It’s October 3 and we’re being towed slowly down the Kiel Canal, preparing for our boating adventure in the Frisian sands, whilst staring out at the ‘vast plains of Holstein’.
We explain the benefits of *pledging your support* to the Club at unbound.co.uk (01:22); Lloyd offers a reading recommendation – The Year of Reading Dangerously (4:21); Tim has a proper small boat adventure on the Dengie peninsula with Club member Tom Loosemore (04:50) – sailing to West Mersea, trudging across the marsh, towing the boat in knee-deep water, rowing home against the tide, ruining a pair of flannels.
Lloyd gives us the lowdown about the East Frisians (17:20), with much talk of the Inselbahn island train service (20:02); Tim offers what he knows about Holstein (24:26) and asks the question: why did Childers fail to write about all the animals of the region? Gulls & seals (25:15), Holstein cows including a famous presidential pet (26:05), Holsteiner horses (28:22); a few salient fact about Rendsberg (30:15); Holstein’s greatest literary figure with a (sort off) Childers connection – Theodor Mommsen (30:40).
Musical interlude: the Schleswig Holstein Festival Choir, and the sad tale of Eric Whitacre’s ‘Seal Lullaby’, based on a Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book story (34:03); we sample cigars and schnapps of the region, and of the period (33:45) – and then on to Club Business (40:10).
John Ironside’s family connections (40:18); Erksine Childers shares with us a link to his great grandfather’s WW1 notebooks (41:08); Patrick on mooring Baltic-style and drinking at the British Kiel Yacht Club (41:34); Ian on the resting place of Esterhazy the spy (44:37); Sam on reading ‘The Riddle of the Sands’ in exotic locations – where and when did you last read this book? (43:50); ahoy to Porter of the Bookseller for commissioning an article about our project – http://www.thebookseller.com/futurebook/digitally-book-mapping-line-sands-can-unbound-crowdfund-riddle (47:27).
Missions for next week – members assistance required.
Dollman’s boat ‘The Medusa’: What would it have been like? Can we find a real-life version out there?
Clara Dollman: ‘To see her crossing the ebb in a chop of tide was a treat’ – let’s talk about why Childers introduces a woman into this story, and what people’s attitudes would have been towards women like Clara, who are bold enough to sail alone in public in the early 1900s.
Brunsbüttel to Wangeroog: What’s our best route onwards once we’ve finished cycling the Kiel Canal? Can anyone take us in a boat?
The Curiously Specific Book Club 
Being pedantic, I decline to be called a descendant of Tiny Ironside, just a very distant relative.
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Sorry John. We got your previous note about your relationship to Tiny Ironside after we recorded the podcast. Happy to put a clarification in the next podcast. Thanks for all your input so far btw. Great to have you onboard.
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Pity that the Juist Inselbahn was not as dramatic as it first seemed.
As Lloyd mentioned there still seem to be 4 Inselbahns still operating, Borkum, Langeoog, Wangeroog & Spiekeroog. The latter still being horse drawn ( https://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/the-german-east-frisian-islands-railways-interurbans-all-the-same/).
According to Wikipedia the Wangeroog railway was extended in 1901 to support the military base there! Hmmm, maybe the idea of the Juist line over the sands is not so far fetched and there was a simultaneous plan to construct a sea bed railway which could then be used to attack England, which was itself similarly scuppered (by two English railway enthusiasts)??
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