' and all our familiar and beautiful walks.. The first couple of days we struggled a bit- going up another 1000 metres takes an adjustment time..On a couple of walks Mrs. Cass heard people calling out 'bravo'.. First time she looked around to see what they were admiring, and then she realised that they were admiring her.. She looked such a frail, pale old lady in her shorts that they admired her actually walking in the mountains.. I think that it was a bit of a shock.. But after a few days we were a bit more suntanned and fit, in both senses.. And a woman in her forties was inspired to follow her up another one of our favourites- this time taking the 'short-cut' way to 'The Great Lake' via a bit of a rock-climbing chimney of about 20 metres.. I think she was well-impressed.

Back home from camping on the Monday we had that week to get on with things generally and to prepare for the week-end when we were holding a family get-together. Over the week-end we had a text from our son to say that he was camping down in Cornwall, thanks to his little KA, and altogether he and our dil had a lovely time. They took in Stonehenge and Avebury. And then they were flying out on Wednesday to stay with an old friend who had invited them to come over and be Godparents to two of his sons, so it was nice that he was able to spend some time in France- for a change..

Unfortunately, however, the weather then started to change to wet, miserable and cold, which was a shame for our children and partners. Our daughter arrived late Saturday (her Eurostar train having been delayed by 2 hours etc).. But the next day gathering was very pleasant and successful- with the limitations of it being August 25 and so many people tied up. But Mrs. Cass' sister and husband came over from Switzerland. Her cousin plus English husband who we don't see much since they moved from London to Luxemburg 20 years ago, were able to come especially because Mike (who is older than me but has always been hyper-active and fit) was taking part in an orienteering event near Beaune the previous day. And an old-school friend of Mrs. Cass came with her husband who I had never met, but was very interested in quite a lot of my English perspective on the state of affairs and History.

With my parents in law and our four 'children' we made a large enough party, given the fact that the weather was really cold. Certainly I made a log-fire that day. It many have been the first of many, for I got in the habit of just making a three log fire first thing in order to warm up the house.

It was nice, however, then to have our small family all in house from Sunday evening til Tuesday morning, improvising meals very often from the party-left overs. And on the Monday the children had the nice idea of all going to visit a Burgundy wine producer, who our son had visited with his friend- because the owner was a friend.. Our daughter loves wine, and usually buys a few cartons for us to bring back for her. So they had an arranged visit, and then went together to visit their grandparents in their own home- which meant so much to all concerned. Both of our children stayed with their grandparents in this house for the summer term when they were eight or nearly so. Obviously we missed each other, but their grandparents loved it, and it really gave them the chance- with the Easter and Summer holidays to spend a solid almost six months in France (they are after all half-French).. Everyone loved it, and we were so happy that it had been possible.

Then almost as soon as they had left, the weather brightened up again and we had glorious sunshine for the last part of our stay- the only blot being the fact that Mrs. Cass lost her mobile phone, and we spent ages trying to find it here and there.. Finally I tried calling it on mine for the umpteenth time, and heard an 'allo'. Mrs Cass had left it on the counter in the tobacconists shop where she had gone to buy her special filtres.. The extra trip to get the filters was annoying enough, but, as she refused my offer of borrowing my mobile till we came back in October, there was another hour drive each way to go to retrieve the phone..

I am not sure just how well we are going to cope with Alzheimers given our bad-tempers, still hopefully that is still some way off.

Cheers

Cass

But we had nine days of totally stunning weather, and lovely walks, one that he had not actually done in almost 20 years- and had never

Hi Cass

Thank you for telling about your time away it was a real pleasure to read that you had such a wonderful time. I can see that they will be treasured memories

And... 'Go Mrs Cass!' *shakes pom-poms* 'Bravo' from me too

I'm glad you are feeling more settled.

Although the weather is atrocious again. We have had heavy rain, strong winds, now it is breezy, going from sunny spells then half an hour later hailstones.

I think everyone I know was yesterday feeling a little mopey and comforting themselves with stews

What about you?

best wishes,

Peanut

Hi Peanut

Yesterday was in many ways a very good day.. Having walked a bit on Friday, on Saturday when the weather still ruled out working outdoors, I did my 'old' circuit walk, and resolved to get out and do an early morning one on Sunday. I really enjoyed it- especially because not too far from home an ex-pupil recognised me, and we had a lovely chat- which may lead to more facebook contact.. And she was interested in my historical-political ideas -currently doing a Masters Degree in Politics at the LSE.. And she also told me that another pupil (who I knew much better) is now working for Diane Abbott MP- and she will tell her to get in touch.

And then after a lovely Sunday lunch with (for me) the rare treat of West Country faggots- reminders of Bristol/Cardiff days- in the afternoon facebook brought me in touch with a very special pupil from 'way back'.. Last contact was with her Mum talking to me about the ex-pupil's wedding. I seem to recall that there was some question of me "giving her away" as she had no father- but we were off to France, and (as the Mum had finally discovered why she was unwell- she was dying of cancer) the wedding could not be delayed.. It was lovely for us both to be in touch once more, and after that traumatic conversation with the Mum who had described what lay ahead with the calmness of a trained Nurse, it was lovely to hear that she hung on till 1993, long enough to see the birth of her grandson.

Downside at the moment, is that Mrs. Cass is bowled over by the fact that our lovely neighbour has got a new dog, via a rescue charity that seems to be focussing at the moment on saving street dogs in Rumania and finding homes for them here.. The phrase "A dog is for life and not for Xmas" comes to mind.. Mrs. Cass loves a bargain- especially one that is free- as she believes this is.. But our neighbour did mention making a generous contribution to this charity- no doubt not obligatory, apart from the moral obligation if you are intending to profit from all of the costs that the Charity incurs.. There is also the fact that Mrs Cass is most unlikely to get the kind of dog that she can support.. All these more or less 'feral' ones are big enough to be survivors, and, her dog loving sister has warned her that there are only about two breeds that do not shed their hairs all over the house- something that Mrs. Cass would hate.

My sister-in-law however has made her life something of a slavery to the needs of her dogs- something that Mrs Cass could do. It might replace her present slavery to the Moon and plants that get in the way of her having any real human interaction [she is currently at this very moment having some with her homeopath, that costs her c£60 a session).. On the other hand _ just as she says she is ready to abandon her garden, she is encouraged by the fact that the Charity says that you can just give them back the dog if it does not work out.. Hardly seems fair on the dog.

And of course, inevitably if we start to share our lives with a dog that will have an impact on my life- whether I stay living here or not.

Cass