Arts
A Taster Lesson in Italian
I am trying to learn Italian. Mia Nonna was Italian from Florence and I am going to the Italian Riviera for my main holiday this June. I can make a reasonable fist of reading simple [more…]
Blog
Arts
Fabulously Flamboyant Fridays: A Postcard From 1976 Pt.2
Greetings pop pickers and welcome to another edition of Fabulously Flamboyant Fridays – our occasional Campari and soda drenched probe into the rainbow and glitter world of artistes who are quite simply fabulous, darling. Tonight, [more…]
Arts
Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review
Question Time 21st March 2024 The Panel: Rachel Maclean (Conservative) Sarah Jones (Labour) Tim Farron (LibDems) Philippa Gregory (Author) Rod Liddle (Journalist) Venue: Middlesborough Rod Liddle is one of those embarrassing London upper-middle-class Metropolitan media [more…]
Fiction
Jinnie’s Story – Book Six, Chapter Twenty-Two
Jinnie woke and looked at her travel clock. It was 07:15 and she could hear the twins happily chatting in their bedroom. She got out of bed and went to say Happy Christmas to them. [more…]
History
Jesmond Dene: The Crown Jewel of Newcastle’s parks
Jesmond Dene is a unique haven of peace and tranquillity for the people of Newcastle. It is a narrow wooded valley that follows the river Ouseburn between South Gosforth and Jesmond Vale, providing an important [more…]
America
The American-Somalian Base Deal Arguably Has Ulterior Motives
The US decided to expand its military influence in Somalia on the pretext of anti-terrorist base-building in order to indirectly pressure Ethiopia after last month’s Memorandum of Understanding with Somaliland in a “plausibly deniable” way. [more…]
Diary
A View From The Greenhouse; Turned Out Nice Again…..Innit?
On more than one occasion over recent years I’ve nursed (if that’s the right word) the odd bird back to health following collisions with the greenhouse. They’re either rushing to get at the strawberries, or [more…]
20th Century
Crisis Journey, 1947 – Part Three
“The record of what one man saw and heard and felt on a journey through Britain in October 1947, by John Alldridge” Uncle John’s record of his trip round Britain, to assess the extent to [more…]
Literature
Ulysses – Alfred Lord Tennyson
It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and [more…]