Literature
An Old Man’s Musings Part Seven
When ever I start one of these pieces I begin to feel a touch of the Victor Meldrew’s coming on – there is so much to delight happening around (c.f. many of the lovely articles [more…]
Articles by Going Postal
Animals
Larry’s Diary, Week Two Hundred And Fifty-Nine
Monday Good morning and welcome to another week of my diary. Today is the 11th, the real Armistice Day, and Palestinians are threatening to disrupt services around the country. Legohead is off to Paris to [more…]
Fiction
Those Who Play With Fire, Chapter Nineteen
They sat in the back of the Range Rover as they were whisked off to the rear entrance to Downing Street. Dave and Sally were led in through a guarded doorway. The passes were now [more…]
Fiction
Jinnie’s Story – Book Seven, Chapter Twenty-Two
Jinnie pushed the button that changed the Trattoria Trevi Group boardroom’s glazed partitions from transparent to opaque and called the meeting to order. Before talking about the project, she impressed on everyone the importance of [more…]
America
Decline & Fall
The final stage of a great power’s decline is often marked by a shift towards finance-driven capitalism. In the 1980s and ’90s, finance-driven capitalism was touted as the future of economic prosperity. However, this narrative [more…]
Authoritarianism
First Came The Floods…
First came the floods that washed away people’s homes, then came the bulldozers that destroyed everything that was left. Before the mass revolt in Kenya spread countrywide in June, it had already started in the [more…]
Politics
Of Squirrels, Unicorns, Electricity Storage & Flywheels, Part One
For my sins, I’ve been trying to make sense of the UK Government’s ambition to de-carbonise the domestic electric grid by 2030. Because the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine, a [more…]
20th Century
The Barbers of Palermo
22 January 1944 And so we came to Palermo. A crumbling, pink-and-white little town where they sell oranges and almonds and mandolins and guitars, and very little else. Such an insignificant little town that even [more…]
20th Century
When All the Holes Lined Up
On November 28, 1979, Air New Zealand Flight TE901, a sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashed into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board. The Mount Erebus disaster remains one of the worst in New [more…]