Literature
I’m in service at the Big House
I’m in service at the Big House Left school when just fourteen Started as a scullery maid – Left mam -my crowded home Timid, shy, first time away, Prayed Cook would not be mean. My [more…]
Blog
Arts
Fabulously Flamboyant Fridays: Happy Birthday To A Musical Titan
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. This [more…]
Arts
Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review
Question Time 8th February 2024 The Panel: James Daly (Conservative) Wes Streeting (Labour) Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat) Paddy McGuinness (Presenter and Actor) Inaya Folarin Iman (Writer and Broadcaster) Venue: Nottingham Wes Streeting is the Labour [more…]
Fiction
Jinnie’s Story – Book Six, Chapter Sixteen
Jinnie settled into the First Class compartment on the Thameslink train from Hadley Wood to Moorgate. It was just like the old days when she commuted into the Cross, but she now could afford to [more…]
Authoritarianism
I want my free stuff
Everywhere you go, regardless of media platform, you hear this sad and deluded refrain – “To compete, xxx must be sustainable”. This political sound-bite, which is in effect a dog-whistle for “Make the listener feel [more…]
Eating
Caribbean Christmas 2023/24, Part Four
Day 10 – 31st December – New Year’s Eve and it’s still Antigua I didn’t expect to be in beautiful Antigua again today, but I can think of worse places to be. It’s another lovely [more…]
20th Century
Looking Back at the SAPs Processes of the Early 1990s
The Structural Adjustment Programmes of the early 1990s left ordinary Kenyans reeling under extreme economic hardship. Three decades later, SAPs are back, the Bretton Woods methods of inflicting economic pain on Kenyans unchanged. 18 January, [more…]
Diary
A View From (Just By) The Greenhouse; Borders, Who Needs Em’?
The weather’s taken something of a turn for the better, Daves’ hand is healing up nicely, if you ignore the numb thumb and my back (sadly the saga continues) is just about capable of allowing [more…]
20th Century
Desert Journey, Part One
In 1961 my uncle, John Alldridge spent some time on the set of Lawrence of Arabia and reported his experiences for the Birmingham Mail – Jerry F Akaba, Jordan I am writing this on the [more…]