Arts
A History of Pop Music – 1960
Featured song: Everly Brothers – Cathy’s Clown This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began up to 1999 when they stopped making it. [more…]
Blog
Arts
Book Review: The Shortest History of England
‘The Shortest History of England’ by James Hawes is not too short and tops the scales at 272 pages. A bright chap, the 64-year-old writer graduated in German from Hertford College, Oxford, and studied for [more…]
Arts
Jinnie’s Story – Book Seven, Chapter Six
As Britannia headed west across the Atlantic, the weather began to change. The wind got up a bit, and the sea got a little choppy, but Britannia was a big ship and rode it easily. [more…]
Health
Died Suddenly
I’ve not been particularly active here lately, nor anywhere else really for that matter because I’ve been shaken to my core by an event which happened quite recently. Let me explain. Caroline and Tom [more…]
America
Outwith The Expected Path
American presidencies have typically followed the expected path of an election cycle, with presidents either completing their terms or being voted out of office. However, the history of the United States includes several presidencies that [more…]
21st Century
Kenya Is Not Asleep Anymore
Weeks of anti-government demonstrations demand an end to bad governance, corruption and for President Ruto to step down. 24 July 2024 Nairobi, Kenya – Daniel Wambua did not flinch, even as police fired tear gas [more…]
Biography
The Political Civil Servant
On one of AWS’s recent informative pieces on Scotland, he mentioned Waverley Station in Edinburgh and I mentioned in the comments (which nobody reads) that perhaps the most versatile civil servant ever, John Anderson, took [more…]
20th Century
Report From Kenya, 1955 – Part Six
In 1955, at the height of the Mau Mau Rebellion, my uncle John Alldridge produced a series of reports from Kenya for the Birmingham Mail and the Manchester Evening News – Jerry F Nairobi With [more…]
16th Century
There are more things…
First an apology. I was going to insert photos into this piece, but the ones I took were rubbish and not wishing to compromise SB’s site with unauthorised clips I gave up with the visuals. [more…]