the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke

When I started writing the Monday Musing as a spoof or humorous post on public holiday Mondays I was myself following in others footsteps, for such writing is a long tradition and I often write such posts in the style of others; over the years I have borrowed from the diverse styles of Dad’s Army, Bob Newhart, Doctor Who and, as last week, from the dime novel genre to mention just four.

When I do this I always try to credit the people that I am borrowing from, not just to acknowledge their inspiration, but to encourage my readers to look them up and perhaps enjoy the originals. Storytelling is an ancient art and each teller adapts the stories in their own way down the years and so there is nothing wrong in doing this sort of thing as long as, in these times, you observe the modern practice of copyright.

Imitation is flattery as the saying goes (sayings are just very short stories after all) and so I am pleased to see that others are following along and also bringing the concept of putting our business situations into other contexts even if, as has happened now, someone has just beaten me to the punch with a particular sci-fi scenario and I have had to scrap a hard thought out piece using the same film reference.

With two public holidays in quick succession I had a pair of very different pieces lined up, but with the second of these has now scrapped what you will see tomorrow is a variation on what I wrote for Easter Monday. Originally I had in mind the classic pieces written by Barry Took and Marty Feldman for Round the Horne and Beyond Our Ken where Betty Marsden and Hugh Paddick used to parody the Brief Encounter type of conversation; two middle class voices in an increasingly breathy manner ending up in an unexpected comic juxtaposition.

In starting to write something in that style I elected to switch it into the dime novel style for Easter as something that I had just read inspired me into that direction, but for tomorrow I have gone back to the original idea as a tribute to the radio comedy of the 1960s that I love so much. Look out for that tomorrow; I hope that you enjoy it and please let me know what you think about any of my writing; I’m always interested to hear people’s views.