America
Letter From Stafford
When people I meet ask where I’m from, I tell them Welsh and French by blood. English by schooling (failed Latin – no Greek), and Virginian by the Grace of God. Why not? Virginia was [more…]
Blog
20th Century
Mitchell’s Spitfire
Earlier this year, we revisited The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley, primarily because we wanted to see the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard exhibits once again. Now living only a few miles away, a quiet [more…]
Communism
Elected Lords
Sir Keith Starmer’s call for an elected House of Lords brings to mind the conundrum caused when you replace an essentially toothless institution with an elected one. This applies equally to an elected President replacing [more…]
Arts
A Postcard From India; Delhi
I thought long and hard(ish) on how I could start off a series of “Postcards” about our trip to India. The whole thing came about following an off the cuff remark whilst discussing, with my [more…]
21st Century
Always Worth Saying’s World Cup Report
What do we know about England and Iran? One is a despotic dictatorship where an out-of-touch elite despises the ordinary people. Citizens can be cancelled for what they’re suspected of thinking and jailed for what [more…]
20th Century
How I came to mistrust, then detest the Main Stream Media
Ed. This was sent to me in 2018 by Moscow Fred, sadly he was never able to finish it. RIP Fred. I was reminded of it by the documentary on The Herald of Free Enterprise [more…]
Business
Retaining a Semblance of Sanity in the Asylum
Every time I start this essay I find the political background has shifted so dramatically that I have to start again. Only Ollie’s complaint to Stan seems to be an apt constant: “another fine mess [more…]
21st Century
Always Worth Saying’s World Cup Report
What do we know about Ecuador? If you’ve visited this mountainous country that straddles the Equator as it touches the Pacific coast of South America, you’ll recall they don’t have their own currency but use [more…]
Fiction
Samyaza Chapter 32 – Libya, – April – May 2011
The next time they visited Sirte, Belhaj was more disposed to see them. Afarin said nothing in the pick-up truck and was totally incognito in her silk farrashia and this time, Jean-Claude introduced Julian to [more…]