Just to let everyone know we have updated our Travels with Li Po website. This website is devoted exclusively to the book written by one of us ( William) all about a young orphaned boy who is lost in a parallel world and doesn’t know he is a sorcerer. Yea, sounds corny and fantastical and we made it all up, didn’t we?  It is in fact all true and alarmingly so. We KNOW it to be true. Find out for yourself  by clicking on the book icon. Then, be astonished. Be very astonished; and when you are done being astonished see if you can answer the simple questions the book  poses by its sheer existence and why it is such a hot potato for newspapers in general. Here is a hint……starts with ‘p’ and ends with ‘tics”.

We have placed a button on the pages linking to an abridged version of the numerous similarities between Harry Potter and Wills’ book for your instruction – THE  SIMILARITIES – Synopsis  it’s called. This is in deference to modern readers who find it difficult to read more than two sentences in a row without getting dizzy. Pay particular attention to the brief introduction that goes with it. If you have any other questions feel free to contact us.

In the meantime, Adrian Jacobs’ posse  is preparing to begin its charge on Rowling and Co. for a mere half billion pounds, declaring, in so many words, that that is what the deceased would have been worth for his contribution (?) to the Harry Potter bonanza. De plot tickens, as they say down South.  Mind you, the Rowling boys have had a decade to prepare for just this eventuality. And with so much preparation and mini-rehearsals you have to wonder why they haven’t had a go  at us, as we have no doubt whatever that we are the main event, Rowling’s worst nightmare indeed, as you will quickly learn if you visit the site.  What are they afraid of? Evidence my friends. Evidence that would damn them all. It is a rhetorical question indeed, one of the best. And of course, the scandal. What would the neighbours think? Especially those American neighbours who have capitalized hand over fist on the Potter ‘phenomenon’ and its Britanic  pedigree that stretches all the way to the  corridors of  ‘smarter-than-thou’ Oxford, every Yankee egghead’s pet fantasy, albeit paling into nothing beside the enshrined American Dream…  Hugh Hefner’s throne.

It will be mighty interesting indeed to see what comes of it all, especially for us who are privy to the real truth that no English paper dare touch or Irish paper for that matter. Cowards all! So much for freedom of speech. As for freedom of the press…that depends on who can threaten the responsible editors most efficiently. The toy bear in that regard goes to Schillings, Rowling’s lawyers, based in London who have a knack of frightening the life-insurance out of everybody they go near in the manner of Darth Vader in a barrister’s wig.  We pause here to wonder if we got that right. Maybe Schillings  have jumped ship in the meantime and we get a letter from them in the morning telling us to recant our “inaccuracies’ and ‘false statements” or face ruin. Dat’s the way dem dudes work …. like a police-helicopter tracking a suspect vehicle, at night, all lights blaring, its deafening megaphonic words soaring over the rooftops. Pensioners awake in their beds searching for the lamp-switch wondering who the hell has the right, etc, etc.  One cannot be too careful these days.  

Scrutiny, all joking aside, is what the Rowling gang are avoiding, pure and simple. Incredible to us how this obvious fact, this necessary but deplorable, puerile bloody strategy they have been implementing for years  is either ignored or swept under the carpet by the  media in toto. But then, we are talking about jolly old England, old bean, Rule Britannia and all that…. and Harry The Prince Potter, of course, who is but John Bull Junior on a stick flying the old Imperial flag over the subdued and conquered with all the fatuous panache of an ageing Caesar in a squeaky chariot doing a triumphal circuit of the Circus Maximus just before the games, strapped to his vehicle in case he falls off.  What ever happened to good old TRUTH? we ask ourselves.  Has it been sacrificed in our ‘post-modern world ‘ to the shenanigans of Chaos Theory? Truth, like art, is whatever I decide it to be, or so we must subscribe to if we wouldst call ourselves ‘contemporary’, (fancy wording for ‘Trumpism’ or economic expediency-whatever-the-cost-to-others. “You’re fired boyo! Take up your dreams and leave the premises!”). ”Greed is good” indeed says Wall Street, even if on film, just as genocide is ‘ethnic cleansing’ effected with duster and polish and a nice clean apron…. and Harry Potter is the real deal.  Maggie’s ”ugly face of capitalism”, in other words, is whatever mask you choose to wear and whatever script you choose to espouse that will enable you to stash your pile  in the big steel box down at the bank. Our view is simple…. TRUTH WILL OUT, sooner or later. It goes on. It never goes away.  And we all  must stand up for it or cease to be human. 

Adrian Jacobs is the deceased writer on whose behalf his family seek justice for alleged plagiarism on the part of Christopher Little and Bloomsbury  – publishers of the Harry Potter word-spinning carousel beloved by the gullible. By all accounts it would indicate that the Harry Potter people were not able to even come up with their own fantasies. Zounds! We have little to say about any of this but to wish Mr. Jacobs ‘ people good luck from us whose position on this and related matters is well enough expressed on the main page of our blog.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the tourist season grinds to a close. Those competent artists among you who have something to express and know how to express it might consider showing at our illustrious gallery. During the summer season this is one of the most cosmopolitan and most visited galleries to be found anywhere in Ireland and elsewhere for that matter. It is funded entirely by ourselve and gets as much financial help in that regard as the upkeep of our murals. Zilch in other words. But then you have to understand the position of our council members. They cannot promote or market our murals without promoting us and to do that they would have to change overnight from game-playing biased ingrates to decent human beings. Hell will freeze over, as they say. We sail on regardless.

John Hume and Paddy Bogside

The new exhibition at our gallery in the Bogside area of Derry has been a resounding success. Over three hundred people attended the opening of this show commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the Battle of The Bogside that is also the subject of our most famous mural. The address was given by John Hume who, despite failing health, was “happy and proud” to make the opening address. Also in attendance were Paddy Bogside and Ivan Cooper, two of the major figures from the sixties and  prominent figures from the beginnings of the march for democracy to the present day. This march was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King and a full account of that and what it meant to Bogsiders in general and indeed to the entire Free Democracy Movement can be found in our book The People’s Gallery. You can still get this book via our website, probably the only book you will find anywhere that tells you the exact truth about our murals and where they came from.  Many other councillors and VIPs were also in attendance.  Our thanks to them all.

This new exhibition has now been seen by many thousands of people from all over the world making of our recently opened gallery probably the most constantly visited of any city gallery in Ireland. If you are in Derry do not forget to call in. You will learn much about the history of the Troubles and the struggle for rights and freedom of speech and about the process of healing through art. You will hear and see  much to instruct …. and indeed to astonish you. Our warmest thanks to all who attended and especially to our good friend John Hume one of the few truly significant political figures to understand the unique character of our murals and their historical importance.