Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: General Culture (2026 - March)
(Text as at 13/04/2026 19:33:36)
Rationale for this Project
- For years I hid reading and writing on (or watching and listening to) general cultural or political issues as so-called ‘Background Tasks’ appearing on reports for my Thesis1.
- While there are genuine background tasks in this respect, and these will remain reported as above, items that appear in this report have no real connection in this regard, and so I will no longer overstate the time spent on my Thesis.
- Engagement with cultural and political issues is an important part of life so it’s worth recording and reflecting on what I do in this regard.
- I only intend to include items requiring active involvement, so nothing like passive news-watching.
- A particular focus was to have been Aeon where the papers and videos are in no way related to my Thesis. However, because of time restrictions, these priority ‘unrelated’ items are rather rare these days.
- More recently I obtained access to the London Review of Books (LRB) Archive, and spent a considerable amount of time salting away interesting items. This is also now in abeyance
- I also decided to book to this project time spent listening to the BBC (and other podcasts) while doing the washing up. This has declined considerably as I now mostly listen to (or watch) Royal Institute of Philosophy (RIP) podcasts for which time gets booked to my Thesis.
- So that I don’t resent time spent on important matters to do with Coxes Farm, I’ve recently decided to book time spent investigating property development plans in my road to this project.
Summary of Progress during January - March 2026
- I spent 40.5 hours in 26Q1 on this Project, or related work (109.5 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2025). That's 77.7% of the planned effort (105% YTD). Overall, 5.3% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 7% YTD) - as against 6.2% planned (6.3% YTD).
- Further details follow (for the latest Quarter: 26Q1):-
GeneralCulture (Total Hours = 40.5)
- 25Q4 Status Reports: General Culture (1 hour)
→ See "Admin - General Culture - Admin" (1 hour)
- "BBC - Miscellaneous iPlayer and Podcasts" (Read, 0.25 hours)
- "Bearman (Robert) - Stoneleigh Abbey: The House, Its Owners, Its Lands" (Read / Write, 6 hours)
- HSBC Pensioners Association (0.5 hours)
→ See "Admin - General Culture - Admin" (0.5 hours)
- Interaction - Discussions with Julie's Church Group (2 hours)
- Interaction - Discussions with Mike, Sylvia & Julie (3 hours)
→ See "Interaction - Discussion with Mike" (5 hours)
- "LPOC - Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine" (Read, 2 hours)
- "LRB - London Review of Books" (Read, 1 hour)
- Martin White - Correspondence (Write, 6.5 hours)
- Memories of King's (Write, 1.25 hours)
- New Year's Do - Politics + Quiz (Write, 3 hours)
- Offshoots Dinner - General Discussions - Politics (1 hour)
- Reading Wikipedia: Jeffrey Epstein (Read, 1.25 hours)
- Reading Wikipedia: Peter Mandelson (Read, 0.5 hours)
- Rebecca Delong on Facebook (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- Steve Levy - Correspondence (Write, 0.25 hours)
→ See "Admin - General Culture - Admin" (14.5 hours)
- "Todman (Theo) - Investigating Housing Developments near Coxes Farm" (Read / Write, 7.5 hours)
- "White (Martin) - A Life Unfinished" (Read / Write, 1.75 hours)
- Wikipedia: Franz Schubert (Read, 1 hour)
- I had retained the scheduled 4 hours / week for this project in 26Q1. It was about 25% under budget this time (as against 33% over budget in the previous quarter) – mainly because of the shift from BBC2 to RIP podcasts.
- As noted above, I’m booking time spent investigating Housing Developments near Coxes Farm to this project, now logged to "Todman (Theo) - Investigating Housing Developments near Coxes Farm". I spent less time on this than expected: things seem to have gone quiet.
- The main ‘event’ of the quarter in this regard was re-establishing contact after 50 years with Martin, who I’d known slightly at school and at Cambridge – he was in the year above me and played the double bass. Paradoxically he and his partner had just visited Stoneleigh Abbey, and I remembered I had "Bearman (Robert) - Stoneleigh Abbey: The House, Its Owners, Its Lands", so decided to read it.
- Otherwise there were sundry enjoyable ‘cultural events’. I also purchased one of his books ("White (Martin) - A Life Unfinished", on Kindle), but haven’t got far with it.
- Progress (if any) in the current quarter can be obtained from the General Culture section of my Summary Task List3.
Plans for the Near Future
- I’ve retained the time allocation to 4 hours / week, given the need to spend time defending my property from the predations of developers. Time is booked to:-
→ "Todman (Theo) - Investigating Housing Developments near Coxes Farm".
- So, the above may not leave much opportunity to address the items on the list below:-
- Continue / complete reading various books that have landed in my in-tray4:-
- "Allison (Graham) - Destined for War: can America and China escape Thucydides’ Trap?",
- "Doyle (Andrew) - The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World",
- "Freedman (Sam) - Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It",
- "Ryback (Timoth W.) - Takeover"
- "Bearman (Robert) - Stoneleigh Abbey: The House, Its Owners, Its Lands",
- "White (Martin) - A Life Unfinished", and
- "O'Sullivan (Maurice), Forster (E.M.) - Twenty Years A-Growing"
- Aeon5: Restart, catch up, and continue collecting, reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon & Psyche (and the occasional spin-off).
- "FT - Five Books - Various Subjects not covered elsewhere": Continue collecting, reading and reviewing relevant books.
- "BBC - Miscellaneous iPlayer and Podcasts": Continue listening / watching and try to write up brief notes.
- Sort our "LRB - London Review of Books".
- Coxes Farm: Read:-
- "Barratt (Nick) - Tracing the History of Your House: The Building, the People, the Past",
- "Brunskill (R.W.) - Vernacular Architecture: An Illustrated Handbook"
- "LPOC - Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine",
- "Yorke (Trevor) - Timber-Framed Building Explained", and
- "Yorke (Trevor) - Tudor Houses Explained"
- "Todman (Theo) - Investigating Housing Developments near Coxes Farm".
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 2: Footnote 4:
- This list had started to grow, so I've given it a very severe pruning.
- I may add culled books back in as and when.
Table of the Previous 9 Versions of this Note:
| Note last updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 13/04/2026 19:33:36 |
1362 (Status: General Culture (2026 - March)) |
Status: Summary (2026 - March) |
Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.
Summary of Notes Citing This Note
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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note
| Author |
Title |
Medium |
Extra Links |
Read? |
| Chapman (Colin) |
The Israel-Hamas war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict |
Paper  |
|
Yes |
| LPOC |
Listed Heritage: The Listed Property Owners' Club Magazine |
Book  |
|
|
Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026