God in Ruins

Summary from Lit Lovers:
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/10244-god-in-ruins-atkinson?showall=1

Summary

The stunning companion to Kate Atkinson's #1 bestseller Life After Life, "one of the best novels I've read this century" (Gillian Flynn).

"He had been reconciled to death during the war and then suddenly the war was over and there was a next day and a next day. Part of him never adjusted to having a future."

Kate Atkinson's dazzling Life After Life explored the possibility of infinite chances and the power of choices, following Ursula Todd as she lived through the turbulent events of the last century over and over again.

A God in Ruins tells the dramatic story of the 20th Century through Ursula's beloved younger brother Teddy—would-be poet, heroic pilot, husband, father, and grandfather—as he navigates the perils and progress of a rapidly changing world. After all that Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge is living in a future he never expected to have.

An ingenious and moving exploration of one ordinary man's path through extraordinary times, A God in Ruins proves once again that Kate Atkinson is one of the finest novelists of our age. (From the publisher.)

This is the companion book to Atkinsons's Life After Life, published in 2013.

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Growlery -- place to retreat alone, when bad humoured

Growlery 'growl-er-ee, n (English; cf. Dutch grollen, to grumble)

A retreat for times of ill humour. This term has largely become obsolete, which is strange, given that so many people seem to have a place to go when they are in a bad mood - a place to be alone and think. It's similar in meaning to the Latin-derivedsanctum sanctorum, with the added connotation that the individual in question is going to the place to be alone while upset

Gradgrind from Thomas Gradgrind in Hard Times by Dickens. Someone who is hard -- concerned only with cold facts and numbers

cod-psychology nonsense, false, fake, cf to pop psychology.  Several variations of derivation ... similar to 'codswallop' possible from Hiriam Codd and his long-necked soft drink bottle, ridiculed by beer drinkers.

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Lit Resource Centre:  Metafiction

Metafiction is a term applied to works of fiction that are concerned with the nature of fiction or the process of writing fiction in order to explore questions about the relationship between fiction and reality. Proponents of metafiction reject the concept that language reflects a coherent and objective world; instead, they assert that language is a complex, arbitrary system that can create its own forms and meanings. Their work intends to analyze the relationship between this linguistic system and the outside world. Metafiction rests on the principle of a fundamental dichotomy: the creation of a work of fiction and the stripping away of fictional illusions. Moreover, commentators have noted that metafiction gains popularity in times of crises and political and cultural uncertainty. The term itself seems to have originated in 1970 by the American novelist and critic William H. Gass in his collection of essays Fiction and the Figures of Life. Although metafictional elements can be found in all literary genres, it is predominant in the contemporary novel. Critics have traced the practice back to such early authors as Miguel de Cervantes, Henry Fielding, and Laurence Sterne. With the dawn of the twentieth century,metafiction emerged as a self-conscious, experimental form that reflected the seriousness and insecurity of the historical period; furthermore, it is perceived as a type of writing within the broader movement known as postmodernism. Modernists such as James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and Virginia Woolf wrote important metafictional works that reflected the breakdown of traditional values and influenced more recent authors. Considered the best-known contemporary practitioner of metafiction, John Barth has produced many prominent and self-referential works, such as his Lost in the Funhouse (1968) and Chimera (1972). Another well-known example of metafiction is John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), which self-consciously examines the use of the omniscient narrator and breaks the framework of the story in order to destroy the illusion of reality. James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) utilizes and parodies several different narrative styles. In If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (1979), by Italo Calvino, characters in the book read about their own fictional lives. Spanishmetafiction is considered an influential sub-genre of Spanish literature and has attracted much attention from literary scholars. In fact, the entire classification of metafiction has emerged as a rich area for study and literary analysis over the past few decades, and some critics assert that every serious work of fiction is to some extent metafictional.

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http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/meta

meta --

adjective

1.

pertaining to or noting a story, conversation, character, etc., thatconsciously references or comments upon its own subject or features,often in the form of parody:

A movie about making a movie is just so meta—especially when theactors criticize the acting.

2.

pertaining to or noting an abstract, high-level analysis or commentary,especially one that consciously references something of its own type.

noun

3.

a consciously and playfully self-referential story, conversation, etc.:

That dialogue was an example of meta at its best.

4.

an abstract, high-level analysis or commentary:

writing a meta to explain the character’s motivation.

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Kibbo Kift

http://www.kibbokift.org/who.html

On August 18, 1920, a group of young men met in a London hall to formalise the foundation of a new movement to be known as the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift. The aims of this movement had been written down two months earlier in the form of a seven-point Covenant, which ran as follows:

• Open Air Education for the Children. Camp Training and Naturecraft.
• Health of Body, Mind and Spirit.
• Craft Training Groups and Craft Guilds.
• The Woodcraft Family, or Roof Tree.
• Local Folk Moots and Cultural Development.
• Disarmament of Nations - Brotherhood of Man.
• International Education based on these points.
• Freedom of Trade between Nations.
• Stabilisation of the Purchasing Power of Money in all countries.
• Open Negotiations instead of secret treaties and diplomacy.
• A World Council.

At the annual Witsun gathering, the Althing, representatives of different Kibbo Kift Clans, Tribes and Lodges parade with their tribal Totems. A gathering of Kinsfolk at Kin Feast in London during December 1928 So who were the Kibbo Kift? The figure of John Hargrave tends to dominate the story of the Kindred and the Green Shirts, but  the movements attracted many talented and some well-known individuals

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“A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we wake from dreams.“ – Ralph Waldo Emerson – Nature

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Just William by (Miss) Richmal Crompton, 1890-1969; first "Just William" published in 1922. Popular series with many adaptations: Films (1940; 1947; 1948)--TV (William, 1962-63; Just William, 1976-78; and most recently Just William,2010) -Radio (1946-48, and 1956). Examples of the Just William books and stories can be found online, including Project Gutenberg,
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/authors/search/?query=Crompton,+Richmal