Fiction
Bombs and Betrayal, Chapter Four
The Prime Minister picked up the phone on the desk. “Find the Home Secretary and ask him to return to the meeting room.” It was five minutes before he seated at the table. “Peter, Mr. [more…]
Blog
Arts
Ivory Cutlery’s Day Off – We Need To Talk About Bordeaux
Greetings pop pickers (from the hot and steamy Côte d’Azur on the stunning Mediterranean coastline of southeastern France) and please be welcome to tonight’s Fabulously Flamboyant Friday and yet another of our groin-polished googlies from [more…]
Literature
Always Worth Saying’s review of a Question Time review
On last Thursday’s Makerfield edition of the ever-popular BBC Question Time, a lady in the audience prefaced her point by saying she watches the Fiona Bruce-chaired programme ‘all the time’. Is she after my job? [more…]
Arts
Jinnie’s Story, Book Nine – Chapter Thirty-Four
Jinnie collapsed on her bunk on the USS Jack H. Lucas and realised that she was both tired and hungry. But before anything else, she needed to clean her rifle and return it to the [more…]
America
The next Iran?
Muslims have been disunited ever since the Sunni-Shia succession fight in the 7th century. Weakened by division, Muslims have been ruled by Turks, British, French, ‘Merica, and now Israel. Post 1918, the British and French [more…]
Politics
Dog-walking Thoughts No 5 – Cracks in the Wall
The cracks are forming, but this is just the beginning of the beginning. We know that Brexit didn’t bring the whole edifice crashing down (despite the wins it did present) – rather it woke them [more…]
Authoritarianism
Kenya’s Electoral Theatre
As Kenyan voters, we have become used to experiencing, every five years, a high-stakes drama full of sound and fury, in which the stage is set years in advance, the actors are meticulously costumed, and [more…]
Animals
A View From (The Little Plot Just By) The Greenhouse; The Manipulation Of “Britishness”
Since my last missive the weather’s taken a bit of a turn for the worse, but then it is summer in England. Some of the plants, as is the way with nature, are grateful for [more…]
Arts
BritSitrep2026 – An overview of all that matters (Part 1)
There is a certain kind of British conversation that takes place in a quiet room with two cups of tea going cold on the table, the kind where one man tells another that the country [more…]